I wrote this post about 3 weeks ago...

Well.

We have moved in. To our house. When we first moved 6 1/2 months ago, it was home. Then it became "the house." Later, we referred to it as "Dumoulin." Now, it is "our house" and in only 2 or 3 or maybe 4 or 5 weeks, we will once again call it "home".Our bedroom is mostly finished. We use 2 washrooms, one for the shower/bath and toilet and the powder room which has a working sink. The 100 year old floors have been refinished and are looking beautiful as is the newly installed cork that seems to fit in so well with the old/new look of this house.

The basement apartment is our current living/kitchen space which we share with Rob, Michele, Joey and Micah and the two dogs, of course. Almost every evening we sit together for a meal and talk about our day and any house related stuff that needs a decision.Before we began this restoration project, I insisted that I would not move in until EVERYTHING was finished.

Ha.

In retrospect, things have gone well. Most of the workers have been wonderful. I particularly like Greg, the floor finisher who prefers repairing and refinishing old wood floors to new ones. He gets it. There are many people who do not understand why we wouldn't just build something brand new, with level floors and straight walls. It's hard to explain the beauty and uniqueness of an old house. Fir floors that have a look about them that can no longer be duplicated. Tin ceilings that must have taken 100 hours to restore if you include removal, sanding and cleaning, reinstallation, caulking and finally painting. They are gorgeous. A stairway that we were able to save that is unlike any stairway anywhere.

Six or 8 months of renovations, considering I'll be here for at least 30 years doesn't sound too bad. We have certainly had our moments, times when we wondered what we were doing and if we'd ever be finished but now, the end is in sight so it's easy to be philosophical about it all.Will I ever do this again? Not on your life. I am going to live here until someone has to carry me out. This will be home, the place my grandkids will know as grandma's house.