here lately

Despite all of my precautions,

I've been flat laid out by the vile virus

that's been making its rounds.

Since I finally have enough strength to type

(not hold my head up and type,

mind you,

just type...)

I figured I'd pop in here for a few minutes.

~

Based on my cooking thermometer,

the kitchen was 50 degrees this morning.

That's with heaters in the kitchen, dining room and LEM

going full blast all night long.

The living room

(another heater - full blast all night)

was only slightly warmer.

I am so ready to be out of this house!!

~

I'm also absolutely overwhelmed

with all of the work we still have to do

for that to happen.

I told Tyler that when we moved

 - and by moved, I mean our bed; not everything -

we are taking at least 2 weeks off.

We are closer to moving today

though

than we've ever been.

So there's that.

(I stole that line from my sister in law :-)

~

Let's see.

We did all camp out in the new house 

on Christmas Eve

and woke up nice and toasty

and had a warm and peaceful morning.

Well, whole day, really.

not that I like mess or anything - but this makes me happy because there is room for mess, without Momma freaking out.

Brandon's closet is finished

I love it so so much!

so all his room needs 

in order for him to move in

is baseboards in the closet

and we need to nail, fill, caulk and paint

the baseboards that are already in place around his room.

Something to cover the window might be nice too.

And a doorknob.

Of course there's plenty more that needs doing,

but that can come later.

~

The kitchen cabinets are painted!!

(picture to come when I feel up to walking out there

 and snapping one)

We opted to pay (big) money to have them

professionally painted.

I wasn't overly excited about the idea,

but the thought of all that prep work

(and how long it would take!)

persuaded me.

I'm not thrilled with my color (SW Watery) choice

(or rather - how it looks on the cabinets.

I'm still bamboozled about this,

because I am good with the dot of paint on the can)

but I am choosing to be happy with them.

I'm sure I'll like it better 

when we've added knobs and pulls

a black walnut counter top

and a backsplash.

~

Tyler helped me get the boards ready

(seriously - the prep work on all of these projects!!)

and while he was gone on a business trip last week,

I finished staining them,

sealed 'em,

and then

Lily and I built the closet shelving in the master closet.

(she was the only non-sick kid)

the shelves look really narrow, for some reason, but they're 11 3/4". 

I left an embarrassing number of nails

for Tyler to cut off.

Actually,

there were so many,

it passed embarrassing

and went to downright ridiculous. 

I told him I am losing all of my badges

in the home stretch 😖

I still need to buy the rods and rod hangers

but those aren't needed for the baseboards to go in.

Baseboards, you may know,

 mean one giant step closer to carpet.

And carpet means 

we can move the bed in!