I went to see Startrek over the weekend and I loved it!!! I highly recommend it. However, what I am referring to here is not the final frontier of space, but rather the final stages of our home remodel. When Paul and I decided to get married 3 1/2 years ago, we agreed I would sell my house and we would remodel Paul’s. We started the remodel in March of 2006 with a completion target date of July 2006, a month before our wedding. Hah! When Eva, Sophia and I moved in in September of 2006 (yes, that’s a month after the wedding) the back of the house still had no walls or heat. Eva and Sophia, who were used to having their own rooms, had to double up (horrors!)  because the hardwood floors had not yet been installed in Sophia’s room. (This is a real tragedy when you figure that Sophia is a neatnik and Eva is a slob.)

The boys’ room was also not finished so they, like the real, rustic troupers they are, slept in the tent trailer in the back yard. For the first nine months (the human gestational period) we as a blended family not only had to get used to living with each other, we also had to adjust and adapt to living with several construction workers. The Lopez family ( I think there were nine of them.) practically lived with us. They came every day to frame the house, install the drywall and paint. Paul, acting as the general contractor not only oversaw all the construction, he also did a lot of the work himself. Since he had a business to run, he worked in the evenings and on weekends. The remodel is now  about 90% complete. The final phase is the outdoor kitchen, which Paul has always said he has wanted. The photo on the top is a fireplace/fountain that Paul designed and modeled after one we saw on vacation in a hotel in San Diego. The photo on the bottom is the kitchen itself. Paul just spent this past  weekend framing it. Eventually it will all be tiled. Our goal is to have it finished by  late September so we can have our annual couple birthday celebration. Paul’s birthday is Sept. 16th and mine is Oct. 21st.  We can’t wait to enjoy it. I’ll keep taking photos and keep you posted on the progress.