I think we’re ready for the first day.

Feb 7

I hope we’re ready! Doug (our contractor) said they’d tear down the wall Monday, so we worked on getting ready for that.

Luke came over to help Randy. They cleared out the garage so we can use it to store things as work is being done. Before they started, I came out to say my spiel: “I’d like things to be organized in a way that is logical to me, not just put where they happen to fit.” This is, as you might guess, a familiar speech for me to make. Randy and Luke nodded assent and talked about using the workbench for our microwave and toaster oven later, while we have no kitchen, and making room on the pantry shelves for cooking dishes and utensils. Excellent.

At one point, Randy was deciding where to put these clothing dryer racks we use when doing laundry. I hang a lot of things to dry rather than using the dryer, for fear of shrinkage. Randy said, “You don’t need these, right?” I said I did. He questioned the need for two, but I said that I did need and use them both. Later I went into the garage, and saw one of the racks near one wall, and another near the opposite wall. I took the one off the wall farthest from the washer and dryer and asked about it: “Is this one of the racks I said I needed?” Yes, it was. “So you put one over here [pointing to the opposite wall] and one over there [pointing to the wall by the washer & dryer]? This is exactly what I’m talking about. I want things to be together that belong together!” I can’t remember what Randy said, if anything, but Luke, the peacemaker, took both racks and put them beside the dryer.

The clothes drying racks I need and which should be stored together. :)

Luke the peacemaker had already reminded us to be nice to each other. He said, “I sense a little tenseness.” I agreed but also said, “But I need to say what I want, too.” I realize now I should also have said Randy needs to say what he wants as well. Hm, maybe a little self-centeredness going on there. Anyway, the racks are in a logical (to me) place and that is good.

Besides clearing the garage, Luke took home the trailer to store there for the duration. If things get too crazy for us to live here, we might plug in the trailer at Luke & Des’ and stay there for a bit. They also loaded the couch and loveseat onto Randy’s truck and Ran brought it to Savers. Fortunately for us, they accepted them.

I took all the pictures off most of the walls. What a lot we have! And I love each and every single one of them. As Luke said, “Mom’s looking at each picture and saying, ‘Does this give me joy? … Yes!’” That’s right. After this remodel, I’ll have less wall space. Could be a dilemma.

I also packed my teacup collection. It’s not on the wall coming down but I was afraid all the vibration from the work might knock them off their shelf. We have a china hutch in the entryway and I also packed all the glassware and china that were in there. We went to Home Depot to buy a few boxes and some wrapping paper. I had forgotten to save our newspapers. Packing all that was a big job. It makes me aware how huge this is going to be. That was just one hutch and shelf. So much more to go. Whew, boy.

Pictures off most of the wall — each of which gives me much joy.

We walked over to our neighbor and realtor’s house to take photos of their kitchen/dining/family room remodel that inspired this whole thing. Their house has the same layout. I’m sending these photos to my friend Roxanne who is going to help me check out models and figure out what I like.