Moving in with Dad again...

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

I wrote a llllloooooonnnnnnnngggggggggg time ago about having to clean up my dad's place. Well...I did. At least most of it. I scrubbed and cleaned and sorted and tossed, etc. And I got most of the rooms done.

Last summer, I also finished cleaning up his extra bedroom.

The thing is........now that it's been a couple years it's almost as dirty/messy as ever. My dad just can't seem to get his act together...I feel like he's becoming a pack-rat.

The problem with this is that the kids and I want to move in with him next October. Soooooooo.........there's a lot of work to be done. Again.

Starting in March, big things are happening, inshaAllah.

I didn't get to tear down the walls and put up new ones, so that needs to be done. At least for two of the upstairs bedrooms. The kitchen needs a new ceiling....and the bathroom needs a new tub.

Those are the biggest problems. I won't go in too much about the garage roof or the outdated kitchen with the tar pit in the middle of the floor where my dad tried taking out the tiles years ago... As long as the big problems get taken care of, I'm sure I can get to the rest of it all in good time.

The thing is that I'm going to start working again. And I'm going back to school. InshaAllah I'll have enough time! I'm afraid I'm going to have to do everything on Saturdays when my dad is at work--because I think he's a little like me and can't stand to sit around while other people work.

Sooooooooo. Before we can move in, these things need to be accomplished:
--tear out walls upstairs and put up new drywall/sheetrock
--put in new tub or new tub surround

Things that would help:
--Put in a new ceiling in the kitchen
--Get electricity to my closet (my dad rewired last fall and hasn't quite finished everything). It's a big closet and it needs light. Maybe an outlet, too...

Things that I hope to accomplish in the (possibly) four years I'm to live with him:
--Take down ugly 70's wallpaper and replace with neutral paints
--Paint all of the moulding white white
--Paint all the doors either white or black
--Paint the ugly back stair wall panelling a creamy color
--Put in bookcases on the back landing
--Remodel bathroom--Home Depot
--Remodel kitchen--Ikea
--Etch glass on the front door and foyer window
--Replace door hardware on ALL the doors
--Refinish the wood floors downstairs and upstairs

That's quite a lot...there are other smaller things I'd like to do. For instance, the foyer closet is pretty big and there are two doors to it. One door in the foyer and the other in the dining room. I'd like to make the closet smaller and put a walk-through in. I'd pretty much just take the doors off of their hinges, take out the door hardware and put up new moulding fo finish it and make it look like that's the way it was meant to be.

With the big things, my brother is willing to help. InshaAllah it'll be fine. I'm sure he can also scavenge up some friends for times when two people just aren't enough for the job. My husband will help with the walls and with the things that he can before he leaves.

The house, as is, is pretty bad. But it's a 1903 house with a lot of potential. The rooms are large and there are a lot of them. Living room, family room, dining room, kitchen, pantry, three bedrooms, one bath and two staircases. The ceilings are high and the moulding is attractive, but not gaudy. The windows in the house are huge and since the front of the house faces North, the side of the house (which is longer than the front/back) catches both the morning and evening sunlight, mashaAllah.

I'm hoping that the benefits from me living with my dad don't all fall on my side. I really wish that I can be of some use to my dad. Honestly, I think that he just doesn't know where to begin. He lived with my mother for so long that he doesn't know anything else. InshaAllah I can take care of some of that. I think that my housework will be appreciated, inshaAllah.