Today was prep day in the kitchen - I cleaned. And cleaned and cleaned. The kitchen gets SO much more light now that the divider cabinets are removed, and it will be so lovely without them. It also highlighted every cat hair and smudge in the entire now-open-and-airy-and-lovely space. There were lots of smudges and a cat's worth of hair and dust shook loose from under the fridge. I pulled the fridge out, removed the bottom plate and vacuumed the coils and pulled the equivalent of an entire sheep's fleece off them with the shop vac. I have never been known for my housekeeping skills but even I was appalled. I did regularly run the vacuum wand around the fridge and against that panel, but I hadn't taken it off in forever. I'm amazed the fridge could breathe, it must feel like the recipient of a double lung transplant right now. So today was for cleaning and patching drywall and buying paint. (If you've never removed that bottom vent thing from your fridge and looked under it, go do it. Trust me, it's scary down there.)

My Home Improvement God came and fixed the big ugly hole in the wall with the big wad of wires hanging out. He didn't just cap the wires and stuff them into the wall, as I sort of expected - he actually did it right, he and his partner totally removed that run of wire from the wall via the attic, and re-wired the necessary connections as if it had never existed. This involved many trips up into an attic that was way over 110 degrees (the external temp was 95 and it was high noon). He and his partner looked like they'd been thrown into a swimming pool by the time they were done - sweat pouring off them, clothes stuck to their bodies. It was brutal. They earn their money, and yet he didn't charge me for this job. He knows I'm going to hire him for the patio and the lighting, so he threw this in for free. He's my Home Improvement God from here on that's for damn sure. Next weekend he'll meet me at either Lowe's or HD to buy the lighting, and put it in next Sunday. The weekend after he'll frame the patio and pour it one day during the week. Three weeks, people, I may have a finished house (for now) if the granite countertop people move their buns when I call on Tuesday.

He did leave me to patch the drywall myself. I know how to patch drywall and I did it, but it's still a pain in the ass - this was a big hole. I'm hoping that the incoming cabinet will cover most of my patch, and that my patch will look better when it's dry and sanded. I did a neat job but the patch kit is a metal thing with mesh over it, nicely flat and square, and no wall in an over 20 year old house is nicely flat and square. The bottom edge of the patch didn't want to stay down and wanted to stay every so slightly off, because I'm sure there's a faint bend in the wall there. I iced it heavily, and I can ice a cake beautifully but not with spackle. I'm hoping that when it dries and shrinks down it will be easy to sand smooth. I fixed the nasty patch job done in a hurry by the guy who put in my microwave oven last fall and it looks better - I'm hoping tomorrow's sanding will blend the last bulges. My small patch over the fridge cabinets is going to turn out perfectly but be invisible to everybody but Natasha. It figures. But I'm using really good paint - American Traditions from Lowe's, that stuff is so rich is like icing a cake - and I'm hoping that the lush latex will cover the last of the irregularities from the patch jobs after I sand them down. Otherwise I'll be repainting with an orange peel finish to hide this. These were big ragged holes.

Lest you think I'm all work and no play on my alleged vacation, here's where I went after buying paint and patching drywall and cleaning:



The lounge chair under the big tree. It's hot as hell out there, mid-to-upper 90s, but after 4:30 and under the Big Tree it wasn't half bad. I brought the All Seasons Shawl and the dog out with me:


I really like this pattern - this is Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, which means that in FL it's warm enough for a winter shawl, but as I was working on it I started thinking how light and nice it'd be in something like Lion Brand Microspun. It splits like crazy but drapes like a dream, and I find it easier to crochet with it than knit it, unless the knit pattern is completely and utterly mindless. So now I'm thinking a black drapey All Seasons Shawl in Microspun would be quite nice. Then we have the dog:



The shawl behaved very well but the dog got hot and started complaining. He'd settle down in the cool grass in the shade beside my chair, then he'd get bored. So he went to the back door and asked to go in. So I let him in. Then he figured out I wasn't coming in with him, so he went to the window:



and bitched because I was still outside. So I let him out again. So we did this exercise again. Finally the sun shifted so the big tree wasn't giving me any decent shade and even I was too hot and we both came in.

All in all, it was a good day. I'm tired but I feel like things are moving along on schedule - knock wood.