We took the day off yesterday, Sunday,  but are back to work today, on Labor Day!

We are clearing the bedrooms, and completed one room today and half of the office. We also cleared the rest of the hallway. It wasn’t as much progress as we hoped to make, but it was a good day’s work.

We have begun to move “keeper” items back into the house, and it looks like we have made no progress at all, because the basement is full of boxes again. But, they are items that need to be organized and moved to a different location in the house once everything is complete.

We began the third week of work today. We had hoped to complete this project in two weeks, but there have been many surprises along the way. Kathy has assumed a lot of responsibility for getting repairs done on the house that was not in her original bid. She also took on the clearing in the back yard. It was a lot of extra work for her. With any luck, once the clearing is done, we can get some traction on the cleaning and organizing.

Thanks goes to two of the Binder children, Reagan and Grant, who helped sort and carry today. Mr. Binder did a trash bag run for us. Thank you again, Binder family.

I would also like to thank my husband, Gary Smith, for the Mexican feast he picked up from a local restaurant and brought out to us. It was a nice break from sandwiches.

—Reported and photos by Jackie Wells Smith

Day 14 photos:

Guest bedroom on the first day. Guest bedroom is clear, but being used to store the bag of clothes we are keeping.

The hall on the first day. We can walk all the way down the hall.

The cross beams cracked under the weight of the clutter. Repairs in process on the broken crossbeams.