Warmed hearts and hearth

Hello, all. So sorry for not writing sooner. I was going to try and be better about that...

Oh, so much to tell. The cold snap ended -- just as I got the hang of how to REALLY stoke up the wood stove. This would be the wood stove that we'd like to get rid of that everyone who walked into the house would say, "Wow, you're going to need that. Good thing it's here. " To which we would reply, "No way! We'll have our radiant heat by then." Ha, ha, ha. Well, we were feeling mighty happy to have it when the median indoor temperature hit 57 degrees and stayed there. I had that indoor temp up to 78....when the warm spell hit. 

We have a wonderful friend Bonnie, who gave us a truck load of wood as a . . . house warming gift, bah-dum-bum. More about Bonnie later.

Alicia and I had our four-year anniversary last Tuesday. I got to drive in to Union City, New Jersey and see her workplace. It is such a cool place. Everyone there is very nice and what they do is incredible and very fun. We filled the Jeep with seven roughly cut heads and headed through the Lincoln Tunnel for AMAZING Ethiopian food at Queen of Sheba. The best I've ever had. What a find. Then, the drive home.

She got to work in her studio (on the sculpting job) and -- two days after our anniversary, introduced me to her boyfriend. NICE. 

No, her sculpted heads are very, very cool. I'm not the least bit jealous...

 Meanwhile, we've been tackling that radiant heat system on weekends (yes, working seven days a week these days). Now, let me say, this took some working up to. It took several weeks of discussing before we ever laid our hands on any of it -- just to make sure we wouldn't make any bad mistakes. Well, I'd like to think that it paid off.

Alicia is the brains on this particular project. I am the hole driller, tubing wrangler,  plate stapler and general brawn. Phew. Let me share that my upper body development is coming along quite nicely. No need to worry that I'd lose all my muscles after the demo work was complete! My new favorite tool is my 1/2" right-angle Milwaukee drill. YUMMY. We're talking 10.3 pounds of really butch tool here -- and me wielding it. I have quite an impressive collection of really big bits, too.

Weekdays, I'm still hunching like a troll over the brickwork and tuckpointing in the basement. I'm almost up to sitting height all around. 

Our new best friend Bonnie gets very enthusiastic about helping us, so we let her help me tear out the last bit of ceiling and a structurally useless (BEARING) wall in exchange for pizza and beer. See, I told you she was wonderful. Wish I would have told the story of how she daredeviled a telephone pole off of our garage roof (with me nervously helping).

With the useless wall gone and temporary posts in place that actually DO bear weight, our main floor is starting to look open as it will someday. The combination of having heat (stove) when we need it, the radiant underway, a friend and helper, and a glimpse of our future living room/dining room, and sharing four blissful years with the love of my life, I'm feeling great about everything. Period.

The fall colors are heavenly. Hope you are all well.