dreaminghope | Immense thank-you's!

The next post in my many posts about renovating my house simply must be one about my family and community, without whom nothing would be done.

I cannot believe how much time, effort and energy people have been putting in. I am deeply touched and incredibly grateful for all of it. I cannot express how awed and humbled I am by the work other people have been willing to offer. I had workcrews of up to nine people in my house at a time, all putting in amazing efforts.

Though I've tried to thank everyone as we go, and I plan on thanking everyone again at the house warming, here's my list of heroes* so far, in no particular order:

My mom, Irene: She has spent almost as much time working here as I have. She has done some of the grossest cleaning jobs, including getting the upstairs' bathroom ceiling gleaming white, and has been my painting guru. She prepped and painted, stripped and sanded. She also brought food, did shopping runs, and did dishes. And she steam-cleaned my rugs the day before we moved in. She lent us blinds and rigged up a temporary bedroom curtain. She provided packing paper for the move.

My dad, George: Our expert on everything this past couple of weeks. He has patched two bathroom floors, removed a wall, drywalled our livingroom, and provided endless advice and assistance and tools. Four weekend days, at least twelve hours each day, plus lots of hours after work.

My sister, misselaineeous: Despite school, she scraped walls, put together furniture, patched, sanded, painted, stained, prepared food, cleaned and otherwise did countless jobs around the house. I don't know how many hours she put in, but there was a lot of time. She also saved me on moving day by transporting my cats, finishing my poor-ass packing job, ordering pizza and keeping the cats sane at the new place while I was with the movers. I simply could not have done the moving day without her.

Russ' mom, Nancy: Cleaned my new fridge. Helped with painting. Did shopping trips. Cleaned my ground floor bathroom. Helped frame in the livingroom. Helped me install quarter-round. Lent me a compressor and nail-gun, which I absolutely love.

Russ' dad, Rick: Drove things to the dump in his truck. Picked up our shiny new (well, new to us) stove in his truck. Did shopping trips and helped frame in the livingroom. Varnished the upstairs fir floor.

darianhawke: Again with the scraping of walls, and also with the hauling of heavy, gross old appliances. Helped me measure, cut and install my first baseboards. And I think he helped in the livingroom, though that whole process has been very mysterious to me, so I can't be more specific. He was also another moving day angel, using

misselaineeous' car to help me move things like the computer so the movers wouldn't have to, and generally making sure I didn't lose it in the midst of the craziness. And he helped me get my bed set up so I could sleep on it that night.

grayson100: Helped my dad with the drywalling and took apart the gross old kitchen upstairs. He may have done other things as well, but those were two big jobs right there, so everything else pales in comparison to them. Oh, and he gave Russ a wireless router (birthday gift, I think), so he's the reason I have Internet right now. Woo-hoo!

vcooke: Cut tiles for the upstairs bathroom floor. Did some caulking. Provided much knowledge and advice on where to get things cheaper. She was also my angel on my apartment cleaning day because she picked me and my vacuum and cleaning supplies up and took me back to the house. But most importantly, in my opinion, she installed my new locks and deadbolts so that my whole house feels nice and secure.

tareija: Probably scraped walls, or maybe cleaned some things, or maybe both. Most importantly, she helped

misselaineous with the safe transfer of my cats to their new home, and was generally sweet and supportive.

Jamey: Again, one of those many, many hours people. She worked on the upstairs bathroom and walls, which look clean and fresh and nice because of her hard work. I know she was doing some work in the livingroom (again with the mysterious, because I was elsewhere) and she did some of the gross cleaning jobs (the upstairs' kitchen floor comes to mind).

ED: She couldn't stay long because of work and school, but she scraped walls and brought homemade peanut-butter-chocolate-chip cookies. Oh, and fresh gossip on a day that felt really long and tedious.

cinnamonsqueak: Cleaned the grout around the kitchen window for hours, because it was just that gross. And scraped the window sill down and cleaned the window track. And she scraped walls.

grinningthefool: Helped haul the really gross fridge down. I think he ended up doing a lot of heavy lifting and carrying of awkward things, in fact. And I know that he scraped walls.

Jaymson (sp?): Came down to visit ED for the weekend and ended up scraping my walls for a couple of hours.

My boss, Dan: For giving me the time off work and trying his best to cover for me without having to phone for help too often. And for the sympathy he has for my state of mind, and for the gorgeous flowers he and his partner, Shannon, gave me to brighten up my mess right after the move.

My aunt Margaret and my uncle Carl: For the money they gave Russ and I towards our renovations.

My new neighbours: For being welcoming and friendly, for being nice about the noise and the mess, and, in Patty's case, for lending me a desperately needed step-ladder.

Please, please tell me if I forgot anyone or any major tasks. I really want to remember everyone's hard work and I want to keep a record of how far this house has come and what it took to do it.

A huge, public thank you to all these people. I expect there will be more thank you lists before this is all done.

*Please don't hate me if I forgot to thank you for something, but please do let me know so I can keep records of the work that went into this house.

Immense thank-you's!

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