Progress. Real progress. Good news and gratitude, as well.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

The first day of a new month, and a Monday. And it has been a day. One crew member was a no-show, so Tony worked by himself. He's both fast and brilliant, and he got the lath work and caulking across the vigas and windows and doors on the front of the house. The sides and back remain to be done; this is all preparatory to beginning the exterior plaster, which will have to be done soon, squeezed in between the windy season (i.e., now) and the monsoon season (say, June to early September).

And the truck is in the shop, for the whole week. For a '73 Ford, it's in great shape, but it's got a lot wrong, too. The item we know about is the exhaust, which has to be replaced. What we don't know is how much more will have to be repaired. Our mechanic is also brilliant, and incredibly skilled and honest, and he's also a solo, which means that he always has lots of business and so we'll be waiting a few days to hear.

And since it's a new month, and since I'm not really recovering well from having been so sick for so long, and since we have a little flexibility suddenly, I'm making some changes in this space.

Honestly? I'm too tired. Writing these posts every night has become soul-destroying. I hate it. And as of today, we've been afforded the blessing of a long-term commission of Wings's work that will give us the flexibility I mentioned above, at least with regard to keeping the crew on the job  for a while. 

A couple of things: First, it's not a magic bullet. We have so far to go yet, and this is, frankly, the most expensive part of the whole process, trying to finish everything off at least to an extent that gets it liveable. And I have no clue what that's going to require of us in monetary terms before it's all done. To that end, we're leaving the PayPal fundraiser open, and I'll be pushing it periodically as the need arises. But that is not tonight, nor tomorrow, nor next week. So to the extent that these posts appear, they're going to be mostly progress reports for a while. When I know that we'll need to push sales and donations, I'll post requests to share links again; I've learned the hard way that no matter what estimates we get, it always winds up being much more in the long run. The Lowe's cards will ALWAYS be of use, because the one thing that falls entirely outside our budget is all the stuff that is required to make a house habitable — fixtures, flooring, cabinets, appliances, etc.; sharing our wishlist consistently is still of enormous help to us, daily. But frankly, I'm exhausted, and the less of the funding chase I have to do, the better off I am, both physically and mentally. In other words, today's development could not have come at a better time, because I'm about at the end of my tether right now.

For tonight, no links. Everyone who wants to share them, y'all know where and how to find them, and we'll be profoundly grateful for it. But no more itemized lists, at least for a little while. None tonight, and none tomorrow, certainly. And if the weather cooperates and the plumbers are free, we'll be putting in the septic system very soon, possibly as early as next week. It's the one thing we can't move in without, and at $7K+, it's also probably the single biggest remaining expense, so it makes sense to do it now, while we can.

One other note: Thanks to whomever sabotaged our YouCaring effort, we can no longer even donate to other causes using the YC/GFM/etc. platforms. So hey, thanks a lot; you just hurt a bunch of other people, as well. I know this because we tried to squeeze a small donation out of our most recent sale to help Lauralee and her girls and dog find housing, and it was auto-refused. But there's been no movement on her page for four days now, so you know what to do. And if someone's aware of a PayPal address for her, we'll go ahead and forward what we'd set aside for her that way.

For now, much love and gratitude to everyone who has helped us get this far (with a special shout-out to someone so very dear to us both who made today's turn of events possible). I'll request shares when the need arises, but for now, I'm going to revel in being able to devote those hours to work (on the house and on everything else) that doesn't involve chasing funds. 



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.