Woodstove installs scheduled! Big progress on the deck. Still a long way to go; shares needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

October 9th and 10th are the magic days! Thanks to some really wonderfully generous souls, we were able to call the chimney folks first thing this morning (like, at 9 AM), and get the deposit paid and get ut on the install schedule. If all goes well, by the end of the day on Tuesday the 10th, we'll have heat in the house! [And not a moment too soon; it's getting into the 30s at night all week this week. It's frickin' cold here in the mornings now.]

That up there is what the deck looks like this evening. We were down one man on the crew — Marcos apparently didn't make it back up from Albuquerque over the weekend — but the other three were rocking all day long. The view from below:

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

They're going to herringbone the cross beams in the corner. They got the joists hung all the way around except about the final four feet along the west end of the front; they'll finish that tomorrow and start laying the beams. And we also got this:

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

That right there is the view from our bedroom. Well, part of it. Right through the door, out onto the platform (they put some plywood sheets up so they could walk on it, and so we could, too). Once all the decking is done, we will have 360-degree views, even though there will be no deck or balcony on the north side; east and west will run right to those corners, and the house isn't that long, so we'll be able to see all the way across.

I did try to accomplish a couple of other things, with no success. Chief among them was using our accumulated Home Depot cards to order the appliances, but apparently their utterly decentralized delivery system makes that impossible — or at least impossible without spending the entire day with a phone glued to my ear, calling and recalling a store that never picks up with a cellular service that drops calls constantly. Yeah, NOPE. Ain't nobody here got that kinda time. So at some point soon, we will apparently have to make a trip all the way down there, my health and the road construction be damned, and try to do this in person. Because, you know, we need to be able to cook and clean and store food.

On the plus side, Floyd called back today, and confirmed that they will be here without fail on Thursday morning, or possibly even Wednesday evening. It really shouldn't take 'em long; those tiles are big enough. The water softener is also in, but it can't be installed until the tile is in. The bed foundation is here, but we're waiting on the mattress, and also on the guys to finish off the upstairs vanity so Floyd can tile the top and we can get the sink installed. The shower door is supposed to be here next week sometime, and the regular crew will install it. And then we move in! Sort of. A lot won't be done yet, and a lot won't be useable, but we'll be able to sleep and bathe up there, and maybe I can start pulling out of this massive autoimmune complication at long last.

But there's still so far to go. Honestly? We're still going to need to raise cash down the road to cover labor and local materials costs. But sales an cover that, too. And for the moment, what helps the most, without question: Home Depot, Lowe's, Wayfair, or Amazon gift cards. Any denomination whatsoever. Thanks to the mold problem, we're having to replace all linens, the futon mattress, potentially even the couch and love seat (which will no doubt be reduced to couch and chair, because we don't need or really have room for a love seat anymore anyway). For a child of Depression-era parents, this is incredibly difficult for me; my first instinct is to try to save and salvage everything, because when you grow up as poor as I did, you never know what you might need down the road. But my posse is working on me rather insistently, and strictly on the health level, I know they're right, so here we are, an RV full of stuff that has to be replaced. So please send the links out far and wide:

• Wings's direct PayPal link;
• Wings's site, for sales;
• Lowe's cards (the physical version) via our Amazon wishlist;
• Lowe's e-cards (delivered via e-mail) here; and
• Home Depot cards via the company site. The e-version using my e-mail address is great; I take the tablet to the store with me, and they scan it off the screen.
• Wayfair gift cards, to replenish all the furnishings that the RV has destroyed in one way or another.

As I said last night, many thanks and much love from us both, for donations, gift cards, shares, recs, moral support, and just generally helping me not lose my mind. I have quite a lot of work left tonight, plus dinner and other final chores, and I'm moving very, very slowly today, so I'd best get on it.

P.S. And yes, this is still ongoing, natch: IKT has "upgraded" our service (for another $10 a month, natch, and without telling us in advance) to the point that half the time, I can't load anything. When that happens, my e-mail is always the first to go, and I have messages trickling through in fits and starts, some from days ago. If you've e-mailed me and don't hear from me immediately, this is why; if you can reach me on FB or Twitter, DM me there, or try shooting another message through. I'll be sorting through them as steadily as I can, I promise.

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.