Smelling the Barn

We always joke about what happen when the horse smells the barn at the end of a long day. The pace quickens, and impatience overtakes fatigue.

That's where we are now on the big project. The stove hood is going in today, and except for the carpeting of the living room, that's about the last major item. Lots of little stuff remaining: light fixtures, bits of trim here and there, removing the stickers from the windows and skylights, etc.

But more than 4 months after the day the guys arrived with the Sawzall and wrecking bars, it's almost done. We have a big sheaf of owner's manuals to digest (there's food in the fridge and I've used the microwave, but the dishwasher and stove remain untested), and we still don't know what half of the new light switches operate.

It still seems a little unreal. You get used to living in construction mode, and it's going to take some time to adapt to the fact that we can actually live in the place we envisioned so many months ago.

Milestone

Short dispatch:

I ate breakfast in the new kitchen this morning.

Fridge, sink, dishwasher, stove, lights, and my magic coffeemaker all up and running. Still waiting on the fancy new "microwave in a drawer" to get hooked up.

Of course, the ambience was a bit lacking: a card table standing on top of the paper that protects the hardwoord floor. But darn, that cereal and coffee tasted good.

Holy Cow!

We got back from ten days of travel to find an amazing change. For months, we've watched the construction team remake half of the house: living room, dining room, kitchen, family room.

While we were gone, they moved into the bedrooms, hallways, and offices. New paint, new carpets, new baseboards--it's like a whole new house. It smells new and looks really good.

And maybe best of all: they installed the new laundry machines. We're still getting used to the Euro-style front-loader machines (they sound and operate WAY different from our aged Kenmores), but we've already broken them in. No more Laundromat for us!

The kitchen is still a few days away, though the refrigerator and dishwasher are ready for use and the pantry can now be stocked.

Our immediate task is to move all the stuff we moved out of the bedrooms and offices back into those rooms. I got started last night by setting up my computer and the WiFi network, and amazingly, everything worked right away. Got Tharon's office set up and running. And we even got the TiVo and the small TV rigged so we could watch....well, more diving from the Olympics. With all due respect to my friend Ted Robinson, HOW MANY DIVING EVENTS DO THEY HAVE?!?

Good News/Bad News

The good news is huge: there's water in the kitchen sink! I have a strong urge to go do some dishes in there, but since Tharon is the one who's had to wrestle with dirty dishes in the bathroom sink for all these weeks, she's going to be the one to inaugurate the kitchen.

The bad news: we have to empty out the bedrooms and the office in the next 5 days. That will allow the paint and carpet teams to sweep in while we're on vacation. If this all works out right, we'll return to freshly-painted rooms with new carpeting.

And then we can start moving all the stuff back in that we're now moving out...