Our House in the Woods

It’s not necessarily breaking news for most of you, sorry. I’ve been dying to write about our new endeavor since moving last July but, each week I found a reason to delay. This week I have a new reason to start. Here it is: This is our last peaceful week before our biggest renovation begins. Sooooo, let me begin again. We moved last July to a fixer upper on 5 acres of wooded land in central Indiana ...during a time of inflation, of supply chain delays, blah, blah, blah. You all know that. Call us crazy, cause it kinda was. Moving during this economic crisis could be enough to write about. Moving to the “sticks" could be enough to write about. Moving into a fixer upper could be enough to write about. Well, we have it all! So, darn it! I’m gonna write about it! And I have some super interesting stories to tell...

Before I go on, let me address that you might be confused, as this website and this blog were originally designed to share about our journey of our grief after losing Wayland and our efforts to find a cure for what we believe to be one of the deadliest forms of cancer out there. It still will be, but life is unpredictable at times and takes you down hills and valleys you would never expect to go on. Ben and I took a huge leap with our family last year and not having Wayland with us is a part of the journey. We have also come to a place in our life that we need to assess ourselves as a family and as individuals and take a step back from our original goals in order to hopefully be happier and healthier, physically, mentally and emotionally. Therefore, in 2022 we are taking a break from fundraising. When the year is done, we will see where we are and go from there. We will definitely keep you posted on our efforts and major breakthroughs in the DIPG world that come along the way.

So, here we are in Cicero, Indiana with this new house. I am calling it our #ourhouseinthewoods, because it is... and its catchy, at least I think so. During this time, I have transformed my Wayland’s Warriors Instagram page to fun and exciting updates and pictures of the house, so join me there too! My goal here is to write a weekly update. Our biggest renovation, remodeling the kitchen, is set to begin next week, May 2. (Although I’m not holding my breath). Right now, the kitchen is a 10’x8’ room. VERY SMALL. We hired a company (Indiana Kitchen Company) to design a totally new room and a contractor (DGC Contracting LLC) to do the construction. (I will be reviewing them here as well as all the products we use.) But this project is really more than the kitchen, due to some structural issues, we have to start in the basement (where Ben’s office is). They will tear up the ceiling to expose the floor joists, hoping we can clarify what the problem is and fix the structure from the bottom up. Super fun (um, not really). We are also having them move the doorway to Ben’s office to make the wall space more practical and updating the lighting in the basement. Then the plan is to move upstairs. In order to give us the kitchen size we want, we will be tearing down the wall between the kitchen and a breakfast nook. We will remove a set of bay windows in order create space for more cabinets. The pantry is in the mudroom now. We are removing that and as part of our cabinet space they are putting in a pantry and broom closet. We are moving the doorway from our mudroom to the kitchen in order to make space for a 36” range instead of a standard 30”. Last, but not least, the entire first floor will get hickory hardwood floor (minus the mud room.) If our budget can handle it, there will be several other projects we hope to tackle with this contractor: update the mudroom/laundry room (move the washer and dryer, put in open shelving, add hooks and cubbies for coats and shoes, add a utility sink), widen the door way to the dining room, remove the coat closet (which is in an awkward place) to increase the size of the dining room, and update the basement wet bar (new countertops, shelves and sink.) Whew!

I know there will be delays and bumps in the road. A real adventure as I like to call it...you know, to keep things positive. This journey with the kitchen really began last June and it DID NOT START VERY FUN! That is for next week, including pictures. Please come along this journey with me, I promise it won’t be dull!