Words failed me

Not long after our last post things kind of fell apart... literally.  We did manage to get moved in for Memorial Day weekend (after a total of 4 weeks in 2 different rentals) and have a few friends over for the holiday to cook out and swim (our first swim in the newly restored pool).  So that was nice. But it got crazy from there...  We had a massive fly infestation (likely from something dead in the chimney), the electrical was kind of a mess, the front windows/wall leaked massively in the living room during the tropical storm, the brand new roof leaked over Clementine's room so badly the ceiling fell in (thankfully not while she was in there), we had to rip out a huge oak that was getting under the foundation and was too close to the house (leading to the leaking), our fence install was a stressful hell during the rain and a disagreement over where we could put the fence, and we lived in Clementine's room most of June and couldn't start using our master bathroom until July.  And that's only the stuff I can remember.  There came a point when I couldn't take any more pictures because I honestly just wanted to forget it was all happening.  It was just too much.  Trying to juggle fixing the house and keeping Clementine from losing it amidst the chaos was pretty overwhelming.

So, when the ceiling fell in days before we were due to head to NC I looked at Wade and cried and said please just stay here and fix all this and I'll get C out of the house because it was so torn up she couldn't even move around in it anyway.  So we did.  C and I flew alone for the first time to visit Poppi and Granzie and thankfully it was a direct flight (lugging her and her carseat was a little tedious but we survived).  We had a lovely visit and even went camping in the Smokies and visited C's cousins, which was a lot of fun, and just what we both needed.  For Wade's part, although he worked hard getting the house back in order, he did enjoy nights watching guy movies, drinking wine, and eating popcorn so it was a break for him too.

We got back just in time for Father's Day, and we took Wade to the aquarium again this year, always a bit hit with him and C (she touched her first sting ray and LOVED it).  For his birthday, all he wanted was a kayak, so C picked out a lime green one that's just perfect for us.  It's been wonderful and we've already seen manatees, dolphins, lots of birds, fish, and even a bonnethead shark just minutes from our house!

The summer has been a bit of a blur actually.  We've been spending every waking moment it feels like trying to get this house back into shape: painting, caulking, cleaning, rebuilding, cleaning, scraping, cleaning, electrical, painting, regrouting and sealing, you get the idea.  But we're finally feeling settled now and are ready to turn our attention to the outside.  The pool cage is set to be finished up in the next few weeks (the deck work to prep for it has been a nightmare) so we'll be thrilled when that's finally done.  The house still looks like a bomb went off out front after removing the tree because we just haven't had the time or money to do anything about it yet.  It's kind of killing me... like walking around with a thorn in your foot...  We're hoping we can get a reasonable quote for some of the landscape demo work we need done (removing old railroad ties and reinforcing the terraced deck, removing the awful soil in the decaying beds, etc) so we can start doing the fun work on our own - building garden beds, planting some trees and bushes out front, getting the edibles planted in the yard...

It feels like 2016 has been a time warp so far since we've spent the whole time fixing up, selling, and buying houses.  We look forward to being settled and are starting to enjoy the benefits of our wonderful location and floor plan (paddling, a pool, and room for guests and talking at full volume in the evenings!).  C also started Montessori preschool 2 weeks ago (she's going 3 half days a week) and that's also been a huge transition, but she is being "very brave".  We had her almost sleeping through the night right before we left the old house and since then her sleep has gotten worse and worse with all the changes, so I'm back to not getting much sleep at night which has not really helped my outlook on things.  Once she seems settled into school we're going to try and do a little more light sleep training again in hopes we can get back to that better place.

We lost our photo site (Google Sucks) so I've been trying to figure out how we're going to replace photo storage for the site.  We've been forced to use Google Photos (they supposedly transferred our  Picasa photos for us), but it's been a lot of hassle trying to work around it so it's been tough getting pictures up.  Here are some summer pictures for now and some house renovations in progress pictures.  

On a positive note, we weathered the last hurricane without any leaks - hooray - thanks to a ridiculous amount of caulking Wade did to all the external openings on the house just before the storm.  Ah, there's nothing 5 tubes of caulk can't cure, eh?