So we’re moving in on Valentine’s Day, as planned.
The house isn’t finished, which seems so normal with any remodel.

Here’s the mostly finished front entrance.

A close up of the door, which will be stained tomorrow.

Here’s the kitchen. Clint and I will be finishing this after bedtime this week! Go Regens!

My new best friend is going to be refinished next week. Still don’t have a name for her….

This is the kid’s room. It’s finished with the exception of a top on the closet.

Clint & I will move into the guest room, until the master bath tile, etc. is finished.

We’ll use the guest bath for now….the grout is drying.

Hooray! We’re taking a really big step!!

So here’s the paint color in progress, along with the new door and casement windows…

The house will all be gray with white trim. We’ve changed out minds about painting the front door a different color every year, since we scored this beautiful mahogany door. We’ll stain it in something that complements the Saltillo.

Here’s an interior shot of the door and windows, ready for the sheet rock.

I had underestimated how much remodeling, while homeschooling and living in temporary (although lovely!) housing with no wifi would slow down my blogging!

Well, here’s an update. So much is changing daily. We are so excited! This house has become a delightful adventure. I cannot say enough good about our contractor and his subs. They have been, to a man, dependable, reliable, creative and generally good company!

We’re scheduled to move in on Valentine’s Day! We are in that strange crunch time place where time seems to fold upon itself, moving at light speed one minute, then achingly slowly the next. Please excuse my grammar for the next few days, as I’m questioning whether I could spell my name. I dropped Joel off at Sunday school this morning and said ‘Goodnight, honey!’ Crazy!

Here’s a recent shot of the living/dining. The kitchen cabinets are being installed. The exterior is being painted. Tractors with augers are arguing with Mount Baldy about fence posts! I’ll post the exterior color update tomorrow….here’s a hint….Hematite!

This is what will be the front entrance of the house. The old sliding glass doors have been removed (after a startling, but ultimately benign, carpenter ant experience!) We will install a glass and mahogany door, along with two 3×6′ casement windows on either side.

Most of the house is painted in Behr Ultra Pure White. We thought it would be a great backdrop for our eclectic art. There are two interior colors in the house. Behr ‘Glass Tile’ in the mud room/utility and a deep teal in the master bath (to be posted later)
Here are some shots of the utility room….

This is the cast iron pedestal tub our contractor liberated from the trash pile of another job. We’ll seat it in the master bath, then have pro refinish it. I am thrilled.

Here are some photos of the Saltillo being laid. We are using it through the whole house.

I especially like the animal tracks that are traditional. We’ve found bird, dog, turkey and a mystery critter.

Clint and I pulled the wood stove out and we’ve got the fireplace operational!

The wall is down!

Here’s a before shot of what will be the dining room.  The space was so tight that it was hard to get a shot of the wall to the right, but you can see things leaning against it in this photo:

Before:

The wall between the dining room and the living room/kitchen has been demolished!

Progress:

Here’s a shot of the original cramped kitchen with a built in cabinet around the refrigerator on the left.

Before:

Here’s what that area looks like with the wall and the built-in removed.

Progress:

Our ceilings in the living room are eight feet high.  I’ve been pestering Clint and the contractor to raise them in the living room and vault the ceiling.  They told me not to get my hopes up.  Then it rained in the house and ‘vaulted’ the ceiling! Clint and Dale are accusing me of having a special relationship with the weather!

Before:

Progress: (can you hear me saying whoooo hooooo!?)

Here are the old windows in the bedroom.  Its difficult to tell, but a walk-in closet is now over the windo on the left.

We installed three casement windows on the remaining wall.  (I still forget about the light pink paint and the orange shag of the original structure – oh, my aching retinas!)

Before:

Progress:

Its hard to find a ‘before’ for the next pictures, because this just wasn’t here.

This is the hallway to the bedrooms:

This is the kid’s bedroom!

We are moving into the cabin in two days.  Its exciting to see the progress happening at the Concha Canyon house during this time of chaos!

I stopped by the house very early on Saturday morning with the intention of taking pictures for the blog.    We had a water removal team from the insurance company on-site, and the framers had been busy, working on the interior, so I knew there’d be much to see.  The lot is beautiful at sunrise.  There was a doe having her breakfast in the front yard.  The new sunlight was filtering through the oaks, leaving mottled patterns on the driveway, which seemed to breathe as the breeze blew.

It feels peaceful when I visit the site alone.  The air seems still and soft without the sounds of tradesmen’s hammers or children’s shrieks.  This morning felt that way, although I was on my way to prepare for school and the move, so I acknowledged it, and moved on.  I entered the house from the back, and as I walked through to the living room, I gasped.  The transformation was beginning.  It was starting to look like the house I have been drawing on paper for months.  It gave me the same thrill that I’ve felt when first seeing a piece of pottery emerge from the kiln or a lovely cake from the oven.  I work with a idea in mind, only to cast it on to nature, hoping I know nature well enough to have created something wonderful through it.  This house is looking lot like the paper ‘idea’ on my nightstand.

I slowly lifted my camera to shoot, considering all of the possible angles.  I flipped the camera’s power switch to ON, and got a “change the battery” signal.  Right then, I heard a rustle in the front of the house.  I looked out the front window to confirm the doe was still there.  She was.  I called out, “Hello?”  No answer.  It was still early and dark enough that this felt very odd.

Then I noticed it.  A wren.  It was caught in the house, against the dining room windows.  One of the tradesmen left the hallway window open.  She must have flown in accidentally.  I moved to open the dining room door, hoping she would find her way out, but as I crossed the room, my movememt caused her to fly down the hall.

I followed her down the hall slowly, hoping my presence would move her back toward the open door.  As I did, I began to see the house again, for what it was becoming, a home, my home.  I walked down the hall, picturing what it will be like at bedtime.  I stood in the children’s bedroom, and prayed a silent blessing.

The wren moved into the master bedroom.  I followed.

My thoughts drifted to what life here will be like with Clint.  We’ve faced so many changes in just a few years.  What changes lie ahead?  My mind grazed the idea of our mortality before those thoughts were quickly banished by more movement from the wren.  She was in the rafters of the bathrooms now.  I walked through the bathrooms, imagining the ‘too-good-to-be-true’ tub (more on that later!)  I laughed when I thought about Caroline and Joel, sharing a bathroom in their teenage years…wondering what new hair styling tools and products will have been invented (or reinvented) by then.

But it was time to deal with the wren, and get on with my morning.  I considered the wisest way to move her toward the door as I moved across the kitchen.  There was a sheet left from the the rain clean-up, I could use that…  I arrived in the dining room to find out that she was….gone…out the door.

So I sat on the door step and thought some more.  I thought I knew what my work was that morning.  Get the pictures and get out.  Instead, I had a very different job.  I was there to open the door for the wren.  I was also there to be reminded that work produces something, even if you can’t see the something while you’re doing the work.  I was there to see that there is an end to this moving.  We have a home; a luxury in so many different ways.  I needed to feel that luxury.  I needed to be reminded of God’s goodness.

Wow, we really didn’t see this coming!

Clint carefully removed all the shingles on Wednesday, to get ready for the new roof to go on Thursday.  We watched the weather forecast all week….all clear.  Thursday morning, there was a 10% chance of rain.  Well, Clint took off the paper, and that 10% rained inside our house for about 15 minutes!  The damage is breath-taking, and not in a good way.  I walked into the house and had a Pascagoula flashback.  It looked like post-hurricane damage.

Here’s the before:

Here’s the after:

The ceiling is gone.  Clint was at the site when the rain came.  He and our very dedicated carpenter were trying to cover the roof with tarps and tin.  The water started running through the light fixtures.  Clint wisely cut the power to the house.  Then he and Sammy walked through the house, piercing the sheetrock in the ceiling, so it wouldn’t take the roof down.  What a day.

Here are some more shots of the aftermath…

master bedroom floor…

master bedroom ceiling…

even the bathroom….

So as I surveyed the damage with the contractor and choked back tears, I remembered my friends in Mississippi who had this same experience, only everything they owned was inside.  There was no cozy, dry rental to return to in order to assess the damage.  This, I decided, was not bad at all.

So the assessment is this…

The Upside:

Our fantastic insurance company…shout out to USAA!…has a water remediation team drying the house out now.  It looks like our homeowner’s insurance will cover the damage.

Our contractor is confident that we haven’t lost the amazing knotty pine that I love so much.

This will lower our HVAC bid, since there is no longer the issue of tiny crawl space. (I find this hilarious…there is NO crawl space!)

I might just be able to get those vaulted ceilings I’ve been pestering Clint and the contractor about since day one. (First thing Clint asked me when we walked up to see the damage was “Have you been praying for vaulted ceilings?” Love that guy!)

The Downside:

Its a mess.  Clint’s been working so hard to keep the site clean.  This was definitely two or more steps back for him.

It will extend our timeline.  No one has said that yet, but it will.

We are moving into the guest house of a lovely friend in 16 days.  We will be managing the move, storing most of our possessions in a POD, managing the renovation and the insurance process all at once.

The Final Assessment:

God is good.  We love each other.  All is well.