Day 30 and Phase 3: Finish has officially begun. Cabinets are on the wall! What a transformation! Seriously, it makes such a difference to have furniture (so to speak) in the room. We went from concept to reality in about two hours. It was wild. While I ran some errands in the morning, Dave and Eric conquered the range-top side of the kitchen (the east wall, left side). When I got back, we had a kitchen! Well, sort of. But compared to how I left it! Wow! Of course they didn’t do the whole room in two hours, that was just how long I was out. The installation will take a few more days to be complete, but they made good headway, especially considering that they started on the least plumb/level spot in the room. Nice work, dudes, as ever.

In other news, well, there wasn’t much other news. Brad will be leaving us for a few (sniff, sniff) weeks since the entire re-wire is finished! No more knob and tube! Ever! We have safe electrical for all of the finished areas of the house, and the rest (kitchen, etc.) will get stitched up at the Finish-Finish. The stages are going to start to muddle rapidly, as each part of Phase 3 is a finish step, but it doesn’t actually finish until it, er, finishes. But, we are officially out of the prep for the end phase.

The end is near, and it is with bittersweet tenderness that we bid farewell to the first two phases. We had a family lunch today – which is what we call it when we all eat together at the same time – which we hosted, cooking up some burgers, corn and potatoes (though they were mainly raw – we’ve lost our cooking touch!) in commemoration and gratitude for the wonderful job the Team has done thus far. The balance of the work is complicated, intricate, visible, and time sensitive with each job’s completion affecting the ability to complete the next, and so on. So, we’re taking this weekend to prep what we can in any effort to help make the next few weeks easier. Ready or not, Finish, here we come!

Evidence!