Lots happening

We're still working really hard, and most days are long. Currently, we are working on a garage door. You'd think this wasn't that hard, but as will all things house-related, there are no easy answers. It's an expensive item, and there are a million options. Even to buy a basic white door there are at least 20 options to pick. There are also installation constraints (e.g. some doors can only be installed after the finish work is done in the garage, some need more clearance than we have, some interfere with future plans for finishing the garage, etc).

I did finally "move in" to the kitchen after living here over 2 years. At first, we had no kitchen - just a fridge, microwave, 1 box of food (the pantry) and paper plates. Then we gradually had space as the cabinets got installed but we couldn't use the top row because we were to have a soffitt built by one of the contractors (the incompetent one). Well, the soffitt has been put on the future projects list and probably won't happen during phase II which is scheduled to last until Fall 2009. Given that schedules invariably go over time, this won't happen for a while so I decided to get organized. I pulled everything out, cleaned, purged and organized and put it all back neatly and in order. It feels great!

We are also setting up an outdoor seating area. We eventually want to build some sort of patio, but it's a big and very expensive undertaking so it won't be happening any time soon. In the meantime, we decided to get a gazebo for shade and some furniture. We found some great stuff on sale at OSH, and here it is:





The set also has a table with a firepit, but when we went to assemble it we were missing some small parts so I am waiting for the manufacturer to send them. I'll post a picture when it's done. The pile of cardboard to the left is the boxes from the gazebo and chairs and from our ongoing move in to the house. Each week, before putting the trash out, I cut some up an fill the recycling bin, but so far the pile remains. Eventually it will be gone.