Update September 30

Now I have dishpan hands. Better than beefy hands, I suppose.

A GREAT DEAL has happened since last posting. The 18th was what, almost 2 weeks ago? Since then, we've had parental units and aunt, uncle and cousin units all to the house, and then kicked it all into high gear to get ready for another parental unit to come and stay with us for a while.

In a nutshell, we got a lot of the kitchen in. All the cabinets and all the cabinet hardware is installed. Rich put in pull out shelves in the pantry, installed the sink (with several trips to Lowe's for the right parts), installed the microwave/convection oven/range hood (surprisingly easy for that part, but a pain in the butt for the exterior vent above, which is jury-rigged in there, but will have to be redone to make Rich happy), installed the gas range/oven (with several trips to Lowe's for the right parts, and a couple trips under the house to make sure the valves to the gas were turned on), wrestled our stainless french door bottom freezer fridge through the kitchen doorway (after having to take off the door jamb to get it through!), put in the new fridge filter that now sprays inexplicably and gives low-flow filtered water to any person with the patience of a saint that wants it cold, and placed some of the salvaged hardwoods around on the tar paper in the floor to figure out what kind of pattern we want for the hardwoods in there. We've even ordered the floor, which came in this week and Rich has to pick it up in the truck when it fianlly stops raining.

Things we don't have in the kitchen yet: countertops (we have OSB cut to size and covered with $1.50 plastic tablecloth, stapled to the edges, to act as a barrier between us and the splinters in the OSB), running dishwasher (not counting myself, Rich, and Babs), under cabinet lighting, lighting over the sink, lighting over the eventual bar area to the living room, pullouts and cubbies for some of the pots, pans and cookie sheets, and flooring. For all intents and purposes, we have a functioning kitchen. I fixed our first dinner on the stove last night. Love the new stove . . . the grates over the burners extend fully from one side of the stove to the other, so you can put pans and pots and cookie sheets anywhere on the top and you don't have to balance them on a grate on the surface. Very nice.

Sorry this is all truncated, but I truly believe if I wrote down all my thoughts and ideas over the last two weeks in this one post, it would be the end of the readership, so I'm trying to keep it brief and just let you catch up.

We moved all the stuff out of the true master bedroom and moved our bed, a couple of dressers and other pieces of furniture into the room. We got most of my clothing out of the guest room and moved almost all the extra stuff in the guest room out and moved the two mattresses in. We left one dresser, a piano bench as a side table, curtains, and a lamp in there. The rest is bare. It looks like a convent room, actually. I also couldn't stand the dirtied walls in there, so the day Barbara was to arrive (at 11 pm that night), I painted her room. Complete with curtains, we have a real guest room now. Once Rich and I have a real closet, things will move yet again, so there will be more furniture and such in the guest room that is now occupying space in our own room, but for now, it works and the room keeps the rain off Barb's face at night while she sleeps, so that's enough (according to her).

We got the futon frame and carpet remnant and papazan chair into the dance hall, in front of the TV, so now we have a "family room" and plenty of space for B, SIL, and kids to come in October to sleep over.

Kitties are now in the dance hall (except when the above guest list arrives), with all their stuff including litter boxes and chairs to see out of the enormous windows, and they seem to be adapting pretty well.

Rich, all by himself, moved the furniture around in the living room, which we're still unhappy with, to determine the best layout. The room is VERY awkwardly laid out, so we may end up having to buy a couple of chairs to help balance the room. Not sure how it's all going to work out yet . . . I may have to get my drawing program out again and start mapping out furnture to make it work.

The office is slowly getting unpacked and organized . . .

We have to pick out paint soon to take advantage of the free labor we have here, so we can paint and then start decorating a bit to make it feel less like a construction zone and more like a house.

Rich has also worked on emptying the dining room so that some day, it'll be available for actual eating. This still involves moving out the old kitchen stove/range, and all the tools, but that can't really be done well until his workshop is better organized to receive all that stuff. Again, the simile with the slider-puzzle-thingy--one thing leads to another.

Bottom line, I've been way too busy to blog, or to be funny and blog, so this time it's just the facts. But the house is really starting to look more like a house, which is a nice change.

Hopefully, I'll be better able to blog once work slows down a bit. I've got clients, which is great, but it cramps my ability to work on the house. I have CE classes all day tomorrow, Rich works the weekend, and I got summoned for jury duty on Tuesday. Hopefully, I won't even have to go in, but for now I'm practicing my intolerant, highly opinionated stance to get "unpicked" if necessary.

see ya soon . . .