What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow. ~ Martin Luther

Monday, August 25, 2008

Inch by Inch

Can a woman go mad from lack of creativity?!? I think so. Because I am. And Have been.

How much longer can I take living in dust and grime with absolutely no "pretties" surrounding me?! I go shopping and seriously want to buy the entire store. I stayed at Target for three hours today-just oogling, drooling, and touching the pretty things-and it took every ounce of strength I could muster not to leave having spent our already dwindling savings on stuff we don't need. Just because it was shiny. Or soft. Or pink.

I do have pretty things. I am pretty sure I do. I think I remember having them once... A long time ago.

~~~~~~~~~~~

There are happy times ahead though, at least this is what I tell myself. The Amishmen are through here, even though they are leaving a few "mistakes" (check out the cream colored corner in the photo below) and LOTS of mess behind. We are apparently the cleaning crew, which means that now comes the hard (and sneezy) part.

On Friday the "mens" left for the day and I celebrated their absence by planning a big surprise for Matt, namely: a cleaned, orderly living room complete with fresh flowers. A glimpse of days gone by. How life used to be. I rolled up my sleeves (or would have had it not been 90 degrees) and set to work.

The living room floor took sweeping two times, vacuuming the cracks, and mopping three times before the floor looked nice. This required first moving all the junk, toolboxes, and furniture OUT of the room. The clean floor then called me to bring all the living room furniture in. Vacuumed the sofa and beat all the cushions. Furniture polished and shined the wood. Washed windowsills.

All this for one room! But what a feeling, to sit upon an upholstered, soft, cushy surface once again...a luxery after having only four hard wood chairs or the floor.

Here it is, in all it's glory.





Ignore the lack of curtains, the empty shelving and the peeking other room. Please, and thank you.

Some more reasons to be thankful:

* A hideous stairway turned much less hideous with the placement of a beautiful rug runner. *sigh* Happy thoughts. Happy toes.



* A husband who comes home and sets to work on the outside projects. My how the yard has cleaned up!

* HOT water for showers-we ARE getting up in the world!

* A washer and dryer hooked up-all my own!!!! No more hauling laundry!

And~ a bath tub. Empty and clean.



Just LOOK how clean and white made much less impressive with the lacking 'before' photo. I had convinced myself that I couldn't bare the thought of taking 'before photos' of the house mess and chaos we have been living in-but as soon as I saw this photo I regretted not having one.

Imagine: Cardboard. Sawdust. Steel buckets and old waxrings for toilets. Random broom handles. Screws. Nuts. Bolts. Plumbing pipe. Tape-new and used. Dirt. Stones. and Wood. The junk filled the tub up completely.

Believe it or not: I tackled this bathroom as soon as I was done the living room. And then, I practically went comatose.

Now let's see: only 5 more rooms to go...
Posted by Picasa

11 comments:

Tracy said...

It looks wonderful, Rebecca! You must be so happy... and tired!

Nanci said...

HOORAY! The Living Room looks wonderful. What a transformation!
But take it easy on yourself, will ya?

Anonymous said...

Yeah for progress! You did a wonderful job. HOw is that little bunkin?

Andie said...

It looks like you've been HARD at work!!! It all looks absolutly wonderful! Take it easy though, rest a little for that bunkin!!
Thanks for the encouragement today!

Blessings-Andie

Debbie in CA : ) said...

Wowie girl! The place looks GREAT! Enjoy the JOY of that clean room -- put your feet up and relax a bit. (You're pregnant ... remember?) : )

Grandma Bibby said...

Be careful, girl. I know you want it all finished, but you have a little one to think about. It does look fantastic though. You must be so very excited to be living in additional rooms. Congratulations!!!!

Abigail said...

It looks really, truly beautiful. Those floors are dreamy, though I bet they looked a bit less dreamy before the two sweepings and three moppings.

Sheesh! I'm a great maid. Call me!

Beth said...

I know exactly what you mean about Target. It's hard not to love everything in there...But your house looks fantastic. Just think, once our kiddos are out of the house we'll be so bored and have all the time in the world to decorate...and we'll wish they were still little and mischevous :)

Kelli said...

Your are making your house a home, Rebecca! Everything looks beautiful!
~Kelli

Anonymous said...

Rebecca, it looks wonderful!!! I absolutely love the floors in your house!! Don't forget to take care of yourself and that little one! I am sure it does wonders for your spirit to wake up and see clean rooms though!

Kimberly

Victoria said...

Your home is looking beautiful!!

Hope you're making some time to just put your feet up!