Dennis drove down from Portland on Sunday and Dave drove in straight from working in Bend. Together we nearly completed construction of the second closet organizer. What we did get accomplished looks totally pro, though. My thanks to them both for their hard work on what is a very time-consuming task.

On Monday, Dave returned to help me trim out the windows. As neither of us has much carpentry experience this was not the easiest of tasks. Still, we’re both college educated, and that counts for something—just not much here in a field that has nothing to do with what either of us studied. But as Woody Allen once noted 90 percent of life is just showing up. We did, and it was good.

Not only did Dave and I finish the windowsills and window trim, we also cut and reattached the last of the exterior siding, and moved several large pieces of furniture back into the master bedroom (after cleaning it up, of course). Now it took two days to do this, but such was Dave’s commitment that he worked with me until 9 PM, spent the night, and started working again at 9 AM. There is no possible way I would’ve had these rooms anywhere near completed this soon without his help. I owe him a huge debt of gratitude that my purchase of a couple pizza lunches come nowhere near repaying.

The room is not completely finished, but tonight, for the first time since March, Erin and I will be sleeping back upstairs in our bedroom.