Tim has left the building

According to my calendar, Tim marched purposefully into our lives on March 5, 2026. We had been talking about him for about 15 years. We started making solid plans for him last November after our beloved kitty died and we had more freedom to escape Tim if need be (and need definitely beed). Although we invited him in, Tim nevertheless totally disrupted our lives and sanity for almost 6 months. Man, it’s been a long ride.

Just so we’re on the same page, Tim is not a person. Tim is a sizeable Woodhaven remodeling project involving lots of flooring and a new kitchen and raised floors and ceilings and a roof repair and engineers and inspectors and permits. Lots of moving parts, complete with a spreadsheet and a 10-page document of specs and details and decisions. You can read more about Tim if you scroll back to March.

The Before 
Woodhaven's Breakfast Nook
Pretty much all original from when
we bought Woodhaven 22 years ago.

The Before
Woodhaven's Kitchen
We changed out the counters and the wall oven
and switched to a gas stove shortly after we
moved in. Otherwise, all circa 1993.

In the midst of Tim
Kitchen is to the left, breakfast nook
is in the back corner. The room
with the glass doors is officially
called The Sun Room but it was more
the Water Leaks in Storms Room.
Now it's just called The Kitchen.

In the Midst of Tim
Standing in the breakfast nook
looking into the kitchen.

In the Midst of Tim
Hopefully repaired the roof once and for all.
That plus storm doors will hopefully eliminate
panic with every windy rainstorm. Cuz those
happen occasionally in the PNW.

In the Midst of Tim
Florescent lighting gone!
Wall framing the kitchen gone!
Ceiling raised!
Cabinetry being installed!

During these disruptive 6 months, we at times lived out of our bedroom and master bath, using a backdoor to access the rest of the world. Laundry Day required checking the weather and trotting through our backyard to access our laundry room from the garage. Our bedroom was peppered with suitcases, snacks, a printer and shredder, files and checkbooks. Our bedroom was the closest thing we had to a sanctuary, but it was often noisy and distracting on the other side of the dust-barrier-sealed door. So, we left. Sometimes to hotels within driving distance (I just counted - we stayed in over 20 different places during Tim's visit, including a cruise ship for 33 days). Sometimes much farther away.

Enjoying a snack in Poland!
Tim who??

Leaving the country for nearly 2 months while our house was under reconstruction was absolutely one of the smartest things we have done in a long time. We have worked with our contractors for over 20 years, so Mel and Randy know us well and we trust them implicitly (clearly). Although we still came home to about 3 weeks of noise and decisions and dust and disruption, it helped tremendously that we were in the “putting it back together” phase and had missed most of the demolition and re-engineering.

Randy and Mel
We don't trust Woodhaven to anyone else

I’m deeply relieved and grateful to say Tim did not go significantly sideways at any point in the process. Sure, a few things worked out differently than anticipated and had to be redone or rethought, but nothing that’s worth mentioning or remembering. Overall, the entire adventure went substantially according to plan. WOW!

We have been moved back into our new kitchen and dining room for a few days now. It’s been both instantly familiar and surprisingly jarring.

We had our first home-cooked meal at home a couple of nights ago. I actually had to go grocery shopping for the first time since February. Good Lord, have you seen the prices of food these days?!  Of course you have. But I hadn’t. I was shocked when I saw the total price of my handbasket of items. I stood at the register and scrutinized the receipt, convinced several items had been double or triple scanned. Nope. Yowza!

Post-Fair and Post-Tim restock

Eating an old family favorite recipe (Hobo Stew, not politically correctly named but I wouldn’t dream of changing it) while sitting in our living room watching an episode of “The Love Boat” was a familiarity and routine and recharge I had been craving since March. But making the meal – trying to remember where I put the pan and the skillet and the bowls and the Tabasco sauce. That was unexpectedly perplexing. I was not expecting to not feel at home in my own house.

Rob brought Hobo Stew to our marriage.
I can make it, too, but it tastes better
when he makes it.

Ground turkey, macaroni, and Manwich Sauce
Paired with a nice Zinfandel and Captain
Stubing and Doc = perfection

That’s been the weirdest part. Some rooms in Woodhaven are gloriously comfortable and haveny and where I've retreated for over 20 years. Others are brand new and unfamiliar and feel like someone else's house altogether.

The new laminate floors that replaced the old tile feel and sound different when I walk on them. The kitchen smells different – more “new appliance” and less “the smoke detector went off again.” The refrigerator motor is higher pitched than our old one. I will get used to these things in time. It’s just strange and disorienting at the moment.

For the most part, everything with Tim turned out as envisioned. The kitchen is gorgeous, and I love the countertops – I was worried the small sample piece was too swirly. The little cubby (named Sammy after Sammy Sosa, a Chicago Cub) for our keys and wallets is fantastic. The extra cabinet for all my small appliances is better than hoped, freeing up much space in a pantry and on the now-copious counters. The overall storage space in Woodhaven's new kitchen is incredible. I currently have two completely empty cabinets. What?!

Our selections for countertops,
cabinetry, flooring, and paint.
I can only envision to a point. SO
GRATEFUL this all turned out to look
better than I was hoping!

Sammy!
It took over some of the closet
behind it but totally worth the
lost space. Randy named it. 
He gets us.

Small appliance cabinet in the nook.
There was a large, awkwardly shaped
cabinet there before, with glass doors.
This is MUCH more functional.
Super happy with this!

One of my empty cabinets. I'm sure
I'll find things to put there eventually!

There have been a few disappointing surprises, though.

The fancy utensil drawer in our new dishwasher prevents our wine glasses from fitting, even though it’s simply an updated version of the model we had before. The grates on our new downdraft cooktop are heavy cast iron instead of the more Toni-friendly porcelain-coated metal featured in the 2006 version. None of the drawers in the kitchen are big enough for our now-donated favorite cutting board. The downward-facing sconces to provide task lighting for the breakfast bar don’t face down despite web descriptions to the contrary. And the new smoke detectors required in the bedrooms feature extraordinarily bright green ”I’m working!” lights that are waaaay more nightlighty than promised.

The appliance guy said the cast iron grates are 
considered an upgrade. The manufacturer switched
to them based on customer desires to be more
fancypants. Clearly those fancy customers don't
have weight limits due to titanium in their backs.

Aren't those sconces pretty? They were going to be
upside down per the description online. But, no way
to keep the globes in place. So now they are pretty 
mood lighting. Sigh.

All decidedly first-world problems, all already solved, all just small, momentary barriers to me feeling at home in my new kitchen.

The only regret I have about not being here for the full Experience of Tim is the paint. The kitchen is very yellow. And the breakfast nook is very blue. If I had been onsite, I might have asked for some white to be mixed in to turn down the volume a bit.

We spent hours with little paint chips, moving them around Woodhaven on different walls at different times of the day in different weather conditions and with different lighting sources. Short of painting the walls ourselves, we could not have been more thorough.

Even if we HAD painted walls to test out the colors, I don’t know if that would have changed the decision. Because the lighting in Woodhaven is super duper wonky. It’s different on practically every wall. I absolutely love the happy, cozy yellow of “La Luna Amarilla” on 90% of the walls coated in it. But those other 10%? The ones that are mostly in the shadows? The ones that make the breezy yellow look more like Big Bird? Yeah, that’s a lot of yellow.

So Big Bird! And yet, two feet to
the left, the lighting is brighter and
the yellow is much more calming.
It's the same yellow in the photo 
with the sconces. And Sammy.
Paint and lighting is maddening!

I’m more at peace about the very blue of “Vast Sky” in the breakfast nook. It’s just a lot brighter than the 2-inch sample square promised. I also know, based on over 22 years of Life at Woodhaven, that the blue…and the yellow…will fade over time. The south-facing windows that provide such a peaceful view also provide bleaching sunlight. Often this is vexing. Today it is reassuring.

So blue! But it's the same blue as in
the photo with the small appliances 
cabinet. It's a different shade on 
every wall. Not by design.

We have a couple tiny minor tasks until we are completely Done with Tim. Tasks involving spices and Crockpots and anti-slip drawer liners and storm doors. But we are done enough that Woodhaven’s windows are being cleaned as I type. The Porta Potty was picked up moments ago (much to the collective disappointment of all our delivery drivers). And Woodhaven’s air ducts will be blown clean of all construction dust in a couple of weeks. And then we will be done done. Thank God God.

We've had the potty next to our driveway since
February. I only used it once. Rob, however,
was sad to see it go.

Am I happy with Tim? Absolutely. 1000%.

Am I glad we undertook such a large, disruptive project? Now that it’s over, absolutely. 1000%.

Are kittens in our future now that The Chaos of Tim has settled? Absolutely. 1000%. But we don’t have a timeline since we need to catch our breath first.

Am I ready to settle into the quiet peacefulness of my new old house and remember where I put the strainer?

Absolutely. 1000000%

The After
The Breakfast Nook with this 
moment's version of Vast Sky. 
Super happy!

The After
Woodhaven's New Kitchen
It's so much bigger and brighter!
And now that it's over, absolutely worth the effort.
Thanks, Tim!
And HUGE THANKS to Mel and Randy!!

 

Tim was almost gone. And…FAIR!

Yesterday I put away the last few things to fully move into our new kitchen. But I am too exhausted to celebrate.

The After!
We are thrilled with how it turned out.

The Before!
A friend recently said, "I never thought your old kitchen
was outdated until I saw the new version." Truth.

It looked like Tim had his bags packed and was at the front door to leave. YAAAAY!!! But then a schedule changed. BOOOOO!!!

We had planned to have Woodhaven’s exterior painted while we are Fairing. Brilliant, right? No reason to be here for our every-seven-years protection from the copious wind and rain that slams Woodhaven’s cedar siding every winter. Same colors, same locations, with new storm doors installed afterward to hopefully stop the rainy leaks once and for all.

That’s all going along according to plan.

The curveball was our painter’s sudden availability and discounted rate to roll right into the interior painting we had anticipated for the Fall. You know, when it’s raining outside and interior projects are all the rage? 

But nope. Woodhaven is also getting all spiffed up with fresh interior paint in a couple of weeks (same colors, same locations – we like what we like and we’re soooo tired of making decisions). The interior excitement starts right after the Fair. Meaning…the time for prep is now.

Rob had just put all the wall hangings back up. I had just reclaimed our dining room. Our bedroom was almost a sanctuary again. I was down to just a few boxes to move into a pantry. The light at the end of the tunnel was shining bright! Tim was almost gone!

That lasted for about 24 hours.

Pictures are down again. The dining room is once again a staging area for furniture and plants and decorations. Our bedroom is naked. Our front porch looks like we have moved. The almost five months of being ungrounded and in disarray and chaos have suddenly extended. The finish line moved in the final stretch. I’ve been on the verge of tears ever since.

I was thisclose to putting the tablecloth back on.

In the midst of this, we’ve been grieving the death of Rob’s dad…and then reeling from the death of a stepbrother just a month later. Colin was 44 and had lived a troubled life. He didn’t treat his body well, and it finally gave up. The grief for Colin is different, filled with sadness for reconciliations that now will never happen. My heart aches deeply for my mother-in-law who has buried a husband and a son in the span of weeks.

December 1991. Colin and I sat on the curb for
a long time, chatting about all sorts of things.
He had sooooo many questions. That day on the
curb is one of my favorite memories with Colin.

When friends have asked how we are doing, Rob and I just sort of stare into space, grappling for the right words to capture so much sadness, shock, exhaustion, weariness, numbness. We are overwhelmed. And we are surviving.

Adding to the swirl...tomorrow is The Fair. I am trying to muster the energy for exclamation points. Hopefully they will come tomorrow as I enter the Fairgrounds – my home for the next 10 days. I’ve lost track of how many “homes” I have had over the past five months. At least this one comes stocked with comfort food and fluffy animals.

Rob and I are in charge of the Gazebo again this year. We had a blast last year managing the ad hoc Information Booth that is officially The Spot for a fun scavenger hunt for fairgoers. Spreadsheets, notes, emails, administration galore. Totally my thing. I was honored to be asked to oversee it again this year. Now I’m praying I have the energy to serve it and my beloved Fair well.

We officially greet you with information.
And Beanie Babies. Lots of Beanie Babies.

Marketing Maven Jenny has printed up all sorts of signs. We’ve pow-wowed with Trisha in the Prizes & Awards department. Mark at the American Red Cross has filled nearly every slot with volunteers. Our parking passes are hanging from our rearview mirrors. Our new badges are on old lanyards. We are ready??

I have no idea how much Fair blogging I will be doing this year. I’m trying to give myself space and grace. But I also know there’s a very real possibility that once I enter the protective, joy-filled bubble of My Fair, energy will come, sadness and weariness will be paused, and I will get a much-needed escape from far too much reality. Stay tuned.

 

 

It's About Time for a Tim Update

Remember Tim? The rather overwhelming remodeling project we have going on here at Woodhaven? The one we started in March? The one that we left the country for two months to escape?

Yeah, he’s still here. But he’s starting to pack his bags to finally leave. YAHOO!!!

Ugh. And that was with a dust barrier.

I haven’t posted much about Tim because, well, we weren’t here. And blessedly, there wasn’t much to write about.

While we were frolicking about, Randy very kindly sent us progress photos, and Mel texted a few updates. Largely, we went on the “no news is good news” theory and correctly assumed that our implicitly trusted contractors were handling any minor questions that arose.

Tim (and Randy) in late May right before
we left for the 33-day cruise.

I spent a few panicked weeks from afar after the walls were painted. The warm yellow and soothing blue that we so carefully chose suddenly looked BOLD and BRIGHT in the photos. I kept telling myself to trust the process and our decisions. To trust the extensive time I had spent with the "La Luna Amarilla" and "Vast Sky" paint chips placed in so many locations in different lighting at different times of the day.

It's crazy how different the color is even in
different parts of the room. Regardless, it's
a lot of yellow. Or, rather, La Luna Amarilla.

At times the blue is even bluer.
But this was bluer than I expected. 

The very late night we returned to Woodhaven, I tried to sneak a peek at the yellow to calm my nerves. But our back door wouldn’t open. I was too tired to sleuth (it was an over-achieving floor trim piece that has since been replaced), so I waited until the next morning to look. I sort of freaked out. The yellow and blue were indeed bolder and brighter than the little one-inch swatches had promised. I cringed.

Even more yellow. And you can see a VERY
blue wall of our breakfast nook poking around the 
corner. Also note the first 4 panels of the cabinetry
compared to the second 4 panels. We call this
foreshadowing.

I told myself again to trust the process and our decisions. And thankfully, as the swirly quartz countertops arrived and black appliances were installed and the next round of protective floor covering was pulled up, the colors – and my nerves – calmed. I now love the yellow and blue, even though we still have another week or two to go before I see all the decisions come together.

It’s been hard being home the past few weeks. Our wisdom to leave for 2 months was confirmed quickly, as we had multiple contractors flowing in and out, a driveway filled with construction trucks, so much noise and dust, and the need to deftly bounce from decision to task to conundrum. By Day 2 of Re-Entry, we were pretty fried and longing to be back on a cruise ship. Jet lag didn't help.

Countertop installers. I think the 
electrician was also there that day.

On Day 6 of Re-Entry, we got new carpeting in our master closet. We had quite a bit of surplus from the recarpeting of our dining room, so it seemed genius to replace the 22-year-old stuff in our closet “for free.” Genius until we realized we had to completely empty the closet to avoid covering all our clothes, shoes, and accessories in carpet dust. Fabulous.

Still jet-lagged and trying to quickly regroup to fly to Southern California for a family situation on Day 5 of Re-Entry, we interrupted laundry and breathing to relocate our closet to the only surfaces we have access to: our bedroom. We stayed in a hotel for two nights until we put the newly carpeted closet back together. It looks fantastic! And it is so delightfully squishy! So as the frantic Closet Relocation memories fade, I can say that the effort was totally worth it. Especially since we will not have to do it again for another 20 years. 

Not shown: the source of me finally
conceding I perhaps have a lot of shoes.

I’m profoundly relieved to say that Tim has behaved quite well throughout this adventure. The biggest surprises have come from the cabinet maker, and all since we have returned from our travels.

One wood panel was stained incorrectly and had to be removed, remade, and reinstalled. I felt sorry for the uninstaller, as that panel was never supposed to budge. 

When we were texted the photo, we hoped it was
just a cell phone lighting thing. Nope. Not only was
the stain different, the finish was different, too.
We're all mystified how it got as far as being
installed without anyone noticing.

We also discovered a section of the toe kick under the wall oven was strangely stripey. That fix is still in the works, along with some missing hardware and a few other decorative pieces. I was starting to lose faith in the cabinet folks, but Randy assured me they are very good and are making fewer mistakes than average on a kitchen remodel. Yikes!! I clearly have high expectations, which I thought were just normal expectations. Sigh.

The best guess is the stain wasn't dry when the
board was put on a rack.

In MUCH better news, there have been significant signs in the past couple of days that we are nearing the finish line. YAHOOOOOO!!!!

Melissa (BLESS HER!) started the “post-construction deep clean” today. She will be back tomorrow. And probably a third day. So. Much. Dust.

We got the green light to schedule Yury to come next week to move back all the heavy furniture he Jenga-ed into our living room back on March 26. Almost exactly 4 months of using our living room as a storage unit.

Our Amazon account has been re-awakened with deliveries arriving soon of curtains and chair pads and placemats. I will get to nest and decorate soon!

And today our bedroom door to the rest of the house was unsealed! We are free to move about the cabin!! We don’t have to traipse through the backyard to leave the house, go upstairs, do laundry, answer the front door, or get a snack out of the garage fridge! The freedom is heady!!! I can retire my extra house key and flashlight!! The exclamation points are not an exaggeration! This is a GLORIOUS DAY!

I never appreciated how awesome
this door is when it is open.

With any luck, we will have Woodhaven largely back together by the time my beloved Fair starts on August 7 (FAIR!!). I’m already having chats with my eager, goal-oriented self about the importance of balancing what my heart wants with what my body can do. Prayers needed and appreciated!

The painters are coming tomorrow to deal with all
the little blue tape markers.

Hither we go!

After church today, I counted how many Sundays Rob and I will miss before we are back in town. Seven. Good Heavens. We haven’t missed that much church since we started attending church! I’m grateful we can watch the sermons on YouTube, even though we will miss all the fun chit chat afterwards.

So where are we going for nearly 2 months? Hither and yon! It’s actually two trips with a brief return to Woodhaven in between.

Trip 1 – Hither – starts tomorrow morning, although we are spending tonight in a hotel near the Portland airport to hopefully make the long travel day a teensy bit shorter. So we have officially departed Woodhaven. I am both nervous and excited. Soooo…nervcited??

Over a year ago – long before our kitty Sarah was showing any signs of her age and therefore Tim wasn’t even on the radar – Rob and I decided to take another Wine Exploration trip with that lovely British travel agency that guided us as we drank our way through France a couple of years ago. Checking off dream trips on our Travel Bucket List, we are heading to Madrid tomorrow! Ole! And cheers! And I can't believe we're finally doing this!

It’s a two-week itinerary, starting in the northern part of Spain sipping Rioja wines and noshing on tapas, a quick couple of days in Barcelona being tourists, and then a flight to Portugal to learn about the origins of port – the delicious dessert wine that I have long loved but know very little about.

I don't want to tell you how long I spent 
creating this map. But hey, I'm retired.

Having learned a few things on our last wine trek about heavy suitcases and stairwells and a dearth of elevators and escalators in European train stations, we have significantly reduced our load. We will be toting 3 small carry-ons and 2 travel backpacks around Iberia. I already miss my washing machine.

I'm pretty sure we're still checking the 3 bags
even though we could carry them on. It's up
to Rob. He's blessedly the schlepper.

As for Tim, we are excited to see where he is at when we come home in a couple of weeks. Mel is still working on the official schedule, but last week we got the OK from the engineer about cement pilings, and the cabinets have been ordered. YAY!

We have made all the decisions we can think to make, including the orientation of outlets (landscape) and where to relocate a central vacuum outlet (breakfast nook). We have purchased an International Phone Plan so that we can stay in text/talk/FaceTime touch as needed, notwithstanding the 9 hour time difference. So, we’re as ready as we can be to walk away from a huge remodeling project and let our implicitly trusted contractor continue plugging along. Nervcited!!!

Off we go!

View through the Sunroom into the kitchen.
Two of those vertical pieces are temporary
supports. All three verticals will go away.
Eventually. 

Tim Update – We’re Officially Permitted to Proceed!

As I write this, I am snacking on my chocolate stash, lounging on our bed, listening to Randy bang on the floor of our optimistically-named Sunroom. He’s working on opening our crawl space so a cement footing and other Big Time Construction things can be added to make our new kitchen more spacious.

I am grateful I know myself and knew
this little collection of calm was needed
within desperate hands' reach. It currently lives 
next to my nightstand. It might never migrate
back to the kitchen drawer.

To be honest, I can’t entirely envision what’s happening. I’ve learned I can visualize things to a point and then I hit an imaginary wall (THAT I can see all too well…). All I know is, a big beam is coming down, a small wall is going away, a different sturdy beam is being added, and all this requires a somewhat elusive Building Permit. A permit that was applied for on March 25 and approved on April 30.

Yes, I am tracking dates in a spreadsheet. To the surprise of nobody.

I might color-code it.

Tomorrow is the Month 2 mark of us beginning this little Tim Adventure. While I wouldn’t say we are used to the chaos, Rob and I are growing more accepting of it. We’re exhausted, though, on any number of levels.

In an attempt to keep ourselves busy and occupied during the day, we are finding ourselves very busy and occupied. We assumed our weekends would be when we could relax – when we could comfortably lounge about in our quiet bedroom/bathroom faux apartment. But instead, weekends have become a whirlwind of doing laundry and paying bills and mowing the lawn and taking care of the Business of Life. I know there’s a balance to all this, but we haven’t found it yet.

Lounging at home takes a bit of work, too. Trying to go elsewhere in the house requires some serious thought and planning. I have officially lost all self-consciousness in traipsing around our yard in my pajamas on my way to the front door to snag early-morning Amazon deliveries. I also learned the hard way – repeatedly - that a house key is required when leaving our bedroom.

My newly acquired spare key.
Any guesses where I bought the
key chain? 

A house-level Google Maps function would be so handy. I could enter all the road construction/road closed markers throughout Woodhaven, helping me plot my route to get upstairs to our files or into our living room so I can visit my Tupperware strainer. Instead, I am left staring at the wall in our bedroom, channeling my inner Land Navigator, imagining which path to take to the garage then laundry then upstairs office. I am thisclose to acquiring a compass.

I vaguely remember when I used to 
strain stuff.

In terms of the construction itself, Tim is going along pretty well. We’re still deep in the Demolition Phase. Most of the offending tile is gone, our dining room no longer features a hazardous step down, and our kitchen is full of studs. Sadly, no tight t-shirts are involved.

It never made sense to us why Woodhaven was
built with a step down into the dining room.
We've almost lost a couple dinner guests to the 
step over the years. No bueno!

Can't wait to see carpet in there! 
And furniture!

The kitchen ceiling will be higher. Raising the roof
by getting rid of the fluorescents!

The cabinets will be ordered by next week. We’re meeting with the electrician tomorrow to nail down how and from where we want to control the 21 lights that will be illuminating different areas of our new kitchen. Having that much cooking light is rather ironic, since I long ago adopted the wizardry and distraction of soft lighting for any meals I serve. I’m not the only thing that magically looks better by candlelight.

We still don’t have a sense of timing for the completion of Tim. The schedule was sort of hinging on the Building Permit. Hopefully Mel will let us know next week what our summer looks like. I’m guessing it will be a lot of this.

I love our bed. Good thing since it's
most of our furniture at the moment.

Tim Update – Slowly Adjusting and Still Married

Two friends who are related to contractors recently gave me some encouragement about Life With Tim. One said, “Living in a construction zone – not for the faint of heart!” The other said, “I know of marriages that didn’t survive remodels.”

Yeah, that second one isn’t happy on the surface. Rob and I have survived rougher waters, though, so I don’t doubt our wedding vows. But it was heartening to know that this remodeling stuff is widely considered HARD territory.

We’re a couple of weeks in and good gracious, we’re exhausted. And we’re not the ones pulling up tile and scraping mortar.

Seeing all this shattered tile is 
oddly therapeutic.
Progress and Change!

No, we’re just the ones trying to live out of what is essentially a hotel room – or in a couple nights’ case, an actual hotel room. Yeah, a nice little escape to Seattle for some wine tasting was just what the benevolent doctor ordered.

This wine smelled just like a dear friend's
berry cobbler. Mmmmm!

We are trying to do our normal stuff – volunteering, writing, meeting with friends, doctors’ appointments, haircuts, oil changes, paying bills – but we’re doing it without a haven to recharge in. Our nightly tradition of a quiet evening on the couch, snuggled up, watching an episode or three of “Cheers” isn’t quite the same in our bedroom. The bedroom that has been carefully and painstakingly curated to promote sleep so that I never revisit that horrendous Season of Insomnia from last year. All the Sleep Hygiene rules I have been so obedient to are now being conspicuously ignored. Sigh.

Mostly, though, we are spending our time trying to figure out where we are, where we put stuff, where we are going to eat, and how long this might last. We spend our days not in the house. We are grateful for sunny days outside, and the quiet escape of our church inside on not-so-sunny days.

It’s been very odd doing errands. Trying to take as much time as possible to complete my To Do list is weird. I am driving slower, I am waving cars to go in front of me, I am taking the long route, I am stopping for yellow lights. I am not in a hurry – at all – and it is very strange. And intriguingly, quite nice.

I did laundry on the first day of 2026 with temps in the high 70s. It wasn’t too bad, trotting across our back patio with my laundry tote. Other than the sock I thought I lost along the way (turned out it snuck into a different load). I also finally found a legitimately helpful use for the app our washer and dryer came with. Having my phone tell me when it is time to move wet clothes to the dryer and dry clothes to the closet is super handy since the sing-songy buzzer is now inaudible.

Grateful the for sun! Not sure how 
much fun I'll have doing this in the rain.
Stay tuned! Because Pacific Northwest.

It is disorienting seeing Woodhaven so empty, echoey, and somewhat dismantled. We still have access to key rooms, but they involve going through magnetic doors of plastic. Woodhaven’s interior is now drenched in plastic, to protect it from being drenched in dust. A few nights ago, I went into the room where we are storing our kitchen and dining room. I can’t remember what I was looking for. What I found was an unexpected comfort and peace in seeing Our Stuff again. Who knew a Tupperware strainer could bring so much joy? I plan to visit it regularly, the strainer, as a touchpoint of sanity.

Maze of Plastic.
Magnetic Door on left.

We’ve had a couple things go slightly off plan already.

Once our kitchen was completely empty of food, utensils, and life, I was better able to imagine its new version. In doing that, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to fully open one of the doors on our new fridge. A few measurements and a panicked call to Mel (our contractor) resulted in a last-hour design swap. Mel assures me it is no big deal.

In putting the finishing touches on the flooring update in our Master Bathroom a few weeks ago, we discovered an unknowingly fancy accessory needs its own circuit in our electrical panel. That will come later, when the electrician is doing work on the kitchen and is prepared to explore our crawl space. What, pray tell, did we buy for our bathroom that needs a dedicated circuit? 

A bidet toilet seat.

Yes, the reasoning and bargaining (with Rob) behind that little gadget could be a blog post in itself. Suffice it to say, an aging back + a trip to France + an evangelistic friend = fancy tushy cleaner. So fancy, apparently, that every time we flushed, lights flickered, internet connection sputtered, and everything else on that circuit surged like a house possessed. Without realizing it, I picked a Turbo Toity, which will remain unused and unplugged for…a while.

Fancy Toity with its own remote control.
And a rather extensive Owners Manual.
Good thing I have lots of time to read.

This week we’re spending LOTS of time at the airport. By the end of the week, we will have worked six volunteer shifts over three days and will likely have enough hours to get us through August. Next week will likely involve a meandery drive to a favorite café on the coast that just completed an extensive remodel. We assume the owners’ marriage is also still intact.

PDX is going through a remodel, too.
We can't escape construction!