Drywall Complete!

Moving forward yet again! The drywallers finished up their work yesterday in a few quick hours. All the holes are patched, the ceilings are scraped and textured, and all of the patches have been textured to blend back into the walls after a coat or two of paint. It's starting to look half way decent around here, if you ignore all of the dust. If it was just me and Tim, I'd just shut off the Pretty Room and the kitchen and be done with it, and let the dust collect like a science experiment, but with three dumb animals in the house who will walk in the dust and then lick their hands, something has to be done. I am not quite up for the Sisyphean task of dusting, sweeping and mopping EVERY day, but I'm hoping to get things reasonably clean again on Thursday after the floor is ground down in the kitchen. BLECH.

I think the new soffit looks great!

The whole place looks even better with the coat of primer on it (but these pictures are pre-paint.)

The new laundry room sink area is going to look good too. Instead of the temporary/portable laundry sink, we're going with a built in fixture and cabinet. They also re-did the stand the water heater stands on, so that's no longer water stained and moldy looking. All the other various holes have been patched and textured, as have the ceilings.

Lulu is still less than pleased with it all.

The painter was here this morning to prime the entire kitchen, the Pretty Room ceilings, and all of the patches. Tomorrow he's going to spray the ceilings at some point, and the grinding of the floors will begin. Glen assured me that the grinder also has a vacuum on it so it shouldn't be a HUGE disgusting mess, but that all remains to be seen. I am not getting my hopes up. HOWEVER, if all goes according to plan, we'll be putting down cabinet kicks and floor tiles by the end of the week!

BONUS:

Here's a shot of Ellie in her sleep sack. As you can see, it is a multitude of fleecy fabric. She has her Grandma Pat's propensity for lounge wear and mumus.

DOUBLE BONUS:
Today there was no one else at our swim class, so Ellie had her first lesson where she was in the water without me. She's really getting good - floating without a hand under her! And lest you think I am cruel, I was instructed NOT to respond to her when she was crying (when she stopped crying, I made sure to tell her what a good job she was doing.) And even through her tears, you can see her doing exactly what Mr. Shane told her to do.

This is just a preview of what it will be like for her int he spring - I'm planning on enrolling her in private lessons in March, so that Lambeau and I can just come and watch, since I won't be cleared to even get in the pool with her for six weeks, let alone whether or not I will WANT to get in the pool.

Also, today Ellie discovered that she can touch the bottom of the pool in the shallow end of the play area. She spent a good 15 minutes bouncing around for me (I was in the water with her at that point.) But look - floating, touching the bottom... I can only assume that she's completely water safe, and be like one of the moms at swim class who puts their kid in the shallow end and then NEVER looks up from their phone or ebook until an hour later.