---- Beginning of December ---

Anxiousness setting in. We want it to be done sooooo bad. But we're moving in this weekend hell or high water, even though it isn't really "done"

But done enough. We absolutely must be out of our rented place by the 20th giving us only two weekends to move all our crap back over and stash it somewhere. We can't really use the upstairs because they are still working up there -- maybe by next weekend.

Had to resort to making lists tonight, to at least attempt to gain some control over the chaos. Knowing all the little things that need to be done can make you crazy -- why is it that writing them down seems to bring at least a little peace? I probably annoyed our contractor by sending him a detailed list of things that had to be done, but what else can one do?

---- Beginning of October ---

I guess we are in the phase where the big things are done so it seems like everything has slowed down. But really it is slowly moving forward, it is just that the tasks take more time.

Lots and lots of little decisions to make. I was stressing out about it on friday but we have made great strides in figuring out things. Now comes the sticker shock where we will have to face what those decisions will cost us.

The window, and door casements should all go in this week. Hopefully all the outside window trim will go on as well. I really hope the front door will be settled as well.

----- End of August -----

Most of the electrical is in. All the plumbing is in in the upstairs bathroom.

The big changes are with the downstairs. The plan had been to do as little as possible down there, but that turned out to be next to impossible. To run electrical and the new lines for the radiant heating the ceiling had to be torn out everywhere down there. At that point it seemed silly not to take out the wall between the downstairs kitchen and living area. And then we also decided to open up the cramped area around the stair well. Oh boy. It is much nicer and hopefully will be a good decision in the long run.

Next week they should start blowing in the insulation and maybe even putting up some of the sheetrock.

----- Last week of July ----

The wall between the sun and living room is GONE. Until they put the beam in Evergreen have the joists braced on either side of the removed wall. The beam should go in next week (1st week of August).

The brick chase/flue that ran from the basement to the roof has also been removed, leaving a 4' x 3' space behind the 1st floor closet (which we plan to expand) and open and useable space on the second floor where we plan to put an over/under washer/dryer.

The entire upstairs bathroom has been removed including the subfloor. Our plan is to put in deeper floor joists, that will allow holes for plumbing pipes, so that the toilet can be moved. This will not really effect the height of the foyer ceiling because it had been dropped 2" in a previous remodel, which has now been stripped away. So no net loss of ceiling height in the foyer.

----- 1st week of July------

It's been a long time coming, but we can't really stop now

Evergreen (our general contractor) has had their crew over tearing out the walls, ceiling and windows from our house. It kind of looks like a crack house right now, with the exception of the yard, which is in full bloom.The neighboors, when they aren't throwing their old couches in our dumpster, probably think we have lost our minds. Perhaps we have -- the whole thing makes me feel kind of wide-eyed crazy.

The old boiler (and asbestos) has been removed from the downstairs utility room and Thorton Heating has been installing the new boiler. We have a lot more room down there now. As part of this work all the radiator feeder pipes in the basement have been removed, which makes the basement rooms feel bigger. No more radiators on the ceiling.