From a man's perspective, stress comes in waves....and this wave has crested! Our second home study visit was completed today and on the list of items needing to be completed was our remodel of the second story of our house. We moved into this quaint little 1 bedroom farmhouse 3 years ago, and 1 bedroom was stretching it. The second story of the house was separated by a wall, into two rooms....one updated around 1970ish (by the looks of the orange carpet and sweet looking paneling) and the doorway to the other room was a piece of plywood screwed to a door frame. The second room was updated in the early 1940's (according to the newspapers under the pretty bow tie wallpaper, what little was left on the walls) and what was visible of the floor was covered with complete nastiness that I won't go into detail over.
With the help of dear friends, the stairway of death was removed, the ceilings raised from 6ft 8in, to 8 ft, new electrical run (we had two lights.....that was it), new staircase put in, floor leveled (bounce removed) and the new layout included two bedrooms, a hallway, and a bathroom.
When this adoption process started, we knew we would have to have it finished before the boys got home, we planned on budgeting our time, effort and money to meet that schedule...about 6 months...shouldn't be a problem. Well, after our first home visit, our plan changed to meet a new, improved, 3.5 week schedule (half of that I was going to be on the road working). We finished everything at 2:30 this morning, just 8 hours before our second home study visit...and yes, I'm tired!
The visit went extremely well, and now all the stress of this wave has crashed.....and now, I am too! Tomorrow will bring forth the start of another wave of paperwork and fund raising....
Pictures to follow, after a nap :)
