Life started out normal... including Sam's Club trips and sharing a cart. That was actually a very exciting day for both of them. Haha.
Finger painting. You know, just the normal stuff.
And then one day, I was talking to Necia and she told me that they had decided to do a trip to Mount Rushmore and their path would take them straight through Casper. She wondered first off if they could stay at our house, and two, if we wanted to join them. Well heck yes! After talking to her about it, we realized it was only a 4 hour drive from our place. We would do it as a day trip, which is a long day trip, but totally doable. So that was the plan! We had them meet us at Alcova so they kids could enjoy a nice swim and stretch their legs from the drive. It was overcast and sprinkled a tiny bit, but they all still had a great time.
Thankfully you don't get much detail from this picture, but yes, that bright spot in the distance out be my son streaking through the shallows. You can't really call it skinny dipping because he wasn't swimming. Ha!
The next day we headed Northeast and into South Dakota. The trip was amazing. Mount Rushmore is awesome! We had no idea it was so close and I'm really grateful that Necia suggested this trip, otherwise we likely never would have made it!
True to Pierscen's nature, he saw the stage and took off. Once on stage, he performed "Let it Go" at the top of his lungs, all actions included. Keep in mind this is a big tourist attraction, so we had quite an audience. He put on quite the show. :) I love that kid. He is so funny. After one performance, he happy obliged the request for an encore and Issy accompanied him to dance.
Let's see. The Witt's drove home on Sunday, the 9th. Monday was my birthday. Pierscen and Ryan surprised me with an ice cream cake for breakfast. Haha. That's my kind of breakfast!
It was a low key, but wonderful day. Ryan got me a punch-pass to the rec center, which is exactly what I wanted. It was perfect.
This next section is nothing but chaotic. Before I get into it too far, Ryan and I had been wanting to hire someone to remove the popcorn ceiling in our living room/stair well. The ceiling is vaulted and super high, so we really didn't want to tackle it ourselves. Previous to the Mount Rushmore trip I found an advertisement on the side of a RedBox with some great summer deals. (I know, I know. A company adverstizing on a RedBox? That should have been my first warning. But it didn't hurt to get a quote.) Here's some pictures so you can see what we were up against.
I called the company and they came over for a quote. The guy doing the hard labor was named Michael. His partner was more of the business side and I don't remember his name. Michael came in first and scoped out the job. Partner arrived a little later and they discussed price. Their price seemed fair and they said it would be a one day job. (I knew there was NO way that was actually possible, but whatever. I planned on three just because.) I talked to Ryan, he gave me the go ahead, and I went ahead and paid them half. (Standard payment so they could go buy supplies. That's always really nerve racking.) Several things started happening at this same time, so the exact time line is shady now. (Another good reason it would have been better to keep this blog updated!)
The day work was supposed to start, Michael never showed. He did contact me saying that he had a hang up at another job, and that he would be there later. That time came and went too. That evening, his partner showed up at our doorstep asking if we had seen Michael or heard from him. I told him all I knew, then he said he had been trying to get a hold of him for the last couple of days without success. He said he was pretty sure that he had just taken the money and run. They had purchased our supplies, but since all we were getting was white paint, technically he could have returned it. He was quite worked up and I was super sick to my stomach. He told us to try and get a hold of Michael and see what the deal was. If he hadn't run yet, demand that he at least bring by the supplies and the partner would make sure that our job got done. We said our goodbyes as he set off to go tell the other contracts they had recently signed that Michael had run off with the money.
Ugh. So I did my best to calm down, went in the back yard and called Michael. I was preparing to leave a really nasty voicemail when he answered. I kind of froze for a second. I wasn't sure what to say! So I told him exactly what had just happened. He was ticked. Apparently we were caught in the middle of a partnership feud. The partner had made all these comments about how he couldn't believe Michael would do something like that to him since they were friends. Apparently they had only known each other for a couple weeks. Oi. Boy did I step in it. Anyway, after listening to Michael's side of things, he assured me he would be right over with all the supplies for the job. Sure enough, he was. They were supposed to start the next day, but I think that got pushed back too. I think things finally got going on Friday - but very little progress was made. Just enough to make a disaster. (This is precisely why we wanted to hire someone. Removing popcorn ceiling is a huge mess!) We had to move our couches and recliner into the kitchen and cover everything with blankets. The other couch eventually got moved out to the front yard. For a couple of days, no big deal. Two weeks later... but we aren't to that point in the story yet.
Okay, PAUSE! At this exact same time this was happening, just one day after my birthday, Ryan had a phone interview for a job in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Things had been getting bad at his job - a lot of tension, no appreciation, some back stabbing, and ultimately, no job growth. It was exactly what we needed to start out, but there was no where to go from there. Ryan had been looking for a new job for a while and had actually interviewed for a few different positions. There was one in Casper that would have been great, but it didn't pan out. There was an amazing opportunity that a recruiter had been working with Ryan to get in Lander, WY that would have required a move, but nothing huge. However, the job would have almost doubled our income. That certainly would have been cool. However, nothing moved forward with that one either. It sounded like the woman that would have been over the position Ryan was applying for really just wanted a nurse to get the job. Ryan has 5+ years of clinical experience, but not as a nurse. Whatever. Point being, that job didn't work out either. (Turns out months later we learned that everyone in the Lander hospital in a management position was let go as a total do over. That would have been Ryan, so it was a HUGE blessing he didn't get it.)
This whole time that he was applying for jobs, I was supportive, but I also thought he was kind of crazy. I mean, there are tons of people that don't even work during their Master's degree. Then there is Ryan who was not only working full time, serving as Young Men's President, but also looking for a job where we would likely have to move. I thought he was a little crazy, but when I asked him about it, he said that he had been impressed to keep looking for a different job. He told me about this job when he found it and asked if he could apply. I actually laughed because right off the bat I knew that he would get it, I knew that it was right, and it was only funny because Necia actually hates Albuquerque, and I was just imagining her reaction. That and it's even farther from Utah and our families have been begging us to get closer. Sigh...
Anyway, Tuesday Ryan interviewed. They called to offer him the job the next day, but he missed the call. Thursday they made contact and discussed details. The pay was actually a tiny bit less that he was currently making, though they thought they might be able to make it at least even with his wage. They would not help with moving costs though. So basically we could be paying out of pocket to make the change, but would it be worth it? Ryan told them we would discuss it and let them know the next day. We made a pro/con list and even though we knew it would be hard, Ryan and I both felt like we should take it. Ryan had been guided in many ways to even find this job in the first place. That night, we decided that yes, this was what we wanted and we would do everything to make it happen, but it was wrong, please, Lord, let us know. And if it is right, please help us pull it off. Because, as you see, when we accepted the next day, they said we could have 3 months to get down there. But when they called back on Monday to let us know that they would match his wage, they also let us know that we only had 5 weeks to get there. Five weeks. Five weeks to get a house that was - quite literally - under construction, ready for market, packed up, and hopefully, with any luck, under contract. So in the middle of the popcorn ceiling fiasco, the next two weeks were extremely stressful!
The day after Michael got started on the ceiling was Saturday. I got a text from him saying that it was Shabbot, and that he would come afterward. I didn't know that he was Jewish, which is no problem, but not knowing how devout he was, I didn't know if he meant he would come Sunday, after sun down, or just after services. That afternoon/evening he sent a text saying that he was at a wedding and that he normally doesn't drink this much, but he didn't think he should come to work and that he would come Sunday. I wish more than anything I still had those texts because he was actually so drunk that the was slur-texting. It was hilarious! I intended to keep them always, but I got a new phone and things got erased. It's a tragedy I tell you. I told him not to worry about coming Sunday and that we would see him Monday. He did come Monday, but progress was painfully slow. The main reason for this is that he doesn't have a real crew. (By the way, following his partner showing up and all that fun stuff, they split ways.) He had one or two guys that were there most of the time, but one of those he let go because he didn't show up one day when he said he would. Turns out he didn't show up because his wife had gone into labor and was in the hospital. Well, Michael didn't care and let him go. (Guys, there was so much drama!!!) So the issue was that Michael was going down near the library and picking up homeless guys for day labor. Guys that had no idea what they were doing. So Michael would give them instruction, then leave to go to a different job. They would do what they were told, then sit around smoking in the front yard for hours waiting for more instruction. It was horrible. And scary. I am not trying to judge too quickly, but these were not people I wanted in my house.
Add to this fun chaos the fact that we needed to find a realtor. I called several and set up appointments to come tour the house. Unfortunately for these poor realtors, I had to give them the weirdest tour ever. I opened the front door so they could get a peak, but do to the plastic, dust, and popcorn ceiling everywhere, we had to go through the basement, then sneak through construction to get upstairs. It was kind of awful. But they were all very positive with what they say. We planned on replacing the carpet, so they had to do a lot of imagining. One of the realtors suggested listing our house pretty high. Sure, it sounded nice, but I got the feeling that if we went with them, our house would be sitting on the market too long. Another one of the realtors was actually one of the realtors that had been used once upon a time to sell this house before we bought it. It wasn't the realtor we actually bought it from - but the one before that. That was actually a little scary because this house had been on the market for a year with that realtor and didn't sell. We were able to get some good info on why it didn't sell the first time - mostly things that the previous owners refused to do to make it more sell-able, all of which we had taken care of already. But even still, if he wasn't able to sell it last time, I wasn't about to hire him to try again. Our friends that had moved a little earlier recommended their realtor, so we called her. She arrived in a pristine white dress, super fancy and dolled up. (That's how she is all the time I guess - very different from my mommy style.) I felt really bad because there was so much dust everywhere there wasn't a safe place to walk, sit, or touch. She was really great about it though. Anyway, she gave a great presentation, and we decided to go with her. The biggest challenge would be getting the house ready.
Here's one of the projects we were working on while all this was going on: Finishing up the vanity in our bedroom.
I talked to my mom about carpet options and since I had so much going on, she placed several calls for me to ask who had carpet in stock and could install within a week. She gave me a results and I went to check it out. We found that Carpet One had a great carpet in stock for a good price and would be able to get it installed the following week. (Miracles people. We promised Heavenly Father we would do whatever we could. And he more than helped us.) We found we would save a good amount if we tore out our own carpet and primed the floors. Priming isn't always necessary, but this was my biggest regret when we first moved into the house. We knew that the previous owners had dogs that had peed all over, and that caused issues with Dodger too. We didn't replace the carpet when we first moved in and I wish we had. So to do the right thing, we really felt we needed to prime to floor so the next people wouldn't have to deal with urine odors.
Michael and crew, despite my begging and pleading, did not get all the painting done (walls and ceiling) before we got the carpet. Michael promised that they would cover the new carpet and there wouldn't be any issues, but things hadn't exactly gone very well up to this point. But what choice did I have? So our friend Issac came over and helped us rip out the carpet. We had to do it in sections - moving all the furniture into a couple rooms, tearing out the carpet, priming the floors and then repeating the process once the new carpet was in. We were up til 2 am the first night trying to get everything ready for carpet and then 1 am the next day.
Here's some pictures from that fun...
The following day the carpet installers arrived. I stopped by Carpet One to see if there was any chance they might have a small piece of linoleum to replace the pink flower one for the entry. By heavenly intervention, one of the sales girls had actually put aside a small piece that she normally would have tossed because she had the impression that maybe someone could use it. Thank goodness for Holy Ghost promptings! Not only did she have it, but she gave it to us for free. And didn't charge us to install it either, which would have been about $100 otherwise. Tender mercies.
The first day the carpet was replaced in the living rooms, on the stairs, and Pierscen's bedroom upstairs.
That night we were at it again. We moved the furniture, removed the rest of the carpet, and finished priming. There's Dodger hanging out on the only carpet he could find. We slept in the living room that night. Devry slept upstairs in Pierscen's room.
And the final thing:
Check out the difference it made! Doesn't that look great?! (We also decided that in the future, we will never buy a house with wood siding again - anything that has paint that can be chipped and peeled. No thanks.) In theory, the previous owners had done this before we moved in, but I know for a fact that they didn't scrape the peeling paint. They just painted over it. Cuts corners and it ends up looking bad. The wind is really harsh and it did a lot of damage over the 3 years we were there. Though I wish potential buyers could have seen the before and after pictures, at least it would look really good for the presentation.
This process was exhausting!!! Just ask Pierscen...
And of course, what's all of this fun and chaos without teaching piano? I rearranged a number of lessons to accommodate the constantly changing state of my house and taught several on my keyboard in the basement during all of this. But at the end of the month, I had to say goodbye to teaching. I loved my students and they were all so good to me. Here is one of the sweet notes I received.
With some serious muscle and some wonderful book club friends, we got the furniture back in place and the kitchen spoofed up and ready for pictures to list the house. It was two weeks delayed due to the ongoing ceiling fiasco, but we got it done. And it looked SO much better! Truth is, Michael really did know what he was doing. If he had been able to do it, it would have been done within the time frame he said. Unfortuately, probably due to his low cost, he got a lot of contracts around the same time and spread himself way too thin. The day the painting was supposed to get done, we checked on it after they left and found that it was horrible. Drip streaks, really obvious lines, etc. I told Michael, he checked it out, agreed that it was awful, and redid it all himself the next day. So yeah, if he had done it, it would have been great. I hope some day he can get a good, reliable crew. I could definitely recommend him them. In the mean time, I'm still really grateful we decided to do the ceiling. Smooth ceiling, fresh paint, and new carpet = new house. Just in time to sell it. That's how it goes though, right?
Anyway, there is the finished vanity project.
And just like that - it was official. Holy cow, August. What a month. I hope to never have to repeat it. I am so grateful to our loving Heavenly Father who supported us through that!
