Life's a Stitch

This house building stuff comes with its own learning curve. So many items, so many explanations needed. Slow closing telescopic toilet seats are a selling feature. Who knew? All it means is that the lid fits around the bottom so the seat isn't exposed in any way when closed. Couldn't they have come up with a better word?  

We've lived out of a suitcase since the end of May, housesitting, staying with friends, Air B&Bing, visiting children. We're limiting our days south of the 49th parallel due to US rules. On this continent anyway. Did you know that if you stay beyond a limit of days prescribed by the federal government and individual states you can become a resident for tax purposes? Do you know how they count the number of days? You might think that an easy task, adding up the days over the border that you checked on a calendar. Nope. The US government counts the number of days present in the current year plus one third of the days you were there last year plus one sixth of the days from two years ago. A formula only a government bureaucracy could think up. It requires an Excel spreadsheet. 

I do like being close to our project, not always possible. This past weekend we even had a picnic in our bedroom:

Mmmmm Trader Joe's Bacon cheddar cheese.

Here you can get an idea of our progress:

Before:

Current:

Note all that fresh new wood.

This is what we had to replace on all three levels:

But that's all behind us now.