A renovation in progress.

I have a feeling this year will be tough. The floor in our mudroom needs replacing because it's falling apart. Our dishwasher just stopped working effectively because of the detergent door. The oven door is breaking. Cory's car just hit 220,000 miles. We will be re-doing the basement (among other things, possibly) to accommodate my sister-in-law, who's coming to live with us next fall. I may be totally wrong, but I just have a feeling that the things that were financially simple before will be a stretch for us now. Even more so because a lot of simple purchases are a stretch when you only have one solid income anyway.

Which is why I am praying A LOT recently for God to help me not to want things. Especially these. And a few yards of this to make those book slings I want for the next child. And let's not forget this. And how about one of these while we're at it?? (In "Sangria Red", of course.) And, and, and, and . . .

It's really hard when we just had Christmas and I was totally spoiled. :) It's even harder when I made the decision to give away almost entirely ALL of my Christmas money that I received to go to El Salvador on a mission trip in February. I drool at what I could have used that money for. I know I made the right decision, and I absolutely do not regret it, however it didn't make writing that check any easier. There go my new shoes. There goes summer clothes . . .

There go the THINGS. Here comes the experience!! See? I have the right attitude. . . . well, mostly. I made the right decision and I am sticking to it.

Anyway, I wanted to post some "before" pics because some of the above-mentioned problems are (thankfully) being fixed this week. I am so grateful for this. You really have no idea. The fact that we are even able to fix these is a blessing in and of itself.

BEFORE:

As previously mentioned, the dishwasher detergent cup malfunctioned on our old dishwasher. After trying several things to fix it, we finally decided it was ka-put. It just wasn't cleaning anything. Cory removed it last night and it's ready to be hauled away . . .


. . . AND the new dishwasher is being delivered tonight. I am ready to use it. :)


Also our mud room floor is coming apart. We have had this problem in other rooms as well, and the floors have already been replaced. We are using our Christmas gift cards get this final floor taken care of.


. . . Of course if we are fixing that problem, we may as well paint the mud room as well. It's a horrid sunshine yellow that just doesn't go with the "earthy" rest of the house. We are painting it lilac, with dark purple accents. :) It will be the only room in our house that is close to a "pastel" kind of color. (Just for the record - it's not pastel. It's a "Dusty Purple". Refer to it as a pastel and you will pay dearly.)

So that's what we are up to. Look for the "after" photos soon.

Until next time . . .