Happy New Year's Eve

I finished the green sweater and went to get started on the socks when I realized I don't have the right sized needles - the patterns I do have the right sized needles for I don't have enough yarn for. I sent off for the right sized needles but will be doing mail box duty as they have to come all the way from Vancouver so in the meantime I'm finishing up the afgan and maybe doing a bit of reading. Eek. I had an ok day at work, nothing major but a lot of running around. One of my patients has a fairly new aide who is hoping to go to nursing school so I find her sweet and amusing - everything is an emergency and is dignosed to the 10th degree so I end up spending quite a bit of time on our visit. The patient enjoys the attention though and I'd rather have an aide that reports everything than one that reports nothing (until it falls off or turns green or something). When I spoke to the office I was told she'd be getting counseling but I said the magic words - "possible student nurse" so hopefully they'll be kind to her also until she gets over it. Most of us do.I got home around 5 and looking foward to being off tomorrow - and not being on call. I checked my email and there was one from the relative that doesn't like me. I of course went to delete it but curiousity got the better of me. Silly me, what was I thinking? Next time I'll delete it right off the bat but there are times in life you just can't help yourself. I can remember once when I was a kid going in the downstairs bathroom and being very surprised at seeing the ceiling over the tub sloping down in a strange bulging way. I stood on the edge of the tub - and I can clearly remember thinking as my finger neared that odd curve that MAYBE I should leave it alone - but my hand continued along it's pre-destined course and I was instantly covered in water and wet sheetrock from the leaking pipe above. So, same song, different chorus. The thing is - it's a new year and I have so much more going on in my life and I'm off tomorrow! So the email is gone and my first resolve of the new year is to listen to that little voice, because 99% of the time it's right. Happy New Year Everyone

The Tater Mitts

I posted pictures of the Tater Mitts yesterday but didn't mention them, so today they get my Official Opinion. The reason I bought them for David for Christmas was because we'd seen them on tv and he'd been interested - but not in a potato related way. The reason he'd wanted them had more to do with Claw The Evil Cat - he thought they would be an excellent way to retaliate for her midnight attacks and her general evil behavior. His plan was to grab the cat with the Tater Mitts the next time she bit him and rub her bald. That made me laugh so when I saw them on sale at Giant Eagle he got a pair. What they look like is a pair of heavy duty dish gloves with fish tank gravel crazy-glued to the palms, Adam and Jackson didn't think much of them. David decided to try them out for thier official use, so he piled the potatoes in the sink and went to work. The first thing he noticed was you have to run water as the Tater Mitts clog up immediately with what little skin you manage to rub off and you need to rinse them constantly. So he rubbed the potatoes for a bit and then I rubbed the potatoes for a bit longer. The end result was the potato looked like it had been tied to the back of the car and dragged for a few miles, suffering from a mild case of Road Burn. However, after about 15 minutes and who knows how many of gallons of water we gave it up as a bad job and went back to the Tater Peeler which incidently cost about a quarter of the price and took about 3 minutes. We haven't tried them out on Claw yet as first of all it would probably take most of the day to rub her bald and I doubt she would stand still that long and secondly she isn't overly smart but is smart enough to stay away from the Tater Mitts.

We Are All Of Age Now

I managed to take my 4 hours of personal time yesterday for Jackson's 18th birthday - I begged a patient to let me see him early so I managed to squeeze in all 4 patients before 1 pm and made it home by 1:15. Jackson being Jackson didn't want much in the way of birthday stuff - we took him out to Cheddars for a late lunch, went shopping at his favorite book store and then cake at home. I'm taking him up to the Meadowbrook Mall today in Clarksburg to spend some of his loot and I'm looking foward to just hanging out this weekend as we all know last week was a long one. Christmas went well, it was so nice having both the boys home for the holidays - I wish I could've spent more time with Adam but I did manage Christmas Eve and Christmas so I can't complain too much. One of the best things about being in home care is always being home for the holidays - and being awake for them to boot! Everyone got what they wanted - Adam bought me the entire Little Britian series which I can't stop watching, it's probably one of the funniest series I've ever seen and I now have ALL of it. I finished my sleeveless cotton sweater last night and am now scoping around for the next project. I'm thinking Socks but I don't know if I'm brave enough to attempt them - they look hard and you have to make two of them relatively the same size and shape. In case you're wondering - Sprint has not called since the other day so I'm hoping I'm past that and that Mary has learned her lesson.

I'll Be Taking Names

Yesterday Sprint called me one too many times. I've been oncall this week and for the past 2 Sprint's been calling my phone between 4 and 6 pm - the exact time you get those hinky patient calls. This has caused me to go racing up 3 flights of stairs and to the back bedroom only to be offered another phone line - I've pushed to "no" button, asked them not to call, etc.. Yesterday I ran all day and at 5 pm - you guessed it - my phone rang. Whoa betide that fool. Mary greeted me and started her spiel to which I told her she had no right to call me, that I had been put on the no call list TWICE and I didn't feel my own phone company should be harrassing me. To this Mary attempted to continue to sell me another phone line - I cut her off and told her that I was NOT paying Sprint to call me nightly, that I had already spoken to them NUMEROUS TIMES and I needed to know how to make the calls stop. Mary suggested the no call list which I shot back I was already on it and now I would like her to put the supervisor on. Hmm. She told me - and here is where not only did I go over the edge but was catapulted straight into space - that she'd see if a supervisor could call me since they were all at lunch right now- and SHE WOULD CALL ME TONIGHT(please note I was waiting on a line during this conversation which was a lovely way to pass the time unless you were standing near me...) I let Mary know that since I'd been called every night for the past two weeks I really didn't think ANOTHER phone call was a good solution, did she??!! And then, in my best Exorcist Voice  I said "It's 5 o'clock in the afternoon and everyone is at LUNCH? I don't think so - you'd better go get the manager NOW MARY" - and lo and behold there be the manager( a bit of advice here - when fighting with any company always get the name of the person you're talking to and use it often - it freaks them out much better). He didn't make much headway and was quite disconcerted when I told him I thought I should be able to cancel my phone service with no early termination fees which he said I couldn't do,etc.. He told me he was taking Personal Responsibility to make sure I wouldn't be called again - I told him I hoped so because if I EVER got called again I would go crazy - since I was already doing my best Exorcist Voice that probably gave Russell something to think about.  So, I think I may be on the no call list for real this time - we'll have to see. Otherwise Russell Morgan the manager and Mary have bought themselves a whole pile of trouble.

I Think My Journal Broke.

I've been having problems with my journal for the past few days and am not sure what happened. I can't see any of the entries on it - the pictures are there but no words. Does it look like that to you guys?? I can see this entry, but the rest of the page is blank. AOL is no help as we no longer pay for it so no customer service. Anyhow, I had to go into the office briefly yesterday to hand in the mountain of paperwork I had generated over the weekend - Adam got to hang out with Susan - but then that was it. Christmas Eve went very nicely, we went out to Ruby Tuesdays for an early dinner and bought Christmas dinner on the way home. EVERYTHING is closed here for the holidays so for the past few years we've been staying home. Last night I slept - and no phone calls. Oh well, Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Well, Sunday turned out to be as much as a fiasco as Saturday. I started off at 8:30 am so one of my peds patients wouldn't have to see me on Christmas eve, when I arrived the Under 10 Crowd had already been indulging in cake and candy and were alternately whizzing around the room and crying. I brought gifts for the whole posse which were spirited off since it's not Christmas yet, much to very (vocal) disappointment of the crowd. That was actually fun and then off to the rest - a ton of driving but I got home around 2 pm. We went to the new Cracker Barrel and right before I got my food - my phone rang. Sigh. I rushed everyone through thier meal and then raced off to yet another admission arriving home just before 7 pm. I got up early this morning and finished up the paperwork and took Adam into the office with me so I could finish faxing and letting the director know any changes. He got to meet a few of my co-workers and then ran over to Starbucks next door for some coffee. We went to Gabe's after that, I had to pick up some pants for David so I would have something to put under the tree - for the past few years we've just exchanged token gifts and then go shopping in January when everything is on clearance and you can REALLY clean up. So I am (presumably) off today since I did a total of 11 visits over the weekend and oncall after 5 pm and then oncall for Christmas. For Jackson's birthday this coming Friday I'm taking the rest of my personal time so we can do something - he's leaning toward a movie and dinner with his PARENTS - the Geek didn't fall far from the tree, did he?

Is It Friday Yet?

I'm having problems with my blog - it keeps telling me AOL doesn't support this browser and to update it, but when I try then it tells me I already have the lastest browers so I have no idea - I'll try to reload the AOL when I get a chance. Adam arrived here yesterday in good time and spent the day hanging out with David and Jackson. I spent the day working. I had THREE admissions covering about 200 miles so I started off around 8:30 am and got to the exit home around 4:30. Then my phone rang and the one patient I had done much earlier in the day had developed a problem so I had to turn my car around and drive an additional 90 miles since of course it was one of the further out patients. So I arrived home about 7:30 pm - and today doesn't look much better. Our office is open for Christmas Eve which I was very surprised about - but considering the way they treat the nurses I suppose I shouldn't be. I'm trying to take off for Christmas eve, I moved my patients to Sunday (which is why I'm working today) but I think Monday is shaping up to be a mess so who knows. Adam is having a good time I think, I hope and we'll have Christmas together at least.

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Let It Rain, Let It Rain, Let It Rain.....

Tonight at 1:08 am will be the official First Day Of Winter and we in WV will mark the occasion - with a bit of rain. This will probably be followed by the usual Festival Of Mud. It was a bit gloomy yesterday but not bad which was good because I had a lot of driving to do. As you can see I was passing through Hundred, WV - there is something about that town that I really like and no, I can't explain it. It's VERY far and there isn't much to it, but - I don't know - it's just very pleasant is the best I can come up with. I'm trying to get into the holiday, but just can't for some reason this year. Our office is open on Monday, but I've shifted a lot of my patients over to Sunday as they are as thrilled about seeing me on Christmas Eve as I am about going. I'm on call anyhow, so it doesn't matter which day I'm out and about. Still knitting my butt off - Alex got the Christmas Tree hat I sent him and he looks very cute in it (he tends to look cute in EVERYTHING however) - I actually made a second hat for a patient but that one was way smaller - it was tiny enough to fit Mr. Lee - and it was still too big! Her mother appreciated it though I think. We did finally get a tree - it's a bit on the puny side but David said there wasn't much to choose from this year and I guess with the kids all grown up, there's no point in a big tree anyhow. Vincent prefers a big tree - all the more ornaments to destroy for him. Jackson is off today for some reason, he probably wishes he had told us yesterday as David woke him up at the usual time. He's going to Becky's today to get his hair cut. We got his senior pictures but since he wore a tee shirt they really just look like regular school pictures. David whined because we Paid How Much For These but I told him to suck it up - he's only a senior once.

Whoo. Hoo.

Well, I'll be darned. Yesterday it was uber-yucky. Today it started out uber-yucky and now it's cold on top of that. Vincent went out but threw in the towel around noon and has been amusing himself by harassing Claw. Claw is not amused in case you're interested. I've started going through our closets - we've got tons of books we've read, odds and ends of yarn left over from projects, a fleet of various canvas bags I've picked up on sale or were given to me - all piled rather not tidy. I started in the one guest room where some of my stash is, well, stashed - I got rid of a host of bags I'll never use and shouldn't keep even if they were free, some balls of yarn that there wasn't enough of or I simply hated and can't even remember why I have it - and then headed to the downstairs closet. I sorted through tons of books and reduced my supply to two milk crates - good for me -and then did the same with the hutch upstairs. I got rid of fake flowers and some clothes, not nearly enough but it's a start. We took it to Goodwill and they were happy enough to have it - David mentioned that whenever you get rid of things you feel better, lighter. But we do have to be careful as in the past we've gotten rid of things just to be rid of them and find ourselves buying a replacement as it turns out we really did use it after all. On the way back home the wind picked up howlingly and then it started spitting snow. While we were watching the television set (Graham Norton marathon anyone?) the lights flickered and went out - twice. This would be when David remembered he hadn't picked up any kerosene for the emergency heater but we do have a new flashlight so we're getting there. He went out and got some so we are sort of set in the event of an outage - but I still would hate it.

The Heavens Are Open For Business

I don't know about your neck of the woods, but mine remain soggy and dismal. The rain a couple of days ago was over the top bad, they were closing a lot of roads and detouring due to flooding - the town next to us was evacuated due to rising river waters. They sent everyone home from school around 11 am - I'm glad David is home doing the house because he went and picked up Jackson from school. Working was interesting, I was glad most of my patients were fairly close by but most live down rural roads and it gets a bit interesting even in good weather. They're predicting either freezing rain or snow for today, I was hoping to finish up shopping so we'll see. Mr. Lee continues her Plant Harrassments, she is very taken with the plant and it's now permenently squashed in the center from her sitting in it all the time. David seems to think it reminds her of being outside and has voted I let her have the plant and then played the Sympathy Card - that she's 18 this year and a little old cat. I pointed out that hadn't played well in Peoria last week when the "little old cat" was bent on eating his chicken right off his plate and he shut her in the bedroom upstairs so he could finish his dinner in peace. You might be noting that Mr. Lee does whatever she wants and has spent most of her life getting away with murder. Hmm. David has to get a tree this week, if he waits until after Monday he will be decorating it and that's all I have to say about THAT.

The Art Of Destruction

Due to the recent renovations of the kitchen and dining room my One and Only Plant was moved to an end table in the livingroom giving Mr. Lee The Antichrist full access to it. Last night was the limit when I came into the room after a very bad and somewhat strange afternoon - there was my plant with a Cat Butt poking out of it as the other end of the cat was busy shredding the interior plants. She turned around at the sound of her name and I gave her a very stern talking to, as you can see from the picture it had very little effect. Hmm. Anyhooo, I had a very VERY far away admission yesterday so I didn't schedule too many patients since we also had our weekly meeting. I got through the first visit and had planned on dropping the labs off in Fairmont and then continuing on towards Hundred. Now, I eat lifesavers in the car all the time, I'm very addicted to them I admit but this time I hit a bump and lost it on top of the steering column. Before I could grab it - it slid in a crack and disappeared. I figured it probably fell out of the car or on the floor and didn't give it another thought until I pulled into the hospital parking lot - and couldn't shift into park. My shift made a crunchy noise on the 2nd attempt which is when I figured out where the lifesaver had landed. After numreous attempts I managed to get the car to go into park and then couldn't get my keys out of the ignition. Feel free to sigh. I had my spare key with me so I locked the car and dropped off the labs and then called David. He asked me what I wanted him to do and what I DID want him to do was: get in his truck, drive 150 miles an hour, fix my car and then leave so I wouldn't lose any time. He didn't think that was necessary and would look at it when I got home since the car was drivable and I had the extra key to lock it with - he is so unreasonable, isn't he? I went out to do my next admission and it went well until they let me hold the puppy. I would have enjoyed it way more if they had taken the puppy OUT before they handed it to me so I got to drive home with candy stuck in my steering wheel and covered in puppy pee and calling Susan at the office did no good as she couldn't stop laughing. When I got home things got better, I took a shower and horsed down about a pound of maple sugar candy - courtesy of my Dad(thank you again!) - so, is it Friday yet??

Moving Right Along

I finally had a good night's sleep last night, I have no idea why but I guess when it happens you shouldn't question it, just enjoy it. We got most of the Christmas presents mailed off yesterday - I sent the shawl I made last month off finally - it's currently winging it's way to Kent England where it will hopefully live a long and productive life. The Christmas Tree hat arrived on Long Island just in time for the holidays and I hope it fits. Baby heads are hard to size, they tend to be bigger or smaller than you think they are and babies being contrary creatures to start with, are hard to figure out even if you eyeball them directly. Too big is the better choice as it's a pretty good bet they'll get bigger at some point as opposed to shrinking. I sometimes have to take care of shrinking babies in my line of work and that is NEVER a good thing. Not a good topic, let's move on, shall we? I had an orientee with me today riding shotgun to see how he would like being a visit nurse. We drove all over, past the stray dog and trailer gang, over the rackity homemade bridge, down a long country road and up a steep hill - he liked it and even seemed a bit excited about it so hopefully we'll have a new nurse in the other office and that will end the On Call Disaster. I'm still ignoring everyone and occasionally get news through the Office Grapevine about what my latest move is. So far I've found out I'm Very Angry and Quitting although the grapevine was a bit hazy on the details about when and where,etc.. I find it fairly amusing because when things get rough I tell Susan it doesn't bother me because I'm Quitting Anyhow. I'm thinking about making some Christmas cookies this weekend but I'm also thinking about Just Lying Around which is always the better choice in my book.

Up In Smoke

I took Jackson with me yesterday so I could get my Christmas shopping done and out of the way - with work being so busy and everything else going on it's pretty hard. And then you have to add in the fact it all has to be packaged up and mailed - arrgh. Anyhoo, we bought most of the gift cards at Giant Eagle because A) there was no line and B) you get gas perks for purchasing them there. So, there we were waiting on line behind a woman purchasing  3 cartons of cigarettes - 2 Marlboro (that was my old Weapon Of Choice) and 1 carton of Doral. When the cashier said "That will be ONE HUNDRED AND ONE DOLLARS AND THIRTY FOUR CENTS" I almost fell out. After she left I asked the cashier if I had heard right and yes I had, she broke it down and taxed it for us - and then we all stood around being Agast for a couple of minutes. I quit smoking years ago and have not had one since and at that moment I was very glad I had. When I quit it was something like $18 a carton - and that was NY prices, not WV.  Eek. So after that I finished my shopping and got everything wrapped and ready to go. Adam will be coming home for the holidays so I'm very excited about that! Even though I'll be on call it will be so nice to see him!

Stick In The Mud

Yep, it ALL melted - and then it rained. If you walk around my yard you actually make noise and there are areas you might possibly lose a shoe. Pearl playing fetch is a sight to see as she tends to slide by the thrown object and keeps going on the slick ground. I've learned not to throw it near stationary objects as it's painful to watch. David and I finally got some Christmas decorations up, we put a few lights up outside to show our spirit of the season and a bit around the house. Since the diningroom and kitchen are currently under construction it's a little hard to decorate around the piles of stuff. All in all the holiday season here is pretty lowkey, for some reason no one really feels like it. I don't know if it's the weather, the fact that we will be in great transition soon, if it's because it's just the three of us now and soon to be just the two of us. This season is never what it should be - in your mind it's lights, food, and gifts and in reality it's rain, bills and a pretty strict diet in January. So I continue to knit which keeps me sane, I'm halfway through the sleeveless cotton sweater and will finish up the afgan after that. Then I might be making my first pair of socks - we will see. The On Call War continues on at work with a few other side notes thrown in, I just keep my head down and stay away from it. My boss continues to be nice to me which is REALLY freaking me out - I have no idea what her agenda is these days - there is another wide circle I'm making. Apparently Interim had a party for the employees and the only employees that were NOT invited were the nurses - I have no idea on that one either. One of the nurses made sure I knew and my feelings were hurt until I realized that A) the nurses were never invited and it hasn't hurt my feelings for the past 3 years and B) I wouldn't have gone anyhow - so that was the end of that. But it is odd the way Interim treats thier RN's - I hadn't thought of it until the other nurse brought it up - at other facilities I've worked you get bonuses and parties, at Interim they kind of make a point of ignoring the nurses and you literally get nothing for the holidays - however the office personal get stuff. HMM. Oh well, my goal is I'm hanging in there until Spring and then regardless of whether we move or not, I'll be looking for another job - I just can't afford to quit right now with David working on the house and we just cannot afford COBRA or be without benefits right now.

There's No Business Like Snow Business

Wednesday was a nightmare - drivingwise. We were supposed to get 2 inches, instead we got about 6 and the roads were a disaster, iced under and snowed over. And of course ALL of my patients were between 30 and 50 miles away and down back country roads. The pictures of the roads are some of the ones I was traveling on - I don't think I went over 27 miles an hour all day. One patient forgot to mention her road hadn't been plowed - that was the scariest. I've had patients down there so I'm familar with the area but in the snow it's a whole new world. I negotiated it well until I remembered the hill - which curves around with a drop off and no rail of course. So as I approached I hit the gas enough to get traction, but I couldn't go too fast as I was afraid I wouldn't be able to make the turn. Just as I got to the top my car slid sideways, but I managed to stop before I went into the ditch, I just sat there for a moment with my heart beating wildly - it never occured to me I'd get stuck! I took a deep breath and calmed down - and got my car out without incident. After I finished that I cancelled the last patient and headed to the highway - figuring it would be smooth sailing. And it was - if you didn't mind sailing along at 22 miles an hour. A truck in front of me started to go faster - and then fishtailed wildly across all the lanes which kind of discouraged us Nervous Nellies from attempting the same feat. There was a logging truck halfway across one of the lanes and about 5 cars scattered around him and here and there cars cattycornered off the highway when they just slid off. I finally made it home and was worried if I'd be able to get there, we live on a pretty steep road - but much to my surprise it was plowed. And so was most of my driveway! Our neighbor (remember the guy we let hunt in our yard for deer this season?) did the road with his ATV and then came over and did our driveway too! How nice is that?  Today it's warmed up and the yard is a festival of mud - Pearl is disappointed. She LOVES the snow and has spent the past few days racing in it, eating it and rolling around in it. She is so wierd.

Bigger Is Not Always Better

Why do I always go for the bigger one, even when I know better? I made a Christmas tree hat and bought the pompoms for the top. At Michaels I had the ones I needed right in my hand, but then spotted a bag with them twice the size at the same price. When I took them out of the bag they took on a life of thier own, fluffing up to the size of softballs. ARRGH. I gave it a go anyhow and no matter what I did the hat flopped over from the sheer weight of the giant pompom which insisted on listing to the side anyhow. So in the end if you add in the gas for the additional trip and having to rebuy the pompoms, I obviously didn't save a dime AND I have a whole bag of them that I cannot use. The oncall wars CONTINUE - I came in yesterday to find out that not only am I  still mad but I'm quitting over the oncall schedule. That was news to me. I asked politely when I was leaving and was I going to stomp out? When Susan asked me to add to my roster of patients I told her I really didn't care since I'd been told I was quitting - HA. Well, I thought I was funny. The patients are picking up a bit but I was able to get a bit of shopping in, Jackson has asked for one thing and it's something that's guarenteed to disappear right before the holidays so I found a store that still had them and got it for him. The temps dropped yesterday and we got snow - I don't think it's as cold as we think it is, it's just such a drastic change. I'm still trying to get David to get the decorations down, but he's still doing the kitchen so I'm not sure how we're going to decorate around that. I guess I'd better get moving.......

Avoiding The Backyard Brawl

Those are pictures of an old and very small graveyard on the side of the road in Grafton. It was not as interesting as I had hoped, but it had a lot of very old and handmade gravestones. Unfortunately time and  weather had worn most of them smooth reducing them back to no more than rocks. When I die I will not be buried of course, but cremated and tossed back. Hopefully Someone will put me in the ocean with Mikio and Setsu and not keep me on the entertainment system as an attractive paperweight next to Copper with a piece of chachi on top of me. And yes, for the record I do still miss and mourn Setsu and Mikio and probably always will - there is not a week that goes by that I don't think of them and wish they were here. I cannot believe it's already December, as usual the Christmas presents are unshopped, the cards remain in the upstairs closet (I hope!) and not a decoration sullies our home. I told David I'm sure the neighbors must comment about the nice jewish people that live up on the hill..... We had a fairly quiet weekend at home, this weekend was the infamous Backyard Brawl (WVU against Pitt) and we went to Clarksburg to stay out of town. We managed to avoid traffic but forgot and tried to get on the WVU exit on the way back - big mistake. The cars were backed up all over and blocking both lanes, we finally managed to get into the passing lane and went home by way of Pennsylvania (it's not as bad as it sounds, we live 4 miles from the border). But doing anything in town on Saturday was out of the question. David continues to work on the kitchen, he needs to replace 10 tiles from the kitchen and of course (insert SIGH here) we cannot find anything to match. We went up to Home Depot in Clarksburg and found half of our neighbors there along with some heavily discounted faucets - they were displays and we got a $400 set for $20 bucks. Not bad for a Saturday.

Who Turned Off The Heat??

The tempetures have dropped drastically - this morning we woke up to ice and about 20 degrees, David spent from 2 am on poking and yelling at Pearl as she was pushed up as tight as she could get. She is not a cold weather dog we've discovered. Yelling at her did no good as she then laid under the bed and cried which is also not Conducive To Sleeping. David spent all of yesterday trying to get that porch done, I took a couple of hours of personal time as I had nothing to do yesterday afternoon and I need to start burning it so I got to pick up Jackson. I HATE picking up Jackson from school as I ALWAYS somehow manage to do it wrong -it's the wrong place, wrong time, etc, and I have to hear it all the way home. So David managed to get a lot more done than he had expected and it only took me three tries (sigh) to pick up Jackson correctly. David's  been busy working on the kitchen as you can see from the pictures and yes, he did decide to repaint the cabinets back white. The grain was not even or attractive and and the RE agent had suggested he got back to white as it made the kitchen much darker. In the end though they look much better - one of the original reasons he removed the paint was because they'd been painted multiple times over the years and from what we could see, they just went over the dirty paint without cleaning it first. The molding had even lost it's definition from having so much paint on it. He took down the wall between the kitchen and dining room which looks nice and will eventually be tiling and flooring. We're trying to keep it at a minimum and just doing the basics but the RE was quite emphatic that the kitchen needed to be redone and we needed to put down new carpet. We're waiting for the spring to do that as we won't be showing the house until then.