Alive

I am still here and plugging away. I've been engaged in the ramp up to some major-ish home repair. I've basically done nothing to my condo since I moved in, except for painting the doors to the kitchen cupboards (which were stripped when I moved in).

Recently, I had a leaky pipe, the repair of which necessitated creating a big hole in my living room wall. During the repair process, a couple of small holes were made on the other side of the hole--which is in the bathroom. Insurance is allowing me to repaint my entire living room and bathroom. I got an estimate for the work from a contractor and from the insurance company. The contractor's estimate was about $800 higher than the insurance allowance. I asked for more money from the insurance company and I faxed them the contractor's estimate. A couple of weeks went by and then I got a letter from the insurance company--with a check for the $800. Time to get cracking. 

I also decided to do a little extra work. This is the full accounting:

• Complete scraping and repainting of bathroom, including ceiling (contractor)
• Remove bathroom vanity and mirror (i'll do this myself this weekend)
• Install new vanity and medicine chest (contractor)
• Install new wall storage in bathroom (me and/or contractor)
• Pick out new paint for living room (done)
• Repaint living room, replace baseboard, REPAIR GIANT HOLE (contractor)
• New kitchen sink faucet (I purchased, plumber will install)
• Install under-the-sink water filter in kitchen (plumber)
• Pending: purchase and install ceiling fans for living room and bathroom
• Get a sleeve sewn on the lovely little Turkish rug Dad gave me years ago, so I can hang it on the wall (found a lady to do this, it's with her)

I've already purchased the new sink, vanity, medicine chest, and storage cupboard, Ikea all the way. I've assembled them as much as possible, so the next step is properly securing them to the wall. I spent more money on the new kitchen faucet than all that junk from Ikea...what can I say? This new faucet is going to be amazing. I'll also have the sink re-caulked, because it's leaking a bit. Nine years of crud will do that.

Do you think that's enough?

I also went to the ball game this weekend, bought plane tickets for my vacation (yes!) in Iceland (YES!) in September. More planning pending on that...

And, I'm still tussling with my supervisor. Apparently, my work is ok, and I'm communicating ok, but my facial expressions convey disdain. Sigh. Moving right along....

Grateful for: patience. I'm sure I'll have it someday soon.