Remodeling Update with Pictures

I am a little behind at blogging! Friday was a busy day at my "undisclosed place of employment" with a holiday potluck and chinese gift exchange. I got a foot massager that is fuzzy and pressure sensitive, it has bear heads on it like character slippers. It's great... and when I am in my office it sounds like I have a vibrator in there with me (not that I would know what that sounds like or anything) but it sure did crack people up at work. So that was a neat gift, and the mystery giver even included batteries! How nice. Then we were extremely busy doing undisclosed IT business.

Pete stayed in town on Friday and slept in our spare room, we went out to the Big Apple for a late supper and then to Wise guys in Princeton for drinks, where we met John and Amethyst. We had so much fun. I miss getting to hang out with Amy. Then we stopped by Ricky's (I mean the Dog House, but I still want to Call it Ricky's) for a drink. We chatted with Lisa, and Joe Fritz and Ryan Morrisey (it was his birthday) and went home about 2am.

Today Kyle (BIL) came over and he and Evan plowed the drive with the 4-wheeler, then took the riding mower and garden cart out to the farm for the winter. Now it is snowing again. Dad measured 6.5 inches at the farm and Bob measured 4.5 inches at their farm, about 15-20 miles apart. We are kinda in the middle and to the east, and we probably have 5 inches or so, just bye eying it. Pete went home to 8-10 inches in the Chicago Metro Area.

The flakes are big and fluffy, and the wind is blowing. I ran the dishwasher, made hot dogs for lunch and pasta salad for later. I made a card for a friend and am reading the new Martha Stewart 100 cookie recipe magazine. Yeesh! They look yummy. Dogs finally got to break out of their front porch prison for a day in the "open" half of the house.

As for the house, contractor has surgery on Friday so this place needs to be finished by then. It will be "move-in-able" but with no finishing touches (i.e. curtains, blinds, pictures and things on walls) Because he probably won't have time to hang them. He told me yesterday that he was working today (saturday) and tomorrow (sunday) to get things done, but he hasn't shown up yet and it is 2pm. WOW it is really coming down now. Look at all that snow! Our driveway (out back) looks awful white trash, with our old carpet rolled up in a heap under the snow, the 4 wheeler with the plow hanging out till the guys get back, and the contractor's trailer. And this is the clean view, where you don't see the swing, the outdoor furniture, the planter boxes withd dead flowers, the garden hose reels that should be inside so they don't freeze and crack the hoses. It's insanity here, all because of this remodeling and the fact that we can't get into our garage at all, let alone PARK in it! Our poor vehicles are outside, when I left work on Friday, there was so much moisture from the snow in my vents that the INSIDE of my car windshield had a layer of ice (yes ice) on it. I had to scrape the INSIDE and the OUTSIDE of my windshield. How fucked up is that? Oh how I miss my garage.

The house.... the floors are almost finished. One side needs just one more coat of sealer (edges only) and the other side needs two around the edges only. The center square that was stained has been stained and then sealed three times. The walls are all painted, except the orange that I chose turned out to be too bright, so I had to choose a darker orange, called Rumba Orange (kinda Yam colored) that is a more burnt orange. We have the paint, so it's a matter of me being PATIENT. which I am not good at. They have some of the trim finished. They are just starting to put all the trim back up, so you can see lots of places without trim, around all the windows, the built in cabinets and pillars, the doors, and the baseboards. But we are much closer. Thank the lord. I am putting in lots of pictures.