Another busy day

Miss D. and I had another crowded day.  We spent the morning changing our order for underlayment (to use beneath the laminate flooring) from a low-cost to a more expensive, but higher-grade product.  We also bought three sets of locks and deadbolts, and had them keyed alike at the store so that we wouldn't have to worry about that ourselves later.  We'll give the contractor a key to the existing locks in order to complete the renovations we've asked for.  When he's finished, our friends will install the new locks for us, so we'll come back to a more secure home.  We also bought a second garage door remote control unit, a new battery for the old one, and a few other bits and pieces.  (We still have to figure out how to reprogram the garage door opener to a new frequency.)

I think we've now done and/or arranged to have done and/or bought everything we had in mind for this trip.  It's been expensive, but thanks to a lower than expected price on the laminate flooring and a much lower than expected quote from the contractor, we found we could afford it all.  Our savings are sadly depleted, but we can fix that over the next year or two.  The important thing is, we now own our own home.  It's felt like camping out to me, living in rented accommodation since we married - it seemed very temporary.  Now we can build a proper home together.  It's a good feeling.

Blogorado buddies Jennifer and Evyl Robot Michael are arriving in town this evening, so with Lawdog, Phlegmmy and Old NFO already here, we should have quite the merry gathering tonight and tomorrow.  Early on Sunday morning we'll head back to Nashville in a rental car, leaving my pickup and trailer here.  That'll allow us to drive down again at the end of the month in a U-haul truck or something similar, towing Miss D.'s vehicle on a trailer.  We'll alternate driving with looking after our cat, who'll be in a carrier in the truck cab with us.  It might be a noisy, scratchy journey . . . let's hear it for kitty tranquilizers!

Peter