The Work Continues

A quick update for you today about the happenings at 5 Fairway...

As you can see, the house is undergoing a bit of a "renovation." We didn't make it down there today to check on the progress, but I'm sure they're moving on to the sanitizing portion of the project very soon. After that, the house and crawlspace have to dry out for a week or so. That's when the remodeling will begin.

We purchased this house knowing that it met most of Natalie's needs, but would require a bit of work to get a bathroom handicap-accessible. Since the house is stripped to the studs, we're taking this opportunity to get things just how we want it.

Right now, we're coming up with a layout, thanks in large part to my brother, Brian. It will include a roll-in shower for Natalie, as well as a jacuzzi tub. Natalie absolutely LOVES jacuzzi baths, as we discovered while at a hotel last year. Needless to say, that jumped high on our priority list for this renovation project.

I'm getting a major league headache from all of these decisions, and we have barely scratched the surface. I never wanted to build a house because I knew it would be too many decisions for me in a short period of time. I like to ruminate about these major decisions for a while!

We've received the maximum compensation from FEMA, and have applied for the SBA loan. After that, we'll apply for every grant available to us to try to cut down on expenses. We're so grateful for our amazing family who is here for us when we need them most. It makes it a lot easier knowing we have their support---we're all in it together.

Thanks to an incredibly generous family, we are currently staying in Minot in their beautiful home. They are residing at a lake cabin while we play house here. We've been here for a couple of weeks, and it has been an absolute blessing for us to be together during this initial phase of recovery. When our month is up at this house, the kids and I will head back to Sherwood to stay with Grandma & Papa Miller.

We have up days and we have down days. I know I've been up the past couple of days knowing that the plans have begun. Life goes on and we just have to make it through this trial. We will.

More pictures to come tomorrow...