Home Reno/My Reno-- Second Verse, Same as the First

On last Tuesday, I had the second half of my mouth/gum laser treatment done plus some other work so it was back on a liquid diet again for a few days and now to mushy foods again.  I am now in a "healing mode" for the next three weeks.

Fortunately, the home reno is moving forward.  Some electrical was done to prepare for some of our changes, sheet rock was added where needed and around the fireplace surround you can see the design for the new fireplace drawn on the sheetrock.  There is the new wood floor sitting in the middle in prep for installation.  They like the wood to "sit" in your house for a week or two before they lay it which I remember they did before as well.

At the other end of the house, we had painting done in the master bedroom and bathroom.  I love the look of white in our master bedroom along with navy blue.  It has been the theme of our master bedrooms almost our entire married life.  I know when you renovate that it is a time to make changes, but some things are just right...for us.

And we do have a major change in the master bathroom--yes, that is green, probably a bit more intense than it was in my head BUT it will work and it looks great with the painting set to be hung there and the other ideas for deco.  

Our counters were also set this past week so we are getting very close with being done with this part of the project.

I know it isn't everyone's favorite but I think it will be great when it is all done.  (And, it is probably the same color that we will repaint the game room after we move back upstairs.  It is remarkable close to the same color we have now.  I guess I like what I like...and I am consistent about it!)

The scarier choice I have made is the medium green for my kitchen island.  Stay tuned for that!

I also received the two hanging lights for my kitchen island.  The designer I hired found these and despite the fact that I had to order them from a company in Hong Kong (and they are made in China by this firm) didn't discourage me.  It actually made it even more perfect.

They arrived this week boxed like this--

As I opened up the top, I discovered it was a separate box from the bottom completely.  They were just taped together to be mailed.  It made me smile.  This is a very expected "Chinese" thing to do and made me even more excited to have these hanging in my kitchen.  Weird, I know, but living in Hong Kong impacted my life in so many ways...and one way was an appreciation that things can be done in many different ways.

The teaser photo---hopefully they will work!! The color is perfect!

Progress---In many ways, it feels like the outside world is on pause while I am recovering (and now Jena and I have colds as well) and we are in reno mode. It is okay.  It is only for a moment of time and then we will resume the next phase of our lives.  I am reading a lot--everything from simple mysteries to a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt and an interesting book about Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the first two women on the Supreme Court (that was an interesting read).  Just finished the new book by Steve Young called The Law of Love.  I recommend that as well for an interesting read about the power of loving God and our fellow humans.

This morning, we "attended" through Zoom the "farewell" remarks of Laurie and Mike Hoer who are leaving to serve a mission in Pakistan for the next 18 months.  They did amazing.  Laurie is one of the true gifts of a friend from Hong Kong.  I will be forever grateful for her and her spiritual gifts in my life. She is one of the great ones!

And while we missed our own Ward to share this experience with Hoers (and the fact that we have colds), I was sustained as one of the Gospel Doctrine teachers in our ward.  Not sure if I am replacing one of the current teachers or if there was going to be three teachers....waiting for a report from a friend to update me after Church.  This is the third time I have taught Gospel Doctrine.  In fact, it was my last calling in this ward before our missions.  I teach differently now so it is interesting to have the same calling as bookends to our missionary service.

And that is the wrap for the week!  Love you all.

"Bad" Day and My Little Miracle

I didn't sleep well last Wednesday night.  My mouth hurt but more importantly there were a number of worries and concerns flying around in my mind.  On top of the home remodel, life is still going on and many people within our sphere of love and caring are struggling.  That meant Thursday, I was tired and not my best.  Unfortunately, that is not the best time to make decisions of any kind--even fairly unimportant ones like how to design the fireplace surround or what tile I wanted in the kitchen.  In fact, I was backtracking on the choices I had already made.  In the face of more important things, I was stuck with these weird doubts about tile and fireplace. And while they were not the most important things, it felt like I needed to decide so that I could move on to the more important things.  (And while there is a bit of a timeline to get the tile ordered, it was more flexible than I was feeling on that day.)

So, I prayed about the tile and fireplace surround--I know, weird!  It isn't that important, but at the time, I needed to get it off my list and I needed to feel right about it. And I prayed about it off and on through the day as I sipped my liquids and napped.  I spent some time on the internet looking at fireplace surrounds that might work and collected 4 possible options. Friday morning I prayed about it again (along with the many other things on my list). As I headed to the tile shop one more time to grab my "choices" to share with our contractor that afternoon, I again explained how I needed to get this selection done.  As I approached the store, I felt a confirmation about the fireplace tile--that it could work with one of the examples I had found; AND an idea of a tile for the kitchen backsplash came into my head.  It was one similar to one I had considered but different in scale than I had considered, but as soon as I thought of it, I realized that is exactly the right thing for our kitchen.  In just a couple of minutes, I made those decisions and seriously had a peace about it that I recognized as a gift to me--an answer to a prayer about a minor thing but it removed some worry from me to focus on the other things that needed (and still) needed to be focused on.

Now, I wish some of the other worries I have could be resolved in that way, but my experience with the Spirit has taught me that timing is super important and also people's agency.  Sometimes answers and solutions require time, action, and patience.

But I am grateful that a loving Heavenly Father chose to bless me in this small way to remind me that my prayers (all of them) are heard and responded to even if all the answers aren't here yet.

When have you felt the Spirit lately and had your own little miracle?

My "Remodeling"

also continues.  I had laser treatment on the left side of my mouth last Tuesday and will have the right side done on this coming Tuesday.  It isn't really painful, except for the restrictions on eating.  Liquid diet for three days afterwards and then mushy foods for a week and then soft foods for another couple of weeks.  Broth is a lot better than I remember it from the last time it was the only thing I could have.  Gary has been spoiling me with milkshakes which has been so appreciated.  These treatments are to treat gum disease which hasn't responded well to other treatments.  In my family, I have what is known as Dad's gums--(as opposed to our mother who had great gum but poor teeth.)  

I discovered that I do NOT like protein drinks...even when hungry.

House Update

This is just for our information...and a reminder that we are making progress on this whole project...and it will be great when it is done.  Please feel free to skip on to the next post---

Like I have mentioned, we ended up with three different people/companies working on our remodel--

Gary Kerr (along with Gary) building our library wall--

It is mostly done except some caulking and some sanding.  The painting will be done as part of the main "main" floor remodel.

Master Bathroom and Master Bedroom-- they (Walsh Factor did the bathroom)  will be starting the paint job this week so approaching the finish line. I have loved how it turned out.

We kept our same cabinets, but everything else has been changed.

I love the soldier stack of the green tiles.  I loved the counters and the surrounds we had before and I was nervous about changing things so much, but it has worked out.

And the flat penny tile floor is just a fun bonus.  That is our little bench for sitting when needed.

And I no longer have a jetted tub which makes cleaning the tub SO much easier.  I never liked the jets as much as I thought (in part because I like reading in the tub and it caused a bit of splashing, etc.)

When we got home from Amarillo, we made the rest of the move to the basement except we are still using Jena's bathroom upstairs and some closets for our clothes.  Fortunately, we have use of our laundry room, fridge, stove and dishwasher for another week or so.

Life in the basement--if we had planned ahead we would have added a bit more kitchen in the basement.  Oh, well---the microwave and small fridge are helpful...

and the "toy closet" makes a good pantry...

Gary's "office" is now in the basement on a folding table, and we have another folding table serving as our dining room table.

Upstairs is looking more like a construction site---

On Wednesday, the old gas fireplace was replaced.  Weird to see out of a hole in your wall.

Loving the new one with its "fake" brick backdrop...

The old mantel is being saved for the moment in hopes that some of the pieces might work with the new fireplace surround.

Our small half walls are gone.  They served their purpose for the first 25 years, but I am excited to have the wood floors extended into the TV room and make it one big gathering kitchen/family room space.

Kitchen island is gone as well as the cabinet doors and backsplash.....and the famous (or is that infamous) green counter tops in most of the room.  Don't worry--green will be back in our kitchen in a new way.  And the yellow walls will be staying. 

The desk area was removed along with the pantry.  Exciting new things planned for these areas.

A day at a time, but progress is being made.

Happy New Year, 2025.....

with a new year flight to Amarillo, Texas.  Jena and I flew out in the early morning hours of January 1st to go to Amarillo to visit my sister, Robin, and to help make plans for what are the next best steps for her.  She fell near the beginning of December, was in the hospital for about 10 days and now is in a rehab Center.  She is making good progress, but is likely require a wheelchair for most of her living.  Changes ahead....

Salt Lake City airport was still decked out with their Christmas trimmings. You can see we did have an early morning drop off.

We had a stop over in Denver and they had these interesting chairs which are oddly somewhat comfortable and a change from regular chairs.  I enjoyed "lounging" back and reading a book during part of our 3 hour layover.

Heading up to the plane which took us to Amarillo.

I think this is the only picture I took while we were in Amarillo.  We were busy visiting my sister and running errands around town.  We decided that it was time for her to move to Utah to be nearer to us and where other family members visit.  (The small stuffed dog was a gift from my brother, Scott, from his visit the week before.)  We started the process of packing up as well.

I did take a couple of other photos of some weird rash I had on my face when I woke up last Sunday morning in our rental house.  I actually think I had a fever during the night and day.  I took pictures to share with Gary to get some sympathy, but don't need to share them here.  It turned into a wide spread "sunburn" looking skin and is still recovering.  Weird for me, but I know people deal with all sorts of skin things.  I spent the day sleeping on the couch while Jena watched Christmas movies.  By Monday, I was feeling much better with some cold medication on board so I could help with some packing at Robin's.  We flew home on Tuesday.

Our hope is that Robin can stay at the Rehab Center until the end of February and then I will go get here and start the process of moving her here.  It depends on Medicare and Medicaid so it is a day by day situation. As they say, stay tuned!