the pain continues

all of the bedrooms and bathrooms are done and staged

hurray

very early in the week I worked on the chain for this piece -- and it's coming along, just very slowly

and the boards in the door are stitched down

but because my hands and arms are so sore I have not worked on anything but the house for most of the week

it's been a rough week all around

my mother (who had a heart attack back in June) was diagnosed with bladder cancer this week

I'm really ready to be done with this year

life is what happens while you're making other plans

first an update on the little family I wrote about

surrounded by family members that could make it to China, he passed quietly and the group has just returned to the US

they will have a memorial service sometime soon

we continue to pray for his widow and daughter as they have big challenges still ahead of them

we have continued to work in the house this week

this picture shows the first wall in the kitchen that was put back together with the freshly repainted cabinet doors

it looks a lot brighter in there

last Friday I had a professional come and clean the carpet in the living room/dining room

it looks great

and this week we managed to get that room staged -- which means my dog is not a happy camper as I am keeping her out of there now

while we had hoped to be done by today, and I was on track to be there on Tuesday, Wednesday morning when I work up my right hand was swollen and so painful I could hardly dress myself, much less do any work

turns out I had sprained it and the ganglion cyst on my wrist had broken, causing all that pain and swelling -- wow!

the second slow down in this week was that after the DH limping about for over a month we took him to the podiatrist to have a look at his toe

the same weekend he had the encounter with the spider (which has finally healed up, thank goodness) he dropped a carpenters square on edge striking his big toe on edge right at the base of the nail

seems he crushed the nail bed, so in the doctor's office they removed that toenail for him, and he should be much better now

just taking one day at a time

Working with a heavy heart

 it's been a tough week here

while work continues on the house and projects (more about that further down in this post), we are constantly mindful of the struggles this young family is dealing with

I have been very close friends with the grandmother of the young woman in this picture since before she was born, I consider them family

in August they went to China so she could teach English there

right now her husband is in the ICU of a hospital there in China and is not doing well, she has been told to be prepared for him not to make it

they need help
 
you can read the full story about what is happening here:  http://www.thelittlefigs.com/

if you can help them in any way, I believe you will be blessed

all of the cabinet doors from the kitchen are ready and waiting to go back in

yesterday we returned all of the drawers to their places -- fresh paint, new contact paper liners -- looking good

the little blue room is ready -- the carpet has been shampooed, the glass mirror closet doors cleaned, and just these two pieces of furniture in the room -- there are no ceiling fixtures, so in order to light the rooms I'm putting a lamp in each one -- it's the best I can do 

it took me several days to finally get the edge work done on this piece -- now I'm (slowly!) working on the necklace

 

and work continues on this shed door -- the last one

I have a lot of other art I want to work on, but the heavy physical work in the house must get done first -- the living room/dining room carpet gets professionally cleaned tomorrow, we meet with the real estate agents on Tuesday

we hope to have the house on the market by the end of the week -- we'll need all the help we can get

 

of respirators and spider bites

working right along -- I'm now at day 2 past what our original finish goal was, so there is increased urgency to get things done

ratty t shirt?  check

head phones?  check

respirator?  check

this has been the uniform for much of the week

yesterday the very last of the paint scrapping from the tile was completed and the shower has been all wiped down with vinegar

now I have only to re caulk around the door frame, the top edge of the tile and the shower pan, do a little touch up paint and mop the floor for that bathroom to be finished

and I'll be returning the kit for painting the shower to the store for a refund -- this tile is in perfect condition -- there is no way I'm covering it up after spending all that time cleaning it off!!

and under the category of more trick than treat

we spent most of Halloween evening in the ER of our local hospital

a couple of weeks ago the DH was cleaning out one of our sheds and had what we initially thought was a bruise on his left hand

turns out it actually was a spider bite -- a brown recluse being the likely culprit although we don't know for certain since he never saw it

he's got a week's worth of an oral antibiotic (and I'll spare you the rant about the hassles of obtaining those) and we'll be visiting with his doctor for a follow up this week

geesh!

the beginning of the last shed door -- just a little art work this week --

after hours of scrapping tile, my hands have hurt too much to do a lot of other things -- I'm really glad to be done with that

Onward!