No sink yet. Tile grouted. Deck rails begun. A lot of upcoming expense and short deadlines. Shares needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

Nope. Of course not. No, we have no sink upstairs, but after saying they would be here, they went down to fricking Mora today, so it will be tomorrow at the earliest.  They damn well better have been right about the part.

That up there is what the house looks like, as of today. They got the railings on the lower flight of stairs done for the deck; tomorrow will be the upper ones, and next week, the rest of it. Then the exterior gets done by Sherm and Marcos while the other two go back inside and do stuff like closets, shelves, and the interior stairs (and if our kitchen sink is here by then, frame that out).

We're getting close.


Speaking of Marcos, yesterday he was helping haul something over by the pond, where the stand of red willows is. Wings was telling the guys yesterday about what happened when we went into town briefly just before dusk yesterday evening: Just south of us, around the curve and past the Y, something darted across the road in front of us. Big as a coyote, but hindquarters and gait all wrong. It was a bobcat: our first sighting in the wild, for both of us. So Wings is telling the guys about it, and suddenly Marcos says, "When I was over there yesterday by the red willows, I heard purring coming from deep inside them. Loud. I just thought it was a cat." So it appears we may have a new (first-time) visitor/resident.

I hope he's good luck. I've managed to convince myself that he is.

So. We have some deadlines. The big one is the weather, and it's sjupposed to be relatively mild through the end of the month, so if we can get all the exterior stuff done by then, we're good on that, at least. But that's more money. And as I've been saying, all of this, plus the weather and other deadlines bearing down on us, means no reprieve for me from the endless money chase, or from trying to list stuff that we need on the registries. Two things about that last: First, WRT the Bed, Bath, and Beyond list, apparently there is an end date on it of this coming Saturday. I have no idea why or how; either they choose one for you if you fail to do it, or I somehow accidentally selected it (given the problems my laptop was giving me at the time, the latter is at least as likely as the former, probably). At any rate, there are only four days left on that registry, so whatever remains unfulfilled I'll need to reconstruct next week, apparently. Now, WRT the Wayfair registry, I'm going to be adding a bunch of additional stuff. A lot of this is sort of long-haul stuff, by which I mean it's stuff we need eventually, but not immediately; having it listed, though, means that I won't forget which items they are (and hopefully they won't sell out in the meantime). It's not like we're going to have cash to spare for the foreseeable future, given that everything is going toward labor and materials, so I'm taking folks' advice and just listing everything as it occurs to me, because there's SO much we either no longer have or cannot take into the house with us. Some of the items will be more important than others, and they all can be crowdfunded, so expect to see that list grow substantially over the next couple of days. Except for the curtain rod that arrived damaged that I need to exchange, we have all the rods now off the BBB list, although there are holdbacks and mats and other things on there that we still need. On the Wayfair list, the microwave is back in stock again, and that's one that a couple of folks have already contributed to; I'll be adding coffee/end tables and lamps yet as I can get time to search for them.

There's still such a very long way to go, and I am so very, very tired. It's still hard for me to fall asleep, but once I'm there, I'm usually good now, which is a big, BIG change for me.  Once again, I managed to get through the day with only the cough and shortness of breath and pain plaguing me, but not quite the level of fatigue I would've expected. Still, as I've been saying, we have to get the bathrooms functional, and right now, neither of them is. There's still exterior work to get done before winter really settles in, and interior stairs and shelving and don't even get me started on the currently-nonexistent kitchen. So please, keep sharing our links:

• 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.
• Our Amazon wishlist generally.
• Wayfair gift cards, to replenish all the furnishings that the RV has destroyed in one way or another.
• Partial registry #1, from Bed, Bath and Beyond. It's not complete; what's on it so far are drapes for the upstairs, associated curtain rods, bath rugs for both bathrooms, and doormats and a few other miscellaneous items. Most important: curtain rods/hold-backs and drapes for upstairs; towel bars and associated fixtures for the downstairs bath.
• Partial registry #2, from Wayfair. Also not complete, but covers a number of the area rugs needed for the upstairs and some kitchen items. I've finally added a bunch of items to it, although nothing in the way of small tables or lamps or kitchen items beyond three basic things, because yesterday proved to be a time-suck of epic proportions, and today was more of the same. What I did get to is all of the rugs for the whole house, and a few basic furniture items. But about Wayfair, and VERY IMPORTANT: They make it possible to crowdfund each item. So if you'd like to help, but the prices are too much for one person? You can kick in 20 bucks, or ten, or five, on any one item; many small donations can add up to one item. Even the backordered/out-of-stock items can be crowdfunded in advance. Right now, the two most important items are probably finishing funding of the chaise and the microwave (they get the microwave back in stock every few days), both of which are already partially funded. It's a slow process, but every day I find a few more items that fall into the badly-needed category, because the wiring and mold and lime and everything else in this toxic tin can has destroyed so much of what we used to have. I'm sickened by the amount of stuff we have to throw out (on top of the things that were simply ruined, such as the microwave fried by the wiring in this place).

I still have work to do, and after being so ungodly sick this weekend, I am even further behind than usual, so I will be slow getting to replies and so forth. For now, 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. Not much has changed on the health front: As I've been saying daily, it seems, this has been a difficult day health-wise, with my flare itself seeming to flare, no doubt in part due to our high winds and drastic weather changes. But there are also the breathing difficulties, and sundry other issues secondary to the AI problems, and so I am moving very, very slowly, and accomplishing things only with quite a lot of difficulty. I'm going to be slow, and late, and unfocused; please bear with me while we try to get into a much healthier space. We are both so thankful for each and every one of you who made it possible for us to sleep now, for the first time in seven years, in a safe and healthy (and warm!) place.

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.