Closing in!

We are moving tomorrow. Or at least that's the plan. At least we've got the truck on lock down. First move will be to pick up a refrigerator from our new craigslist friend, Casey. Here's the low down on what went down today.

After doing some "real" work this morning, I arrived over at the house around 1PM to find the plumbing fairy had come in the morning! Actually, my father-in-law replaced the rest of the pipe between newer pipes under the sink and the professional-plumber-replaced kitchen stack in the basement. Horray! We discovered this link after we installed a dishwasher. Although we have plans to refinish/paint the kitchen cabinets, as well as the floor, a dishwasher was a must before we could move in. Here it is, in all its glory.

Speaking of the kitchen, we have been debating about what to do with the floors. Clearly the awesome vinyl needs to go. We were thinking about installing ceramic tile, but it would be great if there was hardwood floor underneath it all. Turns out there is -- we discovered this after pulling out the kitchen cabinet to make way for the dishwasher. There's also some awesome tile! The tentative plan is to strip away all the excess layers on top of the wood and pay someone to refinish it. That's awhile out though... =/

So if you have been following along, you may remember some crazy plaster work I did on the ceiling in the living room. Here's the play-by-play in picture form. It turned out very nicely, if I do say so myself. The best -- its a permanent fix, so I won't have to go fixing it again next year, if all goes well.

I used one of those paint edger things (SHUR-LINE Classic Paint Edger to be exact), and it works just as advertised. Very easy to use, perfect edging, just be careful with the wheels. Here's some shots of finished or semi-finished rooms.

Finally, we also discovered we have a hawk that lives in our backyard. S/he was perched on top of our roof for awhile today. My wife is a lover of all things furry or feathery, so she got some sweet pics and video. Here's a shot: