House Remodel Edition 6: So Close, Yet So Far Away

This past month has been a serious whirlwind. So much work has happened on the house, and with all the holidays going on in November/December, it's been a bit exhausting trying to manage everything. Here's a photo of what our Christmas tree looked like through the zip-up tarps downstairs!

But here we are in 2015, and the show continues. At this point in the house remodel, we feel so close yet still far away. The drywall has been installed everywhere, and all the major mechanical elements are completed (plumbing, electrical, heat) Currently, they are in the process of "mudding" the drywall and fixing all the walls and ceilings that were water damaged a while back. Notice one of the workers strapping on a pair of stilts!

This is a great stage to be at. We've come really far. However, at the moment, our house is really hard to live in. We have had to move everything out of our downstairs rooms, and work on the kitchen ceiling and walls will begin very soon, too. We never anticipated that nearly all rooms in our house would be affected by this new addition, and only really found out about it at the last minute. We have been grateful to our friends for letting us crash at their place temporarily, and we're still figuring out what we'll do for the next few weeks, but the kids are definitely getting cranky at their lack of stable home base, and Leo's sleep has been pretty poor, causing the cycle to go around again. Ah well, all we can do though is breathe, go with the flow and know that we will get our new & improved house back eventually. The silver lining of it all is that most rooms of our house will get a new wall and ceiling paint job, which was not originally part of the plan! 
We did all spend one night in a hotel for New Year's Eve, just to get away from everything at home, and watched the ball drop in Times Square (9pm our time) from the comfort of a bed to ring in the new year. Here's to a fresh start in 2015!

As usual, here are lots more photos of the construction progress:

Remodel Month 4

Remodel Month 3

Remodel Month 2

Remodel Month 1