One year, 119 days and a fist-full of nails

Janice will be here this weekend and the sunroom is only partially done — today we were supposed to unveil it. The over-the-stove microwave we got for Christmas still sits in its box in the middle of the room. We use it to hold all our tools.

The master bedroom hasn't been touched since we installed a new ceiling, replaced the south wall and skim coated the rest. We were supposed to be sleeping in luxury there this weekend. I hope we don't toss-and-turn too much — sleeping with dust masks on.

Since moving in about one-and-one-half years ago, we have had a semi-flooded basement, been awakened to police helicopters overhead searching the yard for escaped criminals, dragged out 3 full-grown cats worth of pet hair from under the old refrigerator, replaced the ceiling in the dining room, tripped inumerable times in the dark since we keep the lights really low so we don't have to look at the bubble-gum pink parlor walls, dug and installed a small lake in the back yard, cleaned up after Ike this fall, cleaned up after the ice storm last month, cleaned up enough mouse-poop to fill a cigarbox, re-built the window in the wierd little third-floor storage room with the wild electric blue carpet, added pink insulation on the third floor, sunroom ceiling and master bedroom south wall (see above), found bats on the third floor, chased the bats on the third floor, lost the bats on the third floor (i know youre still up there, sonewhere), painted the deck, regraded the back yard (see flooded basement above), defrosted the frozen water main in the basement late one friday night (who knew there was a whole big room behind that wall in the basement?), insulated water pipes, insulated ductwork, called Sears to clean the ductwork (thanks mom), installed ceiling fixture junction boxes (thanks Richard), installed light switches and outlets into the sunroom (yep, a light with no switch for it), painted the balcony off the guest bedroom, scrubbed the tiled kitchen countertops, replaced the clean tiled kitchen countertops, painted the kitchen (ok, another coat on the window trim and it'll be finished), replaced the main water waste line and rebuild the corner of the foundation where the backyard drained thru into our basement.

Is it any wonder that after one-and-a-half years in this wonderful old house that Janice won't get to enjoy the finished sunroom?

She will get to enjoying breakfast in the sunroom, if she can bear the smell of raw wood and caulk, imagining a japanese tea garden beyond. How lovely it will be one day — sitting on the antique mauve sofa (stashed in the doorway between the parlor and dining rooms, so, for now, a folding chair to sit on and that microwave to hold her coffee and pop-tart will have to make-due) while looking out at the pond and pagodas (a view of that monster lake now totally obscured by the piles of beadboard, crown molding and 2x4s crammed into the corner, between the shop-vac and borrowed mitre saw).

So much more to do before were "done" with this restoration. but for this weekend, were going to pretend its the lovely gracious old house it one-day will be.