Work Progresses Slowly.

After closing on the house last Friday evening, we began the purchasing and continued the planning. On Saturday we had the help of 5 family members and 2 friends, but even though everyone worked hard all day (and some of us were back on Sunday) the work ahead is still great. The Dan, Bob & Cesar went up on the roof and removed both swamp coolers and patched the holes (just in time for rain this week!), they removed the heavy sliding doors for Jen's closet (this took 3 men 90 minutes to accomplish - they don't build 'em like this anymore!), they removed the old wall heaters from both of the girls' rooms and patched the holes those left, they worked on wiring and plumbing - and only they know what else. Several of the unseen workings of the house were repaired. While they were busy with all of that, we were upstairs cleaning and getting ready to paint. The bookshelves and some of the other wood in the library was cleaned by Ellen with Liquid Gold (wonderful stuff, by the way - pictures this weekend), Kathy spent most of the day making the master bath shine - truly an accomplishment! Beth was an encouragement all around. Julie, Jen, Sammie and Jocelyn spent the bulk of their time in the girls' bedrooms. They got them cleaned (including washing everything with TSP in prep for painting) and began the process of getting the closets painted with Kilz. Julie spent several hours on Sunday cleaning their bathroom. It's almost ready for paint! I was busy everywhere and (it felt like) nowhere. I was directing and assigning, in between my work. I finished cleaning all of the windows in the library - inside and out, started cleaning the kitchen cupboards, began the process of washing all of the 'dry clean only' drapes for the library (they came out great!) and getting those re-hung to dry. I'll be finishing that process today and tomorrow since Dan and I are spending the weekend at the house.

We purchased 2 new toilets, but they got put aside since there were more immediate needs. They will most likely be installed this weekend. Also this weekend will be the painting of the girls' rooms and their bathroom. I will finish in the kitchen - paint will have to wait in there. It'd be nice if we can get the library and diningroom cleaned and painted, but work always takes so much longer than we think it's going to! We haven't even begun to think about work in the 'extra wing' or downstairs, yet. That will wait until after we are in the house, I'm sure. Thankfully, we don't plan on moving into those spaces, really. Just garage stuff into the unfinished basement and maybe a little storage into the extra wing.

I know many of you want to see pictures. I'll do my best to take time and get some pictures of the cleaned/repaired things so you can see what's happening. The house really is beautiful! We're beginning to see the sparkle of the diamond underneath everything. It's so exciting!

Day 68