Over the last month we've made what has felt like very little progress on the house.  Granted, we traveled to Ohio for a week, Lee spent a Saturday hiking with the boy scouts, we helped move my cousin, attended a wedding, worked crazy hours for work and had SEVERAL church obligations.  But, even still - what we've started at home hasn't gotten much closer to completion.  It's months like these that can be discouraging when we think of everything else that still lays before us.

There isn't much to report in terms of pictures - but the items we've scratched off the list are:

• Installed four new windows (we didn't install them, but they are in the house and I can't even tell you what a huge improvement it is.  Even if the jams, stools and casements haven't been stained or installed and blinds have yet to be ordered)
• Patched the bubble in the drywall in the guest room and installed a new section of drywall under the window in the guest room
• Painted the nursery ceiling (it's an awesome orange)
• Painted the wall of the nursery and guest room that weren't painted prior to the window install
• Painted the nursery closet doors
• Installed towel racks, TP dispenser and flusher handle (the old flusher was on there so tightly I had to saw it off in order to install the new one)
• Finished tearing out the floor in the dining room and entry way
• Prepped the sub floor for our new hardwood (included laying Aquabar everywhere and felt in the uneven places)
• Tweaked the living room step and prepped it for the hardwood
• Laid the hardwood on the living room step (this sounds simple, but Lee took Wednesday off and spent the ENTIRE day working on this.  The nosing was thicker than the floor pieces and had to not only be slimmed down but then re-grooved so the floor would attach.  Not to mention the 60+ cuts he made to get all the angles to come together).  He did a phenomenal job

But the last item that feels like two steps forward and one step back is the actual laying of the floor.  We spent the ENTIRE day yesterday (8/7) working on the dining room and entryway.  We were amazed at how slow the racking process was.  Finding the right pieces of wood, of the right length to avoid repeating seam lines, and to blend the colors and patterns throughout the room.  It was an all day process. At 8pm we decided to start pounding some nails.  We were SO excited to actually make progress.  But, as our luck would have it - the nailer isn't working properly and our install was thwarted.  Lee is still brainstorming how we can adjust it and waiting for the company to open tomorrow for guidance.  Until then, we have hundreds of pieces of wood lying on our floor and stacks of every possible size in our living room.  It's a bit of an obstacle course.  So today, it doesn't feel like we have gotten anywhere.  But, when it finally happens and we can FINALLY move in to more than just our living room - it's going to be beautiful.