Hitting the Proverbial Brick Wall



The fireplace before.



Today has been the toughest so far. We are tired!  I've had some sort of allergic reaction and my eyes are red and  bloodshot, my hands and feet are swollen and bothersome. The good part is that my eyes don't hurt or itch, they just look bad and my hands and feet are still working. Momma is a bit overwhelmed and has some emotions that frustrate her, they are results of the stroke. The amazing part is that we, with the help of two aunts and two uncles, were still able to accomplish a number of things on the list!

The list gets shorter, and the projects on it get more and more tedious. These are the last details in each room, the minutia that give a room the "period" at the end of the sentence, (or hopefully an exclamation point)  but they wear on the nerves and the timeline. This is also why they are just now getting completed. We have a list of 23 items, most of them requring no more than a hour to do, but that's nearly an entire day, if we could work at it nonstop. The worst part is that you have to gather up the tools to do it, then you have to prepare the space to do it, then you have to do it and then you have to clean up the space and the tools. Thus, the one hour project just took over 2 hours to complete. You've probably all been there!

This evening we stopped earlier than we've been, we sat down and had dinner without the anticipation of getting right back to work, and we talked about what we've accomplished and what was left to do. We talked about the wonderful help we've received from neighbors and family and how grateful we are for each of them. We laughed about things that we've said and done and realized that we're already living wth the memories we're making.

The fireplace today.

One project that was not done this week, but that we enjoyed this evening was rebuilding the fireplace. (we only lit it for a few moments, and we had to crank up the air to be in the room with it) Now, as long as I can remember the chimney was outside the house and the rock fireplace was covered over and there was a woodstove in the house. My dad moved the walls back to bring the chimney inside and when he uncovered the rock fireplace he found a large hole where they had run the stove pipe. He meticuliously worked to remove loose rocks and mud that had been the "mortar" in the original and carefully rebuilt the fireplace.  It is not a rock surface on a masonary fireplace it is a true rock structure.

This weekend Momma and I finished the last bit of spackling around the rough edges at the wall and now the project is complete. It is absolutely beautiful, but there is no way to show the days of labor that were required to restore each old rock to its place, rather than to rip it out and build a new fireplace.  This type of attention to details is the reason that it has taken nearly four years to restore/remodel this house, but it is going to be sooooo worth it!

Today we are feeling a bit tired, frustrated and just plain fed up with the whole thing, and that's when we find that jobs that have already been done are restoring our spirits. I say all the time, that our homes are our sanctuaries and that these are the spaces that should renew and restore us. It's so wonderful to know that this house has been doing that for our family for several generations. So, while we feel like we've hit the proverbial brick wall, we can sit back and admire a lovingly restored rock one.

"its final resting place"

Since the last post, we have not completed all of the projects we anticipated, but we still have gotten a tremendous amount done. My dad's youngest brother and his family came to visit and were able to share in restoring a cabinet that was in the house when my dad and his brothers and sisters were growing up. This cabinet was re-purposed around 1955 to this house from the house of a relative.

When Mom and Dad started construction this time they put the cabinet in the workshop of Uncle Ray and yesterday we brought it back home. As my little cousins (my uncles younger 5 children) scraped off the loose paint, they discovered years of paints in green, red and more layers of white in between. Then my aunts and uncles who were here discussed how many different colors they remembered it being. We spent most of the afternoon, and until just after dark, scraping, priming and re-painting the cabinet to put it in the new pantry we had built this week. It is now where my Aunt Pat has declared its "final resting place"!

We aren't really using it for a new purpose, it will still store dishes and other pantry items, but even in my lifetime this cabinet has been in many locations in this house and is now in a room that was a porch just over a week ago. It will continue to fulfill the needs of the entire family as this is the gathering place for many-a family meal. I heard my little cousin Noah tell my mom yesterday that she was one of the best cooks in the entire world! She definitely needs and deserves this awesome pantry!

Everyone, right down to the smallest one, took part in the cabinet make-over and at the end of the day we took a marker and each one signed and dated the back. It was once again, like years before, a big family affair. We had lots of fun, we made lots of memories and we helped to fill this home with love!