It is not without setbacks

The latest accomplishments have included:

· Finishing the painting

· Refinishing the floors

· Installing the toilet

· Installing most baseboards

· Bringing in the vanity

The painting went very well and we decided on a neat color scheme for the pitched area in the living room. The baseboards were a bit tricky with how uneven everything is in the cabin. We ultimately decided to try refinishing the floor chemically rather than by sanding it down and redoing all of it. While not perfect, it is a big improvement.

The vanity proved the old adage: measure twice, cut once. When we had our pals at Ghost Town Trading Company make us the vanity, we were very careful to measure out the space into which it needs to go. And we did that part o.k.

However we forgot that the bathroom door is a very odd size – both short and narrow. It didn’t cross my mind that a 25-inch wide vanity would have a hard time fitting through the opening. But at 24-inches, it proved impossible. So this morning I removed the frame to get the vanity in and will spend this evening (or maybe tomorrow morning) building a new one.

And we had another possible disaster about the vanity even prior to the discovery about the door. Yesterday afternoon I was stopped at a red light in Rio Rancho (on route to Corrales) and some tipsy idiot rear-ended me. Now, I had the trailer hitched to the back of my Rav4 so he actually plowed into that rather than into “me” per se, and I was relieved at the time to notice no immediate damage (his front bumper was smashed). But this morning we discovered that we could not get the trailer unhitched and the vanity was only removable from the interior of the Rav4 via the rear door (which cannot be opened with the trailer on the hitch.

Happily with the judicious use of a hammer and some swearing we got the mess untangled and seem to be back in business.

In answer to your question about whether I obtained the other driver’s information the answer is: No, I didn’t. Not only because I did not see any obvious damage, but also because I would have done no good: he obviously would not have had insurance (as is often the case in New Mexico) and whatever damage was done, I would never have been able to get him to cover without a great deal of expense and aggravation.

We still have work to do. The windows need some form of blinds and the rest of the plumbing needs to be plumbed (vanity, kitchen sink). We also need to get what furniture we can in place before we really settle in. And Susan is going to find us a suitable refrigerator and stove.

Of course then we need to move on to the outside work, of which there is a tremendous amount. Thankfully we will have moved in and settled.