All Niters

So the week before Memorial Day was kinda crazy. As one of my loyal commenters pointed out, sometimes it just takes a deadline to get things done. I administered my exam on Tuesday, slogged through a marathon grading session Tuesday night, got out to the house Wednesday evening in time to meet the mulch delivery, spent way too many hours Wednesday night laying out paper and tape for the final coat of painting, painted Thursday morning, spread mulch while Sarah's mom put some serious elbow grease into cleaning the floors, graded the last of my papers, installed the last two exterior lights, installed the outdoor speakers, moved all the remaining construction materials from under the deck to behind the far side of the house, finished putting electrical outlets/switches in the basement, tripped the breaker for the three way switches that I can't get to work about ten times, finished trimming the basement floor,

*at this point it is pushing two a.m.*

started laying the bamboo treads/risers/landing, finished laying the bamboo treads/risers/landing, trimmed the landing,

*at this point the sun is coming up*

moved all my tools/supplies to the boys room (which is my new giant closet), installed the brushed aluminum cans in the recessed lights, set up the dvd player, and cleaned. Oh, and I had a ridiculous running nose that is better left undiscussed. Drove home to meet Sarah and the boys on the way to the airport to catch a flight to FL for a long weekend that my mom treated us to. Whew. (Then, after arriving home Wednesday night and spending six hours in my bed, I drove to Pittsburgh to help Tom Oates drywall his handyman special, and finally got home for good yesterday afternoon.) I don't even want to think about Sarah's hour-by-hour diary at home with three sick boys.

There's still plenty to do (biggest items are finishing the bathroom, installing a closet system, and some semblance of landscaping). But all our renters so far are singles or couples, so I've got some breathing room. We'll head out for a few days this week and the following week, and then I've got to get a real job for the summer...

Anyway, the short version of this post is we went from this on Thursday morning:


to this by Thursday night: