Home is where the...

MESS IS!!!!!
Rant/Vent warning!

My house is a disaster. It is much harder to remodel by myself and keep up with a 16 month old and a busy family at the same time than I thought. I have been trying to do things at night but I am not getting much sleep and am pretty worthless the next day. It's going slow. I've made some big mistakes. I need tools we do not have. Nothing is finished. This project is getting to me.

Yesterday I got a call from the appraiser who I thought was just going to do a drive-by appraisal on our house... But no. He called to make an appointment with me as a walk through has been requested by the mortgage company for our re-fi. (Did I mention we are re-financing and going to save a whole lot of $$$ every month? Yeah!!)

"A walk through? " I ask looking over piles of drop clothes, mounds of sanding dust, carpet that was once white and is now grayish brown, and acres of trim and walls that need to be painted.

" Yes. We will come in and measure, check out your major built in appliances, look at the general condition of the house and take some pictures. It shouldn't take more than an hour."

Did he say pictures!!!??? He is going to take PICTURES...of MY HOUSE...on the INSIDE! I resisted the urge to faint and talked him into waiting to come until Monday... even though the appraisal has to be in by next Tuesday for us to be able to close this month, which for a million reasons we need/have to do.

As soon as I hung up the phone my life was rudely shoved into the hurried, massive "finish it all and clean-up operation" I now find myself escaping by taking a few minutes to blog and answer e-mail. There is not enough Calgon in the world to take me away from this!

On top of that...

Ella Kate went to bed fine but woke up with an awful cold. (How does that happen?)

I just discovered I bought enamel instead of latex. Everything I painted last night is still sticky, and collecting dust... Which means drying, sanding and re-painting and more $$ for more paint.

I am supposed to be "helping' at school this week. Ha!

Rob has huge papers due this week and big projects at work = He can not save me.

Did I mention Ella Kate is FUSSY!?

Rhett is making all his numbers backwards.

Kolby is not getting long division.

My parents and sister have their own big fish to fry this week/weekend.

Most of my friends have sick kids.

And I can not find my sink under all the dishes piling up since the dishwasher refuses to load itself! (hate that!)

Truly home improvement projects are meant for professionals, with skills, tools, experience and know how. Ordinary people who have a toddler should NOT try these things at home! HGTV says start at home but do they know what that means? Leave this to the professionals, people who do not need to be math tutors, writing instructors, fun playmates, nurses, maids, chauffeurs. People who do nat have to figure out what's for dinner tonight and then actualy get all the stuff and make it! Remind me of this next time I talk about re-decorating!

In the mean time I am going to keep telling myself what I tell my kids when they freak out over life.... "This is not a bad problem. It is a good problem because no one is bleeding, hurting or dead. Nothing is under water or on fire. (though I feel a figurative fire burning beneath my rear as I sit here because I need to get up and get going!) Everything is OK or will be OK. This is not a real crisis. Breathe. God is in control. Breathe."

And somehow that helps.

Check back in with me after next Monday. I will survive this week/weekend!
Breathe...