Hello all and Happy Thanksgiving!

I feel like I fell off the edge of the planet....well maybe because I sorta did. All the house makeovers pretty much took over my life. What time was left has been working like crazy to apply for a grant and then one computer hard drive died and the other computer has had a horrific virus that my husband is spending days trying to eradicate.

But this stage of the house stuff is almost done. Most of the painting is finished. We had to hire a new painter to come in and redo some things and he's been fabulous. He even fixed stuff I didn't think could be fixed.

The new library cabinets arrived and we got them installed and filled (but not decorated) and I am in love with them. So glad I went with the dark stain to match the beam ceiling.

I gave up trying to find a color that I liked on the fireplace in the old living room/new dining room and hired a carpenter to build a new surround to cover the textured one that was there. It came out beautiful.

The last bit of it all has been the wood floor, woven strand bamboo that has been sitting in the library for months waiting for the moldings that didn't make it on the same container. Sigh. However even once the moldings came in there was to be another delay because the carpenter guy pulled back the carpet around the fireplace and discovered tiles under the carpet pad. Turns out they were asbestos tiles so we had to have the asbestos removal company come in and take care of that.

Then it was time for the white ceramic tile to come up so the floor could go in. They demoed the tile on Monday and hubby and I laughed at how much "warmer" the house looked with just the subfloor. Didn't realize how much I hated that tile until then. They got the wood floor down in the new dining room and part of the entryway. They'll be back tomorrow and Saturday to finish.

Then the carpet guy comes for new carpet on the stairs and painter guy has to paint the new baseboards and THEN we can take all the furniture out of my office and the library and try to put the house back together.

I am exhausted and sick of it all but I am loving the colors on the walls and the stain and floor will be great. I still need to buy some rugs. I've had a hard time finding a reasonably priced one that I like for the new sitting area. I was looking for 6x9 but the ones I like and can afford are a little smaller, more like 5.5 x 7.5 and I am about ready to just order one of those to see if I can make it work.

And I screwed up with the rug that used to be under the dining table. When it was on the ceramic tile there was one corner that wouldn't lay flat and I didn't know about rug tape yet so I used some sticky museum wax to keep it down. It worked on that but now I can't get it all out of the back of the carpet and I don't want to put that on my new wood floor. I am picking at it with a toothpick but I am still worrying about it. I was hoping not to have to buy a new big rug for the dining area but now it's looking like I might have to.

Also need to find a new ceiling light fixture for the new sitting area. I love my antique French chandelier there but even if I take out all the links of the chain it still hangs down too low for anyone to walk under. Sigh. And I don't want to move it to the new dining area yet since it means more electrical work and we just had the ceiling refloated and painted and all that.

Somewhere in the middle of all that we had the entire house repiped with copper piping and new fixtures in both bathrooms.

I'm having a tiny issue with the wood floor. When the workers left yesterday I took a look at what they had done. I know they mix up the boards in shades and lengths but they put two really dark boards, the only ones I've seen so far, right smack dab in the middle of the open area that won't have any rugs on it. I'm trying to get used to it but it's hard. My eyes go right to that dark spot.

Anyway, this is long, I know, but I wanted to bring folks up to date. I'm reading all the posts I've missed while I've been away. I'll post pictures when I can, after the house is somewhat put back together again.