“I need 8 thousand dollars.”

That sounds like the beginning of an indie movie and it kind of feels like that too. I almost gave money to a professional gambler yesterday to go make it for me, but decided against that with ideas of morality and “work for what you get” mentality rushing in.

The scaffolding went up on our building and with it we have been enclosed in darkness. The inside of our apartment gets hardly any daylight now.

In San Francisco indoor light is a commodity. All of the buildings are usually side to side. It’s why you see so many bay windows here. We have to get the light in somehow. With the scaffolding up as well as the protective netting for lead abatement, there is now just about one hour a day where sun peeks through the Eastern windows.

While the exterior painting goes on and the other units get demolished I am anxiously working the numbers so we can get as much upgraded as possible in our unit while the construction is ongoing. It would be much easier in the long run to fully redo the kitchen, bathroom and refurbish the hardwood floors now while the whole building is being overhauled than wait until some later date when “we have the money”.

So I need 8 thousand dollars. Actually I think it may only be 6, but 8 to be safe which probably means I need 10.

These are exciting times here for us. My husband and mother-in-law are carrying the majority of the stress of the project currently while I am still in dream mode of what I want our unit to look like. I’m saving my energy for the final miles that will be the marathon of redoing a kitchen, bath, floors and repainting half of our interior while still living here with three kids. I’ve mostly just been pinning away on Pinterest and getting rid of as much extra stuff we don’t need or use as possible as I try to morph myself into a home care goddess Martha Stewart would make a shrine for.

But still, it looms, I need 8 thousand dollars. I know it will come from somewhere. Maybe I’ll book a National commercial or I’ll discover a savings account I forgot I had. I know it will come from somewhere I just haven’t found it yet.

Phoebe says we are building a castle. When the men were putting up the scaffolding she ran around the house saying “Mommy! There’s a man building a castle!”

So while the sun is eclipsed and the money is buried I am holding this firm. We are creating a home. We are taking advantage of timing and opportunity. We are investing in a home base for our family to recharge before we face the world of our daily lives.

We are building a castle.

//If you’re a pinner come follow along with all my house pins! You can find my account HERE.//

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Jennifer Latch