back in contact

Much has happened since last we had access to the internet, and we'll begin to fill in as we get pictures of the new work. Ted emptied the hot water heater, all 40 gallons of it, 2 gallons at a time. He also installed a dishwasher (which you can read more about here) and has replaced and grounded most of the electric sockets. Kelly finished painting the bathroom and scrubbed, stripped and sealed the tile. She pulled out a kitchen window, figured out how it works and promptly put it back. Ted's office is painted, though, a deep "bison" brown, and the computers are up and running. We haven't achieved normalcy by any strecth, but there are reminders of it here and there.

A long term plan had been to remove the shrubs in front of the house, but a knock on the door last night changed all that. Neighbors were having a patio installed and came over to offer Chris -- the landscaper -- and his Bobcat. Since he had the equipment at the ready, he offered to do it for next to nothing. It happened just about as fast as it will take to look at the pictures:

This last picture is an aerial view of the destruction, taken from the front bedroom. After the painter is finished with the house (hopefully by the end of June) we'll put in the new shrubs. Currently, we're considering some combination of burning bush, boxwood, daphne, mugo pine, compact Japanese maple and possibly red twig dogwood.