First things first… thank you all so much for checking in and continuing to ask about the state of things around here. Your kindness has meant the world! Here’s the latest update after what has felt like a long couple of weeks.

The biggest news: the electrical work is complete! We officially moved back into the house on Saturday (after moving out the prior Monday). I stayed in Auburn until all the creature comforts were back in place, and by the time I returned home, the house was… well, let’s just say “dusty” from all the drywall work.

On the bright side, we now have a brand new panel up to code, a new power line running to the house, a new box outside and… wait for it… twelve smoke detectors. Yes, twelve. I’m not sure why so many, but I’ll admit I’m sleeping better at night. We did hit a small snag when the den mysteriously didn’t have power for a few extra days, but it wasn’t anything that really impeded life.

Honey has been a champ. He repaired the drywall, repainted the mudroom, and even took the time to replace some wall outlets that had been loose (or literally hanging out of the wall) for the last sixteen years. Out of sight, out of mind, I suppose… until now.

Then there was the great WiFi fiasco of Summer 2025. Somehow nearly everything disconnected from the internet, and I didn’t realize just how many things rely on WiFi until it all went dark. Lamps, pool equipment, garage door, printer, Alexa devices, doorbells… the list goes on. Honey, much to his chagrin, became our resident IT department and has finally managed to get everything connected again.

And because when it rains it pours… we also lost the garage fridge. We’ve come to rely on that space, especially when John is home (he may only be 25% of our family but seems to account for 45% of the groceries), when entertaining, and whenever we have house guests.

At first, we thought we’d just replace it with the cheapest fridge we could find. Spoiler: no fridge is cheap. So then we decided to move our kitchen fridge to the garage and replace that one instead. Easy, right? We ordered a newer version of the model we already had, this time with water in the door (because I’ve outgrown the stage where my boys had me fit to be tied with water and ice everywhere).

Then came the delivery text: “Be sure to measure.” Honey measures. Guess what? It won’t fit. Cancel order. We shop online for a few more days (Mother cannot understand why we didn’t just go look at them in person and, as usual, Mother knows best). Turns out, all the fridges have grown by about half an inch. A half an inch we do not have.

So, we ended up re-buying the fridge we had canceled. Face palm. Honey had to shave down the bottom of the upper cabinet to make it fit (and go buy paint and paint it), and while it does fit, I now realize I hate it. Adding water meant losing 4.5 inches of shelf depth inside. I measured. Honey says we can return it, but honestly, I don’t have the energy anymore. At the end of the day, I’m just thankful to have a fridge that runs. Because after the month we’ve had, creamer for my coffee feels like luxury living.

And then came the curveball: bats. Yep, when the electricians were in the attic, they discovered a little family of them living up there. Honey put off telling me, but honestly, considering our past with bats, I’d still rather six bats in the attic than six roaches literally anywhere on our property. (For those curious, you can read about our previous bat saga here.)

The “bat man” has already been by to assess the situation and comes back Monday with his plan. Fingers crossed this is the last of the surprises so Honey can get back to refinishing the basement project that was in full swing before everything went south.

With all the chaos, I’ll admit that I haven’t been nearly as unhinged as I was after John’s departure last fall. :-) Here’s to brighter (and hopefully quieter!) days ahead.

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