We are renovating

As I said before, we are renovating.

What was once a really great tv room, with no window and a study, also with no window, is now just one big open unfinished space. And, when we are done, there will be new windows and 2 more bedrooms.

It's like going back in time in a way.  We are putting it back to where it was when we came here. We made it work for the two of us, but that doesn't mean it would work for anybody else. One of the comments when we had it up for sale previously, was that about bedrooms.  We only had three.  Now we will have 5, more than when we came, because we made one in an unfinished area.

We are going to continue using them for a playroom for the kids and a study, but it will be easy to see what they can be even for the most challenged imaginations.

For me, this is all so bittersweet.  It is how it has to be.  I cannot afford to maintain it and I was ready to move on to the next phase of life, retirement, before that awful summer.  Still, we are in what remains in my memory, as the 10 good days, and I find this is all permeated with a touch of loss and sorrow.

All Mr. Needles handiwork is gone.  His study is obliterated.  The room where I can still see him sleeping in his chair, in front of the tv is completely absent.  He loved those 2 rooms.  They were his.

He would be so proud. His boys are doing it all, especially his no. 1 son.  He would be so proud.  They are tackling a pretty big job and are doing it well.  And that makes me a little bit sad too.  He cannot see the men his boys have become.  I will be proud for him.

I really am.