Revelation from a Renovation Update

You caught me a little off-guard with your dislike for painted brick and your demands to keep it natural. I gotta be honest, I had every intention to paint it. I even bought the paint.

BUT, I'm gonna have to wait until the walls have paint and the floor is in, because you may have changed my mind.

Thank you. You talk, we listen.

To update you on the KITCHEN LAYOUT and FLOORING decision (drumroll please)... we decided to go with a one-wall kitchen and use hickory hardwood throughout the entire house.

Man, do I love to make decisions. It takes me about 2 minutes. It takes Brandon about 20 days. ;)

In other news, we have a major, crazy, unfortunate scenario in our basement. We knew that there was a little mold from the previous owner never cleaning up after a flood 2 years ago, but as I started researching and then followed up with a mold-remediation specialist, they are like,

"It's gonna cost ya about $10,000 to get this all fixed up."

Insert dropped-jaw-you-gotta-be-kidding-me-look.

We are praying and scouring the internet and Angie's list for other solutions and more reasonable quotes. Have you ever had a mold issue? Do you use a dehumidifier in your basement? Does this make me old that I am talking about this?

Dumpster number 3 arrived on the scene last night. Dear Jesus, if I ever need 3 dumpsters to clean out my house, call TLC and sign me up for Hoarders. No one should be allowed to have that much junk in their house and on their property. 3 DUMPSTERS! 2 TON DUMPSTERS!

Picnicking at the new place has been an unexpected joy in my day. We may be eating fast food, but the kids love to sit outside under our favorite tree and eat sea salted fries together. Eva was so sad today when I told her I was gonna go home to make lunch. Who knew?!

All in all, I give this renovation process a 7.3 so far. We've had grace for days and patience for years, demo was unreal with all the crazy-awesome people who helped out. This mold and water issue, we could definitely do without. It's costing us time and money, and lots of it. Boo mold, just go away.

Thanks for tuning in to this update. My dilemma at the moment includes picking out counter tops. Granite, quartz, or butcher block? Have you ever installed a diving board? Wanna come install mine?

Cheers! You're awesome.