Enforced Hiatus

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

That's as far as we're going to get, apparently. We've canceled the weekend crew for the plasterwork; we'll be doing the same for the other two for next week. In fact, if nothing changes suddenly and drastically, we'll be canceling all work for at least a month, maybe more, and all we can do is cross our fingers and pray that we can get the crews back after that to finish it. They may very well have moved on to other jobs, and there's nothing we can do about that, because they need to survive, too.

To say that I am devastated at this point is a masterpiece of understatement. We needed to have it [mostly] done by late July, and we're not going to be anywhere near that point. we're probably not going to have any more progress on it between now and then. And we are stuck, for yet another summer (a hot and to-date especially smoke-filled one), in this toxic tin can, with no air and no circulation and no respite from the wildfire smoke or the heat. But after 20 months of this, I can't keep up the money chase. My health is suffering badly, and I don't want to risk Wings's health, either. So we go on as we have been for nearly seven years now, and while our health remains at risk, it takes the immediate pressure of paying crews off, even though we're stuck in the heat and the formaldehyde and the mold indefinitely. But I am not sleeping, my pain levels are increasing, and I'm getting sicker by the day, and it's the stress of nearly two years of all-out effort that's doing it. We are thousands and thousands of dollars away from moving in, and I can't do it anymore right now.

I don't know whether I'll continue to post this nightly or not. I'm so disheartened right now that I want to get away from it all, but we can't even get away from here for a day, so that's a fool's errand if ever there was one. I may; I may not. I just don't know. I do know that I don't feel like having a conversation about any of it right now.  I may just post links and leave it at that. Speaking of which, here they are, in the form of a copy and paste of what I said last night:

I am one month out from a big deadline and I have no way of getting it all done. Certainly not without shares, and not without raising a WHOLE LOT more money, whether via donations or sales. I am up against it now and at my wits' end, what little I have left, anyway, and I can expect very little sleep for the next four weeks. We need help, and badly, to make a lot of this stuff happen. It's not just the $2,500 for materials/labor next week; it's $1,700 for the electric, and ungodly amount for the flooring, $4K for the exterior top coat, and none of that includes the kitchen appliances and cabinets, water heater, or the disaster that is the septic system. 

Here are the links, because we are going to need shares every single day just to put a dent in it all. Please, PLEASE share them, consistently:

• First, to donate, the PayPal link is here. 

• Second, for sales (which we really need to make, and I'll be highlighting some of his high-end stuff on the site this week), the link to Wings's site (preferably with a testimonial, if you have some of his work), because sales are gonna keep this thing rolling. 

• And finally, the link to our wishlist (which badly needs updating), with an emphasis on the Lowe's gift cards, because those are what will help us pay for all the stuff that will make this place liveable, like a water heater and flooring and so forth. [Shout-out also to the generous person (tm, maybe?) who bought the molasses, which is how we medicate the horses, and to the three folks who sent Lowe's gift cards.] A note here: To tile the downstairs, we'll need to go to Home Depot, which doesn't sell gift cards through Amazon; they can be purchased through the company's Web site here.

Many thanks and much love to everyone for getting us this far. I'm sorry we can't get all the way there right now, and I have no idea how long it'll be before we are.

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.