Slow and Steady Wins the Race

At the start of every marathon there's a surge when people finally have a chance to put into motion what they have spent months preparing for. It's those experienced ones who know that the adrenaline that comes when they fire the starting gun can be a killer. Take off like a shot and zip through the first four miles, and you're facing a last six miles that will make you weep. I hope our start on the house isn't a similar situation. We're off to a fast start, but I think we'll enjoy it all the more having some of these things done. What we’ve done so far.

Since moving into our house we’ve been busy not only with entertaining and providing tours for curious friends, we’ve been making improvements.

· Removed the cabinets, wallpaper, crown molding, and ceiling tiles from the parlor. That room is a little rough right now. We’re working on redoing the ceiling so there’s no need to cover it. Carpet will have to be pieced in. Right now this all doesn’t really count as an “improvement,” but it's a step in the right direction.
· Removed the wallpaper from the dining room and repainted it, covering up the flowered wallpaper.
· Trimmed the bushes along the east side of the house and removed saplings (and some small trees) growing among them.
· Painted the north wall in the dining room where the wallpaper is covering some paneling that was put in when the fireplace was installed.
· Cleaned up and removed some of the dead wood in among the lilac bushes to the north.
· Replaced the toilet seats!
· Repaired and replaced the kitchen sink drain pipes.

We’ll continue to try to make progress. The mother-in-law has been a wizard in painting and stripping wallpaper, sometimes when we have been at work.

We’ll continue to try to make progress. The mother-in-law has been a wizard in painting and stripping wallpaper, sometimes when we have been at work. It’s good to have people helping.

We have also enjoyed the fruits of the former owners, especially those in the yard:

· Tomatoes
· Apples
· Roses
· Zinnias
· Hydrangeas

Come spring we’ll have lilacs, peonies, and other blossoms.

I’ve been looking over wood stoves that might go in the house and make a bigger contribution to the heat than the fireplace would. So far so good. We weathered some wicked rains when we first moved in, but nothing was damaged, and the rain stayed outside where it belonged (mostly).