Today is a banner day, as they say. We now have hot water, thanks to my brilliant hubby who decided to work on the manifold repair AFTER “looping” some plumbing to give us hot water upstairs and down.  I joined the local gym on a trial pass–$7 for 7 days so I could have a hot water shower instead of my Grannie spit bath. I had to pretend I was there to work out on the treadmill for 20 minutes–which didn’t really hurt me. But I got my shower–2 days before this wonderful day.

    When we pictured ourselves in our river house, we were thinking of drinking our morning coffee on the deck, off our sparkling kitchen.

Of course, when we pictured this, we hand’t been in the house, hadn’t seen much besides the deck, and didn’t have any idea that after four and a half months, having hot water would far outweigh our dream of sparkling anything.

And, OK, this couple isn’t us, isn’t that picture we dreamed, or even the picture we are. We’re not ready for photos. We are tired.

We are still in the early stages of renovation. It is sometimes discouraging. But as our cabinet vendor, Norm, pointed out.

“Yes, you are working hard, and it is very hard. But when you are finished, you will not just have a house like every other house. You will have a house on the river.”

This is really our view. It is worth it.

We try to keep that in mind. And it does help to arise to the river view, cup of coffee in hand, on the deck and outside of the room which still has no walls, no ceilings, no floors and certainly no sparkling kitchen–yet. But it will.