I've had it up to my eyeballs with politics, Christians and death.

So. I have to tell you a good secret: We are working on another project.

I'm not a woman of great aspirations. I like my ordinary life. And I'm not ever going to move away from this house, and not because I'm attached to it emotionally. I am, but I'm also, simply, not moving.

Though, here is the thing, it's an older house.. built in the mid to late 40's and it had the same owner for 45 years before we came to live here. The updates have been nil to naught. So you remember my kitchen, yes? You remember we had to gut it and repair it before we were able to update it? I had a plan and The Handyman saw it through? Gorgeous. I love our new kitchen.

Now, I need a bedroom for my daughter, and our own bathroom. Well, there's just not enough room in this house. And to add an addition we'd need to have the zoning people come in, approve it, get a building permit, etc... And we don't have time for all that.

So, here is the next thing, we have two upstairs bedrooms and one den/office built off the back where Nick lives. Steven and Lea have been sharing a bedroom all of their lives. And they love that though, it's never been a problem.... And wow, I know 2 and 3 families who are sharing two bedroom apartments, and happily most of the time. So, no complaints here. We just like to create mayhem. And call it a project.

So you wanna know, what's the plan, man, I'm sure you do. Well, we're taking the goddamned garage and turning it into a master bath and bedroom. The kids can have the upstairs!

Did I tell you... I don't think I did... but we rented a mini-excavator a few weeks ago and removed a good portion of the 3 layers of blacktop that the people who lived here put in the driveway... and for some reason, spilled into the garage. I think they thought that they might have been creating a smooth floor, but unfortnately, over the years, the cheap blacktop started to fall to pieces and it was a mess. So, we removed what we could and carried 3 truckloads to a place close to our shop that recycles old blacktop. It was rough work. But fun. I didn't get pics of that day because that was the day my camera stopped working. But here are some photos of how it looks now:

And last week, The Handyman made strides by pouring footers.

And below. Yesterday, he took the siding down yesterday, and part of the wall. That will be the doorway to the bedroom and see the window to the right? That will open into a walk-in closet. The roof line will extend and a hallway will be built and then a new doorway to the outdoors will be placed directly across from that one. But also, I'm going to have two doors off the back of the room to open to a small patio I'll build next year. I'd like to make it out of stone like we did on the front walkway, remember that? And then, the garden is right there and I hope to get an enclosed fence around the yard by then. And I can finally pick tomatoes topless (just kidding) (not really).