As Chris and Steve are saying, combat operations are now over. I'm finished, they still have some detail work for tomorrow. Here's the back of the house, before:

and here:

And here it is today:

Looks pretty darned good don't you think?! The bathroom window did not come in so still needs to be installed. The pile of leftover Hardie pieces needs to find a home. Steve and Chris need to put brick and/or rock on the ground next to the house, about 2 feet out, to help the water run away from the foundation. They still need to install some trim inside the house. They have another day of small jobs and then more days of general landscaping work.

The light did go up in the bedroom! It is perfect with the white walls, blue ceiling, and green trim.

The trim around the new bedroom window is in. Any funky little holes on the outside of the house have been closed off so that rodents won't get into the house/walls/attic. The painting is done! (I might have said that already. Since I am the painter, I'm very excited!)

We generated a huge pile of debris. This is what it looked like this morning:

Notice that it is not as high as the fence. Then the guys cut down a dead tree in front of the house and now the pile looks like this, taller than the fence:

The pile has changed over the 16 days. The doors, metal, windows, etc. that we put out and that were salvageable, got scavenged. We didn't want the stuff but were very happy when others did.

Luckily the City of Sherman has a once a month pick-up of huge piles of debris. This pile is big, really big. The pickup is Monday, let's hope it's gone at the end of the day.

I must say right now that Sherman may be small and it may not be scenic but this is a really great place to live. Sherman is a big small town. The traffic is negligible, the people are friendly, you can find a physician (and get an appointment!), the basic shopping is good, Dallas is close. The cost of living is not bad at all. We have 4 distinct seasons. Life here is very good.

I can live happily without scenery and the costs that come with it. Those of you who live in great places be happy that those of us who live in places like Sherman are happy where we are. You don't need more of us crowding you out! We will visit your space and go home. It's all good.

I got to make these inflatable things go away today:

They are big inflatable balls that have a space inside that a kid can get in and be rolled around. Really, it's kind of neat. Lorna's parents bought them for the kids a while back. Now to the down-side. Each inflatable section is separate. It takes forever to blow them up and more than forever to deflate them. These things have been sort of abandoned in the back yard for months. The aphids dropped dew (lots of it) on them. They got dirty. They got wet and then mosquitos came. I've wanted to kill these balls for 2.5 weeks. 

I finally got the go-ahead this afternoon and they are deflated and on the pile (after I took the photo of the pile). You have no idea how satisfying it was to make these go away. 

We are having a celebratory lunch tomorrow. I'm going to get serious about making the 'how-to' movies and designing new quilts. Life is good!

PS – Uploading these movies is more involved than you'd think. I hope the one that's going up now is going to be high quality enough to call it done and move on.