If you haven't been following us on Instagram lately, our big news this past summer is that we bought a house! A small, old cottage-y house with problems galore, but with great bones and a wonderful, walkable location.
We focused first on high priority things like the faulty electrical, leaky plumbing and rat problem in the attic and then some nice-to-haves like refinishing the white oak floors and giving the place some new paint. For the sake of our budget, we'd suck it up and live with the ugly floor tile in the kitchen with its 1" monster grout lines and the Easter-themed pastel bathrooms. They say that renovations end up taking three times as long and twice the budget and that, ladies and gentlemen, is just the cold hard truth. The more layers of house we unveiled, the more problems we found and before we knew it, we had ripped out the offensive kitchen tile and gutted both bathrooms...among a number of other things we weren't originally planning on doing.
As you can imagine, trying to adjust to a new place while dealing with loud noises and watching strangers walk in and out of your house on a daily basis can be stressful for a pup, but thankfully Hoku has been handling it well. Here are some things we've been doing to make the renovation just a little more comfortable for him.
1. Establish boundaries. Before any crew started their respective job, I made them well aware of the fact that there would be a dog in the house and asked them where they would need access. I made barriers out of things like boxes and suitcases so that my curious pup wouldn't be able to stick his nose near dangerous tools, toxic chemicals, sharp nails, etc. Also, with the front door being opened and closed constantly, I needed to make sure he couldn't run out while I wasn't watching. Despite my best efforts, he did manage to escape once but just ended up following one of the guys back in the house. (And scaring him pretty badly in the process since the dude probably thought that Hoku, collarless at the time, was some kind of wild fox or baby coyote.)
2. Create a safe retreat. That space ended up being my office, which was a huge relief because it needed the least amount of work and was located in the quietest corner of the house. It was the one room that was always clean and orderly and essentially a retreat for the both of us amidst the chaos. I kept the radio on to drown out the loud noises and Hoku had access to his water bowl, bed and favorite toys here.
3. Take breaks and stay on schedule. It was important for us to be able to get out of the house and escape from all the work going on inside, whether it was just going for a short walk or playing in the backyard. Making sure that walks and food times stayed consistent day to day was also key in creating some sense of normalcy.
While we feel extremely blessed to have our own place to call home, living with a remodel is starting to take its toll on our sanity. We've been taking baths with a bucket, brushing our teeth in the kitchen sink, constantly rummaging through boxes to find things, and no matter how many times I swiffer, the house is always always covered in a layer of dust. (Yes, I am aware that the world's smallest violin is playing our sad song.) I am thrilled to announce however, that if all goes swimmingly, we will finally have a shower this week. A glorious, working shower.
Here are some iPhone snapshots from these past few weeks. I'll be sharing more photos along the way as things start taking shape so stay tuned!
