Status

An update is well overdue, and though I don't have any new pictures up yet, I aim to offer simple information of the progress we've made.

We finished getting everything moved out of the duplex and into the house on Saturday evening. Life is as crazy as I'd expected. Jessica has been working very hard to get things unpacked and put where they belong, and thanks to her we're already much closer to relatively clutter-free living. Last Thursday and Friday, Papa helped us get the bathroom finished--well, not finished, but functional. We installed our sink and toilet. The toilet tank was leaking and we were very worried, but Lowe's replaced it for us and now it's working flawlessly. Yesterday morning I discovered that the drain pipes for the sink were leaking, but I worked on it yesterday afternoon and I think it's fine now.

For about two weeks now I've been trying to get the drains for the kitchen sink working, but I keep running into little problems, and leaks persist, so I think I'm just going to let the plumber deal with it when he returns tomorrow to finish up the tasks they didn't get to last week. We had our new water heater hooked up and had all the old galvanized supply pipes replaced with a product called Wirsbo Aquapex. It's some sort of polymer that has advantages over copper. While installing this, the plumbers discovered some problems with the big pipe coming to the house through the front yard, so I gave them the go-ahead to replace that as well. It'll be a hefty bill, but it's well worth it to have reliable plumbing, satisfactory water pressure, and clean water, not to mention the value added to the house.

We're slowly working making life normal--installing blinds, fixing sinks, installing kitchen flooring, etc. We're enjoying the house--the parts that are done, anyway. The bathroom is getting very close to being complete, and we love it. Papa did such a wonderful job on the baseboards, wainscoting, mirror frame, and chair rail. We're really pleased with the way everything turned out. I promise pictures soon.