Will Miracles Never Cease?

We just wrapped up our first vacation in our new house. It was an amazing week. We got so much done and had fun at the same time but that's not the miracle. The miracle was that I thoroughly enjoyed sanding, priming and painting the old sheet music cabinet to convert it into a nightstand- a lot! Way more fun than I ever thought possible. I woke up each morning and immediately checked it out-did it need more sanding? How many coats of paint would I need before the color stopped bleeding through? I'm sure the neighbors were thrilled that we set up a painting workshop on the tailgate of the truck each day. We love how it came out- pictures below. It's not perfect but it is going to do just fine in the guest room.

Now let's talk about the guest rooms. We had the carpet installed on Thursday. The crew of 3 (an older man, a slender (read not strong) woman and a 20 something guy had to get 2 15 foot rolls of carpet up to the second floor. I knew we were in trouble when they asked me to help them. Let's just say that the hard wood floor guy dropped off extra paint and the scratches in the railing will be repainted and the prisms that got knocked off the chandelier were easy to reattach. The fun didn't end there though. My husband spent the day driving to New Hampshire to pick up our new bed, queen sized mattress and box spring that we needed to get up the same staircase- groan!!! These are the kinds of situations that try the patience of a saint- forget the patience of a married couple with a newly scratched woodwork. We managed to get through it with better success than the carpet installers. The rooms looks fantastic- still needs some decorating help but we are light years ahead of where we were when we started.

On Tuesday, we had guys here installing our new generator. This was a big deal. Because we aren't here during the week, it gives us piece of mind that pipes won't freeze if we lose power in the winter and it also provides a sense of security that the sump pump will be able to do it's job if the power goes out. When the generator ran it's weekly test on Saturday morning, we stood in the window admiring this massive investment that I hope we never have to use. The inspector blessed the installation of the generator and 2 propane tanks on Thursday. The electrician came by on Friday and he'll be back next weekend to rewire some closet lights. Oh, the cable company also showed up unannounced to bury the line they ran back in December. It was like Grand Central Station all week.

There were two other minor miracles earlier in the week- we got our beach stickers and we FINALLY got a cable box that works!!! Trust me, neither was easy. If I had a first born, it would have been easier to give it to the woman at town hall in exchange for the stickers- not that I think she could have been bribed by such a gift. Boy do they take sticker distribution seriously!! A trip to the title company for copies of closing documents and more research at town hall finally resulted in two stickers for the 2013 season. The cable box was easier but no less miraculous. We were two boxes, two remotes, and a service call into this ordeal and we were still unable to change the station from my side of the bed or get any channel other than NECN. Third time was a charm! I didn't even have to cry which I was prepared to do. The woman took pity on us and opened the vault of non refurbished cable boxes and we were on our way.

We had visits from family and close friends, had some amazing meals, met some neighbors and spent plenty of time at the beach. One of the unexpected pleasures was getting to the bottom of the fire pit in our backyard. We burned lots of brush, leaves and low and behold, someone could see the Red Sox game through the bedroom window. Yay for the working cable box! It was a great week. It's Sunday night and I'm already looking forward to the weekend!