I'm so tired! I innocently turned in my punch list of things that need fixing to Henry last week and waved Mimi off to Denver thinking I would have a week of solitude and time to get all sorts of things done.

I must have been out of my mind. Every day at 8:30AM the workers arrive and there are a lot of them. Concrete guys and painter guys and electrical guys and plumbing guys and iron work guys... argh! Mimi is trying to elicit sympathy by telling me that she is house bound in a freak March blizzard up in Colorado - I think she's probably lying but I haven't had time to check. Humph!

Did I mention that every day except Wed. there were still workers here at 6PM? I have to stay while anyone is here and I have to keep the dogs locked up, they do NOT like men with tools. No one will come in if Cuba is out and about and while I'm glad, it has made it hard on them as well.

I had them on the roof for one day but the rest of the time someone needed to get out there as well because they are fixing and painting the water heater house where it had to be modified when I gave up on the other heater.

So, we are holed up in the office which I've declared off limits as there is just too much stuff stored in there to work on anything.

The table went off with the ironworkers on Monday and the painters are working on the counter so everything in the kitchen is piled on the island.

They chipped out part of the wall behind the pond and put a concrete spillway kind of thing behind the pipe for the waterfall, then they sealed it and replaced the rocks. The fish seem to have all survived this, I'm kind of amazed.

When it had dried, I turned it on and the water level is still dropping and turning off the pump. :(

I called Henry and he came over and he thinks that the pump is too strong and it is pulling the water out of the well faster than it can flow back.

He had me leave it on for 24 hours and I think he is right and that is most of the problem.

This brings up another problem because I'm not happy with that pump anyway and wanted a smaller one that uses less electricity.

So, we're going to try something else. An overflow hole that will put the water out into the middle of the sump so I can filter it easier and I will try putting in one of the smaller pond pumps I have. I've got my fingers crossed this will work.

I don't know about you but having two guys come to re-attach the bed frame to the wall because it had pulled off was not a moment I enjoyed. I can't even tell you how much I didn't love showing them that it bounces against the wall. To their credit, no one smiled or smirked or said anything, they just fixed it and I tried to keep my face from matching the wall.

Henry gave us a couple of antique glass lights that he pulled out of the place he is renovating for his office.

They are gorgeous and they built a scaffold and re-wired them and put long chains on them and now I have an impressive light fixture.

It's amazing how they just put things together and chip some concrete (there was one hole for a fixture and they needed two) and put it up.

I was half joking and asked Henry how I would change the bulbs and he said they used the long life bulbs but that I would need to call and have these guys come back with the scaffold to change them.

The wall work and the painters are here because as in many of these old houses that sit right on the bedrock, there is water wicking in the walls. It's hard to tell before you paint which ones will be a problem. I was OK to live with most of it as I consider it just a feature of an old stone house.

Henry wasn't happy with a couple walls and so they have chipped and sanded and replaced plaster and added a different sealer in several places. The worst area is the first section of the front hall. There, he had them drill holes into the wall at intervals close to the floor. The dust in about half the holes was wet. This will let air in and humidity out and hopefully will keep the moisture from bubbling the paint again.

Today, the painters are here, I'm waiting for the electrician who didn't show yesterday and who is putting the TV on the wall, the ironwork guys are coming to adjust the garage door and put the table back and a bar for hanging stuff on the wall under the stove hood and my buddy Terrence, who did the amazing cabinets, is coming to check the adjustments on some drawers and see what else needs to be done. It's his birthday and I think he should be laying by his pool drinking champagne instead.

Happy Birthday Terrence!!