The electrician arrived this morning and started work on one of the projects that we decided that for safety, insurance, and practical reasons that we would get a professional to do, namely: installing a new service entrance and adding some wall plugs to some of the rooms upstairs. By noon the service was in complete with the new breaker panel in the basement as opposed to being in the downstairs bathroom just awaiting the power company to arrive to install the new pole and cut off the power so we can run the new lines; we had new wall pugs in the third bedroom and the “man-cave”, and we are awaiting the install of the two other plugs in the “woman-cave” and linen closet/butler’s pantry all of which should be done on Friday. One more tick in the box. Whew!

Yesterday Barb finished painting our bedroom and the difference that fixing the cracks and a new coat of paint is really remarkable.

I have also started to assemble the second living room bookshelf to match the one that is already in the house and finished. It’s funny how the second one is easier to do as I have already worked through the bugs doing the first, but I am less motivated to actually get on with it. I guess that is more a factor of wanting to get on with other projects as well.

Some of these new projects are the upstairs bathroom renovation (or should I say restoration with the claw foot tub), the closet under the stairs which will be the broom closet for cleaning materials and the vacuum cleaners, finish plastering and repairing as well as painting the two spare bedrooms, and finally the living room ceiling. That last one is going to be huge both in the effort and the impact it will have on the appearance on the place. Once those are all done all that will be left is painting. Except, of course, the new kitchen cabinets which will be a project for the new year.

We are really on the auction prowl for good quality but inexpensive carpets from estate sales. We need a fairly large one for the living room and a couple of runners for in the downstairs and upstairs hallways as well as a really long one for the stairs. They are not show stoppers so if we don’t get them for a couple of months it won’t be the end of the world, but they are definitely something that we want to have in place to make the joint that much more comfortable.

Both Barb and I have it as our aim that these jobs will all be done before we head back to cruising. The thought of having a turn-key “finished” place to come back to, a place where all of our “stuff” will be instead of crammed into a rented storage unit, and one which although we are paying a mortgage on the rental properties pretty much compensate for it; that is just too much to pass up.