Our Renovation is so, so close

We spent a wonderful weekend in Madison.  Our niece and grand-niece (which makes her sound so much cooler than her mom, just the niece) from Omaha were staying with Kathy so we went over on Thursday and stayed through the weekend.

First the renovations, all the major construction work has been completed - well almost, more on that below.  All that is really left is installing towel rods, hanging mirrors, and a few hundred other small items.  We were able to stay in our condo this weekend for the first time in almost 9 months, since we finally have working toilets and showers - well, sort of.  We decided to shower in our guest bath shower mainly to make sure everything was working.  And we found that we got a foot bath at the same time as our shower.  Turns out the bottom of the shower wasn't pitched correctly to effectively drain the water.  So back will come the tile guy to rip the bottom of the shower out and try again.  Other than that, everything else seemed to work as expected.  The refrigerator and freezer units made ice and got cold, the air conditioner kept the place pleasant in the heat and humidity, and all the lights went on and stayed on.  We still haven't fired up the ovens or microwaves yet, but soon.

The other exciting news is that we got our first furniture deliveries.  We now have an official bed to sleep in, so no more air mattresses on the floor.  We also have something besides folding chairs to sit on in the family room, as we got our couch delivered.  The one downside, all these changes are starting to make us eager to live there full time now.  But that time is coming.

When we weren't waiting around for furniture to be delivered, hanging blinds, or trying out all our new stuff we had a great time visiting with all the family that gathered.  We managed two nieces (Nebraska and Illinois), two nephews (Illinois and Indiana), and two grand-nieces.  Not counting Kathy and John who hosted the hordes and kept everyone entertained and well fed.  We also took the opportunity to celebrate a couple of recent or soon to come birthdays - yes, one of them was mine, although I am still in my current decade for several more days.  There were also visits to the Madison zoo and games of Yardzee (it is yahtzee played outdoors with giant wooden dice). 

We came home Sunday around noon and promptly crashed on the sofas for a nap - it was a busy weekend, especially for this almost old geezer.