"Yeah", they said, "We'll just pop it out and put in a new one!" The 1978 thermopane slider was leaking air and very hard to open. So $699 for a new one with the blinds built in from Jeldwen (made in Klamath Falls) from Home Depot...
4 hours later and I still have plastic over the big 6' hole in my dining room wall...seems that they found some dry rot, bugs, ants and ooooh, we have the wrong window! Yeah, we need one that opens from the left if you're outside or the right if you're on the inside.
They didn't want to do this installation yesterday when it was sunny and 60 degrees. More better to wait until it is raining and 44 degrees!
So another trip to Home Depot for the correct opening window and more hockey snot to install it.
Normally I don't think much about gas meters, but lately I've been obsessed with 'em. So finally today after 3-weeks of waiting, we got gas! That means we can have a water heater that works, a fireplace insert that works and a shop/garage heater that works! WHO KNEW getting a meter could be such a THRILL!
Ah, the rights of spring are upon us. Not having enough to do, I just couldn't stand looking at that tree any longer without doing something for it!
We were too engrossed to remember to snap a photo whilst in progress but here is the aftermath of pruning a 30+ year old standard pear tree. Mr. A manned the pole pruning saw with a big extension while I scrambled up an extension ladder using the big long handle loppers and a hand held pruning saw. Lots of dead wood and lots of former heinous pruning by someone without a license! Poor tree! There outta be a law against folks wacking a tree who don't have a clue what they are doing!
It made for 2 hours of neck craning and ladder climbing . Now I get to wack down the remains so they'll fit in the Subaru Brat for an excursion to the dumps.
That's our driveway you see to the right up to the street.
Don't you just love the neighbor's horizontal, pecky cedar fence! A true work of Art somebody!
I still have some more selective pruning to do if I can work up the courage to climb up on the extension ladder to tree top height! We took off about 10'-15' from the top and a couple of dead limbs. We don't even know if this tree bears fruit any longer. I hope we'll find out this spring. Maybe we gave it a new lease on life!
Yes, as my former, departed mum-in-law used to say, "I feel like a queen!"
It's nice to be able to open the drawers and doors in the kitchen and bathroom without using a putty knife. My hands don't work so well these days, what with the arthritis kicking in big time. My fingers just couldn't pry the suckers open so I inserted a putty knife and pulled. This is much better!
Seems like nowadays they want to save money so they don't install cabinet hardware. But with all we had to do during our first week at our new place, hardware installation had to wait. $120 at Lowe's and we had some nice looking knobs and pulls.
Today, Sunday, was the first day we could get to it. 
The cabinets are hickory which is evidently a very hard wood. We wore down the drill battery by the time we were done!
Water running through the attic and down the walls is not a good thing. Luckily our contractor discovered it on our first "official" day at Angelcrest after a torrential rain during the night. So because it was due to rain and snow all day and night, they set about fixing the problem. We found out that in order to use the Home Warranty that the seller provided we would have had to wait for an adjuster from Salem to appear at some point from the insurance company and he would have picked the fixer. No thanks!
Seems the problem was incorrectly installed flashing around the fireplace way back in time. We had dry rot up the gig.
What you see here is the all new siding and flashing with plenty of hockey snot applied.
Good times! You get these surprises when you buy an older home. 
The good news is that we are almost all moved except for some tools and crap in the shop at Grey Eagle. The house is cleaned and polished. The garage is empty except for my Miata which we'll move this Saturday (our last day to be out).
Other surprises included 4" of mud under the previously dry house...from the improperly graded parking area in front of the house (another fix so we have good drainage AWAY from the house) and the collapse of the closet shelving held in by only one screw into sheetrock.
The cable guy refused to go under the house due to the mud, so he cabled around on the outside...nice to have phone, internet and TV again!
More later when I can lift my arms to desk height and prop myself up in my chair for a longer time.
Oh, and the big snow storm? So far it hasn't happened! WE did get a dusting because we're at 1900' here instead of 1500'.
The office is filled with book boxes...I've packed about 40 of them so far.
A new shredder from Costco...I managed to burn up the old one finally!
I've been doing shredder duty for several days, clearing out old files and corporation records from the previous century! We've filled 2 huge recycling cans (ours and our neighbor Cathie's) plus we foisted off two full 32 gallon garbage bags on our next door neighbor as well.
We get the keys to our new place tomorrow...it's called "early access." We can start hauling stuff over but can't sleep there until we close, which should be in about 10 days time or maybe less we hope.
