First things first… thank you all so much for checking in and continuing to ask about the state of things around here. Your kindness has meant the world! Here’s the latest update after what has felt like a long couple of weeks.
The biggest news: the electrical work is complete! We officially moved back into the house on Saturday (after moving out the prior Monday). I stayed in Auburn until all the creature comforts were back in place, and by the time I returned home, the house was… well, let’s just say “dusty” from all the drywall work.
On the bright side, we now have a brand new panel up to code, a new power line running to the house, a new box outside and… wait for it… twelve smoke detectors. Yes, twelve. I’m not sure why so many, but I’ll admit I’m sleeping better at night. We did hit a small snag when the den mysteriously didn’t have power for a few extra days, but it wasn’t anything that really impeded life.
Honey has been a champ. He repaired the drywall, repainted the mudroom, and even took the time to replace some wall outlets that had been loose (or literally hanging out of the wall) for the last sixteen years. Out of sight, out of mind, I suppose… until now.
Then there was the great WiFi fiasco of Summer 2025. Somehow nearly everything disconnected from the internet, and I didn’t realize just how many things rely on WiFi until it all went dark. Lamps, pool equipment, garage door, printer, Alexa devices, doorbells… the list goes on. Honey, much to his chagrin, became our resident IT department and has finally managed to get everything connected again.
And because when it rains it pours… we also lost the garage fridge. We’ve come to rely on that space, especially when John is home (he may only be 25% of our family but seems to account for 45% of the groceries), when entertaining, and whenever we have house guests.
At first, we thought we’d just replace it with the cheapest fridge we could find. Spoiler: no fridge is cheap. So then we decided to move our kitchen fridge to the garage and replace that one instead. Easy, right? We ordered a newer version of the model we already had, this time with water in the door (because I’ve outgrown the stage where my boys had me fit to be tied with water and ice everywhere).
Then came the delivery text: “Be sure to measure.” Honey measures. Guess what? It won’t fit. Cancel order. We shop online for a few more days (Mother cannot understand why we didn’t just go look at them in person and, as usual, Mother knows best). Turns out, all the fridges have grown by about half an inch. A half an inch we do not have.
So, we ended up re-buying the fridge we had canceled. Face palm. Honey had to shave down the bottom of the upper cabinet to make it fit (and go buy paint and paint it), and while it does fit, I now realize I hate it. Adding water meant losing 4.5 inches of shelf depth inside. I measured. Honey says we can return it, but honestly, I don’t have the energy anymore. At the end of the day, I’m just thankful to have a fridge that runs. Because after the month we’ve had, creamer for my coffee feels like luxury living.
And then came the curveball: bats. Yep, when the electricians were in the attic, they discovered a little family of them living up there. Honey put off telling me, but honestly, considering our past with bats, I’d still rather six bats in the attic than six roaches literally anywhere on our property. (For those curious, you can read about our previous bat saga here.)
The “bat man” has already been by to assess the situation and comes back Monday with his plan. Fingers crossed this is the last of the surprises so Honey can get back to refinishing the basement project that was in full swing before everything went south.
With all the chaos, I’ll admit that I haven’t been nearly as unhinged as I was after John’s departure last fall. :-) Here’s to brighter (and hopefully quieter!) days ahead.
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When it rains, it pours. Hopefully it is all on the up now.
Goodness, y’all have really had an eventful couple of weeks. Hopefully, the worst is over, and you can have some peace of mind knowing everything is up to code electrically. We were so afraid we had bats in our chimney after hearing loud squeak sounds and noise, but it turned out to be chimney swifts which we found out through the pest control company are protected birds. They assured us they would leave when the weather turned cooler and thankfully, they have already gone! So, they will be out to install a chimney cap next week, so we won’t have this problem again.
Weirdly, we had no clue about the bats. Haven’t heard any noise, heard any sounds and the dogs have never alerted us to anything! They must just sit up there silent and terrifying. :-)
I feel your pain in every way! We decided in June that we were finally going to completely remodel our kitchen. Our house is 52 years old and it was well past time to remodel. We knew going in that it was going to a big job! We needed to repair and replace the old floor joists so that meant everything came out! From July 14 until last week – we had no floor in our kitchen….like it was literally the dirt! Thankfully we had the kitchen boarded off from the rest of the house and we made a makeshift kitchen in our garage. Which meant we ate out more than I ever have in my lifetime or we went to my parents 2 minutes down the road to have dinner.
Our laundry room is off from the kitchen, while it was still in tact, we had to enter from the outside kitchen door and my husband had to stand on a wooden box to load and unload laundry for me, while I stood at the door and gave him directions on what could and could not be dried. So, our laundry schedule was waaaay off and drove me crazy! Now my husband sees how many loads of laundry I did in a days time before the kitchen fiasco!
On Friday, we finally had a subfloor and new plumbing! The old dry wall came off this weekend and new will start going up this week. New appliances will begin arriving tomorrow and my new cabinets begin arriving on Thursday! My fingers are crossed that by the end of September, I will finally have a kitchen!
At times, I wanted to be mad and in a bad mood cause our routines had changed and we had to be more thoughtful and creative about how we went about our daily activities….making coffee was a big adjustment for us! But I am thankful we have the opportunity to do this and I know that the Lord has provided in every way and kept me sane!
Oh my goodness! These old houses are not for the faint of heart. Love your attitude and I know it will all be worth it!
I well recall your last bat situation! We have friends around the corner that have had them twice in an outside light fixture. Their bat guy says that when a bat picks a house they keep returning! They’ve done something to fix the situation with her light fixture so far, so good! Glad things are looking up!!
Yep I understand your pain and frustration re. your fridge. Our 12 year old house was I’m convinced built around the owners existing white goods.
Our fridge didn’t fit by such a small amount I nearly cried. Luckily a carpenter friend was able to rejig the small cupboard above and make it smaller. However our washing machine threw a wobbly after being moved and so off we went to buy a new one …. which of course didn’t fit by the same stupidly small amount. We have ended up with a curved edge to the laundry door to allow the door to open. Luckily Brisbane is subtropical and we’ve managed nicely through our winter. I’m just hoping the dishwasher doesn’t give up!!!
I’m not sure I could cope with bats, but then our alternative would be a python living in the roof. My parents discovered one and my mum nearly melted down!!!
Here’s to a calmer autumn for you.
Lindsey 💐
I rue the day we need a new washer because I will likely have the same issue! Right now I have a full size stacked unit. Everything is so fancy now. A python?!?!?! That’s one thing I don’t have to worry about :-) Happy September!