Long Overdue Post (and a crazy ton of photos)

Wow. It has been months since I've blogged. So much has happened so here's a quick recap. 

From April 2015 through October 2015 we were renting a home on Anna Maria Island. During that time we were also looking to purchase a small home, sell our home back in PA, find me specialists, reapply for disability, find my husband a job, etc.

In October we drove back up north to get the rest of our stuff since our PA home was closing in November. It closed a day late which was fine and allowed us to move into our new FL villa on November 7. We also attended my sister's wedding and was able to see some of my NY family :)

I'm the one sitting down :)

Disability was recently approved which is another story but it will help financially with all the medical expenses and my not being able to work. My insurance will not cover Ketamine treatments. Thank you to all who prayed, wrote letters and encouraged us through all of that.

On a lighter note, I chopped my hair in November. 12" came off and it feels so much lighter. And I can now brush my hair by myself so woo-hoo to that! 

Before, taken in October before having my hair & make-up done for my sister's wedding

November 2015

My hair does this natural wave/flip thing.

Sent to Wigs for Kids!

Some days it is so curly!

December 2015

January 2016 - my hair is already starting to grow back

We spent Christmas day at the beach for about an hour and it was lovely. The hubby took a dip in the Gulf but it was cold and there was no way I was getting in! It was the first time since the beginning of October that I made it to the beach.

My two-week Ketamine treatment starts THIS Monday and I'm pretty excited. We held a fundraiser and thank YOU to every person who has prayed for me or donated. Our goal was half of the $5500 and we hit it just today! We thankfully have the rest saved from the sale of our PA home. 

Thanks Jaime for my care package! These cheered me up :)

The first several weeks after moving here were pretty terrible. I wasn't out of bed but maybe to go to the bathroom. I needed help getting off the toilet. Things were depressing. Fast forward two months and I have rested a lot. Some days I'm okay with my medications. And by okay I mean I'm out of bed and maybe in the hammock or even folding clothing or some light dusting. Some days I am a mess regardless of what I take or do. 

I have watched my husband do the most fun projects (to me) and I haven't been able to participate. And the "funny" thing is that he doesn't even like to do projects or paint. And that has been quite the emotional roller coaster, especially with not knowing anyone down here. My husband has made friends but I just don't get out often. Maybe once a week to go to Publix (the local grocery store) and even then I'm pushed around. I don't want to turn this into a complaint. I live with a saint. The man will take me wherever I want to go and do whatever I want to do. It is amazing. But I will be glad when I can just do something by myself again. And perhaps make a friend or two. And I'm hoping God allows Ketamine to give me that. 

So, if you think about me next week, please pray the Ketamine works and I don't have any nasty side effects from it. The one I'm most nervous about are hallucinations since I still remember the night terrors I had as a child. And I remember them vividly. 

The rest of this blog is just photos from the house. Bare, my husband, has worked ridiculously hard most days. He also works most days at local retirement communities. Today was his last gig before my two week treatment since he needs to be there with me. 


And here is what the house looked like when we purchased it. Thanks to Zillow for the photos.

Before, living room

Before, living room

Before, kitchen

Before, kitchen

Before, kitchen

Before, guest room ("my" bedroom)

And the AFTERS (mostly):


Our living room, which is the first room you walk into from the front door (no real entry): 

 The laminate floor was recently installed before the sellers sold it. It isn't our style necessarily but we are thankful it is in good shape and is a fairly neutral color.

This is the second nicest piece of furniture I have ever owned. The first was my adjustable bed that we sold to a friend back in PA so it wouldn't have to make the trip with us. This Cindy Crawford couch comes in at a close second. And did I mention, it was FREE??? Seriously, if the seller is reading this, THANK YOU! (I gave her my blog in hopes she would get to see how lovely the couch is in our living room)

Our little entry area

The Lanai (also called veranda by my husband). This room is behind the living room. So you can fully see it from the front door. It normally has glass sliding doors up but we took them down for now. We put up a ceiling fan (the hubby kept hitting his head on the other one) and organized...some. This room holds all the tools, all the paint and everything else we need to fix our home. So it is messy.

The dining room which we are using as the office. We don't eat at the same time nor do I cook. Ever. So this room functions better as my husband's office.

What would you do with those rolling file cabinets? Anything? I don't necessarily want to pretend we live with no clutter but I dislike anything that just sits out and doesn't have a home.

The kitchen...my favorite room. 

My husband found these stools on the side of a junk shop-like place. They were $15ish (I have it written down but I'm too lazy to get up and look) but were the wrong color. So, we upgraded them with some acrylic paint that I had already. Target had their "holiday" chair pads on sale. They are white with silver threading and were $10.

The light panels were my favorite find. I literally laid on the floor and tried to picture what would work with our dropped ceilings. Raising the ceiling was not an option due to the duct work and cost. I googled acrylic light panels and eventually came up with these. They are called Sky Panels and they are about $40 each.

Thanks Jaime for our new friends!

The master bedroom & bathroom. This is my husband's side of the house. It is through the living room and his room connects via a sliding glass door to the Lanai. My selfless husband said he'd like to do this room last so the rest of the house would be nice for me.

During my husband completely ripping apart the bathroom

So right now we have no second bathroom. Our home is a work in progress with my husband doing 95% of the work himself. I'm amazed that in two months he has gotten the house to come this far!

"My" bathroom - just 7 steps from my bed! This is another room that hasn't been changed yet. So far it has some white primer on it just because we had it left in a tray and didn't want to pour it back in the bucket. It was yellow like the rest of the house.

 The former owners left the pretty shower curtain for us. Funny because we had this same curtain back in our PA home. Except I used the fabric to make valances for the laundry room.

See the little built-in TP & magazine holder? LOVE it!

The laundry room. Not a single thing has been done to this room either. The washer & dryer were left for us and work perfectly. 

Inside the closet is the A/C something & the Hot Water something. 

And the last room in our 1200 sq ft villa is "my" bedroom. This was the first room Bare started. I had a vision and he made it come true. 

Aqua paint inside my closet and on my ceiling! This photo was taken before the hubby put the closet doors back on. I have also since downsized the clothing even a bit more.

Oh how much I adore this funny creature.

We have two outside areas. The first is our front yard which connects to my sliding glass door. The second is off the lanai and I've been back there exactly once so there are no photos.

And some of the chaos from the last two months: 

This was the living room as of about a month ago.

Living room

Living room - getting there!

Living Room

Have you tried the OfferUp app? Amazing. It is like Craigslist but better. I look at it often and several times have made a bit of extra money. Now, Bare has a trailer, a dolly and can lift like a zillion pounds. So I never need to go help nor even get out of bed. He goes and gets the things, cleans them up and I photograph them. Usually I'm looking for items for our home but occasionally we realize they don't work when they get in the house. It is so nice to have a quick & easy option to sell these things. 

One thing I hope to do again is to yard sale! We made it to one sale last week since it was right next door.

Thank you for every single prayer & thought. God has truly been amazing to us and continues to show Himself in so many small and large ways.