We are in month 7 of a 10-12 month renovation. We have nearly gutted 2/3 of our 1957 ranch home that had MULTIPLE "renovations" where unlicensed contractors or maybe the homeowners themselves put in "improvements" (with major safety issues, like not having a deep enough foundation, missing wood framing support so the ceiling could have collapsed, a master bathroom where the toilet was NOT connecting to the septic system, etc.). I don't even want to think about how much costs have ballooned because we've had to add foundation repairs and extra wood framing.
Here's a photo showing where the new kitchen and great room (plus a new 1/2 bath) will go taken last week. We at least have a new roof, exterior walls, and the windows in. Electrical and plumbing are getting installed now, then sheetrock. HVAC can't go in as they have to put in a new cement pad for a propane tank first (we're in a semi-rural area so there aren't natural gas lines here). I'm guessing we won't have a functioning kitchen for another 3 months (at a minimum).
IMG_0117.jpg
We lived here with no heat/AC (the furnace was torn out in September as that room is going to become a pantry and the new furnace will be in the attic) and just one bathroom since Sept. 2019. Thankfully, the bedrooms aren't being touched. I am pretty proud of how resilient my kids (and DH and me!) have been. We also had 3 vacations out of town over the past 7 months just to get out of the house. But now we have "shelter-in-place" restrictions due to COVID-19 where we're not supposed to leave our house unless it's for groceries or medical reasons.
We do not have a kitchen, there's no heat (it's 51 degrees in the house right now as we only have space heaters in the bedrooms), and we're all home from school/work. I am nervous about even going out for restaurant food but we only have an Instant Pot, a tiny toaster oven, and a sous vide pot, so we're starting to get sick of the same meals, over and over. I don't even know if our wifi can handle 2 kids in "online classes" plus DH and me online as well (and I have to do some Zoom video conference calls with colleagues and with my students).
We debated driving to our vacation home, but it's so remote that it only has satellite internet, which I assume isn't sufficient for DDs' online classes or my Zoom video conference calls. I also don't think we can go to a hotel, as large dogs like our 90 pound Lab usually aren't welcome at hotels. Plus at least we have 3 bedrooms to escape to if we stay here.
I don't know what I'm looking for. I guess I just want to vent in a safe place as I know this is totally a first world problem. Sigh.