So, it's been awhile

I need something to jump start, here.

Instead of my typical 3 things I did today, I'll talk about the progress since I last really blogged.

On May 26, the house was half painted, no flooring was in place. Today, the kitchen floor is laid, as well as the hallway, bathroom, and laundry room. All vinyl sheet flooring. Every single wall is painted, as well as most of the trim. There was so goddamned much trim. If I never have to paint another 3 inch molding, it'll be too soon. I'm still not done with that, either. I have one whole bedroom to do. My son's room is complete, carpet and all. He inherited a new bed, too, one of those kickass car beds, so we set that all up for him, in there.

Yesterday, we had a lucky streak. We always check out the clearance sections of Lowes and Home Depot, that's how I got my kitchen sink, half of the light fixtures, plumbing stuff, etc etc. We're in the market for a 5 foot bathroom vanity, but they're pricy, so we were gonna get a cheapy pedestal sink, or one of those tiny $70.00 jobbers, till we can afford a big one. There were two TWO (!!) 5 foot vanities! Wee! One was sold already (damn, because it was really pretty, white the exact color I wanted) But this other one...no price on it, the box was beat to shit, but it looked pretty good. We asked the guy, he came over to inspect it for damage. There really wasn't any, that we saw, and he said, "hmm, I'll knock a hundred bucks off, it'll cost $278". Good price, these things normally ran $400+, but we just didn't have that kind of money, to spend. We hemmed and hawed. As we were standing there examining the thing, we pulled it out from the wall. The bottom of the box was all crushed and torn. There was a good sized hole in the bottom of the side panel. About the size of a softball, almost perfectly round hole. Heh, looked like someone booted it. We were like "Oh no, look at that, a giant hole. Nope, not gonna take it" As we were walking away, the guy was like "huh, that sucks. This thing is destroyed. I can sell it to ya for, hmm...85 bucks" Sold :D.

That, and the flooring we were there to buy, for our kitchen, in stock stuff, had gone on clearance, as well, since I picked it out. It wound up being about half the original price. What a great shopping day!

Everything's coming together so well. The cabinets arrived today, I unwrapped a few, my God, they're perfect. It's coming up fast. Two years of working and waiting, agonizing, worrying, spending, paying out, arguing with inspectors, yelling at various workers, and we're coming down to the close of it. I can honestly say we're on the "finishing touches" It feels good, so good. It's all the more rewarding because we worked so hard, wanted it so bad.

It'll pay off so well, once we get this house rented. A brand new house to move into, and a smaller one, to rent out, and use as a "money battery" Man, if you had asked me three years ago, if I saw myself becoming a landlord, and owning multiple pieces of property, I would have laughed.

I feel blessed, and lucky. When this all started, I was bitter, and unhappy about it, it still bothers me. I can't bitch though, we came out of this so much the winners, it's stupid to be hung up on what's really just water under the bridge.