Happy July

I haven't blogged in awhile. So much has been happening. The college year and school year came to a successful close, Little Sir graduated from kindergarten, DH, No. One Son and DD are busy with summer work and I am joyfully not working, except for a few private summer music students.

The evening of the last day of school, June 29, we started work on the house. Serious work. We had been doing little jobs on the weekends, as we could, redoing the kitchen step by step, installing ceiling fans in the bedrooms, shopping for supplies for summer construction. The family has pitched in as they could. Now the big stuff starts. DH is going to be ripping out the kitchen floor and laying a new one. Various contractors are coming with estimates and we're doing prep work and as much as we can on our own. Ripping up the wall-to-wall carpet was a chore, to say the least, but now the hall has clean hardwood floors, and freshly repaired and painted walls. The carpet is removed in the living room, and work has begun there as well. The sliding glass door will be replaced, and the flooring repaired where condensation and termites have taken their toll. The front of the house is getting a facelift, too.

Getting a mortgage was enough. We don't need another loan for home improvement (although that was offered...no more loans, thank you!) So, we've been really careful, spending lots of time researching options, what's the best flooring, kitchen choices, etc., seeing what we can do ourselves, what we can afford to hire out. The big thing is getting all the decisions made and prep work that require me, because Little Sir and I are going away for a month, leaving DH and my dad (Papa) here in the construction zone.

I am going to attempt another travel blog on our trip to Turkiye, but I may not be near a computer as much as last trip. We are planning to go to Istanbul, where you fly in, and stay with family for a few days, then with DH's mom (Baba-anne), grandmother (Yeter-anne), sister (Fatma), and a few others, we are headed to the village where the family originally came from. (They're not really city people. DH's parents came to Istanbul when they got married.)

When Little Sir was born, DH's father celebrated by building a house on the family property in their village. We were supposed to go see it last trip, but he was not feeling well enough to take us. (After we returned to the States, his health took a turn for the worse and he eventually died that August, saddening us all.) This will be our first opportunity to visit. Everyone tells us it's in a beautiful place, with a mountain stream flowing through the property, deep enough for wading and swimming, with fish ready for the taking. Little Sir is looking forward to lots of cousin-time, playing there at the new house and getting in lots of hours playing soccer.

5 more days to get the house-planning and prepping done, paperwork squared away, life-stuff to deal with, as well as our trip-shopping and packing. And then, we're off!