Winding Down, Finally

Construction is finally beginning to wind down at the El-house. We began in earnest to really start cleaning up the construction stuff that has been stored in our living area, hammers, pry bars, tools, painting utensils, dropcloths, etc. There was no use in removing it to the garage until we didn't much need it anymore. We put new siding on the 2nd story on one side of the house. It took a beating when the roof flew off. The new countertop for the new cabinet arrives on Monday morning. All 8 rugs, rugs came back from being cleaned last night. Who knew we had that many rugs? Painting is 97% complete. I think there's always some painting to do, lots of little touch up here and there. One color would be so much easier but its not nearly as good looking as the contrasting colors we have so that takes a lot more time. All that's left is the rest of the Pergo floor. The insurance only replaced the damaged part so that's all we took up, until we got ready to put down the new floor we ordered. Looks wise its an exact match but not the locking, snapping part. Pergo conveniently changed the way it went together so it didn't match. All we could do was put down what we had and order more, so that's what we did. Lights and ceiling fan went up. All pretty exciting to get things back to normal. Time Christmas comes, hopefully we'll be 100% redone and you'll never know anything happened and it will all be new.

As frustatingly slow and dirty as it has been, I realize just how blessed we are to be at this point already. Our church building has yet to see a new piece of sheetrock or any kind of progress yet. Seems we still have a bit of mold that has to be taken care of and nothing can be started until then. On my way to the office a huge truck was pulling on to Post Oak with a full load of roofing materials for one of my neighbors. Many, many folks still are living with blue tarps and can't get a roofer to sneeze at them, much less a contractor who'll go to work reasonably. Many on South Burnet are waiting for someone to come and bulldoze the house they used to live in.

I spent some time on Tuesday helping my retired neighbor put some shingles on his roof. He's about 75 and I spotted him standing on an 8' step ladder working on it and just couldn't resist. His wife was standing nervously on the ground, watching his every move, much like my mom would be doing if Poppie were doing the same thing. She does her best to keep him from doing that kind of stuff these days. Its really for the younger crowd. So, I grabbed my hammer and headed over to help. Truth is, I'm thankful and not just because its Thanksgiving, but because I'm so blessed. It's easy to get bogged down in your own stuff until you step back, see others situations, and realize just how blessed you are.

Headed today to Forney to see my little Noah on his 2nd birthday, then to Norman, then Duncan, back to Forney, and finally home.

Boomer Sooner,
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