browser life

Yes, at long last, the basement is fully repaired! It was finished on Thursday afternoon. And this morning, I got the vents professionally cleaned, which was much needed to get rid of all the construction dust, pet hair, etc. that had accumulated in there and that was aggravating my asthma.

Now I am in the process of putting things back in their rightful place and finding places for things that no longer have a home. The cabinet that had been in the scrapbook area was too damaged to be re-used, so I had some shelves put on the wall instead. And Dan's mom gave me a dresser that had belonged to her grandmother (or was it great-grandmother?), so I put my camera equipment and some scrapbooking supplies in there.

I am also in the midst of cleaning the entire house. There is dust from the fireplace destruction all the way upstairs in every single room. And as usual, I can't do more than one room in a day, so this is gonna take me awhile.

The final tally was even higher than I had feared. Optimistically, the soonest I'll be able to pay this off is two and a half years from now. And at the moment, I ain't feeling that optimistic.

But I finally have a livable basement again, with twice as much insulation in the new areas as before and double pane windows to keep out the cold. My Gazelle glider is in its new permanent home in the space where the fireplace had been so it will no longer be in the way of anything else. The electrical problems have been fixed so that the lighting downstairs will quit shorting out.

And if I find myself in the unfortunate position of having to sell the house, it might be worth a little more than before.

My goal for tonight, though, is to sort through the 80 remaining un-viewed e-mails and 150 Facebook requests. Wish me luck!