Work, work, work

How's the renovation going? Four purchases yesterday at Home Depot according to my online and now frightfully low checking account balance. Is God in the details or is it the devil? I'm never quite sure having heard it both ways, but I do know Ben Franklin and Andrew Jackson figure in there quite prominently.

I'll post some more photos soon. The kitchen is almost finished. According to Jorge, there is a new appliance package in our near future. First though, I have the gas guy coming to give us an estimate for converting. I'm no gourmet chef extolling the benefits of precise heat, I just want to be able to boil water the next time a frequent lightning storm or hurricane knocks out power. I was hoping we'd get our friend to custom fabricate stainless steel brackets for the open shelving, but at this late date these IKEA brackets and shelves are looking pretty good. I will need three. Say goodbye to another Franklin.

The back room, which will be my bedroom one day, had the ceiling and old insulation ripped out on a whim right before Jorge left for Nashville, and is now sealed off, unusable with its furnace-like temperatures. It will be slightly less sweltering when I can open all the windows after picking up the new screens. Ben Franklin, Ben Franklin, Ben Franklin. In the meantime I will be taking up air-conditioned residency in what is to eventually be Grice's room. I am also earning her animosity. For 15 years she has been waiting for her own room. Can you feel the angst? Good thing she's going away for a week.

The living room just needs artwork and I haven't quite decided what is going where. Generally I'm competent at hanging pictures on walls. I bang 'em up after eyeballing the space where Jorge requires building permits, tape measures, and levels, but I admit I will need help hanging some of our 36 x 48" monstrosities. My cousin is coming for a visit soon. Her husband is handy.

And what are these "curtains" people speak of? In all our 20+ years of habitation I have never familiarized myself with these items. Venetian blinds on a window or two once, maybe. Am I worried about people peeking in my windows? This is apparently a huge concern to many people as the subject comes up at least once a day. I figure if someone's made the effort to scale the walls and brave my ferocious hounds they've earned it. Even when we lived in town, right on the ground, our next door neighbors were breast-enhanced, liposucked, nipped and tucked nudists. Looking in our bedroom windows would have been a disappointment. Oh, wait, maybe these people have already seen in my windows and are suggesting curtains for their own sake. Huh.

All renovations have unforeseen situations and unexpected costs. We had a bee infestation.



See the man in the white suit? The man is removing a "medium to large" hive from a hole cut into the wall outside my soon-to-be laundry room.