There may soon be an end to this irritating, exhausting and financially bankrupting reno - well at least in terms of our relationship with ____.

I now have in my possession an unstained barn door in my basement - not exactly what we expected which was a stained finished door ready for installation. The painters are supposed to descend upon us again which should prove interesting with cats and children at the ready. And all of expecting to get mad headaches from the fumes.

It was kind of fun watching Paul flip out though and then call John up complaining that he had LIED to us about the barn door. That he had been told before Christmas that the doorway had been replaced and finished and that instead what we were given was the same door sanded. I love when he gets mad, though it's not the explosion that I'm privy too when he finally calls ____.

We're still waiting for the deficiency list to be tackled. I'm sure we'll never have the hardware for the bathroom installed. Ron doesn't even pretend any more that he's going to come back and do it. In fact Ron's given his notice so it will be interesting to see if anyone, outside of the painter and hopefully the electrician, comes back to our house.

Sadly too our cleaning woman went around and pulled all the green tape off the walls which marked all the deficiencies and now we have to go back around trying to remember where they all were.

I did manage to get most of the light fixtures though - we have only one that has to be ordered and it could take up to two months to get. I went out on an aesthetic limb and chose a style for the kitchen that I have nicknamed Sputnik, a decision fully supported by Kim - and I do trust her taste. I brought one home and I think it will look amazing. I am attaching an image of my kitchen with two sputniks dropped in to give you an idea of what they will look like - they're larger in my constructed picture then they are in actuality. They'll look even more fab (I think) then they do in this picture. And then with Paul's large red painting up on the wall - our kitchen is going to be amazing!



On to the body reconstruction part of the blog: I was at the hospital twice last week - once to the radiation oncologist to confirm that I hopefully don't need treatment and another follow-up appointment with my plastic surgeon. Fortunately I don't need treatment - thank God, after seeing all these poor people with gray pallor, slumped in chairs and wheelchairs, it reinforced that this is an exclusive club I do NOT want to join - and my plastic surgeon feels there's still too much swelling and my scars are still quite red so I will return in 90 days to see if we can nail down a date for the next surgery. I do look pretty rough, though if I squint, my scars look a bit like a one-eyed happy face.

On Monday I spent time with a woman working on her PHD as part of a breast cancer research study. I think after talking to her comprehensively about my experience for an hour and half, I was left a bit depressed so I hid from the world until Wednesday where I took baby steps which involved drinking way too much wine with the neighbours. But I felt much better after that!