December 3, 2011

Happy December.  Another year starting to wind down and it has been an amazing year of changes for Jo and I.  Feel free to browse back through the postings for the year to see them all, but we are both still spinning with the changes involved in moving, retiring/changing jobs, and our new/old house.  All for the best but it has been pretty stressful at times.

I thought I would get a jump on my weekly post since it was a rainy day today and we are stuck inside for the most part.  The big news this week is that our renovation is almost completely done.  Especially since this past week we passed the milestone where we have lived in the house longer while it is being renovated than we did without renovations happening.  Needless to say, we are ready to have our house back, no construction guys running around it, and  the clutter cleared away.  Anyway, the new carpet went in this week and looks great and a lot of the little, last minute items were completed.  All we are really waiting for at this point is our bathroom mirrors and some electrical work.  The exciting portion for the week was the discovery of a tile floor underneath the family room carpet.  Unfortunately it wasn't in particularly nice shape so we choose to cover it back over with the new carpet as we originally planned.  On the painting front (what would be this weekly blog this year without a comment on painting), I patched and repainted the third floor attic space after the various marks and nicks made during the renovation.  Nothing like having to redo a space that was already done.  This week I start the hallways - especially our red back hallway.

Jo took Friday off from work and we hit the Mayfair mall to complete some of our Christmas shopping and made a great dent in it.  Besides needing a few small things for the missus, I'm pretty well done.  While at the mall we enjoyed lunch at 5 Guys and a Burger - probably not good for the arteries, but they do make a great hamburger!   On the way home we veered over to Woodman's for a grocery trip at our favorite grocery store in the area and then picked up our Christmas tree and wreath.  A lot of stops and we were gone most of the day but we had a lot of fun together and settled in for the night to pizza and a movie. 

Today we took advantage of the rainy weather to start finally unboxing our winter clothes from the move.  Since we have our new furniture pieces we have a place to finally put all these.  This involved making some hard decisions on what to donate and what to keep - something that causes no end of stress for Jo.  But we got most of it in place and it helps us start to feel a little more settled in.  Jo then went off to get a library card to the Milwaukee public library so she can download books to her Ipad.  Tonight we will be rooting on the Badgers as they attempt to win the Big Ten championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl - GO BADGERS!!  Tomorrow we are planning to unbox all the Christmas decorations and get started on our tree.