The current flurry of post-refi work on our house -- which has been going on for a full year (if you don't count the fact that I started actively calling contractors in frickin' mid-2009!) -- is neeeeearly finished! All that remains is the finishing of the paint on the new front door (2 more coats). Then our lives will be free of contractors for -- presumably -- years to come. I love Ting -- he's amazing -- but it will be incredibly fabulous to never have to worry about being here (often all day) just in case he needs to ask me something or show me something or have a lock unlocked or whatever.

Plus ... privacy! No other people tromping through our house all day long! I can just walk around naked if I want to! I can do anything anything anything under the sun!

Can you tell that I'm excited?

Plus, we now have a constantly useful garage, a very handsome deck, a lovely new front door (which doesn't scrape loudly and painfully against the brick floor when it opens and closes, like the old one did), new steps (of consistent and appropriate height) up to the new front door, several new windows that actually open (unlike the ones they replaced), several new window screens that make opening those new windows safe for cats (and for humans who are particularly loved by mosquitoes), and probably some other great improvements I'm just not remembering at the moment. Our house, she is beyooooootiful!

Kinda crazy that it took me this long, given how many journal entries I've written on the subject over the last year or two, but I finally made an icon of our house. Ain't she fine?