Embarrassing Moments in the Wood Stove Adventure

The adventures in getting a wood stove where numerous throughout the day. I worked on my laptop and went through address labels for the middle school ministry at church. I also worked on a couple publications. One thing I found out that you don't necessarily want to hear as your walls, floor, and roof/ceiling in your bedroom are being cut up are 'hmmm...that's not quite right,' after the saw just finished running! Evidently, things were okay because the work on the chimney installation went on, all day!! I really hope we didn't pay by the hour because it took longer than they expected because of our trusses.

The most adventurous part of the day for me came when I showed the two guys the basement and where the stove was to be put, then the closet that the pipe would run through up in our bedroom. As I mentioned before, we don't have a chimney in the house, so they had to install it. I had to clean out my side of the closet so I took my clothes, shoes, bags, blankets, pillows, and containers that were on my side of the closet and PILED them in my office area, thinking that they were using every other room in the house, except the upstairs bathroom, so my stuff would be safe hiding away in my room. As they finished up looking in the closet, they started to look up at the vaulted ceiling in our bedroom. Now, remember, they had been in the house about two minutes. One asks me, 'Where's the attic?' I got a very nauseous feeling in my stomach and said 'The attic????' "Yes, we need to access the attic." I start thinking what if I pretend we don't have one?????? But, I can't lie about it. I was trying to play dumb and just stood there, thinking that if I didn't answer, maybe they would stop asking. "Ummmm......do you HAVE to use it," I ask. I look at the two guys, who obviously aren't finding me terribly amusing, and they say yes they need the attic. We have never been in our attic, and honestly I couldn't remember for sure where the entry to it was, so as we are walking out of the bedroom to the little hall, I am praying that the attic entry is in our hallway, however, it was not. I just stood there at the top of the stairs, and the one guy says to me that the entry is probably in the other room. Yes, I had that thought by now! I wanted to ask them if they could just climb up the heating vent, I mean it's the same size as the attic entry space! I turned and looked at them, and said that I would check in the other room. I opened the door, and there it was, right inside the door, right before Mt. Junkouttamycloset rose from the floor. I was horrified. I turned around and could feel my face turning beat red. I tried to explain away the stuff and was apologizing like crazy, but I'm sure they were equally as horrified as I was when they saw the room! I mean, this room is never spotless. It's my space to work on the computer, my photos, and my crafts. It has a lot of books, craft equipment in roller carts, a table, and my desk. This is the room where all my creative juices literally spill out all over the table, desk, and shelves, and sometimes the floor. Of course, as I opened the door, I could see it had spilled out on all the above, in deep, deep piles. As if it wasn't bad enough that these two guys saw the mess, the owner of the company stopped by to check on their progress, and then another worker stopped by to help them get the stove in the house, so the horror show continued throughout the day, as more guys paraded through the house to see the gigantic, tornado-like disaster area. I really believe that they were texting pictures, telling others to come check out Mt. Junkouttamycloset.

I had planned to work in that room all day, behind closed doors, first on things from work, and then I wanted to play with Photoshop, but instead I was in the living room and kitchen area all day, cringing every time I saw one of them go in that room. I mean, our basement is far from organized as it has been a storage area for the past couple months for somethings we need to get through, but it's the basement. I wasn't thrilled with how it looked but could live with it. However, my space is upstairs and is a big deal to me. One thing I can guarantee is that some serious organizing is about to take place!