life as an ostovic

Do not be fooled by this picture. It does seem like we took a family trip to the Congo to visit a gorilla researcher. But we are actually at the Columbus Zoo. I know, I know, the picture seems so real. But really, do you think we would take Jack to the wild jungles of the Congo?

First off, an update from Melanie:
The last several weeks have been very busy and very exciting for us. We closed on our new house at the end of July and spent the next week doing nothing other than working on the house. Literally. No, I take that back- we did go to Ikea one day, and out to dinner with the Dynamic Duo (aka Grandma O and Gramma B). Thank God that we had BOTH Grandmas for the WHOLE WEEK to help us. They were AWESOME. They did ANYTHING we asked of them. One Grandma took care of Jackson, while the other Grandma did grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, packing, laundry, etc! We truly could not have done it without them.

So, the big nightmare of the week was refinishing all the wood floors in the house. It was the hottest week of the summer with temperatures in the 90’s and the humidity at about 1 million percent. We had a strict timeline to follow since we had to actually MOVE IN our stuff on Saturday when all our helpers were coming. The stain and 2 coats of polyurethane had to cure for a certain amount of time. So, the time table was tight. With that being said, you’ll understand that my personal low during this project came at 4:00 AM when we were just finishing staining the floors (this was day 5 of our house overhaul and after a whole day ripping up carpet and removing approx 4 trillion staples from the floor, AND 2 entire days of sanding the floors). I had been up since 6:30 AM (yes, that’s 22 hours of being up AND working). Of course you’re supposed to have good ventilation, but we had to have the windows closed in case it rained on our beautiful floors. Around 4 AM I got VERY sick- probably from exhaustion and the fumes. I considered a trip to the ER, but figured they would just tell me I was high, and that I should sleep it off. After completing the floors, I know why people PAY others to do this job. I also have 2 words for you, “NEVER AGAIN”. But I must say they do look lovely with a deep brownish/reddish stain and a lovely warm satin varnish. Throughout the insanity of the project, my Mom kept reminding me that they don’t have to be perfect. Afterall, “You put rugs and furniture on them”. She is wise. She also refinished her floors many years ago. She taught me to say, “Never again.”

With the help of some awesome friends and family, we also accomplished the following: stripped wallpaper out of both bathrooms and the kitchen, primed and painted our bedroom and Jack’s bedroom, primed and painted both bathrooms, new floor molding throughout most of the house, moved all our stuff from Jana’s house, AND unpacked our POD which was bursing at the seams. We are SO grateful for our Michigan friends who helped, and our friends and family who came from Ohio JUST to help us. Yes, because of them, all this happened in 8 days. That’s pretty amazing.

We are settling in and loving our new home. I am happy to report that we quickly got rid of the avocado stove and refrigerator- we still have the portable, avocado dishwasher. I also must let you know that the previous owner must have smoked like a chimney because this whole house smelled like an ashtray. After the removal of carpet, drapes, and a good scrubbing- we have gotten rid of most of the nasty yellow layer of nicotene that was ALL OVER the kitchen and IN the appliances. The moral of the story is: if you must smoke, do it OUTSIDE!

Jackson continues to be the cutest boy in the entire world and is growing so fast. He is 19 months old, 29 lbs and 33 inches- a very tall boy! He has so many words now, and cracks us up everyday. We especially love when he says, “Oh no”, “Oh wow”, “Hi Dada”, “Where is it?”, “papaya”, and “Einstein?”. He LOVES to play outside- especially with his steam shovel (thank you Anna), and loves to watch his Dad do yardwork. He plays busily with his toys, loves to read books, and absolutely LOVES when we sing to him. He also loves to sing- which is so much fun. He is growing in independence and has learned to express his opinions- especially saying, “NO!” many times a day.

Thanks for checking in with us. We love knowing that you read our blog. Please leave us a comment and let us know you were here!

Second, some words from Derrak: (significantly less words since he is a man)
We posted some of our favoite recent pictures on flikr. If you want to check those out click here.
Well, Melanie covered a lot going on with the family. So let me just say that now we have internet and are connected with the world again. Now you can rest easy, “life as an ostovic” is back up and running.

Seriously though, we are so excited to be in our own place. God really has blessed us in ways we never thought possible. My prayer is that we not hold on to anything too tightly. This world is about so much more than home, cars, and everything we see before us each day. This is my lesson to learn, and I think I will be learning it for the rest of my life.

I hope you like the new look to our blog, and keep coming back for more. I promise there will be more in the coming weeks.

till next time,
derrak

p.s. I think Melnaie has more than twice as many words than me. : )

Trackback URL