Update February 14

Weelllll, it's been a while. We've been dealing with wicked cold weather, worse weather when Rich is not working, Rich working all the time, family things, hockey games, remembering that we're married and we really should get out once in a while, me working and trying to drum up business, and doing taxes and crying about how much the government is setting our plans back on this house by taking all our money in taxes. Yeeha.

There are still BH&G tablecloths on the kitchen floor. I almost don't even see the pattern anymore unless I forget to lift my feet (my normal mode of transport is officially shuffling in flip flops under socks to keep my feet from freezing from the cold floor) and I trip over a tablecloth edge. Very classy.

We did get edge-banding for the counters measured, cut, glued together, nailed together, sanded and ready for staining over the weekend. It seems like an easy project, but to do it right involved way more planning than you'd think. The cabinets on one side of the kitchen are slightly shorter than the others, so the edge banding has to be a slightly different size to make up for the built-up height of the countertop so that you don't feel like you're rolling out cookie dough on a child's table. Who knew that 1/2" of height difference would be the difference between feeling like a giant versus a little person when rolling out pie crusts? Now I have each of the pieces to the countertops spread out over the dance hall with their first coat of stain on them. Only 18 more hours, extra sanding, more staining, more tack-cloth wiping, good lighting and low humidity to go!

As an extra special gift, we finally installed the storm door in the front yesterday (yeah, the one we bought back in um, I think, June?). The blessing of having brick is that it radiates heat, so although the wind was trying to do a number on us, we were able to still stand in the relative shelter of the lee of the house and get the door installed without breaking it. Now I can leave the front door open and light POURS through the front of the house and even goes through the opening at the top of the wall in the kitchen, so that the kitchen is just a tiny bit less gloomy. Opening the wall between the kitchen and living room is starting to become a priority in both our minds, I think. Call it a mental health priority.

Now that we have a "new" thing in the front of the house, Eli has resorted to slinking around the halls, and any time he sees a change in the light of the hallway, he freezes, eyes dilating, and he "white roaches it" down the hall to some new hiding spot. Meanwhile, most of the entire time we were installing the door, Spatz was doing his utmost to sneak through any opening and make a dash for freedom. By the time we were done, he was lounging on the carpet in the hallway getting heat-drunk. That's my boy.

Spending so much time on the front entrance also brought to remembrance just how horrible our front door/front trim looks. Don't get me wrong . . . I think people's overall comments about the curb appeal of the house is something akin to saying "that's great!" to a 3-year-old's rendition of the family portrait; and I know deep in my heart that our house is just plain ugly. But when you've lived in it a while, and recognize that until money starts rolling in, the curb appeal will remain in stasis, you just start forgetting that you're the eyesore of the neighborhood. Your neighbors kindly and sweetly remind you that plants could be your friend, and you jokingly talk about how the plant money went to new plumbing, and you hope they all forgive you. But OH MY GOSH the front door is hideous!! It really all needs new caulking and painting and probably wood replacement . . .

I wonder when my next closing will happen?