Despite the threat of rain, Jim and I went to my storage space and picked up the bedsteads that have been in storage for so long. This is actually a trundle bed. The pull-out bed pops up to be a normal bed height and the two can be made up together as a king-sized bed if need be.

I brought them up and dusted them off and set them up with our very nice, brand-new McCrosky Airflex mattresses that have been sitting since August—first in our living room and then in the cottage bedroom. Finally they have a home!

All the linens got put away on Wednesday, but I forgot to take a picture of them, so here they are. As you can see, 4 sets of towels pretty much fills up the closet. Of course, once we are using them, they will never all be put away, one set will always be out, even if it is clean.

Unfortunately, Kai was so busy before the holidays, that he did not get a chance to finish putting up the towel rods. When he gets back, we will have to get that done.

Also on Wednesday, I bought this little 4 place-setting dish set at Cost Plus. It comes with a stand which also has hooks for the mugs, but you have to take the mugs off to get at the rest of the set, so I took that part of the stand off and hung the mugs on our rail.

The tea kettle came from MOMA along with a flurry of Christmas gifts for others. I am kind of picky about tea kettles: they have to whistle, but the whistle shouldn’t be too annoying, they should not burn your hand with steam when you pour out boiling water, they should look attractive, since they are always in sight. It’s hard to pick one out from a photo in a catalogue, so the jury’s still out on this one until we use it. I will report on the verdict later.

When I got to the property, Wayne Oliver, the painting contractor was there. His crew had finished mending and sealing the beams in the main house. Here is the one with the big gouge out of it. I think it came out looking great—like you are looking at a cross-section of a knot.

The other beam with the big dings did not come out quite so well, but Wayne says that we can fix them up some more after the drywall is in.

Big score! I went to Costco to get a small vacuum cleaner for the cottage. (There is still a bunch of sawdust in the kitchen drawers that is very difficult to remove.)

When I got there, they had a big display of furniture and I found these leather chairs for $120 each! They are very comfortable and I think they will look great with the 2 couches we will be picking up from West Elm on Sunday.

I will probably go back Sunday and if they still have them, buy two more. We can use two at a table and two as occasional chairs, then if we have guests, we can pull them to the table without cluttering up the small space with dining chairs.

The electrician came by to swap out the ugly exterior lights for the ones we had specified. They are “down lights” which means they only shine down. This was required by the County. They are want to minimize light at the site because it is in a scenic area.

This is more common than you would think. In my light fixture research, I have come across whole categories of exterior light fixtures which don’t broadcast much light and are “night sky rated.” Evidently, there is a big push in some areas to keep exterior lighting at a minimum so there is not a lot of light pollution to interfere with the enjoyment of the night sky.

Here is the light over the garage door (unlit). Unfortunately, the batts don’t run symmetrically along the top of the garage, so when the light was centered over the door, it couldn’t also be centered between the batts—extremely annoying.

This is a consequence of the fact that we moved the barn door after the slab was poured, so the batten pattern was no longer coordinated with the door. Luckily, the light is so unobtrusive that it isn’t that jarring. Also, once the door FINALLY gets painted, it will all just blend in—I hope.

No sunset tonight, I left too early. It was so gloomy and gray, there probably wouldn’t have been a sunset if I had stayed for it.

It was mighty cold all day. Jim said he saw a temperature sign on Thursday which said 37 degrees at about 9:30 am. Today, it seemed like it was in the low 40’s all day to me.

I bought a very cool thermometer which sticks onto a window. I need to get batteries for it, and then I will stick it onto the cottage kitchen window so we can tell what the temperature really is. At any rate, the cottage was cozy and warm with its wonderful, quiet furnace.