Joyful Expressions: Coffee, Spiders, Remodel and Route 66

Such a NICE morning. I went out to the front porch with my Kleenex and my coffee to sit in the glider that I drenched with OFF yesterday. If you don't do that, little tiny spiders crawl up your pant legs and move into your underwear to take up permanent residence inside your skin. The first year I was down here, I got about 200 of them in my panties. It was HORRIBLER than I can even tell you. My skin likes to turn a tiny bite into a small boil, so you can imagine the pain. I scratched so much, my skin was gone. But, I digress.....

I was sitting there enjoying the fountain running in the garden when Jerry came out and joined me. This almost NEVER happens. I love, love, love it when he takes time out to just LIVE instead of working all the time. As we were sitting there, I looked up at the ceiling of the porch and noticed a bunch of spiders crawling over each other. Then I felt my hair to see if any of them had fallen on my head. Then I checked my coffee to see if any were in my coffee. Nope, just a cat hair.

That is an actual picture of part of my porch ceiling. I told Jerry the Daddy Longlegs were having a convention. He said that is NOT what they are having -- they are mating. Lovely! A spider Orgy right above our heads. GROSS!

I totally forgot about my blog yesterday. Jerry and I both went to the doctor, and the doctor said his blood tests came back weird, so he had to go to the hospital late yesterday for some ultrasound. Maybe they think he is pregnant. Good grief. So he went and had whatever test, and the test showed he is perfectly fine. Hope they enjoy the money they will get for the not-needed ultrasound. As for me, I am still WAITING for Carbonite to finish giving me back My Documents. It has been FOUR days and nights and it is just up to 91% complete. Jerry said it would work faster if I stayed off the computer, so I wasn't on much yesterday.

Then there is the matter of my new video. I have never done a video in more than one take, but this last one took four takes. Not only did it take four takes, I couldn't get any of them to upload properly to You Tube. I am thinking it is probably because of Carbonite working in the background, so I will have to wait until that is done.

The demolition crew worked off site yesterday, but they were back at 8:30 this morning. They didn't tell me they were coming, so they arrived with me in my jammies cutting Jerry's hair in his underwear.

Now THAT reads back like I was NOT cutting the hair on his head! You have to be SO CAREFUL how you word things.

I TOLD Michael to let me know when they were coming so I would be ready for them. Guess they will next time. They made up some excuse that they forgot to remember to do something on another job, and they quickly disappeared and came back later.

They tore out the wall behind the refrigerator this morning and removed the filter and box from the wall. They removed all the old insulation, and replaced it with new. Here are pictures for Brad, our insurance adjuster. Feel free to just skip over them.

Thank goodness I just HAPPEN to have one roll of wallpaper left from when we built this house in 1998.

This is the cabinet after the back and the floor of the cabinet were cut out. We decided to do this instead of tearing out the whole countertop and cabinets.

This is the entire cabinet. The left side is fine inside.

This is what the wall looked like behind the frig after they removed the old filter and box. The sign on the wall is from me telling them to remove all the old insulation as far up as they can reach. Why take a chance there could be a mold spore in it.

Tape and mud.

This guy is Kirby. He told me today he has a degree in Psychology and another one in Business. I asked him WHY he is in construction with two degrees. He said he hated that kind of work.

Go figure!

I think he was telling the truth -- unlike Kirk the INSANE contractor I used for my MIL's house -- because Nasan was right there when he told me.

He does seem to be more intelligent than your average contractor -- at least, the ones I've had in the past!

And here is the final work of today. They filled in the hole behind the refrigerator. Now we wait until at least next Tuesday for the texture guy. Then we will have to paint and wallpaper. Then I guess the trim goes up. They finished all the trim yesterday at the shop, and it is in the garage now. After that, we need to have the mold scientist back to check the house for mold because I know it will be an issue if we ever want to sell the house. We will need a mold-free report.

The guys just left, and I am all alone. I'm going back to work on Route 66. I am on the 2nd to last row!!! This is totally amazing! Here's a few pics to update my progress. This is Kansas.

Betty's legs look like they are two different colors. They are the same. Just the lighting. Not sure I like what I did in the Betty Block. I may rip it all out. I quilted a Linda Taylor design. My longarm stitch regulator is completely broken, so the stitches are too close together. I have just used it as is, but decided to call today for repair. Good thing I did. My longarm is still under warranty. It needs two circuit boards and they are both COVERED by the warranty. YIPPEE!!!