I get to buy a new toilet!

This is the beautiful unfinished portion of our basement. A NEW bathroom will be going in right there. Can you see it? The bookshelves will be gone. The door will be gone. It will go right there.

See it?








We’ve lived here three years and have done absolutely nothing to improve this house. Oh, I lied. We put up a shelf and hooks, by the back door, to hold outerwear and store mittens. After the four year saga of remodeling an 100+ year old home in Wisconsin, we were pretty thrilled to just sit tight after moving in to this house. Hell, Chris wouldn’t even mow – he was so fed up with all the projects.

But slowly, and I probably should have expected it, my husband’s need to re-do, rearrange and remodel has returned with gusto. His brother is a contractor and the two of them have come up with some pretty amazing ideas to make this house more livable. Phase one: create outdoor living space. New front porch (check), and new retaining wall in the back (check) with new fence and deck (still in planning stages.)

Phase two: second bathroom. We cleared out the basement area where it is to be located and waited tonight for a concrete guy to come and saw cut something to somewhere so that I can take a shower. He didn’t show. Neither did the mason guy. Which leads back to phase one.

We originally wanted a fire pit in the backyard. We so want our house to be welcoming and fun for teenagers some day. Anyway, the fire pit has turned into a fireplace. This is what happens when the men on my husband’s side get together. They are dreamers. Planners. Nothing is too big, too hard or too much for them.

It scares me to death. I come from a long line of conservative Northern Europeans who keep their money and feelings close to their vest. We don’t dream big and then everything that goes well is just a big surprise. This contrast in our upbringing has been a source of conflict lately. I say, “How much? Are you sure? Can that really be done?” and he says, “Who cares? Or “Not that much.”, Of course I’m sure. Anything can be done.”

I have to admit that watching the progress we’ve made, in the last six weeks or so, has been pretty exciting. The front porch still needs finishing touches (brick trim and a railing and stain) but the hard part is all done. The deck is being laid out as I write this. The pilings will be put in starting this week and then it will be built soon after. I don’t know about the fireplace, but everyone assures me that it will be “easy” to pull together. The fence? I have no idea. Our neighbor has designed it and will help build, install and pay for half. Yea!

So…while all that is being done – we may as well throw the furnace in the attic. Apparently all we have to do is “put a bigger hole in the ceiling” and then build a platform. A furnace guy will show up, tear out all the duct work and rearrange it so that it will work “top down”. All this so that I can have a taller ceiling in my new bathroom.

I wonder if all those adorable graduates I spoke to yesterday really realize the stuff they’ll be stoked about in the coming years. Never, ever in a million years could you have convinced me – at age 18 – that down the road I would be willing to pay thousands to move my furnace AND be happy about it.