We plan, God laughs

I have always been a early riser. I was the kid at sleepovers that was up first, and sat talking with the friends parents because the other kids wouldn't be up for a few hours. I still find the early wee hours some of the best times to get things accomplished. There are no distractions, and there is peace and quiet (and around the farm these days, those commodities can be hard to find!) So, this morning, it was laying out my tile pattern. I found an awesome wet tile saw on craigslist for a great deal, and we will get a chance to try it out finally today.

Also, I have always been the one with just a bit of bad luck. Stitches, broken bones, bee hives on the more extreme end of my past luck, I have always been plagued by things just not going quite right (typically through no fault of my own!). Originally, we had hoped to get some tile laid two weekends ago. But, as I am finding out around here, timelines are more of what you'd call "guidelines", or a least a rubric of the order of whats to come. I had been told, and am now seeing, expect the unexpected with these old farm houses. There has been no major issues as of yet, but enough little snags along the way, that we are, well, behind schedule. As it turned out, the professional guidance we had lined up to get us through the addition part of the renovations has turned out to be a little less than professional. Seeking out construction help in the middle of summer in Michigan is not really an easy task. Everyone is booked, and has been that way for months. We have been fortunate enough to have someone to at least tell us what we need to do for the next few steps, but we will be executing a lot of framing work on our own - and a lot more of it than we originally thought would need to be done.

Not to worry, we have our muscle lined up and ready to work with us next weekend. Big push this week to get some more demo done, and put up a temporary wall, so that next weekend, with a generous time donation from family, we can work towards getting things back on track.

 We picked up 2 gallons of paint to cover the laundry room/half bath/ pantry area. I've done my fair share of painting, but never over new drywall. We primed the drywall, but it still soaked in way more paint than I anticipated. So, a few days later, I went back and got 2 more gallons to finish the job. I gave the lady at the paint counter the exact same paint chip I had used the first time. I went home and started touching up areas that needed it, and painting the walls that hadn't be started. Everything looked great. Felt good to see some progress. Until the next morning - when we could clearly see that the new paint was just a shade lighter than the old paint....  So, everything gets a third coat! And I make a call to customer service Monday morning to get some free paint.

I know, I know, extremely hard to tell. But this was the best I was able to do at showing the difference in colors. There is a vertical stripe next to that hole in the wall that is lighter than the rest of it. It is far more noticeable in person.

And, if I needed a little more bad luck, it came in the way of a little bump. What started out looking like a bug bite on Rudy's eye, grew over a two week period into a "mass" next to his eye. I use that term lightly - we don't have a biopsy back yet, and it likely benign, but poor Rudy has been forced into the cone of shame. Little guy has not gotten used to the new size of his head, and runs into everything - including our legs. 

On the bright side, I found a killer fridge at Lowes on clearance. It looks good as new, but they were clearancing it at half price due to the fact they had had to fix/replace a water line. This beast is 35 inches deep and has the showcase door on the fridge. It's amazing! Then, Dad found an entire kitchen at the ReStore including a stone counter top for less than the builtin stove it includes originally cost. The cabinets were all custom built and are beautiful. And for now, it is living in the chicken coop :(.  Back to work!!