The light at the end of the tunnel

Since June I've been working on The House of Goodwill, mainly painting, getting it in shape to be an airbnb.  (As well as second home for our family.)

The garage is full of furniture; I've put off moving most of it inside till the painting is done.  And the painting has taken me a VERY long time, due to our foster placement remaining with us six months longer than we expected, as well as the dark molding throughout the house needing five coats of paint to cover it up.  (Not to mention that I'm slow!)

So, since June the house has been in some state of disarray, as furniture and "stuff" keeps getting moved around as I paint.  I also keep bringing in "new" things.  Every Goodwill or thrift store purchase goes in a pile to be cleaned before it's used, and then I have to figure out where to put it.  So though we've been living there more or less for the last five months, it's nice to be back at the home/house now for the holidays, where it feels nice and settled.

Anyway, after I finished painting the last bedroom, I was able to move into place two pieces of furniture: a dresser that had been sitting in the middle of a room (it's finally out of the way!) and a queen bed whose mattresses had been leaning against a bedroom wall for the last five months.

Two small things that really made the house feel like more of a home, and less of an unfinished project.

I'm finally far enough along that I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I'm probably halfway done with the painting.  

After that will come the fun part: putting things together.  But I got a little taste of that before I left, when we got to set the bed up and move the dresser.

Here they are:

I found this queen size iron bed for sale on the nextdoor app for $50.

Isn't it lovely?

The seller gave us the mattress and box spring for free.

The bedspread was $35, pillows were $14 (for both) and sheets were $17.

So altogether, just over $100 for the whole bed setup.

Here is the marble-topped dresser I found on the nextdoor app for $200.

I just absolutely love it, and it's HUGE.

The lamp was $5 from a thrift store.

I had been waiting to set up this furniture till the last room was painted, since that's where I was going to put it.  But as soon as we had the bed set up, my son informed me that he "always wanted a big bed, bigger than he needed."  This was a "dream" in his life, which he had never happened to mention before.

(I had been planning to put a daybed in the room he's claimed for himself, with a trundle underneath.  I have the bed already, but haven't gotten mattresses yet.  He's been sleeping on the sofa in the downstairs apartment for the last five months.)

So we took the bed apart, carried it to his room and set it up again there.  I opened the sheets and bedspread and got him set up, so he finally has his own space at The House of Goodwill.  (He chose his room because it has it's own bathroom, as well as a big closet.)

So we're inching forward.  But it's better than staying still!