Vague updates

I'd apologize for neglecting the blog, but ... I just haven't been able to bring myself to take photos of the damage Sandy wreaked on the House of Bich.

This point must be made: We were lucky. That Horrible Bitch Sandy did not destroy our domicile, leaving us homeless or with hundreds of thousands in damage (yes, we know people who suffered both fates). But we did get seven inches of water in our basement, which -- just as Irene, That Mean Girl, did the year before -- put my basement project on the back burner again. Well, sort of; the rehabbing is simply taking a different form.

Rich is still fighting with the insurance company to get the money we're due, dammit, and then we'll replace our 40-year-old boiler, one-year-old hot water tank, and (sigh) get a new washer and dryer. We haven't had a washer and dryer since That Horrible Bitch hit. It's April. Everything will be installed on blocks this time.

And then I'll get back to painting.

In a weird way, the flooding (and the fact that we had insurance in the first place) put us in a good position to replace the boiler at last. We'll be doing a conversion from oil to gas, and taking out the oil tank will give us that much more room down there for ... whatever it is I'm doing with it.

Rich also recently chose a contractor to replace most of the windows in our house, including the enclosed porch, which remains the last room in the house we haven't touched since we moved in nearly three years ago. So exciting -- I finally get to paint and make that a real room! I'm thinking a lively apple green.

So, lots of activity, clearly, and all things we knew would happen at some point. And I realize I should just take the pictures already and post them here, but I can't. It's too frustrating. I'll wait until I'm back in the process, getting my hands dirty again. Moving on.