Construction has wrapped up on our little renovation project so now we are down to setting the house back to rights. Which at first glance probably seems like no big deal, but scope creep combined with the realization that the back half of the house looks so good we now want the rest of the house to match means the remaining part of the project – our portion – is bigger than we had initially realized.

I’ve meant to post more updates here, but September is busy y’all. It’s been a wild blur even without a construction project happening.

When I use the term ‘scope creep’ I get a lot of ‘what is that?’ Scope creep is when the project slowly creeps beyond it’s original scope of work. For instance, while the crew was here replacing all the trim on the side of the house by the back door, they looked up and realized mere inches away was some rotted wood trim they thought should be replaced while they were up there. It was the exterior of the kitchen exhaust fan that hasn’t worked in 20 years, so why just fix the trim when you can fix the entire fan? Or install a new one as it turns out, disrupting the kitchen…. And while they were at it, we went ahead and got all the rotted exterior trim replaced as well as all the missing shingles. Scope Creep. And then, since we had painters coming, might as well get a few rooms painted that have been on the to do list for some time that we just never get around to doing. So, the entire first floor of the house was totally catawampus with scope creep. And since the back porch looks so good and we got all the trim replaced, let’s just paint the entire exterior. Major Scope Creep. Which in the end, is totally worth it because the entire house is gonna look fantastic.

The sunroom looks like the old sunroom, but better, which is exactly what we wanted. New walls, windows and ceiling, floor patched and repainted. There’s a new ceiling fan in there and we made the decision to not install a ceiling fan with a light – Pat and I not being fans of overhead light fixtures in general – and instead added a few electrical outlets so we could illuminate the room with lamps. Which has meant lamp shopping, one of my favorite activities. We are still trying to decide how we are going to furnish the room – I think for the time being we are just going to refurbish the glider set that was in there for 20 years, but perhaps make the seat of the sofa more amiable to napping.

Which brings us to Betsy beagle. Having been the one most disrupted by losing the back porch and assorted spaces, she is delighted to have her porch back, as well as her rainy day/ too hot to be anywhere but under the porch hiding spot under the sunroom, complete with her own private entrance under the stairs (so she won’t dig under the new lattice or rip it out like the old one). The day she noticed the lattice was going back up on her under-the-sunroom spot, she hung around the back of the house for the first time in weeks, sitting under the scaffolding while the guys worked. The day it was done, that dog wouldn’t stop smiling, which, if you know Betsy, you know she’s got a bit of a poker face. She’s not necessarily a smiler. (She also caught a cicada that day, so it was epically the BEST DAY EVER for our furry friend).

And so, while we are busy doing things like rehanging pictures on freshly painted walls, replacing the screen on the back door, refreshing new to us lamps and their shades, reupholstering furniture, Betsy is quite content to lounge on her back porch and happily rode out a thunderstorm in her lair last weekend. The dust is settling.