Alas, There Will be No Mudroom.

(Editor's note: I wrote this post after getting home from the oral surgeon after having been under anesthesia... I was going to start editing the grammatical errors but then I decided to leave it for posterity... Just be impressed that I made sense at all...) 

The mudroom was one of the key things on my 40 x 40 and it's not going to happen, boooo.

There's just no way to put any sort of enclosed addition off a house, inexpensively, without having it look like Larry, his brother Daryl, and his other brother Daryl (do you remember Newhart?) slapped it on one weekend using particle board, and corrugated plastic roofing, with help from a case of beer. Larry, Daryl & Daryl construction is not the look we're going for... Oh we end up their (Ha! Found it Morgen.. I used the wrong "there") anyway on occasion, but I feel better if we're surprised by it rather than planning on it.

Here's the thing: there are things that ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO BE DONE THIS YEAR for me to remain sane.

1. I would like finished walls.
2. I would like actual floors.
3. I would like finished ceilings
4. I would like finished woodwork AND
5. I would like to actually remove the deck from the back of the house, where it's currently hanging by one, rusty nail.

When I look at pics of people's houses I always find myself being envious of the fact that they have baseboards. I don't care how they decorated, I just want baseboards. "What must it be like to have baseboards?" I wonder as I stare longingly...

So the mudroom is not happening this year. Unfortunately, it can't be pushed down the list either because there are some things that have to be done to the outside of the house this year for me to remain sane too.

For example, you need full Everest climbing regalia to make it from the front door to the car in winter. Except for the oxygen mask, we're at sea-level here...but  heck even the tent would be useful to climb into to wait for the ambulance when you break your leg. Especially since the EMT's might decide they need to wait until spring to rescue you. When my friend Morgen comes over to walk, she makes it to the front door, puts down her repelling gear to chat for a moment, and then sets back out to her car. Workout done! I say all that to say - safety dictates that we need an actual walkway. However the walkway's placement will change if we put a mudroom on and we have no intention of doing that twice.

Landscaping would be wonderful too... I don't mean anything fancy, just plants and shrubs to cover the bare foundation. We need a non-drafty front door, a new roof and gutters too. And don't even get me started on the junk and construction debris in the backyard. There's a reason I've never posted a pic of the back of the house. It's just waaaay more "reality" than I want to share, even with my neighbors.

Basically, I would like to stop feeling like I have to apologize/explain the state of the house. Our neighbors across the street have been trying to sell their house for a year now and every time people pull up to look at it, I have to resist throwing up the window and shouting "IT'S OK, WE'RE WORKING ON IT!!!) but I think that would make it worse...

And that is why I switched "build a mudroom" to "finish the walls, floors, & ceiling" on my 40 x 40.

I'll be back tomorrow share other things that we're doing, without any whining (or happy drugs), I promise.

Now I'm going to bed!

See you tomorrow,
H