15 Days

In just 15 short days...

I can't believe it's almost time.

Honestly, I feel a little stressed.

Have I taught him all the important things needed to survive in the world?

Will he be able to do his own laundry without ruining his clothes?

Will he eat things besides Ramen?

Have we bought everything he needs?

I am making lists and checking them twice.

I really want to be all done by Friday.

Suitcases packed, all tasks finished.

I just want us to enjoy the last ten days doing nothing but spending quality family time.

You raise a son his whole life with this goal.

Serving a two year mission.

Now that it's really here I feel....

No words can really describe how it feels to think of sending your son off into the world for two years.  Two years that you will not see him.  At all.  It's going to be an adjustment for sure.

Wish us luck.

And the walls come tumbling down...

We have been busy busy at our house this last month.

Somewhere in the middle of January we undertook a project that had a definite timeline.

This wall between my kitchen and living room was coming down.

My only requirement was that if we started it, it HAD to be finished before Ben's mission farewell on February 10th.

Linc promised that this would happen.

He keeps his promises.

We painted the case and base on Saturday, February 9th.

It was a close one.

Here is the wall before

 Benjamin and Brooklyn really enjoyed tearing it down. 

They started with Ben kicking a hole in the wall and then away they went with the hammer.

Sadly the only picture I have of the kicking is on my phone. ;)

 Even at this point I couldn't believe the difference.

Taking out this wall meant moving a lot of electrical and the cold air return.

 All cleaned up, a layer of mud on the ceiling and ready for tile.

 We did live in some sort of construction zone for about 3 weeks.

Make a mess, clean it up, make another mess, clean it up.

This is what I did almost every day.

 When we redid our kitchen many years ago we tiled wall to wall in case we ever wanted to make changes.

So we really didn't want to tear out all of that tile.  It would have required taking out all of the cabinets.

We decided to look for a border that would tie the two tiles together.

I was happy with the outcome.

 Next came the painting.

Have I ever said how much I LOVE to paint walls?...

NOT.

It actually required painting a blend into the ceiling and the walls.

I have loved the color of my living room walls.

Instead of changing the whole upstairs paint, we just took out the dark wall in my living room and painted the kitchen the same color that is throughout the upstairs living area.

I love it.

 Here you can see the one really dark wall that was repainted to the lighter shade.

 Last came the base and case.

We put new base in the hall and re cased the doors.

We also cased in the new windows.

I love the way they turned out as well.

But taping the walls off to paint this casing....Heavy Sigh.

A project.

 It is finished!

We had the existing carpet cut and tucked into the tile.

The next part of this project will be to remove the bar in the kitchen and make a smaller island with granite counter tops and a tile back splash.  Also new carpet throughout the house.

However....

We have other costs this next year...like a mission to name one.

So it might be a project for the homecoming.

When all is said and done, I wish I had done this to my house years ago, during the years when my home was full of teenagers.  It opened up our space and made it feel like a brand  new home.  I absolutely love it.