Sidney would be proud*

I haven't written much about the house remodeling lately, but rest assured that we've been working hard. It's actually starting to look like a nice house now. What a journey.

Since we've been spending all our time putting up ceilings, drywalling, and painting, some lesser chores have slipped through the cracks. One of those neglected chores is the deadbolt on the front door - it's been getting harder and harder to unlock from the outside. My key is especially stubborn, and it often gets stuck halfway in or out of the lock. Usually, a gentle tug (or bone-wrenching yank) takes care of the problem. This information will be important later.

One of our chores over the weekend was pulling out the brown shag carpet in the living room. (Finally! Can you hear the chorus of angels?) When we did, we found a rectangle of plywood in the middle of the room where beautiful hard wood floor should be. Never fear. G removed the plywood (which was nailed every inch and half along the edges), pulled some boards up from the attic (those eight words do nothing to describe the difficulty or frustration of that task), and put them in place in the hole. He opted to not nail them in place until the floor refinisher comes this weekend so he could take a look at it before it became permanent. This information will also be important later.

Yesterday I needed to go run some errands for work, and over lunch I developed a nasty headache. I was about an hour from work and only 30 minutes from home, so I decided I would take the rest of the day off and take a little nap. I got home just as the mailman pulled up, so we made small talk as he dropped off our mail. I stuck my key in the lock and absolutely could not get it in all the way. So close, but just not quite. So I yanked it out and tried again. This time it would only go in about a quarter of an inch. Not even close. I had just about decided I was officially locked out when the mailman walked back by our house to get back in his truck. I tried to play it cool, but I'm sure he was wondering why I wasn't inside already.

I called G to tell him about the lock, and he suggested (as you might have guessed by now) going under the house and coming up through the floor. Excellent idea, but I decided that maybe the fates were telling me I should go to work. So I did.

When I got home the second time, I crawled under the house (without a light, and it was pretty dark under there), identified the approximate location of the hole, felt around for loose boards (in the dark, remember), slid and removed boards one at a time, and, finally, hoisted myself into the living room. What an adventure.

We bought a new deadbolt last night. We haven't installed it yet. But the backdoor key is now hidden outside.

*When Alias was on Sunday nights, I was a huge fan. I even had dreams that I was Sidney Bristow. Like I actually was her. People would say, "Sidney!" and I would answer (in my dreams, that is, not real life).