Boy, has my day in the life done an about face recently! Those are birds you hear chirping …and yes… that is a breeze through the open window. It’s about 6am, the sun has risen and I am wide awake. A mere 90 miles from New York City ~ but it might as well be a world away!

I roll out of my bed onto the sawdust covered floor. I am achy from sleeping on my budget-friendly Ikea mattress. I rub my eyes, grab my laptop and head out to the barn (in my pajamas!) to make espresso. Why is the espresso maker in the barn, you ask?

As part of the house renovation, we ripped out the kitchen in order to do the flooring – which means everything I eat is either grilled or I grab something to eat while I am out and about. For the last 45 days, I have been camping at our new house and overseeing the tradesmen who work on the renovation project. Each week, it’s something new. First it was two weeks of pure demolition work. Then it was a week of radiant heat concrete flooring. I was inspired by glossy white floors, so that is exactly what we went for when we installed ours.

Each morning, contractors and tradesmen show up about 7:30 am. I am one double espresso into my day by that point. I have been sitting out in the garage, doing my good morning tweets and making an effort to put together a blog post for ABCD Design.

It’s usually about 10 am when I am returning emails that I get a call from the Mr. He’s working in the City all week long and wants to hear a step-by-step recount of the morning progress. Sometimes it’s a smidge frustrating as there is not a whole lot of progress by that early hour. Living apart from him in order to watch over the project is a necessity. However, I miss him a lot and can’t wait for this renovation to be over so I can see him on more than just the weekends.

Image via We Heart It

Speaking of which, none of the tradesmen work on Saturday and Sunday. I pick the Mr. up from the train station on Friday nights around 8pm. In the morning, we get a good breakfast and then we spend the day cycling. But that is an entirely different, and very painful story at that.

Back to my day! I answer any questions that the workers have, and do research on the next project in the renovation pipeline. All the while, I’ve had to think about a color palette for the house. When you’ve been away from your belongings for as long as I have, I am having a hard time remembering the exact tones and colors of the carpets and upholstered pieces we own.

I decided to play it neutral. I most likely would have done so anyway… I always tend to get my ‘pops’ of color from artwork, pillows, and accessories. We started the painting phase of our project last week right after I had a woodworker in to build a closet and add shaker peg board to the walls of our bedrooms.

Can you believe that the previous owners built the house with only one closet? This new little house is about 100 sq ft larger than our old apartment. Our last place had an entire wall of floor to ceiling closets. I’m going to need to get creative with storage, so we ripped out a wall and added a closet in the master bedroom.

*The photo above explains why I awake next to a pile of sawdust!* It’s never ending – I vacuum up one pile only to find another. Needless to say, I think being without a nest to feather for the last *nearly* two years has really allowed me to get my priorities in order. I am so excited to retrieve our things from storage on August 18th that I will go through any renovation stress to get there!

During the day, I run through the house and snap photos of our project as things change and evolve. When I am stuck on a decision, or when me and the Mr. don’t see eye-to-eye, I consult my interior design friends on Twitter. The great thing is that I’ll ask a question and have nearly 500 people willing to give their educated opinion from my 140 character description of the project in question. How cool is that?

The tradesmen leave the house anywhere between 4pm and 6pm. I freshen up, and make dinner. Then, it’s early to bed for another talk on the phone with my hubby. I recap the progress of the day, wish him good night and turn in.