What a Freakin' Week!

This weekend things have finally calmed down but this week has been... interesting.  Mostly in the sort of 'oh god oh god we're all gonna die' kind of way.  Not literally, I'm thankful to say.

So bear with me while I explain why I feel like I still need twelve hours sleep and really don't consider that I've accomplished much this weekend.

Monday morning my car died.  On the highway just as I was approaching my exit.  I made it all the way around the curve of the cloverleaf before it wouldn't go any further.  I am extremely grateful that my husband insists on AAA since I'm driving a lot again.

Forty five minutes later a very sweet and polite tow truck driver arrived.  He towed my car down to the dealership since that was the closest place that could deal with my brand of car.  (No one except them deals with Saturns anymore.)  They couldn't even look at it until Tuesday.  Rental car here I come.  And at least I get a day free because I have AAA.

Tuesday I hear nothing from the Chevy people.  But my husband ends up in the emergency room.  Mostly it was precautionary since he was at the clinic but it was a good three hours before they released him.  He's on tons of antibiotics now and feeling better.  But I wasn't thinking about the car then.

Called the Chevy people Wednesday morning.  They looked at the car.  There's some good news. (Not.)  It was not the alternator, nor the tension spring or the serpentine belt.  Something broke in the engine and when it snapped other things broke.  If I want to keep driving the car it would need a new engine.  Fun fact. They don't make engines for that car anymore.  It would be $6500 for a new (used) engine.

My husband and I decided it was time for a new car.  We managed to go five years without a car payment and we were probably due.  But it's still painful.  And he was in no shape to go with me to the car dealer.  At least we had been researching different cars for the last couple years, thinking sooner or later we'd have to bite the bullet and get one.

I am now the proud owner (loan holder) of a new Nissan Rogue.  The car payments start mid September so I'm enjoying the last month of freedom before more intense budgeting begins.  It could be worse, we'd been saving for a while so I could make a down payment and we won't be broke because of the payments.  But I was really hoping to avoid it for a while longer.

Thankfully I've already budgeted for or purchased most of the things I'll need for the WQ cottage.  And despite a lot more sleep I managed to get a few things done.

I coated the floor with satin polyurethane after wiping it down one last time.  Then I put the walls back on to test for fit and added the fireplace and furniture to check for placement.

I'm planning on a small area next to the wall where I can stack wood for the fireplace.  I'll make a small stone wall behind it.

I wanted to see how the candelabras looked in the rooms.  I think they look pretty good.

I'm debating the placement of the candelabra in the kitchen.  The bay window or the table.  I think on the table might look a bit more natural.

Having gotten that figured out (mostly) I began to put stone on the outer walls.  I started with the door and windows.  I used some scrap wood to make a small step and added 'stone' to it.  And I finally caved and stained the door.  Once I have grout on the stone I'll add the hinges and door handle.

This next part took the rest of the weekend.  And I still haven't done the back wall because I'll need to hide the wiring so that will be done last.

The edges of the wall have stone made to overlap the corners once the walls are glued into place.

For the inside of the house, I was thinking of doing some small beams in the corners to warm up the effect of all the plaster.  At least in the kitchen.  In the bedroom I'll start working on the paneling for the walls and extending it to the ceiling.

I'm still debating trying to make a door and doorway to the bedroom next to the fireplace.  I'm not sure.  I'm leaning towards not.  I want to have a bar system to keep the shutters closed against weather and a wall might get in the way of that.  We'll see how it goes.

I hope everyone else's week has gone more smoothly than mine and that you're all having a great weekend.