May 16 through May 30, 2014

Let's just start this off by saying V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!!!

I left to pick up Karen after my doctor appointment. We drove straight through and arrived in the afternoon. It was pretty exciting to see that everything was finished...for the most part. First on the list was to empty all of the kitchen stuff from the bedroom - which ended up taking two days to complete. A lot of other stuff was done during my working vacation, but it didn't quite feel like work. We went grocery shopping, took the first of my three trips in two weeks, to Menard's and then I hit the rest of my part one of the chore list; which included, in no particular order, the following: installing not one but five chrome pull-out baskets into the cabinets, attached the knobs to the cabinets (word of advice; remove the drawer fronts from the drawer boxes - at this point I am glad there are only two drawers!), moved the rockers to the fire pit, hung wall decor, arranged the furniture, cleaned, painted the new walls, hung the border, hung the blinds, hung the valance, put together a floor lamp and a coat tree, placed an area carpet under the dining room table, made a list of all the construction damage, installed outlets in the boxes after having to buy outlets just to get the screws, organized a cabinet and the pantry and cleaned the back porch! Phew! Did all of the above during the days before driving Karen to Rockford on Tuesday. After dropping her off I drove back to Menard's to get a matching table lamp and to pick up a new chandelier - damaged during construction and yep, it's on the list! I also picked up some other odds and ends that I needed. On Wednesday I got my hair done, stained the cart/island, drove Betty to the seamstress and hit the grocery store for Carlo's vacation, for which he arrived on Saturday the 24th.
On Sunday, we entertained Garry, Bernie and Stella and served up some awesome Mexican food. They stayed for most of the afternoon and we had a very nice visit. And by the time they left we secured our landscaping contract for 2014! Carlo's vacation also was a working one. During the remainder of the week he worked on the part 2 of the To-Do list - which I enjoyed preparing for him. Everything managed to get done except replacing the chandelier.
Here's some of the stuff that got done while we were both on vacation:
Sealed front porch and carpeted the porch deck with an outdoor carpet
Hung a new shelf over the stove for the microwave
Installed under cabinet lighting and one up light in the kitchen
Attached a power strip for outlets in the kitchen
Edged the shelf with trim
Attached a missing window latch
Attached a new soap dispenser that also made the damage list
Hung TV in bedroom
Installed satellite
Sprayed ant killer
Went to the dump
Installed a door stop
Bought AC for the bedroom
Cleared out the loft and space bagged the bedding
Moved the wind chimes to the back porch
Cut and trimmed the grass
Burned debris
Picked up the logs that floated away during the last flood
Replaced outside water spigot
Changed the water filter and smoke detectors
Put area rug in the living room
Phew - Phew - Triple phew!!!

On the day we went to the dump, we stopped for breakfast then decided a third trip to Menard's was in order. We went to exchange the original fluorescent under cabinet lighting for LED lighting. We were also searching for the AC this day and also checked Walmart, with no luck. We ended up at Farm and Fleet where we found the AC and the area rug - so it was a double score!
The remaining few days we spent crossing things off the To-Do list and  finishing up other unlisted odd jobs.
I'm sure that I've forgotten some things that we got finished - along with not taking any people pictures, except for the "shadow masked selfie"! But the star of the vacation was well documented!!! THE REMODEL! And this entry is a pretty good summary of a much needed (and enjoyed) vacation with some worthwhile end results!

    

    

    

    

   

      

  

     

      

    

  Until next time!!!