I’ve been juggling dogs the past week. Not to worry, I’m not actually throwing them in the air and literally “juggling”. But there has been some fast-paced moving of moms this week. Let me explain. Sorry, this may be a long-winded post.

Our house is an ongoing project. We’ve lived here twenty+ years and still finishing things. Why, you might ask? Well, hubby has done almost one-hundred percent of the work himself (except we hired someone to do the foundation and we’ve had a some family members pitch in now and then at the beginning). So it’s just a process of when we have money saved for another project and he had time to finish something else. He was working full-time through most of those years, until almost three years ago when the plant he was working in shut down and “forced” him to retire (although he wasn’t technically old enough for retirement) and help me with the dogs full-time.

So the most recent project was the stairs from the main living area upstairs to the bedrooms. All these years we’ve just had painted roughed-out, basic stairs, nothing fancy, just functional. (Now that our son and DIL have bought their first house and are working on little projects, it’s lit a little fire under hubby to finish some things here. Yippee! My nagging may have affected him too ;P )

So he has dutifully been building new stairs that can be finished, and look nice!

Finally the day came. Last Sunday the stairs were finished, sanding done, cleaned and ready to stain. He was waiting for a Sunday to do this because our youngest is home again and his room is upstairs. Obviously the stairs couldn’t be used for a while after application to let the stain dry. Sunday, the youngest leaves for his 48-hour sift at the local EMS/fire station so it was the perfect time to finish the stairs.

Now, I have to tell you, I’m super sensitive to smells. In fact, I think my husband thinks I’m a bit “nuts’ in this department. But it’s just the way I am.

So I asked him about the stain. And he tells me, “oh, it won’t be that bad at all”…famous last words. I don’t know what I was thinking, thinking this would be okay to do now.

So Sunday I’m sitting at my desk (the kitchen table) working. I was pretty focused on what I was doing so not paying attention to hubby. And then it hit me. The overpowering smell of the stain. I ran over to peek up the stairs and noticed he was just a couple stairs into it.

My first frantic thought was, “the babies”! Glory, Hazel, and Gracie with their babies were all in the living room, along with our new chicks. We all know that dog noses are much more sensitive then human noses.

So as fast as I could I let moms outside then starting lugging these giant crates through the house and up the other stairs to the puppy room, far, far away from the stench and behind a closed door. I got the chicks moved and settled in too. Then brought the moms back inside and settled them into their new room with their respective babies.

Hubby seemed to be oblivious to my frantic moving……*insert eye roll 😛

I went back downstairs and starting opening windows and doors to try and clear out some of the smell. But I could not stay indoors even then.

So I took my work and went outside. That worked for a while until the wind picked up and the temperature dropped a bit.

So then I moved to my “mobile office” with my trusty sidekick.

I tried to spend as little time in the house as possible that day and into the evening. The main part of the house got pretty chilly with the doors and windows open. Thankfully our bedroom door was closed which kept the smell out enough that we could sleep okay.

The next day the clear coat was put over the stain. Thankfully that wasn’t as potent as the stain itself. But the moms and babies stayed upstairs all week to be safe.

Later in the week the stairs were dry and “stink-free” so it was time to bring the girls back downstairs. And it was time for the two oldest litters; Hazel’s and Gracie’s to move to the puppy pens.

All settled in with more room and their first litter box!

And now we actually have pretty finished stairs.

“Honey, “we” need to paint the walls now”. (“we”means I have the ideas and he does it:P ) hehe