Rods and railings and progress on tile and polecat blues. Shares needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

Well, this has been a night and a day.

I woke up early last night, just after I dropped off to sleep, with a coughing fit. A bad one. Not unusual, but this was an hour of being unable to breathe or do much else. This is what mold does to your lungs. I finally started to doze off again, and the dogs starting raising hell downstairs. On my way down, I knew instantly why; I could smell the skunk spray even from inside. Apparently, the skunk that's been hanging out here decided to spend the night under the deck off the front door, and at some point he came topside, where the dogs promptly heard him and began demanding to go out. Now, keep in mind, She-Wolf is mostly blind, and she's not entirely used to the house layout yet, so she's bumping into things on top of it all. Wings is yelling from upstairs to put them out, and I explain why they shouldn't go, and he tells me to put them out anyway. So . . . .

So i wait downstairs in the unbelievable warmth, and after about 15 minutes, I hear them within earshot and call for them to come in. The entire deck and the front of the house exterior smells of skunk, mind you. And as the dogs return from two different places, She-Wolf practically circling in misery, I know what we've got: two skunked dogs.

Yup. 

The whole house reeked. Wings eventually got up, went downstairs and out to the studio, got some cedar and a lighter, and sent smoke all over the place. I think we both finally fell into an exhausted sleep around three, and we were up at six. 

Yes, the dogs still reek.

However . . . .

The crews were back today, and back at it. Wings did have that convo with them right away, and they got a lot done. That up above was the big thing, because it involved lots of parts and pieces, including going to fetch more lumber and Quikrete and so forth. First they built a base beneath the bottom step, using 2X4s and rebar and the Quikrete. They added the end banisters and the rail along one side and on the landing. They cut off the posts all the way around to size preparatory to adding the railing on all sides. And tomorrow, they'll be picking up more lumber (more money out the door on materials), so they can try to get it done this week, so that Sherm and Marcos can do the exterior paintwork next week (more money).

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

Tony and Reynaldo also got the bedroom curtain rods up, and the one over the single door in my writing refuge. The large rod for that room arrived with one finial shattered, so I have to package it up and ship it back for exchange; we haven 't been able to get any of the other rods yet, because all our cash is going to materials and labor. And this was not as easy as it looks; Tony had to pick up anchors for them, and beyond that, those over the French doors will not come all the way off because of the distance between them and the side walls, but I can open them at the center to get the drapes on and off again. And once we find the drapes (Wings put them in a safe place, LOL), they can go up tomorrow.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

The tile guys also got two really big things done. The first is finishing laying the floor itself. We did have enough tile, despite what they originally thought, for the floor; just not for the backsplash needed to cover up the new hole around the back of what will be the sink (a result of no one listening to me, nor using any common sense, as I have pointed out before). They also got the shower floor grouted:

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

Finally, they got most of the baseboard done. They'll grout everything remaining tomorrow. I know they think I'm nuts for not going with an ivory grout for the shower floor, but I like it; it reminds me of the sand and stones at Sleeping Bear. They're supposed ton be finished tomorrow with everything they can do until the remaining tile comes in (more money out the door). Also, the drain I had to track down for the upstairs sink did indeed arrive today, as promised, and so we might have a functional sink by tomorrow night.

So. 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 five 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.

There's still such a very long way to go, and I am so very, very tired. On the plus side, even though it was only three hours of sleep, it was three solid, uninterrupted hours, and so I managed to get through today 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.