Travail en cours = French for work in progress. We are trying to embrace the process and not get too worked up when a project doesn’t meet deadline. So much of the process is out of our control; weather and material delays, crew hold ups, postponements . . . choosing to focus on the journey and the accomplishments so far, which in the last month includes, drum roll please…. A brand spanking new roof! It ties both the clubhouse and the addition together, making it look like one home that was originally designed that way! Our architect and Greg worked together to make it happen, and our contractor and crew executed it! I can physically see the rooms upstairs and not have to imagine them. Having the roof finished and (almost) dried in has been a huge moral booster, and a huge budget buster, but it had to be done. We are smack dab in the middle of winter, in Oklahoma, we have had wind, ice, rain, and snow. Did I mention wind? Watching rain stream down from the ceiling, through the lights, and onto the kitchen floor was a sickening feeling. No more! We aren’t officially dried in until we have all the windows and doors installed, along with the big garage doors. We did find a great deal on our garage windows and doors at Home Depot, and just yesterday picked up our large roll up garage doors from a private party. They were almost like new but in parts, and, we will need to install them. When I say we I mean Greg. After the electrician moves the electricity (?) not sure you can move electricity, I think he will be moving the box, they can then build the stairway! We currently have a ladder to get upstairs so that will be nice to have an actual staircase. At the base of the stairs will be a 6 x 7 ft. window, looking out onto the patio and back yard. That area will eventually be part of our new kitchen. I can’t wait, but I will have to. Most likely another 6 months, at least. We also purchased a new bathtub/shower combo for the upstairs guest bath. This week and next week’s agenda; picking out and installing the stone on the addition, to match the clubhouse. The stone guy, I think the proper term is stone mason, thinks he can match it to the clubhouse. That is another large expense but one that will make a huge difference in tieing in the two structures. I also need to pick out trim color for our new siding on the upstairs dormers and next to the dormers, get a quote on pressure washing, and help Greg install the doors, but not the big roll up doors, I think I’ll have quite a few errands to run that day! I did help Greg install the upstairs office window, I really didn’t have much choice. The crew had gone home for the day, and Greg had already framed and put silicone around the opening. He calmly explained that he would carry the 4 x 4 window up the ladder to the second story, where I would be waiting as he lifted the window up and over his head and into the window opening, while I centered it with a pry bar of some sort.

     First question: If Greg weighs 230 lbs+ and the window weighs 100 lbs.+, how would a ladder with a maximum weight limit of 300 lbs. hold up? Turns out, pretty well. It bowed a bit in the middle, but it held.

     Second question: What if the window instead of going up and into the framed hole, went up and over Greg’s head? Would he follow? I actually didn’t ask him the question, but I thought it.

     Third question: How was I supposed to get down? I wasn’t climbing out of a second story window, unless there was a fire, and we only had one ladder, what if it broke? I need a T shirt that says, “worst case scenario girl”, or “Hold on, let me overthink this”. The whole process went fairly smoothly and only took about 10 minutes. I don’t think I centered it perfectly, pretty sure I didn’t, but we made it work. Whew.

                In less dramatic news, but very exciting none the less, my sister is planning a visit to the clubhouse in April! I can not wait! She is a tremendous help. I looked up synonyms for help, this is her in a nutshell: Assist, support, facilitate, serve. Verb: Contribute, improve the condition of, be of use, change for the better. She loves home design and décor, maybe even more than me! She designed and decorated their current beautiful home. She has a way of explaining ideas that make them come to life, and, maybe more importantly, we laugh when we are together, a lot.

                Busy weekend ahead. I will post some roof pics and the upstairs office window I “helped” install.

Au revoir for now!

Marcy