We have hit a snag in our movement on the reno with the installation of the insulation (say that 3 times fast!). My mornings have gone like this: 1. Text contractor (who is working on the siding) and ask him if anyone has shown up to start insulating. 2. When he texts back a “no” call insulation salesman who assures me they will be there tomorrow. 3. Do this for about 10 mornings in a row.

Finally, today there was success and two stories of the house have sprayed foam insulation! We went with the spray foam because it’s a more reliable product with all of the nooks and crannies and cracks of an old house. It’s also expensive….very, very expensive. But, if we live to be about 150, we will have realized all of our investment back on heating savings.

On the way home from seeing the excitement of the spray foam on the walls of the house, I get a call from my husband who has come home from work to find a disturbingly large box in the foyer. I talk to a lot of people each day and sometimes I forget what I have said to whom. Usually my husband is the person to whom I have forgotten to tell something. For example, I realized we would need a new couch for the living room in the new old house (ok, maybe need is too strong a word, but whatever). So I had lengthy discussions with my oldest daughters and found an incredible couch online at Joss and Main for only $500! Clearly, I could not miss out on a bargain like this so I ordered it, feeling safe because the estimated delivery was 10 weeks away and we would be in the house by then. Today I get a call at work from a delivery person who informs me he is IN MY DRIVEWAY with the couch! After a mere two weeks from ordering, during which time I realize I may have neglected to tell my husband about said couch. That’s ok I think, I will get home before he does so I can explain the huge box in the foyer. Only I don’t. So I walk in the door to my husband pointing at the huge box. Ooops. Luckily, I have a very easy going husband. And a gorgeous new couch, which I am not allowed to take out of the box until we move….I did poke a hole in the top of the box and Emma and I oohed and aahed at the new couch.

When we first looked at the house, I thought one of the best features (aside from the huge front porch) was the sunroom.  The sunroom was added on in the big 1917 renovation and, of course, turned out to be expensive to re-do.  The first problem was that all of the old windows were rotted out.  This fix involved $2,400 worth of new windows.  But before we could install the new windows we had to deal with the concrete foundation under the sunroom, which was collapsing.  We had to pull the floor out of the sunroom so they could prop it up, tear out the old concrete foundation, and pour a new one.  Sounds expensive, right?  Yep…..   

But now, with the new windows and floor in, I can see how wonderful the sunroom is going to be.  I have plans for it to be my office and to line the wall against the house with bookshelves.  This will give a place for all the textbooks and binders of research I have accumulated in the last year and a half of working on my doctorate.  Considering these now live in piles beside our bed, the sunroom bookshelves will be a huge improvement!