Nowhere near done. I refuse to quit. Shares needed.

Today's is a good news/bad news kinda thing.

There's a lot going on here unrelated (or at least not directly related) to the house. One of those things is how sick we both are. It's bad enough that, despite the salvation in the form of last night's contributions from much-loved donors, we can't have the crew back next week after all. Why? Because now that we've begun painting upstairs, we have to finish it before we can have them kicking up wood and plaster dust everywhere. 

I was naive enough this morning to think that maybe, as the day wore on, I'd feel like getting back to it. I'll actually be lucky if I can do it by Monday. I keep forgetting how, even aside from my autoimmune disease, age exacerbates severe illness in extreme ways. For him, too. So it looks like we'll have them back on the 13th, and let them go as far as they can on what we have before stopping again.

That's the good news.

The bad news is the degree to which this electrical fuck-up (and a couple of ancillary problems that in a way all link up to the same people and problems), we are way, WAY behind where we should have been at this point and for this amount of money. We're only $2K away from this particular YouCaring goal . . . and there's no way $2K will cover more than two weeks' worth of labor. 

What's left? Oh, nothing much. Just all the interior plasterwork, the window and door casing, the flooring, the kitchen appliances, the cabinetry, the water heater, the finishing of the plumbing install, the finishing of the electrical install (assuming we can ever find someone reliable and not out to screw us to do that part of it), and that fricking septic system. Oh, and the exterior plasterwork and finish work.

Yeah, no. $2K will cover . . . pretty much none of it.

What this means, much as I hate it with every fiber of my being, is that we're going to have make up all the ground we lost with a new YouCaring effort once this one's met. It's come too far for us to abandon it at this point, all the moreso because living in the RV is truly, literally killing us. And it's going to have to be another big goal, because everything I just outlined? All that's materials. Think about the labor that will be required to get it from raw material into habitable form.

No, I'm not at all depressed, why do you ask?

Yeah, I lied just now. Between the health issues and everything else, I'm ready to throw in the towel, but I can't. Among other things, I have to be strong enough to push through this, regardless of what I know certain folks are saying about us, because I need to have Wings in a safe space. My only concern has to be him, and his well-being (and to a lesser extent, my own). So. This is your warning. None of this stops. I don't care how many nasty things are said, how many rumors spread, how many lies told, how much resentful bullshit spouted by people with no clue what they're talking about. I don't care how sick I am, how many medical issues I have to battle, how much I have to face down to get this done. Maybe it takes us another year. Maybe two. I don't care. I will have him in this house if it kills me.

So just be prepared for these posts to continue. Yes, I want your help. I need your help. I need you to share them as far and wide as possible so that we can finally push all the way through all the tens of thousands of costs that remain and get this done. But I'll do it one way or another either way.

Now, I'm still too sick to be original about much of anything. I've had to scale all my activities way back, mostly because I can barely stand yet. It's been decades since I was this ill; him, too. So the rest is rote.

Here's the cut and paste part:

• Shares of our YouCaring page via the widgets provided, especially the widget code, which has once again been moved back to the purple box at the lower right-hand side of the page, that produces the image shown just above.
• Shares of Wings's site; sales also fund the construction (indeed, they are the baseline for it). Testimonials help.
• I've added Lowe's gift cards to our Amazon wishlist. We're having to spring for lumber, lath, and plaster material locally. The rest of what makes it habitable — flooring, paint, appliances, etc. — are coming from Lowe's, which is giving us the best selection and price, and therefore best bang for our buck, but it's still a lot. A LOT. And so one of the best, most immediate ways to help at this point is with Lowe's gift cards. I have three separate denominations posted on the wishlist, but cards in any amount whatsoever are useful; they all go into the same pool. We're going to have to take care of the flooring very, very soon.

Still, before you share our links, please go share Laura's. Lin's spirit is where the water meets the light, but Laura will still need our help for a while. Please T/R/share/donate to her fund if you can. Especially that last. It's needed.

In the meantime, please also take a moment to share the links above.

Thanks, everyone.



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.