Updates on Kitchen and other vitals

My updates have been around the kitchen lately. And I know, I know you guys want pictures. Unless someone comes in here with a digital camera to take some, I'm afraid I'm unable to provide them.

Suffice to say, the walls were painted--lucky us--by a retired professional painter. Jerry intimated to my husband he retired from painting making $45/hour, to go down to $9/hour working for the forest preserve--paining. Go figure.

Details were worked on, but we're both a bit dismayed at the way that this was approached. Basically bass-ackwards. The window over the kitchen sink--which you may recall was installed over a week ago--is yet to be replaced. I thought--we both thought--this would be the first thing he would do. Nope. How they will get around the sink and counter to replace the window, I don't know unless they do it from outside. But they have to remove the caulk we put in to keep out the cold air and Asian beetles years ago.

Also, I gave my husband the go-ahead to tell his supervisor, Buck (who is supervising this job), to refer to me when he reminds him of what needs to be done. "Lorelei just wanted to make sure you were going to do this-or-that." I told him I didn't mind playing the "bad cop" here, since he has to work under the man. No one who has met me would call me a battle ax, but in a way I'm allowing the idea to be subliminal that I'm the one demanding all this be done, all the details worked on etc. Since Buck would know that I was the one who sent the letter to the forest preserve superintendent about having this job underway since it was slated to happen this year--I had seen it in their minutes from their meetings.

I knew that if I had not sent that letter to the superintendent all the work on the barn would go on around us and Dennis was not going to make waves. So, I did. I got sick of looking at a filthy carpet on the kitchen, dealing with the bad plumbing, and almost no drawers, and the--gross--conditions underneath the sink where mice have, well, invaded. We had not eaten in the kitchen in several years because of the conditions. Mind you, I clean the best I can, but it comes to a point when whatever you do is not going to make it "clean".

So, the kitchen now has a bright new floor, counter tops, cabinets, and a fresh coat of paint on the walls. I've reminded them--through Dennis--that new doors and outdoor steps were also to be replaced as well, once this project is done. Dennis bought me a new mop and a replacement mop head so I can get up the fine dust that came from painter sanding down the walls after the mud he applied to bad areas had dried. The man did a great job!

The people who are renovating the barn--why they are doing this we have no idea--will be doing the siding and a couple of other things on the outside. The wetlands project must have really brought in a good deal of cash for them to have to spend like this. I'm just happy it's being done.

Meanwhile spring is blossoming and blooming its head off here. The magnolia trees, tulips, daffodils and other things are spectacular. My husband has spotted the rose breasted gross beak and then he called me to the kitchen where he had spotted something he didn't know what it was. He told me, "It has a bright red head, a black back and and white belly."

"That's probably a red-headed woodpecker. And sure enough, my many years of birdwatching was right-on. We spied it on the trees and I took the binoculars, although I knew without them that's exactly what it was.

I will be appearing on Patricia's Vampire Notes this coming Monday. I will announce it again. Yes there will be a give away. Any of my lurkers and stalkers are most welcome to jog over on Monday. I will give the link here that day, so DON'T MISS IT!