You all might remember back when Kramer, my husband and I, initially bought our house. It was a foreclosure house. It was in rough shape but the bones of the house were pretty good.
We took off the back 1/3 of the house. Then added a kitchen, bathroom, entryway, and laundry room to the main floor and added an oversized double garage. To the upstairs, we added a bathroom and sewing room.
We purchased the house in August 2013. We worked on it and remodeled it all of 2014. We moved in, even though it wasn’t finished in January 2015.
This is the house summer of 2022…
On the outside, it looks pretty good. On the inside, there is still work to do.
As I said, we moved in January 2015. We were sick of trying to maintain two places. We couldn’t afford to be at two different places. We were out of money that we were willing to put into the house at the time. It was just time to move…so we did.
It was totally liveable but it wasn’t all the way finished. My husband planned to put up the trim in the house himself. He planned to redo all the trim that was up. Gradually he worked on it but the only time he had time was over the winter months as he was a farmer.
The new part of the house on the main floor got finished as did a lot of other projects…but then in January 2019, my husband was diagnosed with lung cancer and died in June 2019.
It broke my heart and once things settled into my new life without him I was left trying to figure out how to get some of the things around the house done that we never finished. Slowly, I’ve been tackling projects. I got the main floor in the bathroom finished. It has a new vanity, cabinet, and shower. I got the back garage sided and reshingled.
Next on my list was to finish all the woodwork in the upstairs addition area. That includes the portion of the new hallway, the bathroom, and my sewing room. Have you seen my sewing room?? Here is a video tour of it. Just hit the arrow and you can watch the video.
This is the room that has no trim.
I had half asked my son, Buck, to help me figure it out a time or two but he told me to hire it out. He was “no trim carpenter”. I was fine with that and added it to my list of things to save money for.
I ended up talking to someone and had plans for him to come in March or April of 2023. Well…remember Buck just bought a house and gutted it. Well like father like son, Buck ran out of money with the trim left to do. He does have carpentry skills and was more or less forced to do his own trim work. Trim carpentry work is not his strong point but, he now knows he can do it…and after doing his own is not as reluctant to do it.
Well on Sunday of this week he called me and said, “Hey Mom, do you plans for the days after Thanksgiving?” I said no. He said, “I have the kids all weekend. How about I come up and let’s do your trim work upstairs?” This was completely out of the blue.
UM…YES but crap. If you watched the video of my sewing room, note that all of that has to be moved so he can get to the walls. AHHH!!! I am panicking. Excited, but panicking. That’s a lot of work…I have to pull everything out of the sewing room and put it all back together after the trim is up. I also have to watch the three kids and cook for everyone and help how I can running boards up and down the stairs. WHEW. I’m writing this on Sunday (trying to write some blog posts and schedule them ahead) and I’m tired just thinking about it.
Earlier in the week, I spent some time trying to pull projects that I am actively working on and getting all the pieces and parts together so that doesn’t all get lost in the shuffle. Fingers crossed I did a good enough job with all of that. AHH!!
In light of all of that, I can’t guarantee how blog post writing is going to go over the weekend and next week. I might need to take off a post or two as I try to get things done and then back together.
I am THRILLED it is going to get done. I’ll pay Buck to do it…but I’m sure it will be at the “family rate”, so that’s a great saving for me…mostly, I’ll be so happy to have my son finish what his Dad, my husband, started. It’s all bittersweet.
Fingers crossed I don’t go crazy through all of this…I’ll keep you posted and let you know how it all goes.
What a wonderful surprise! Family time, home finishing, cooking, running stairs and saws, craziness……right up your alley Jo
Blessed indeed this Thanksgiving weekend
What a Thanksgiving blessing for you!! Time with the grands and Buck as well as getting that trim finished!! If you want to make any changes in the layout of the room, when the trim is finished you can do that as well. No slow days of stitching on much of anything for you this week for you!!
I feel your panicking! Hubby (who’s 82 and I’m76) and I sold our house in AZ last December within 24 hours and planned to move back to PA, our home state, but we had no place to go. Inventory was very low and after 30 days we were panicking. Thankfully, the new buyers gave us 60 days and we finally found an estate sale house that needed a LOT of remodeling. It was very stressful at our age to get all our ducks in a row and, unfortunately, we had a rotten realtor here in PA that was no help whatsoever. We finally got here in February and I cried when I saw the house and how awful it was. We hired a contractor to rip out the old kitchen, the old family room that still had orange shag carpet and paneled walls, a new master bathroom upstairs, a new front door and entryway and several other smaller projects. That began in May and it took 4 weeks. Not bad but what a mess. We had all new windows put in in the downstairs (14 of them!) and new landscaping done. We had the old brick painted on the exterior and it looks so much better. We have more projects to get done but we’re getting there. Not a job we wanted at our age, that’s for sure!
My point is….if us old folks can get through all that…you can get your sewing room done :) We’re looking forward to seeing it when it’s done.
I really enjoyed seeing your sewing room, Jo. My room is very small and not as organized, but I try. Not sure but I think I saw some books/magazines on a shelf. That is my downfall or addiction and I’m running out of room for them. So nice to be getting trim work done, mine isn’t.
To save time. Pre-paint all the trim boards. That way you only have to putty and touch up the nail holes.
Little by little you are getting your house in order the way you want it. It is so wonderful that Buck can do this for you. It is so hard to move our stuff out of our sewing rooms, isn’t it!? This may set you back a few days, but then it’s done! Hope you have fun with the grands.
Of course! Let the blog go a while!! Focus on home and family this time!!! So excited for you. Huge thank you to your wonderful son.
Bittersweet, yes, but Kramer would be so proud and so happy! We all know you can make it happen. If you don’t blog, we’ll all be fine! Hope all goes smoothly!
Hi Jo, sounds a busy time ahead. We all wait for your blog whenever its posted, do not fret over doing it, we will all happily wait to see the results.
Question someone? what is trim? I am from the UK and just curious.
Thanks
Trim is the boards (usually 2-3″ wide, sometimes more) that some put up on the wall just below the ceiling to cover up where different paint colors might meet or to cover wallpaper end cuts. Some also call baseboard trim as well…and baseboard is the boards put on the wall along the floor to cover where the paint/carpet/flooring meet.
And the trim frames all the doors and windows. Usually foam is added between windows and walls to stop drafts. My son in the construction field loves doing trim work.
Thanks Angie, ahhh now I understand. It’s just we call the ceiling “trim” coving and “baseboards”, skirting.
Thanks to all who replied
You are going to be so busy! But what a blessing Karl can come over and work on the trim. Good luck with it. And if you have missing posts, no worries! We’ll be thinking about you and praying for you all.
Love and prayers
Jo, please take the time off if you need to, goodness gracious, we are all so happy for you!
God bless Buck. He’s a good son.
Your quilting room is so well organized and laid out. I can’t imagine having all that wonderful space and light. It’s wonderful that Buck can come and get the trim work done and it can be putzy to make it look properly installed. We did a whole house and I stained and varnished all the trim before we installed it. We cut each piece as needed to fit and then touched up the cut edges with stain before we installed it. Made it look more professional. We did need to fill some corners with wood putty, hit with stain on some of our first cuts. It’s a trick to get those 45 angles just right. Enjoy the family project, the visit and let the blog wait. So happy you’re getting another job done, Kramer would love to see it finished for you.
Here’s hoping the trim work is going/went well, Jo!!
What a lovely thing to do for his mum! You have a super family. Thank you for the tour of the sewing room, it’s fantastic.
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