with news that FEMA won't pay to extend our stay after Dec. 12th.

The frames for the kitchen cabinets are in, but no cabinet doors, they're not stained, and the counter tops can't go back on until then. That's $10K (so far).

They're still working on the decorative woodwork on the living room walls; final coats of paint on the ones already up remains to be put on. Pantry shelves are 50% installed. Still no flooring in the living and dining rooms, nor in the master bedroom and its closet. Nothing has been done in the master bathroom, although the carpenter plans to make the cabinet boxes any day now. Tried to order the bathroom floor tile but the showroom only deals with contractors, not homeowners. So we gave the info to our general contractor so he can order and pay for it. (We will pay for it eventually, but with his markup, of course.)

They haven't painted the garage yet, nor fixed the water damaged drywall on the ceiling where the hot water tanks or pipe going into them decided to start leaking.

Powder room will be repainted because the wife didn't like the color we first picked out, so we're going with gray because it's the modern beige.

But the insulation and drywall is installed, it has been painted, floor tile purchased and cut to fit (gluing and grouting should happen this week). Baseboard molding has been painted and installed in several rooms.

All that is $30K (so far).

Did get the wife her new car. As usual, the sales experience confirms how Saturn had the right idea, which is why GM killed it off years ago. Salesman tried to get me to pay full sticker less factory discounts. Told him to pound sand and try again. He did, but only came down a few hundred. Got up and walked. Drove the wife to another dealer of the same brand, got a salesman who took off hundreds more than the other guy at the first dealership plus the factory rebates, so we signed on the dotted line. That was another $19K.

Life is good.