Whew!

We spent January working away on some home construction projects that involved floor to ceiling cabinets in the living room.. We did all the work ourselves, which kept us very busy.

We learned a couple of things:

1. Homes built in 1962 are no longer square
2. Any project costs more than you expect. Especially in time, money and energy
3. The finished project is better than expected.

Beginning the week of Christmas, my husband proceeded to knock holes in our ceiling for surround sound. This part of the project went better than possibly expected. Many years ago, my husband was an electrician in the Navy. The surround sound was the easy part of our project. The clean up from dry wall dust wasn’t.

No, that’s not snow on the floor…but it does add a certain holiday touch.

His plan incorporated existing Ikea cabinets into the new cabinets (to save time and money theoretically)

He then added a series of shelves on the top for games and such ….In the middle of our build Santa came. So we stopped the major project to clean up a bit for Christmas

and after Christmas we dragged all the construction equipment out again to finish. I still have to finish staging the project and do some touch up painting but at least it is liveable.

The finished project, complete with a bench/extra seating that was a birthday gift. Luckily, I had the paint color already on hand.

The week we finished up, Pennsylvania had a hard freeze and three radiators blew in our rental property causing thousands of dollars in damage. Luckily our homeowners covered all but our deductible.

I didn’t intend on a month long absence but things worked out for the best, thankfully. I am enjoying the new living room, sans the dust.

We will have much more regular contributions this month.