Hangers

Nineteen years ago Garreth moved my clothes from one apartment to another while I was taking final exams. We were just dating and I had a lot of reservations about our relationship. While this moving task was very helpful, I was surprised to see that he didn’t know how to hang up clothes, as in, the hangers were on backwards. The hook was facing out. Who does that? This is far more ridiculous than putting toilet paper on wrong (it should roll from the top). I smiled, expressed my gratitude and made a mental note on the This Relationship Will Never Work list.

This weekend I moved our clothes into our new closet. I love organizing and throwing things away and finding a place for our “stuff.” As I was moving into our new closet, I made a This Has Got To Go pile of Garreth’s clothes. I asked him if he trusted me enough to just let me get rid of them without him looking through them first. He replied with an emphatic no. It makes perfect sense to me that he trusts me with important medical, parenting and financial decisions, but not with his clothes.  I have a heavy hand when it comes to pitching stuff. In the end and after some dramatic lamenting, Garreth only salvaged three shirts from my pile.

We’re a good team, but who could have known? The This Relationship Will Never Work list was long and the risk of marriage is high and the unknowns, good grief, all of the unknowns were so…unknowable.

We’re a good team, Garreth and I. We’ve done drama and trauma and won’t rule out medical marijuana (which is a legitimate treatment for seizures but I mostly said it because it fit so perfectly in that sentence). We’ve been a team that handles doctors and special educators and medical salesman and therapists and legislators and now builders. (Ok, in fairness Garreth has always had builders in his life since he’s a finish guy but this experience is different).

Who could have known that having Aidan would bring so many different and generous and wonderful people into our lives, each with their own story? I continue to be amazed.

Today, Jim and Ben from Ironwood Construction came and installed our cubbies, or The Place Stuff Gets Saved From Being Thrown Out Because It Didn’t Find A Home Elsewhere.

Jim first did an actual happy dance that the cubbies fit and Garreth’s design worked. Then he thanked me profusely for the opportunity to help. And that has been the refrain of this project – people want to help, they want to be invited in some way into the lives of others. While I know this in the core of my being to be true, and I know that NOT asking for help deprives others of the opportunity to give, it’s still weird and hard and awkward to ask.

Who could have known that needing a safe bathroom for Aidan could bring about more open, accessible spaces and kind people and personal stories that make me feel so much less alone in this medical journey?

Garreth and I are a good team. Garreth has learned to keep things orderly and I have learned to live with a bit of chaos. It’s what we do; we learn and change and grow together and in the midst of all of this we make room for others.

Perhaps it’s time to throw out the list.

Construction Fairy

We went away this weekend to spend some time together as a family and to get away from the house. It was cold and rainy and blobby but somehow just right.

We were thrilled to discover upon our return that a Construction Fairy had been here working on the house. Lots of trim was finished and painted and we have power!! It’s so beautiful and exciting. Check it out…..

 

And if you want to know what Aidan was up to while the Construction Fairy was hard at work…..

Since this entire project started as a bathroom accessibility project, I thought I’d let you know that Aidan used his bathroom for the first time today. It’s been finished for awhile but he hasn’t had the strength to use it until today. Woo Woo!!

Our finish list consists mostly of cutting/painting/installing trim and wainscotting and building two shelves for our remaining closets and hanging some doors. If you have experience and would like to jump in on this action please email us at bowiehouse2622@gmail.com

There will also be a big painting party for our bedroom, kitchen and outside, date yet to be determined.

Our hearts are full and we’re feeling quite cozy and settled.

THANK-YOU!!!!

House Update

Liam has been helping me pick curtains, even though we still need to wait for trim to be done. Can you tell how excited he is about this job?The green one is the winner.

The wood floors are in and they look beautiful!

Last night we powered up the pellet stove and had dinner among the power tools and paint brushes in our living room. It was soooooo cozy, although I believe the words Garreth used were “too dang hot in here.”

Last weekend Sue and Sue tore down our bedroom wall (bummer I wasn’t around to smash anything) and built a big closet.
And one little piece of wainscotting has been put up.We’re plodding along with the finish work in bits and pieces while we’re starting to spread out again into our new space.

Best Mother’s Day Present

Our siding got delivered last week

My family came up to rip and paint it. Somehow tree removal happened as well, even though it wasn’t on the list. Our neighbor got in on the action too, probably to make sure we didn’t crash his house.

We also finished taking down our fence

At the end of the day there was a lot of eating and talking and then these two cool uncles took Liam to a late night movie. It was the first time ever Liam had to wake us up to let us know he was home. He was wiped out.

Abundant Life Stoves came and delivered the pellet stove which looks beautiful on the gorgeous hearth.

Yes, I wrote on the floors and I wrote Liam’s birth story on his door frame. He knows it by heart as we talk him through the day every year on his birthday.

The floors got delivered this week and just like fine wine they needed to breathe. Aidan took some time to inspect them and seemed to approve.

Today we finished putting the floors down in the living room and it looks absolutely beautiful! And I got to use the smashing nail gun. It’s super fun!

 

I actually only worked on the floors for a few minutes. Mostly I was preparing myself for the best mother’s day present ever. Liam is sleeping in his new room tonight under the skylight, and tomorrow night Aidan gets to sleep in his new room which I started to clear out today. All of this means – I get my bedroom back!

Happy Mother’s Day to me!! And you too!!

Winter to Spring

This week was a transition of the seasons here in New England. We began work last weekend in frigid temperatures, not that it stopped anyone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our family friends came up from Connecticut to pitch in. Al did quite a bit of painting the details that just need to get done. Merry cooked for the crew. In the evening, they both regaled my children of my love of Charlotte’s Web and riding my bike to their house just to visit. They also noted that I was raised in a house that was constantly under construction. It was a beautiful house built in the 1700s. Turns out Merry and Al had looked into buying it and realized it was too big of a project. They waited to see who would be crazy enough to take that on.  So yes, I guess I come from a little bit of crazy.  I didn’t realize until this re-telling that of course I would have to write on the walls and floors during this current construction project; I grew up writing on the sheetrock of my bedroom wall which was an open canvass for years. I remember when my room and my sister’s room was separated only by framing. What a grand adventure. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This weekend has been full of sunshine and hard work. Jason the Builder and his wife Holly came to pitch in. Fortunately, Holly is a cut-in painter. The mudroom is done. Even though I am strictly forbidden to paint, I painted the bead board and I must say and did a dang good job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pop came up and cleaned up Garreth’s garden. This space is very much his sanctuary. Along with being forbidden to paint, I’m also sort of banned from the garden. I can, of course, supervise which consists mostly of sitting in a chair, drinking a beer and saying “good job.” However, with painting success under my belt, I may just be allowed to plant a few seeds as well. We’d miss our fresh veggies too much this summer if we skipped this. The blue flags mark off our neighbors water pipes and made this project go from an addition on the back of the house to the front. Not too long ago they were buried in snow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pop also supervised Liam in taking down the swing set. Good grief, that was a job. Liam had to think of approximately 87 ways he could get that done all by himself. In the end, he learned how to use a saw zaw, or something sharp and dangerous. It was quite an accomplishment. Today he ended up having to think through taking down the temporary ramp that Aidan used this summer. It’s been a lesson in family dynamics to say the least.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garreth is working on his BBQ deck and the stairs. Scott the Tile Guy is back preparing the space for our pellet stove. It’s going to be beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garreth is working on finishing touches almost every evening. If you would like to join him, please drop us an email at bowiehouse2622@gmail.com

 

Thanks!

Color Me Beautiful

Gary put the pedal to the metal with mudding and priming this week knowing we had a painting party this weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garreth followed along late at night between Gary’s visits to sand the walls. It’s a gross job but he was up for the task.

 

 

 

 

 

We had a painting party and saw our house go from a construction site back to a house. This is Liam’s room before:

 

 

 

 

 

With a beautiful splash of St. Lucia Sky it now looks like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to our painters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our living room is now just waiting for trim and the chair rail. We changed our color scheme from BOLD to earth tones. I was hesitant but I LOVE it! If I need a taste of color I can hang out in Liam’s room. He would love that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garreth and our brother in law Bill worked on shelves for all of our fabulous closets. They also put this beautiful ceiling up over the deck

 

 

 

 

 

This week is detail work. We have a family friend up right now finishing closets, painting the wainscoting for the mudroom and hallway, putting up bits of sheetrock. The stairs will get attached to the house this week and the deck will be finished. The giant leprechaun room is being closed in as well and the leprechauns will guard the pellets for the pellet stove. You really should ask me about the time I travelled with a friend who told the airline people we let leprechauns pack our bags. I just feel like having a leprechaun door comes with marrying an Irishman, right?

Soon we’ll be saying:

CEAD MILE FAILTE

Out With the Old

Our second dumpster got hauled away. Bye-bye old house and roof. They replaced it with a smaller dumpster for clean up because there’s still so much stuff in the yard.

We had a team from our church come over and finish the roof.

 

 

Look how beautiful the finished product is. It looks woven together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The stairs have been started…

 

 

 

 

 

The aren’t stairs to nowhere. They go to our beautiful new front door. Thank-you YaYa Sue for our fun shopping day picking this out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That door leads to the mudroom and this one leads into our house:

ss

 

 

 

 

 

 

Up Next:

Join us for painting inside this coming saturday. We’ll also be finishing the stairs and deck and boxing in the vents under the house. Let us know if you’d like to join us.