This Old House

This old house is gettin' shaky

This old house is gettin' old

This old house has seen the rain

This old house has seen the cold...

Ain't got time to fix the shingles

Ain't got time to fix the floor...

--Brian Setzer Orchestra

HELP! I'm drowning in home improvement projects. We are simultaneously painting the dining room (I'm flying solo on that one), installing an exhaust system for our oven, having our kitchen cabinets slightly restructured, installing new countertops, new roof and copper guttering over one section of the house, ordering some unfinished bookshelves for our den, pricing patio installation, and waiting for a claims adjuster to estimate our damage from Ernesto. The damage includes water spots on several walls, shingles and window screens down, loss of two telephones and a front door that is swollen shut. I think that's it. I may have left out a project or two, it's difficult to keep track at this point.

For someone who likes things organized this is torture. It doesn't help that you have to pass through the dining room to move from the den to the kitchen or bathroom! There is no way to avoid the ladders, sheeting, paint cans and paraphernalia that litters the floor. Most days I walk around with at least one of four colors of paint splotched on me somewhere...my house and I are both wrecks.

It is helpful that India started back to preschool on Thursday so I have a little more time to take care of some of this stuff. She marched into school with only one small wobble of her chin and had a marvelous day.When we picked her up she was full of tales from her day and gave Kate a HUGE hug, telling her "I missed my Katie all day!". For her part, Kate repeated "I miss Heenya soooooo much" about every 20 minutes throughout the day.

After school we celebrated with some of India's friends by having a "backwards" dinner (dessert first). Bet you can guess how much chicken India and Kate ate after their chocolate sundaes! Things got a little rowdy in Stella's after dinner; we tipped the poor waitress well and will just cross our fingers that we will be allowed back.