For the past 3 weeks, our house has been under construction. The stucco remediation project has begun and is expected to continue for another 4-6 weeks. On top of that, our master bathroom is out of commission, since we discovered the shower is a major source of our mold problem and now it, too, has to be gutted, remediated, and renovated. To say my life is utter chaos right now would be a vast understatement.
This is not the first time I’ve lived through a home construction job. When we bought our first house almost 19 years ago (when H was an infant), we decided to gut the bathroom and kitchen right away. The house was charming, but it was very old and a little unsafe. Because there was only one bathroom in that small, 1800-sq. ft. home, we moved out during the renovations. The three of us lived nearby with my parents for about a month. It may have been longer. I honestly don’t remember exactly, but I’m sure my parents do because, as happy as they were to have us there, I’m sure they were just as happy to see us go. After all, my childhood home is pretty small and very baby un-friendly (read: not childproofed).
A few years later, in that same house, we lived through a second construction job. This time, we remained in the house while we had contractors enclose a two-season sunroom (turning it into a den/family room). Around the same time, had a fence installed and our driveway fixed. Not totally chaotic, but hectic all the same.
We loved our first home, and while we didn’t enjoy the renovation process, we did love the final outcome. When it came time to move to Pennsylvania, we decided that we’d bypass all that construction work and look for a newer home. Naively, we chose a 5-year-old stucco and stone home. As the second owners, so we thought we had dodged a bullet when it came to necessary renovations. We were wrong.
To be fair, no one knew that the stucco homes built in the early 2000s were crap. The code, the materials, the process … all of it was inferior to today’s standards.
Fast forward thirteen years, and we’re once again in construction hell. Okay, hell might be too strong of a word. But chaos is definitely on point.
Years ago, when we renovated our first home, it was rough, but my anxiety was lower then and my tolerance for being inconvenienced was higher, so I managed well enough. Nowadays, it’s a different story. I’m a different person. My anxiety is way higher and my tolerance way lower, so that “Welcome to the shit show” door mat at the top of this post pretty much sums up how I feel right now.
I will admit, it’s not nearly as bad as I thought it would be so far … but that’s only because I was expecting the absolute worst case scenario. Remember, this all started because of a mold issue that’s negatively affecting my health, so I’ve been preparing for more bad news as they remove each layer of stucco and sheathing. (By the way, I’ve learned way more about stucco and flashing and sheathing than I ever wanted to know, but I won’t bore you with details and links. You can thank me later.)
So far, the bad news (and potential extra costs) have been minimal. Yes, it’s noisy, and at times, unbearably so (which is troubling when you work from home). Yes, it’s messy; the dust is everywhere (I need to clean the floors, counters, and basically all surfaces nightly, which is a huge pain in the ass). Yes, it’s disruptive, especially in the early morning (and I really don’t like when my morning routine is interrupted, as it now is daily.) And yes, it’s expensive (paying for this work is causing me just as much stress as the current condition of my home). But I keep reminding myself that it could be worse and it’ll eventually be over … in about 4-8 weeks!
I will add that the workers are very nice; polite, considerate, and relatively quiet (apart from all the banging). I’m sure it helps that I’m plying them with cold water and ice pops daily, but, hey, whatever it takes. If I’m being honest, though, it would be nice if they looked more like the construction workers on all those home repair shows, but maybe that would have cost more. Who knows?
So if you see me during these next few weeks, cut me some slack, please. Like my house, my life is a total shit show. My anxiety is at an all-time high pretty much 24/7 and I’m not the most pleasant person to be around. But soon enough, I’ll be back to my old self — with my regular amount of anxiety and that sassy, sarcastic personality you all love so much.
-LJDT
