Putt Putt Putt

Before I commence with the home updates, I'd like to take a moment to recognize the vehicle previously known as Dodge #1 - now known as SOLD. You have no idea what a relief it was... watching it drive away last night. (Especially after the 45 minutes or so in which we couldn't find the title. That ordeal took a few years off my life, it was so stressful... what with the buyer in an airplane on his one way ticket here from south butt.)

That leaves the Dodge tally down to uno - Dodge #2. Fixing that up to a reasonable state without any major parts purchases is vehicle goal numero dos. Meanwhile, stress level goes back up through the roof at the end of this week, when Mike will be doing some traveling of his own to pickup a new (used) Dodge 2500.

Vehicles on my mind. Anyway! Forcibly pushing aside those stresses, it was a great weekend. Productivity and optimism were both up something percent.

Saturday, despite battling some crazy sinus thing that I've had forever that decided to come to a head at the end of last week... yeah, despite that - I completed puttying on the porch trim and ceiling. Sunday I even had an opportunity to paint some more of the ceiling! (More, but not all, unfortunately.)

Mike decided Sunday morning he finally wanted to install that cat door we've had new in the box for probably about six months now. (Back when we put in the basement and basement stairs, we left a hole in the hallway/stairway wall for the cats to go in and out of. Since having a baby, and since stuffing a pillow in the hole for cat-control just isn't the best cat-control method, we knew we'd need a proper cat door.)

Installing the thing was actually more of a pain then you might imagine. You see, the small-cat cat door is square shaped. The large-cat cat door is not. It's circular on the bottom. We have large cats... and we made a square shaped hole when we made our hole years ago. (Back when we didn't have the cat-door shape knowledge we have today.) So Mike had to trim the hole and cut a new - half circular - piece of drywall to be able to install the thing.

And I must admit, it looks pretty good. Trouble now is the cats don't know how to use the thing. And no, it's not one of those auto-opening-when-the-collar-gets-close type of door. Those things are mad expensive. But this one does have a magnet at the bottom to keep the door shut tight when not in use. Too tight, I'm afraid. The cats don't know how to (or just don't want to - because let's face it, they are cats) push the durn thing hard enough.

But, bottom line, after 17 months, I'm happy to cross "Cat Door" off of the list-of-stuff-that-should-get-done-but-nobody-cares-about.

Speaking of that particular list, Mike had the brilliant notion after finishing the cat door that he'd like to complete the siding on the top of the gambrel of the house. He called our carpenter friend TJ, who came over in the afternoon to give him a hand.

TA-DA! Now, we can officially call siding on the front of the house - DONE! We still need some trim up there on the top peak, but that's for another day.

To complete the weekend, Timmy and Richard came over to give us another materials list for this coming weekend. This time, it's time to wrap the posts. And lucky for us, we still have some of the needed materials in stock. Mike ordered the rest today and it should be delivered tomorrow.

Me, I'd like to finish up painting. Soon enough I'll have to paint out all the pre-primed white board - white - and the ceiling again - in its actual blue color. It's all on the list-of-stuff-that-everyone-cares-about. Just as soon as those posts are wrapped up tight.

After that? It's railing time. Mike and I have to make time to go and pick out what we want in that department. Hopefully Morse Lumber is open before 9 on a Monday, because that's the only time we'd have within their business days/hours.

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