And Then There Was...

As of today, the home renovation is DOOONNNNNNE!!!!!

My uncle-in-law told us we should buy all our new light fixtures this weekend to be ready for when the electrician decided to show up to do the final touches. Guess what? The electrician showed up yesterday...several days earlier than the earliest expected. Since my wife and I were both at work, my uncle-in-law ran out and got the light fixtures himself (and I'm very happy with his judgment in the matter!). Even more amazing, the electrician came again this morning to do the last two outlets, and he also took the opportunity to fix my satellite TV antenna and connection, which had been out of commission for more than two months. After all the griping about the guy, he was the one who finally saved the day.

The interior decorating team was very efficient and professional, and they were also a decent lot. They wrapped up the wallpapering and ceiling work yesterday, and we expect our order-made curtains to be here in a few days.

As for the father-and-son roofing/siding team, the contractors who spent by far the most time with us, they finally completed their enormous project of stainless steel roofing, aluminum siding, new gutters and drainpipes, and repairs of some longstanding flaws in the house's existing roof design (and yes, they did fix the skylight the old man broke when doing the roofing...and he did a good job of it, I might add), packed up their voluminous supply of gear (and their adorable, little dog), and went back to Tonosho this afternoon. It was kind of sad; they were almost beginning to feel like family...and the toothless, old man who heads up the duo is simply awesome.

My uncle-in-law caught his plane back to Hokkaido this morning. I don't think we can thank the man enough, but I think we were all heaving as much of a sigh of relief as he was.

My wife and I spent the day dusting, waxing the new flooring, and moving furniture into position. A lot of it, including our sofas, had been outside wrapped in tarps for quite some time. Several of our cabinets and bookshelves had been out there for more than two months. Now we're welcoming it all back into the family...and trying to figure out where best to put it all. We're also eyeing all those boxes of stuff that have been filling up the halls and stairway for weeks...but that will have to wait till tomorrow.

Then again, we may just say "phuggit", hop in my BLUE RAV4, and take off for a long-awaited and much-deserved day of doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Hopefully the post-endeavor blues won't drag us down too much.

Once we get things in a bit better semblance of order I promise I'll post some pics. For now I'll just enjoy the new abode a bit with just my family, if you don't mind!

(Where're my guitars??!? DIG OUT THE GUITARS!!!!!)