Well, it's been a few days and I have done some work but used the wrong camera and cannot post the pictures.  No matter.  A new revealation has occurred to me.

I just spent another two days in the hospital.  It seems every time I work on the house I end up sick or in the hospital.  For me this is the 4th time and it has come to my attention that the Universe has been sending me messages and I have ignored them.  I am not to work on this myself.  Therefore I am going to spend probably my entire savings account to hire someone to come in and finish it.

I have started over in life too many times to be concerned with whether I have any money or not.  When I left my first marriage I left with $500.00 in my pocket and a self employed job.  Nothing to depend on or no one to depend on but myself.  And, I survived. 

Of course a year and a half later I found out I had cancer in my neck and underwent surgery and radiation and ended up broke and on welfare and food stamps for a period of time until I was told I had to move from my apartment and move to the projects.  Well that didn't go over too well with me so I again knew I could not depend on anyone but myself and I survived.

A few years after that I met a man I liked a lot and after knowing him for a month I up and dismantled my apartment and went on the road with him for the next 52 weeks before we stopped for a bit.  22 years later after a wonderful journey through life he left via a heart attack and again I was left but to depend on no one but myself.  Now, 2.5 years later I am here and surviving. 

I know for certain that even if I spend my last dime to get this house liveable again I will come out on top and be the happier for it.  For some reason the Universe has always taken care of me.  I think it comes from faith because it has always done so for me in the past.  I need nothing more than to know I am capable of finding what it is I need, be it a friend to chat with or a hot meal or place to stay or a short term job to give me the cash I need to meet an obligation.  It will come.  If I ask the universe to help me along, it does.

This is a concept few people can grasp.  For them it seems security is in having things and money .  For me security is in knowing I have everything I need to get me through another day.  It is within my power to access what I need through my experiences with life.  There is always help out there and there is always hope and  faith.  with these things which cannot be bought we can find what we need to survive and in some instances thrive.  We become stronger because we see the strength we didn't know we had come to serve us in ways we didn't know were possible.  And with that we build ourselves up again and again and again. 

Thanks for stopping by.
Peggy

An update on what has happened since last post.  I now have a gas stove with the tile work behind the stove..  My small bath is tiled and grouted but trim work yet to be done. 

I did hire someone to install this tile as I was too intimidated to tackle it myself and am pleased with the results.

Here is a picture of my pink bedroom where I only wallpapered the front wall as an accent.  some fabric shades or white drapes will probably follow.  I'll let you know and post pics.  It will be a while for that though.

 

 

Can't seem to find the picture of the tile work, so will take some and get back later.  I will be putting in the floor molding today and then priming and painting. 

Hope you enjoy seeing my progress.  Hope to get it all done and be in it before I have to have my next surgery.  It may be sooner than I was planning.  A motivation factor for sure.

Thanks for stopping by and for any comments you may leave.  I am always grateful to those who tell me what they think.  It gives me guidance. 

 

Living room where gas heater will be installed.

 

 

 

This is the tile I laid myself for the gas heater to be set upon.  Not a long nor hard job.  I first had to put a leveler on the floor to support the tile so it would not crack.  The boards underneath were somewhat curved due to warping. 

Obviously I had the stove professionally installed.  I did however hang the sheetrock myself in this room. I did have help from my daughter to do the cement board behind the furnace.  That was a challenge to say the least.  Problems came up.  Something to think about.  I didn't know I needed an electrical outlet for the furnace so I had covered up the box.  Of course I then found out I did need it and had to remove the cement board and recut to allow for that.  Sounds easy, but believe me we were about to tear our hair out.

Now this was my tenants master bedroom.  The cabinet was in the master bath area, just moved for convenience to work.  The bedroom currently looks like this........

The walls are a very pale pink with wallpaper.  I will furnish pattern and company if anyone wants to know, but I don't have it handy right now.

Enough for today.  I'll update more shortly.  Making progress. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope your projects are also coming along.  Will be searching your blogs for inspiration that you all furnish me with.

The past year has been a really challenging one for me and my blog has all but ended, however, I hope to reconstruct it into a place where women  can see that they can do just about anything if they set their mind to it.

Background why it is changing from art to home renovation is because it's all I can do at the moment to keep moving forward with my life.  My partner of 23 years passed away in 2009 and didn't leave me with much in terms of financial security.   That comes from my belief that the Universe takes care of us if we just ask and I have been asking, believe me. 

Most everyone knows that the hurricane Irene came in August of 2011 and of course as luck would have it I lost every part of my downstairs apartment.  ( I own a two family and live upstairs.)  So not only did I lose my space, I lost a great tenant and the income from the rental of that apartment.  Another financial blow.

Of course the Universe wasn't finished with me yet as in May of this year in the middle of trying to fix things up I had a medical emergency and major surgery which left me with a colostomy and unable to do the work necessary.  Plus, of course I was absent from my paying position as an aide on a school bus for special needs kids. My job ended as the school year was over in June and so they terminated my position.  My doctors will not allow me to go back due to physical requirements I can not meet at this time.  Loss of my income from the work doesn't help either.  On the plus side, and there always is one, is that I do get Social Security income.  Just enough to get by without too many perks.

And so it is that my main focus besides keeping my health since the surgery is to get the apartment ready to move into.  I will move in it myself and then rent out the upper apartment and get back to some having more income.

Since art is on the back burner I decided to show pictures of my progress .  First I will post some pictures of the flood that took so much from our village and residents.  Then hopefully you can see the progress I've made.

I have to add that in the beginning I had family and friends helping out, but as time goes on, people get tired and slip away to work on their own projects.  Perfectly understandable, but leaving the "rest" up to me which is also ok.  Hard, but ok.

Some of the earlier pictures here.

 

 

 

 

For anyone wondering why no posts on my blog, there has been a very good reason. 

I entered into a health crisis that  put me in critical condition and in the hospital for a couple of weeks having had emergecy major surgery.  I am still in the process of recovery today June 4 and although I am home am unable to drive or lift anythinng heavier than a milk carton.

I had a flair up of Diverticulitis but was unaware of what it was so I spent 2 days at home in extreme pain before going to the hospital.  After 4 days of tryig to clear up an infection for a ruptured sack I ruptured another one requirig emergency surgery.  Removal of a section of my intestines has left me with an ostomy bag which I am hoping will be  a temporary fix.  The Dr's say that in about 3 or 4 months they can reverse the surgery and put me back together again.  I am hoping that is the case.

In the meantime I am unable to work so in my recovery I am hoping each day that perhaps I will be able to get back to doing some art and posting it here. I am now in a position to get back to simple things and checking out your blogs will be a nice past time for me and will hopefully inspire me to do more.

Thanks for your understanding.
Peggy