Progress with holdup

Today I am still waiting on the contractor to sign the separation agreement. It is really frustrating because I am being really generous by letting him walk away, and he it still stalling. I can't hire anyon else until I am sure I have no more obligations to him. On a plus note, I did find my winter coat finally, and am thrilled to have it. It's been a cold winter, and I've been wearing lots of layers. FYI - the reason I couldn't find my coat is that when we moved in May 2006, we were only supposed to be living out of boxes for a few weeks. 8 months later, most of our stuff is still in boxes in the garage and we can't unpack it because there is no place to put anything. I am gradually bringing things in as I can. By the time we are done, it will be like moving more than once because almost nothing can be in it's final place right now.

One fun thing I did today was to go to The Container Store, one of my favorite places in the world! I am making a coat rack/closet out of a small, unused, oddly shaped nook in the hallway. We have no coat closet or place to dump things when we come in, so I am really excited about this project. The space is too small to frame in with drywall, so I used a shelving line called elfa
to make the rack/closet. It's a great product, very versatile and adjustable, and they make it easy to buy if you go into the store. A closet designer will walk you through the whole process and use their computer design tool to help you.

Another project I am working on (and have been for a while) is the window finish and trim. I am finishing them in shellac (clear), and each surface needs 3 coats with steel wool sanding in between. The final coat also needs to be buffed with denim. I work on it in small increments every day to stave off the boredom and tedium of the job. It's amazing though, because I am making progress in 15-20 minutes a day. Out of 13 windows, 1 is completely done (trim and all), 2 are ready for trim once the surrounding drywall is patched, and 2 more are 2 coats from ready for trim. We currently have newspaper and plastic taped over the windows and have had that since we moved in 8 months ago. We are really looking forward to shades and window coverings!

Here is one of my favorite tools for working on the windows. It is a paint edger made of really thin metal. You can use it instead of taping when painting (or shellacking) and sanding. It saves so much time by not having to tape