What it Became ~ Part Four

We lived in our home for nearly nine years before the

 pony wall separating our kitchen and dining room came down.

I suppose someone thought installing one was a good idea.  Long ago.

However, we didn't like either the concept or the practical outworking of it.

We knew that if we ever were to make alterations to our kitchen,

the pony wall would be one of the first things to go.  And, it was.

Twelve years later, it's still one of my favourite kitchen non-features.

I do not miss it at all.  Not one little bit.

While I was away for a few nights with the children,

Howie took a sledge hammer to it.  Being absent was a good thing.

He did have the foresight to cover the furniture with plastic. 

One of the signs of a good man.  Wouldn't you agree?  :)

The light switch hung from the ceiling for awhile.

Nice feature, don't you think?

We continued to live and work and do everyday things as best we could.

See my little peanut helping her Mama in the kitchen?

Actually, making messes was something that fit right in with the general theme.
Nothing seemed to phase our precious little people.

It got much worse before it got better.  "Mess breeds mess", as the saying goes.

Building supplies, along with many of our belongings, needed to be stored
somewhere while the work was being done.

Of course, the logical location for those things
was any empty space not being worked on at that moment.
So much shuffling and rearranging took place during our home renovation.
We constantly felt like we were fighting a losing battle.

For quite some time, we had to eat single file in the kitchen.

See all four of our children with food set before them?  Close quarters.

At one point, we even had the piano crammed into this space.

It seemed as though we were battling chaos at every turn.
(Have I mentioned that I don't like mess?  Well...I don't like mess.)
The Lord was teaching us valuable lessons.
I truly do hope we learned those lessons well.  ;-)

Both Howie and I thrive when things are orderly.

This was anything but that.  Obviously.

We'd had a quote on new cupboards and counter top (I think it was included).

At the time, the price came in around $30,000 for that one job.

Uh....NO!  We decided to paint the boxes ourselves and reface the cupboards.

My Dad helped rebuild the counter and installed the doors for us.

We ordered doors for our cupboards directly from the manufacturer for

approximately $1,100.  All said and done, the job that would have set us

back $30,000 ended up costing no more than $2,000...sinks, counters and all.
Oh, and elbow grease.  Let's not forget to mention that part of the equation.

Laugh or cry.  Sink or swim.  It was a little bit of a stressful time.

But, the Lord saw us through it all.  Step by step.  Moment by moment.

Once the doors and the floor were installed,

it felt a whole lot better!  See what I mean?
I was starting to be able to breathe again.

Y'all still with me?  If you are....thank you for hanging in there.
Still more to this story....coming soon.

Happy Thursday!
With Love, Camille

**Previous posts in this series may be found by
clicking here (introduction),
here (part one), here (part two), here (part three),
 here (part five), and here (conclusion).