Are we there yet?

I spent a lot of time wandering around the house this weekend, shivering through my long underwear and snowboots, feeling a little scowlish at the projects left on our list. I was reminding myself of how far we've come, how little we have left to go. I was trying to recapture some of the "magic" of that first weekend of work. Trying to remember what life was like before this house was in our life. A little dull. A little dreary. A little direction-less. Now, our priorities are squarely inline. We know where we're headed. It's good to remind myself of that now and then. This house is our life's work, and we've only just begun.

The top photo there is from Saturday afternoon, after Patrick and his dad tore out the last two (gargantuan) carpets from the downstairs. Remember the same view, last weekend?

Yeah. Goodbye, dingy old carpets! Hello, character. Hello, gorgeous.

A couple carpet-pulling action shots:

I spent the rest of Saturday extracting tack strips and carpet staples, which was probably the source of my scowlish-ness. Pulling staples can make anyone go mad. I painted a couple doors. I painted the inside of the built-in. I painted some baseboards.

The Guys spent most of Saturday (post de-carpet-ing) playing a game of Appliance Switcheroo. The upstairs fridge went to the garage. The downstairs stove went the garage. The upstairs stove came downstairs. The washer and dryer went upstairs. In contrast, my work of staple-pulling wasn't really that bad. Better than moving multiple appliances up and down stairs.

The main jobs remaining, for anyone keeping notes:

• Paint two ceilings downstairs.
• Put downstairs kitchen together (get ready for move-in)
• Remove last carpet from upstairs.
• Repair/re-install stairwell trim. Repair/patch drywall.
• Prime and paint stairwell floors and trim.
• Paint stairwell walls.
• Re-finish downstairs floors.

After that, it's move-in time. We are that close. Craziness. We can do it.