Our week of "vacation" comes to an end. I still have my usual Monday off tomorrow, but it's back to work for the Danners. Hard to believe that a week ago we were sunning ourselves on the beach at Assateague. It was a gorgeous day for the beach though none of us brought sunscreen... Who knew it would be such a nice day? Not me.

The inlaw visit was good. Uneventful. Indeed it seems that staying out of the house as much as possible is the best thing to do.

Got some good stuff accomplished this week. Lots of lanscaping mostly done. It looks tons better than the dirt farm of summer.

THEN:

NOW:

So far, this rain garden seems to be draining well, which feels like a huge victory after watching it sit for 6 weeks or so full of water during almost continuous rain. We tilled in a lot of sand, gravel and organic materials before planting. Hopeful that it doesn't have anymore issues. Still a bit of work to do - a few more things to plant along the side of the house, pavers for the garden path to install and a bit more mulching.

The focus for the rest of the week was tearing out most of the old kitchen. We decided not to deal w/the cabinets and plumbing right now because it's not necessary for the insulation work to be complete - so that'll be a project for some future time. We moved all of our non-cabinet kitchen stuff into the back bedroom and tore down all the crappy paneling. It used to be a happy yellow kitchen before the evil wood paneling and brown paint took over. The next day, I was sick as a dog with either a quick flu bug or food poisoning (crappy Chinese food) so Dan slaved away alone that day and the next by himself, tearing out lots of other stuff.

Before:


After:


So - that's where the vacation house work ends. And such is life around here. It was fun to hang out w/ Dan for the week, when I wasn't vomiting. Wish we'd had more time for fun things this week. But that will come in time.

Back to work this week. Off to Talladega, Alabama next week for work. Back to Balto for a few days and then we'll head to St Louis for a wedding the first weekend of November. Looks like we'll be enjoying our food in the not-so-kitcheny kitchen for a while yet...

Gosh, life is exciting.