Sorry I haven't reported lately. We've been removing and rearranging stuff we don't need in the house anymore. That's means cleaning the garage so I could move the stuff we'd stored on the porch into the garage so we could move stuff from the house onto the porch so we should de-clutter some more.

In the mean time I've bought lumber for mounting our headboard. Gordon and I did an engineering design. I'm halfway through, ready to stain before I put it all together. But, I've got major second thoughts and put in a stop work order. Trouble is, I don't think it will be sturdy enough and what will show won't be pretty - at least with my carpentry skill. It's not quite back to square one though. We're going to be our friend Jeff Ashworth for some advice.

Did Gordon plan the Christmas tree space or was it a happy accident? May I tell you a secret? I've been dreading the Christmas tree. It's such a big production moving furniture and big plants around. As pretty as the tree was, it screwed up the room. I didn't want to screw up the room we'd worked so hard on.

This year all we had to do is move our leather chair forward one foot and we had the perfect place for the tree. Gordon might have planned it that way. I don't know but it worked:

No time for presents yet.

I ordered the glass yesterday. Two glass shelves for the our glass front kitchen cabinet, two for the thing, and a pane for the side of the thing cost about $340. The glass side cost $120. It was small and thinner than the shelves but cost twice a much. It's some sort of antique looking stuff will little bubbles in it. I think it's called "restoration glass."

There are glass panes on either side.

The shelves are 3/8" and I've got to find some sturdy shelf holders for the kitchen shelves.

Lighting the vases on the top of the kitchen cabinets and inside the glass front cabinet. Right now I have a combination of Christmas tree lights, rope lights and dangling extension cords lighting the top of the cabinets. It looks great if you ignore the dangling cords. Here's what I have to do:

• Drill 1 1/4" holes in the cabinets and shelves so I can thread the cords down to the outlets.
• Disassemble the under counter lights so that their outlets work. That will allow me to hide the over-cabinet cords and turn them all one with one switch. Why they left the outlet disconnected, I don't know. I've take one apart and I need some short wires and wire nuts finish.
• Install the three down lights in the glass front cabinet.

Portrait lights for the screen. We like the little halogen lights and we'll need two for the screen.  Home Expo and the lighting stores carry some for about $70 each. I found them for $19 at Lowes. Trouble is that the bulbs are in demand and shoppers raid the boxes and remove the bulbs. Better open the box to check before you buy.

This is the $70, 20W light that requires a transformer.
I guess that's part of the $70.

Order in the house! Everybody is coming home for Christmas. Rachel is moving out of her apartment for now. So she's bringing all her stuff home. Stuff! I'm feeling feint ...

More later ...