August 11, 2003 - We've been slaving away even though you can't tell it from the schedule.  We got the window situation taken care of with only a little haggling, but you'll notice we don't have them put in yet.  That's because when we talked to the paint guy he said it would cost $700 extra to paint with the new windows in because he would have to tape around them.  Makes sense.  We have two carpenters hard at work on the exterior replacing bad siding and filling in some missing trim.  They are excellent with great attention to detail.  I cannot believe what fantastic luck we are having with contractors.  Speaking of which our fabulous roofer Rick Jenson showed up again and finished that last little porch roof.  Thank goodness because I don't know when we would have gotten to it.  We've met with our electricians and walked through the up-stairs and marked off where we wanted all of the electrical this and that.  They should get started wiring this week.  The heating and cooling guys were supposed to show up last week, but we didn't hear from them.  Tim's checking into that so hopefully they'll be around this week too.  With all of those contractors working away I wish I could say we were lounging around.  Unfortunately no.  Tim's been busy fixing the interior to get it ready for all of the contractors.  He forgot that he had to put blocks in the corners of all of the rooms to have something to attach the drywall too.  So that's been taking up a little more time than he expected.  He did finish all of the upstairs last night though and thinks he can take care of the downstairs this week.  Which means that hopefully next week he can get started on the plumbing.  I've been spending all of my time in my mother's garage working on the woodwork. What a process!  I've discovered that I must strip each piece twice, lightly sand it, clean it, stain it, and apply 3 coats of varnish.  I'm finishing up 100 of the blocks that go in the corner of the windows and doors, little 10x5 pieces, and that has taken me 2 weeks.  I'm thinking that the rest of the pieces will go a little faster because they don't have the detailed carvings. 
August 24, 2003 - We took they day off yesterday.  Not that we've deserved it, but they had an old house fair in the neighboring town of Waterloo.  There was an architectural fair and seminars that didn't do much for me, but the tour of homes was worth it.  It was neat to see different people's approaches to living in a historic home.  There was everything in these five homes from the don't touch museums to the homes with children's art lining the walls.  The amount of love each homeowner possessed for their home was very evident and that was what got me.  But back to the subject.  BIG EXCITING NEWS!!!  We have lights!  4 of them in the up-stairs.  Friday night we went over to the house and turned everyone of them on and then walked back and forth out on the road picturing what it was going to look like when those lights illuminated something besides wall studs.  I was a beautiful sight.  Also the painted has been working away at prepping the house for the paint.  I have officially lost the paint color battle.  The original white (my choice) is going to be replaced with a dark cream on the siding and a light cream on the trim.  All of the fancy wooden shingles in the peaks will be a dark sage green.  I'll get pictures posted as soon as progress is made.  The heating and cooling people where there last week too and got all of the systems planed out.  We also have another new addition.  A 1,000 gallon LP tank now sits to the north of the house.  It's pretty unattractive, but necessary.  I'll need to think a bit on how I'm going to "dress it up."  I'm still plugging away at the woodwork and Tim's been on the road working so he's still got work to do with the first floor interior repairs. 
September 9, 2003 - The house is now primer white with the green accent color painted in the peaks.  I like it white and am now sorry I didn't push harder to win that battle.  But I'm also very pleased with how the green draws your eyes to the decorative shingles.  It will be nice.  Tim has now finished up on the structural work and is now going to tackle the plumbing until the painters are done and then he'll get those new windows in.  I'm still working away at wood work.  I'll have to take a break from the old stuff now though because yesterday we got our replacement doors in.  They look beautiful!  We also got our kitchen cabinetry in.  It was really depressing to have to haul it into my uncle's storage shed and not into the house.  How ever I do have the consolment of having new cabinets in my house in Waverly.  We should be ready to put that on the market in the next month.  Our big find this weekend was an old house in Rockford that has the same exterior window trim as ours.  We'll be able to get more than what we need of what is missing.