I know in TVLand there have been several TV shows that break from a season with no real loose ends and when they return from hiatus, life has changed so drastically viewers are left with mixed emotions ranging from “huh?” to “man, I can’t wait to see what happens next!”

If our blog were a TV show, this episode would probably open with us packing up our car and Fuller tearfully asking, “But Mommy, why are we going to Ohio? Why can’t Daddy come with us?” And then, because the show is relying on drama to pull up the ratings, I would reply, “Well sweetie, when you are homeless, you have to make some sacrifices.”

Then there would be a commercial break and all of the internet would be twittering with questions like “Homeless? Why are the Crumleys homeless?”

When the commercials for digestive yogurt, portable storage units, and the teaser for the night’s evening news were over, viewers would be treated with flashbacks of what had happened in the last two months:

~a montage of HGTV/ Extreme Makeover Home Edition type scenes would show our house being invaded by carpenters and home stagers

~the excited planting of a “for sale” sign in our yard

~the whirlwind of house showings leading to a contract on our house in two days

~sadness over not getting the first house we wanted to buy

~tension mounting over the bidding war we entered for the second house we wanted

(and because this is a two hour episode)

~joy over getting the house we really wanted

leading us up to the tearful point in the show where Fuller wants to know why we have to be homeless…

Well, this isn’t a TV show. Instead it is our life and while we don’t have the dramatic backdrop of mood music and witty writing, it does kind of fill in the blanks of what our lives have been like since we got back from Alabama in February.

We got our house ready to sell, sold our house in two days, found a new one, and now we have closing dates weeks apart. Yes, this means we will be kind of homeless for a little while. Yes, the boys and I will go stay with my mom in Ohio and Damon will be here, going to work and making tick marks somewhere, counting the days until we return.

But when we return… oh boy. The excitement of moving to a new house keeps me from napping. I have been scouring the HGTV website for ideas and clues as to what life in our new house can look like.

If our blog was a TV show I’m sure it would be exciting. But right now, I’m pretty excited to be living this life.

Last weekend, Fuller, Tebow and I were having fun heading out to various outings and gatherings. Damon was busy measuring, cutting, and nailing. Progress on the storage situation in our mudroom/ laundry room was happening! It was wonderful.

And then Monday, it started raining. And it’s been raining. Well, it’s been raining on and off, but enough “on” so that progress halted for the week.

It’s been frustrating. Damon had a good momentum going and has been wanting to get going again. And I have been whining and moaning patiently waiting to get my kitchen completely back. Right now, it is pretty cramped and confining. The laundry room shelves are making the space in front of the sink into our own personal “Fat Man’s Squeeze.” My island counter space is cut in half due to objects previously on shelves temporarily vacationing on the island. And the microwave has been moved, making it kind of comical when Damon goes to use the microwave and heads to the counter where it used to be.

I loathe making breakfast/ lunch/ dinner/ midnight snacks because of the lack of space. And if I get food prepared, I loathe cleaning up. Then again, that part isn’t related to lack of kitchen space.

So, the weather. We need it stay dry so Damon can continue working. He has to use the backyard as his cutting area. If he can’t cut, he can’t install and if he can’t install, he can’t make cubbies and shelves. And if he can’t… well, you get the idea. We need dry weather so we can keep this project moving. So, everybody say it with me..

Rain, rain, go away! Come again some other day! (Just not Sunday or Monday or Tuesday, just in case he can’t finish on Saturday.)

Technorati Tags: home repair, home remodel, diy, home organization

Yesterday started at 3:45 a.m.

Tebow was hungry and as the responsible party in this relationship, I fed him.

Then for some reason, Tebow was not interested in going back to bed. Normally his one middle of the night feeding keeps us up for about 30 minutes. And if it goes longer, then I can count on him being back in bed within 60 minutes. Not yesterday. He wouldn’t settle down or when he did, he was back up within 5 minutes. By 6 a.m. I gave up and started the rest of my day.

The schedule only had one activity- Tebow’s 2 month well child visit. It was an 8:30 appointment, which was fine since I was already up. I was tired, but up.

Tebow’s appointment went well (stats for the Grandparents: 15 pounds, 25 inches) with praise for his strength and head holding ability. He got his shots and even though he cried, it was soon forgotten and he fell asleep. Sweet baby.

Sweet baby until we got home. Then it was cranky and feverish baby. I dosed Tebow with Tylenol and spent a few hours trying to soothe him. He cat napped, ate, fussed, cat napped, ate, and then fell asleep for two and a half hours.

This is important because yesterday we finished the laundry room/ mudroom project. Those two hours of sleep coincided with Fuller’s two hours of quiet time and allowed me the time needed to paint the entire area. I had to do detail work when D got home (couldn’t get the ladder because of my sprained arm), but at 4 p.m. I was looking at the painted walls and so thankful for 1) the time needed and 2) the energy from I don’t know where.

When T woke up he was back to cranky, but it didn’t bother me. I finished my part of the project and still had steam to get him bed (he slept from 11 p.m to 5:30!) and not cry about how tired I was.

That was yesterday.

While Fuller, Tebow, and I have been whooping it up in Texas, Damon has been back in Tennessee working on a house project- the laundry room/ mudroom drywall!

When we renovated the kitchen, we knocked down the walls to the “third bedroom” (more like a closet) and made a bathroom off Fuller’s room and enlarged the kitchen to include a laundry area and mudroom-like area in the back. While the kitchen has walls, the laundry room and mudroom had studs. Which is why the project of the last week was putting up drywall!

It’s been fun watching the pictures go up on Flickr (we are a 3 camera family) and see the progress. When I get home I’ll be involved in the priming and painting, so I’m starting to think about paint colors.

I’ve really appreciated the work Damon (and Ed!) have done this week and in the past on making our house a home. I know it has taken us a lot longer to do the work ourselves, but it was/ is Damon’s dream to restore a house himself.

Now I know we could have gone with a contractor who would have told us how, when, where, and how much, but I never would have known how to go about 1)finding a contractor and 2) how to know he/ she was reliable and trustworthy. I’ve heard stories about people hiring contractors who quote one thing and then charge another. Or the contractor never finishes a job. It is rare for me to hear a good story about a contractor, which makes me glad I’m married to a man willing to do all the work himself.

But, if we were into finding a contractor, I know there are so many resources we could use to be matched with a good one. After quizzing our friends for months, we might head to the internet to check out ServiceSpider.com, a resource that allows us to post projects (everything from drywall to carpet cleaning) and have contractors bid on them. The contractors are prescreened through Service Spider, so you should be getting good bids from good contractors.

Sadly, Service Spider does not have any contractors listed in their directory for the Tennessee Valley area (no NW Georgia either). But if you are in my area and know of one, maybe you can tell them about getting listed in the directory. Or they can go to ServiceSpiderpro.com to get help with their own online presence.

But for now, I’m happy to get to go home to my husband and see the work he has accomplished. And then I’ll be happy to find my paint roller.

Today our new rocker/ recliner was picked up from the warehouse (thanks Damon and Ed!) and installed in our living room. Currently I am sitting pretty, enjoying the comfort of putting my feet up and reclining while watching Fuller play happily. I’m looking forward to it being “my” chair especially during the hours of feeding baby two.

The chair didn’t arrive like this though… no, it came in a big cardboard box which has provided some minutes of fun for Fuller on the front porch. If the box lasts until warmer weather, I bet it gets even more use as Fuller’s own clubhouse.

Something that brings comfort to one member of the family brings fun to another. It’s perfect.

I’m so excited to finally have something to post about our efforts to work on our house.

For a couple who has lived here for almost ten years, we have done quite a bit of renovation. Unfortunately, we look around and see there is still a lot to do. And since the budget to do those sorts of things has been rather tight in the past year, we have been just living here, enjoying the work we have accomplished, and ignoring the unfinished work in other areas.

When I traveled to Orlando in September, I was one of the winners of a $100 Home Depot gift card. I knew I wanted it to go toward a new backdoor. I won’t go into all the details of what was wrong with our old back door (though I will mention it was actually an interior door, which isn’t very weatherproof). It was a project we had been putting off, but recently realized we had to get to it this year, before the winter moved in permanently.

We took a family outing to Home Depot and as we looked at the doors we wanted, I suddenly felt like the child in the Mother’s Day commercials who has 50 cents and wants to buy Mom a $200 diamond tennis bracelet. The ideal door for our back entry was going to be way more than my paltry $100 gift card could cover, and it was kind of a downer.

Damon came up with other solutions we probably could afford in our tight-budget lifestyle- salvage yards and the Habitat for Humanity Restore. Last Wednesday D and I took a quick trip to the Restore, with the realistic concept that we might not find anything. It was nice to see the sign at the door telling us everything in the store was 50% off that week, so we started to dig through their inventory.

Imagine our surprise when we found a brand new exterior door with a full glass panel, just like we had been wanting! And since it was half off, we were thrilled with the $75 price tag.

Our friend Ed helped D bring the door home last Wednesday and on Saturday Damon was able to start working the prep to install the door on Sunday. It was unfortunate that Saturday is when the temperature started to dip and insist on letting Fall take up residence in the Tennessee Valley. So Damon worked into the dark on Sunday to get the door installed (once the old door was removed, there was no stopping, even for sundown).

All day yesterday I admired the sunlight streaming into my kitchen (though I kept thinking the backdoor was left open). And I got a little thrill as I closed the door and it stayed closed. The dogs loved being able to look out and wait for us to come home.

We are now in the process of looking for an appropriate storm door, but for now, I am so happy to have the new back door.