Keep Calm and “Just look at the Flowers, Karla.”

It is pure chaos around here with the remodel going on.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited about the whole project and I have no complaints. It is going perfectly well.

But it isn't for the faint of heart.  It seems like every corner of my world has been affected, so I'm trying to concentrate on the areas that still have some pretty left in them. Like this view.  

If I'd turned the camera around, you'd have seen that all the plants and tables were pulled away from the house and the patio was a turmoil-ed spot too.

Because when we went to replace some siding that the puppy ate, we realized that a large percentage of the siding had to be redone due to water damage, and now we have to repaint the entire exterior, not just the addition.

In both photos, the tan boards are the new ones.

It will be wonderful to have a freshly painted home, once it is all done, but for now, it does add to the rest of the mess. 

I think the process is starting to bug me now, because the level of chaos has quadrupled while the floors all get re-stained.  Every bit of furniture, and all of my doodads have been stashed here there and every where.  We parceled out our belongings between the bedroom, bathrooms, breezeway, studio, and garage.

The studio got off light, with only a chair and the sofa stored out here.  Although, we are also using it as a temporary kitchen until the floor is done.

Which is very, very tempting to me as I work.  All day, I keep thinking about the snack items right across the room from me.  I might have strolled over to check on the cracker and treat levels a few times as I painted.  

You know, just to  make sure we had plenty.

Although, it is the studio itself that gives me the will to live through this current job.  I look back at what we went through to build this addition, and know how very, very, very worth it that was.  I adore my studio.  And then I think about all of the other big redos we have accomplished in the 20 odd years it took to transform a 900 sq ft home into a 5,000 sq ft home a bit at a time, and think how much I love the final transformation.

Of course, some people might have just bought a bigger house.

Or moved (and I wondered at times when we had the floor open to the Hell Pit below our house, if moving was still an option).

We haven't done it the easy way.  Every few years, we tackled another area. We have had a lot of tearing up and tearing down and adding on.  We added rooms in the attic. We tore out walls and made rooms bigger. We added a second house and tied it on with a breezeway.  We did it piece by piece as we could afford it (financially, as well as emotionally).

Our house is a weird, hodgepodge of meandering rooms. 

And I LOVE each and every one of them.  Just like I'll love the new hearth room this winter as I sit by the fire with a good book.  The short amount of time the workers are here might feel like a lifetime while the house is torn up and we are camping in the office and eating sandwiches in the studio, but in a true lifetime span of living in a home we love, that is a small amount of time to sacrifice.

Soon, it will be done and I'll have the fun of gathering up pretty things to fill the space with.  

I'll leave you with more in progress photos.