Wired!!!

The wiring is complete and has passed inspection!!!

Much happiness, especially from Mr. Homebuilder, who is delighted to be finished with that massive project.

And on to the next.

The next is finishing up a bunch of smaller things; the last few plumbing connections, the sewer pipes under the house, the connections on the meter box for the well, etc. Gonna be another busy weekend.

Also need to get to work on the bathtub, which needs all its old peeling paint scraped off so the refinishing can commence. Which necessitates first moving it from its current location down to the house site and plunking it onto a sheet of plastic to catch all the scraped off paint. It's heavy, so that keeps not happening.

We remain on the lookout for a super cheap bathroom vanity that can act as a placeholder until DH has time to build one, because you have to have a functioning bathroom before they'll give you an occupancy permit.

A complete, fully functional bathroom would be a nice change in any event, though the last year and a half have certainly been a good lesson in how much more simply you really can live. (But, man! I really should have learned how to knit first! Or crochet, or something).

We found a lovely kitchen sink awhile back at the Habitat for Humanity Restore -- a big, porcelain double sink that was just exactly what I wanted. DH was holding out for stainless steel, but decided that for $15 (he asked them to lower the price -- from $60! -- and they did!), he can live with porcelain, even if he is taking private bets on how long it will be before we manage to chip it. There are some paint drips dried into cement on it, but, hey, they're cream colored. DH, however, would like to figure out how to remove them.

Thus far, no one has put any actual effort into this, such as, say, Googling how to remove paint drips from porcelain, but it will work its way to the top of the list eventually. At present, the sink is tastefully decorating the fir wood behind the house. There are other priorities, such as putting in the baseboard heaters. Because they, too, were used, these are a truly ugly shade of gray. We're grateful to have them, but I wish they came cream-colored. Too bad I can't cover them with lace doilies, of which I have inherited about 10,000.

Meanwhile, this lovely place goes about its business: There are spotted fawns bounding through the hedgerow, baby quail learning to fly, half-grown baby scrub jays squawking to be fed in the hawthorns, tiny brown rabbits running about.

The garden looks good for early July; unfortunately, it is early August. And my some of tomatoes are diseased. Robins are eating all the blueberries, and when I work too late in the garden in the evening, they come and tell me to scat, because it's their turn. They sent a towhee to yell at me, since landing on fenceposts to stare at me wasn't doing the job.