Chapter 3 – Squirreled Out

I’ve not had the opportunity to write much about the work happening on RuckHome. Every plan had a slight deviation. Every idea was modified and changed—all for the better and all with great, thorough grit. Essentially, the last eight months have been squirreled out.

Since the gut-wrenching scare with the fire, we have put a lot of work into ensuring this house is safe for our family. The fireplace is on the back burner for now, and we often sit down there and talk about what we will do with it. We’re both leaning towards propane. Why? It’s clean, and you can just shut off the heat source.

“I have a plan. It’s called Winging It” – Unknown

The goal and mission was to get moving as soon as we closed on the house to ensure that we were putting our heads on our pillows the day we moved into the house. What would that entail? If anyone remembers the old family circus comic strip – or the Give Mom a Muffin poem, you fully understand why I called Chapter 3 – Squirreled Out.

Every single straight line was deviated, and every project changed.

Main Bath Transformation

Bathrooms were not on the list to be renovated, but changing the upstairs bathroom walls would be a quick paint project. That was entirely not the case once we got into it; it required removing drywall, installing new drywall, scrapping walls, and changing out a ceiling fan. This quick weekend project took quite a bit longer than expected, but we repurposed the vanity, painted it Oxford blue, and replaced the closet door and handles—the cheapest room renovation in the house.

Downstairs Bathroom Demo and Redone

We were keeping the downstairs bathroom as it was for the time being. We had no intentions of getting into renovating that bathroom until the Bearded One started running his new PEX lines through the house. He hit an area of the wall and could not reach the bathroom ceiling to get upstairs lines. He had to make sense of what was on the wall. So one weekend, when the littles were at their mom’s house, we tore out the bathroom and said let’s do this one now.

Wallpaper- the bane of my existence -DO THE EASY ROOM FIRST

The amount of wallpaper in this house is reminiscent of the early 80’s. I know wallpaper has come a long way, and many people love it. As the person solely responsible for removing said wallpaper and repainting, I can’t say I love it. Still, there is something genuinely satisfying about clearing the past and painting a new wall. I’m also the weirdo that likes to peal sunburnt skin. Keep your judgments to yourself.

We started with the smallest space with the least amount of wallpaper removal. This room will be the youngest of the little bedrooms. It had a faux wood feather on the back wall that was easily removable. Once that was down, the steaming process of removing wallpaper was pretty simple in this room.

BEDROOM ONE

STEAM SCRAPE, WIPE, REPEAT

Once the wall was completely free of glue, I primed and then painted the room. The primary color in her room is Raffia Cream from PPG Paints.

So much needed to be done but her room was the easiest to complete. One thing I have learned with this whole process is that our straight path and plan had to be very fluid and flexible.

I’ve learned so much over the last eight months. I realized my husband is gifted in ways I never fully grasped until I watched him tackle every project. If he didn’t know how to do it, he watched a video and would make it happen, like concrete countertops and installing a boiler system.

I look forward to sharing more of our RuckHome Renovations with you all. This chapter reminded me that even though we often squirrel out and get distracted from what we’re doing. God never squirrels out or takes his loving eyes off of us. Through this renovation project, I’ve grown in love with a home that I was blessed with because of what God can do for his children.