I am wide awake at 1:30 AM because the upstairs door is banging (no doorknob until the painting is done) and there are NO STAIRS to get up there and tie it shut. Also, my throat feels like someone took a wire brush to it and my head is stopped up, so I may as well take all this misery out on you.

On Monday they bricked around the chimney outside and began laying the hearth inside. That crew actually finished the job Tuesday, came back yesterday and watered the bricks, dismantled the scaffolding, and left. (Either my bricks will grow or it has something to do with the mortar setting properly.)

Also on Monday, the painters were busily painting the outside of the house. I called the builder and asked where my railing was across the front porch, and did he think it should be there before the painters got to the trim? Next thing I knew, the painters were gone (but my railing is there -- and it looks wonderful. It is exactly what I was waiting for. As soon as the trim is painted I'm hanging a white wicker porch swing.) The only people who showed up yesterday were a crew to clean up the yard and driveway -- my driveway is huge without pallets and junk in it! -- and the carpenter. He stayed just long enough to tear the steps off the stairs. Thus the banging door that I can't get to.

Everything now hangs on the carpenter's shoulders. He needs to re-install the steps, build the railing, build a surround for the vent hood in the kitchen, build the mantle and a couple of bookcases around the fireplace, build a hutch and the cabinet for the built-in aquarium, and finish casing the windows. Once he has that done, the painters can do their job, then the appliances can be installed, the floor laid and we will be able to move from the two rooms we've been squeezed into to the finished end of the house. There is not a lot to be done in the other end; it shouldn't take long. When the carpenter is here, he works fast. But then he disappears for days on end. He says, and from what I've seen I believe him, that the builder keeps pulling him off this job and sending him somewhere else.

The builder desperately needs a scheduler. He hired someone, but the guy quit after a month because the builder was still moving crews around irregardless of what the scheduler planned. We are being assured that everything will be done before Christmas. I can't seem to make him understand that "before Christmas" means right after Thanksgiving, not two or three days before Christmas. This is the time of year that I live for and it looks like I won't be able to decorate -- or bake. There are a LOT of people very upset at the prospect of no Christmas cookie platters. People suggest that I use someone else's kitchen, but the problem is that my recipes are in a box somewhere in the storage unit. Visualize the last scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark where they're wheeling the Ark of the Covenant into a spot among the other boxes. Come to think of it, I may find the Ark among my boxes when I finally get to haul them out.

I've already decided not to replace my office carpet until after Christmas and we're seriously considering telling them not to redo the master bath -- the room that really, really, REALLY needs to be redone. We both seem to be at the end of our rope and just want these guys out of here.

I scored four bar stools for $180 total last weekend -- a BOGO 1/2 off. I assembled one stool just to be sure it was right (looks great! very happy with it!) and stuck the other 3 boxes in the storage unit. I also ordered a Wii on line. When the grandkids get too old and too busy to visit all the time, Gramma needs better toys to entice them. Okay, in fairness, Gramma isn't home all that often, but it's such a good excuse. I don't have the thumb agility that the younger generation has, but I figure even I can play a game on Wii.