What's done is done

We bought this house 11 years ago. It has been a good house. I could go on for hours about how much happiness this house has brought, how it has seen us through good and bad, how it has allowed so much... and it is all true. This is a good little house. But when 'we' moved in, 'we' were two adults and a cat. Now 'we' are four people, two of whom are growing at a rapid pace, and a cat and a dog.

This year-long remodeling project brought into clear focus how impossible it would be to remodel the main house, how long it would take, how much strain it would put on the family. And, yes, it helped us realize how much things cost when you are paying for the paint and the caulk and the dumpster and the people to drive out and then NOT be able to work because of rain... and all those little things.

We bought a bigger house. Yes, we did.

Stink-O-Rama

Stinky. When an animal crawls under your house and dies... it's stinky.... and there are a lot of flies coming out of the tiny crawlspace... and NO! I'm not going down there, on my belly, to drag out the carcass!!!

Termite Doomsday

Thursday, June 11 — It had been on the calendar for months... the week when everything would be perfect and we could tent the house. My folks took the kids for a long weekend (which included a trip to Alexander Springs); the animals were boarded; the medicines, food, and toiletries stowed in gas proof bags; and finally, Jimmy and I moved in with my grandparents.

It was hard to take poor Laika to be boarded, just days after she lost her brother and litter-mate, whom she had never been apart from for more than a few hours.

Saturday a.m. they called and told us we could come back in, so I had a day all to myself, to clean and clear my kitchen... special thanks to Graham Parsons and Paul Westerburg for some excellent tunes to clean by. I threw out a canister of 19-year-old cocoa!!! Whoa!!! Also threw out about a million expired vitamins and medicines....

Bluest House on the Street

Our house is blue.

The Blue Grotto.

New Blue, Goodbye Beige

Today we started painting the house. Got a little rain, which slowed the process.

Jimmy raked and tore out the overgrown. Julian helped mulch the front planter, nearly unloading the truck single-handedly!

Wheeeeee!

Passed electrical inspection with flying colors. Thanks, Matt!

Have narrowed the paint choices down to 2 or 3. Tomorrow we say goodbye to the yellow/beige of the last 11 years.

Finishing the Front Door

Today we urethaned the outside of the front door with a marine varnish. Shiny, to say the least. Used a polyurethane on the inside. Nice, dried fast. Also installed the new door handle and deadbolt.

the Main House

We have also hired another handyman, David G., to do some work on the main house. His first task was to finish the windows Jimmy and Lou replaced over the years. Trim them out and caulk it all nice. He did this on Monday the 9th, then spent the 10th through 12th pressure washing and caulking and patching and fixing some of the unfinished work that our crappy soffit guy left us with. Next week he will start painting!