More snow in 36 hours; costs mounting. Shares needed for a wider audience.

I'm posting everything in reverse tonight. The post for Wings's site will come last, because I was waiting for him to put the final touches on his latest collection, which I'll be featuring as a group tonight.

As to the house project, the needs remain unchanged. Tomorrow, the crew will be installing the upstairs ceiling, preparatory to installing the sheetrock on the walls. The plumbing guys will also be here to begin roughing in the interior work. That doesn't need to be paid, because we gave them a hefty deposit toward it months ago. Not nearly as hefty as what we're going to have to come up with all too soon for the balance on the windows and doors, though. 

The temps are now in single digits, and we have another snowstorm on the way, which is supposed to hit Tuesday. Our available time for many, many things has contracted drastically, and we have to keep pushing. And, no, we can't "just do [X] and move in for the winter." It doesn't work that way; it's dozens of moving pieces that have to be handled both in tandem and consecutively, and any one big thing will not be nearly enough to get us in now. Right now, I'm bedeviled by the balance on the windows, because they will come up first (along with the sheetrock for the walls, which is a much smaller amount, but still four figures). Then I have to turn my attention to the septic system, which has to funded at one go. No, we can't use the existing one. The subfloor piping is all routed for the new system. Then there's the front door, the bathroom fixtures, the water heater, the kitchen appliances . . . it never ends. My frustration levels are epic, along with my blood pressure levels.

So here's what we need. Everyone who reads this knows all this, but I need to make it as easy as possible by posting the links. We have to expand the pool of people who see these links, and by a wide margin. To do that, we need EVERYBODY to share them EVERY DAY. I'm going to cut and past again, because I'm just too exhausted to rephrase, and I have a ton of work left to do tonight:

• Shares of our YouCaring page via the widgets provided, especially the widget code under 2) at the "Other Ways to Help" link that produces the image shown above;
• Shares of Wings's site; sales are way, way down this holiday season, and this is the time of year that usually gets us (mostly) through the long harsh winters. This year, it's also funding construction. Testimonials help.
• If you're considering commissioning holiday gifts by Wings, now's the time to contact me so I can get your order into his workbench queue.
• One last thing: I mentioned above that the plumbers are coming, and bathroom-fixture purchases are in the offing. To that end, I've added Lowes gift cards to our Amazon wishlist. No, there's no Lowes here in Taos, but there's one an hour-plus away in Española. Less obnoxious than Home Depot, and an actual selection and discount pricing that are not available here in town. It's by far the most cost-efficient way for us to buy the fixtures and appliances and sundry other items needed to make a house habitable.

Thanks to everyone for your help thus far. We are going to need to push through this, hard, fast, and and consistently. Winter is here: Snow, ice, bitter cold, and a septic system that freezes nightly because it was misinstalled all those years ago. More snow on the way in a couple of days, and single-digit nights in between. Please give us a hand with consistent daily shares to a wide audience.

Also, for the record, I'm supporting exactly three efforts right now: Ours, my s-i-l's, Lin's. Dassit. Not endorsing anything else, even if I have in the past.



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.