Oh, I had such PLANS for this fall. Strip out stained carpeting in the living room and dining room. Install hardwood floors. Clean out and dismantle the office. Move all of kids' crap from the living room and dining room down to the office. Buy new dining room furniture - a table, chairs, a BUFFET. For the wedding china that has been living up in New England rent-free in my parents' house for the last 8 years. Nothing terribly extravagant, but a little nicer than the rickety four-person IKEA set we have now. Make curtains (OK, have my mom make curtains). Clean out my oh-so-crowded built-ins and paint the back wall of them some kind of fun color to pick up on the curtains. RECLAIM SPACE FOR GROWN-UPS.
And I also wanted to attempt some minor-ish bathroom remodeling, if replacing ugly wall light fixtures, cabinets, and vanities as well as some demolition of ugly wall tiles can be called minor-ish.
Earlier this week we were contacted about setting up our yearly check-up on the house's HVAC system. An appointment was set for today, a mere 24 hours before the contractor was due to arrive to give us an estimate on the hardwood floors. And... perhaps you can see where I am headed with this?
The whole thing needs to be replaced.
Furnace, air conditioner, coil-thingy, etc. Everythihng.
Well, that's what they're saying, anyway. I say... define "need"? Everything SEEMS to be working perfectly fine, for now. Is this a "need" like, the whole family will burn in a large fire ball while we sleep? Expire from sweat and crabbiness because the A/C is moments away from crashing? Or is this a "you'll need to do this eventually, might as well do it now" need?
We are getting a second opinion tomorrow morning. But if it matches the first - and I'm guessing, based solely on the fact that the HVAC system is original to the house and 20 years old, that it will - it looks like I'll be foregoing my beautiful hardwood floors. The ones that have been sustaining me in thought at each cat puke and smooshed kid food stain I've scrubbed with Woolite over the last several months.
Oh I hate cat puke.
And my kids' totally inability to understand the purpose of bowls and plates. Even when they actually use them (I give them one EVERY TIME, and yet they'd prefer to keep the food in their sweaty little hands), they somehow manage to overturn it and sprinkle any crumbs that have actually managed to be appropriately captured all. over. the. fucking. carpet.
Hardwood floors + things to make the office playroom friendly + new dining room furniture + bathroom stuff + new HVAC system + windows (oops, did I forget to mention the windows? Yup, we're replacing a few of them, because they are also original to the house and totally, disgustingly drafty and inefficient, and that's already in motion and also the opposite of cheap) - well anyway, we are not exactly sitting on a heap of money here. Something has to give.
It will have to be the floors.
May not get to the new furniture or bathroom projects either, but I'm hanging on to hope that some of it will be possible.
And the kids? Are still getting kicked down to the office. New dining room furniture or not. Those creatures take over everything. It stops now. Or whenever I can motivate myself to start cleaning out closets and bins.
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Oh, I hate being an adult sometimes. Times like these are some of those times.
ReplyDeleteWe want hardwood in our living room too because our carpet is SO GROSS. But I have to wait until I can convince the husband not to do it himself.