#59: The Renovation Rollercoaster That Made Sherry Cry: a house log

It is been a busy few weeks on our beach house renovation and they’ve been… well… less than smooth, to say the least. So this week we are taking you through the saga of three setbacks that happened fairly much back to back (including a missed deadline, having no water line to our house, and a surprise medical complication). And although we are keeping it real about renovations not consistently being straightforward or straightforward, it all has a glad ending: we survived nearly 20 hours of tiling, and we share the handy gadget that made working in a house with no electricity possible. Also Sherry continues to refuse to be a clean freak, and we spill what it is like to attend a live recording for a large podcast (they had lines around the block).

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and TuneIn Radio – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you are reading in a feed reader, you might have to click through to the post to see the player.

What is New

• The pic above is likely the ideal encapsulation of our recent beach house craziness: simply an excavator in search of a mysteriously missing water line while we furiously try to get tile down in four rooms within 33 hours.
• And in other good news, since we recorded the episode, Burger has been completed cleared. He’s off all his meds, and his eye is nearly as good as new! We could not be more relieved.
• The photo below is from right before we left for the beach (when he was still quite winky from the ulcer). He was clearly not amused by the (slightly melted) dog cookie I found in his likeness. But he ate it in protest.

What is Not

• Here is a link to Good Housekeeping’s list of 7 Things You Should Clean Every Single Day.

We are Digging

• Above is a look at our tiling-after-the-sun-went-down process, thanks to the $30 Ryobi Area Light we picked up right before heading to the beach house. The USB charger to keep our phones alive was the MVP. We also enlisted a phone flashlight at this moment right before we left (we had both washed up but Sherry could not resist tweaking the spacing on a few of the blue tiles we laid by hand in the master bathroom). You can see more of that bathroom on Instagram.
• Below is a shot of the downstairs bathroom and mudroom, which connect, so we used the same slate-style tile in both spaces (do not mind that it needs to be cleaned). The little spacers and yellow wedges are a leveling system we tried out for the first time. It went fairly well – and is especially helpful for larger tiles – so stay tuned for the details in an upcoming journal post.

• Also – if you want some evidence of how HOT it was working on a house with no air conditioning in Virginia’s summer heat and humidity, here is how sweaty I was heading over to the neighbor’s hose to get water after simply about 30 minutes of unloading the car and lugging all the tile in. Not even in fact tiling yet!

• And if you are a Real Housewives superfan like Sherry, you too might find this hilarious recap podcast equally entertaining. It is hosted by two comedians, including Casey Wilson of SNL and Glad Endings.

If you are looking for something we have dug in a past episode, but do not remember which show notes to click into, here is a master list of everything we have been digging from all of our past episodes.

And lastly, a big thank you to The Annie Selke Companies for sponsoring this episode. Do not forget to take a peek at Annie’s new bed & breakfast, 33 Main, and use code YHL15 to get 15% off any order at AnnieSelke.com/YHL, including bedding, furniture, rugs, and more!

Thanks for listening, folks!

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