Walls Are Up, Walls Are Down

Zoe's walls are up.  She has decided that she doesn't want to move and has given me a hundred reasons why we shouldn't.  For the past week it has been getting progressively worse.  Today she sobbed and went on about it for nearly two hours.  She told me we should get our money back.  When we went out to the new house she was fine though.  She loves her new room when she is in it, but the rest of the time her anxiety is high.

I think we all have high anxiety at the moment.  The amount of work to be done is daunting, but finally the wall in the kitchen is down.  Scott made amazing progress today.  He extended the soffit so the oven cabinet will look right.  He recycled material from the wall he tore out, between the living room and kitchen, to build the soffit.  He used the studs and the drywall, so very little will be wasted and we save money.  He also redid all of the wiring in that wall and installed new light switches.  Have I mentioned that Scott is amazing?!

This is what the wall between the kitchen and the living room looked like "before".

"After", with the new, extended soffit over the fridge and the spot where the built-in oven will be.

The new view from the living room.

The new view from the dining room.

While Scott did all of the hard work, I finished most of the cut in painting upstairs.  I am so close to being finished with the upstairs painting, with the exception of the bathroom, where I still have wallpaper to remove.  I'm just glad I got anything done today.  Zoe developed a fever yesterday afternoon and was sick through the night, but made a recovery by morning.  If anyone is keeping track, that is malady #3 for the week.  I am ready for us to all be healthy and well.  There is too much work to do to be sick! 

Scott's parents spent the day helping out, so we ordered pizza to feed them for their efforts.  About the time I expected them to return from picking up the pizza, I hear honking out front.  It was already dark out, but I could tell it was a truck rather than their car.  I went down to see who it was and an older gentleman told me he was my neighbor. He then began to talk and talk and talk - even after my in-laws returned with the pizza.   He told me all about how wealthy his children are; how he was raised a Baptist, but that there are over 300 flavors of Baptist, so now he is part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  He told me that it is the only church built on the rock of Jesus, or something to that effect and that if I could prove otherwise he'd, "kiss my butt"!  I also found out in the course of our very weird conversation that he is 81 and a widower.  I just did lots of smiling and nodding, all the while hoping my pizza would still be hot when I got inside - if I got inside!  After all of that, he mentioned that his son is the one who was previously grazing his cattle on the back part of our property.  (The previous owners had acquiesced when they were asked permission, but told us they had regretted the decision.)  Anyway, he had tried to buy just the back 10 acres, but obviously didn't get it, so he wanted our permission to graze the cattle back there.  I said no.  Then, I said no again, and again, and again.

So, to sum things up with the neighbor encounter...I am not a Mormon now, and I am still cow free.