Hello Friends! Happy New Year! Many apologies, I promised to write on New Year’s Day, but man alive, I was tired from our awesome New Years and Christmas and Solstice and book signing and gingerbread house making and kids coming home and friends visiting and house decorating and tree getting and Christmas concerts and party catering and allll the other things that happened in the month leading up to New Year’s Day, so alas, you’ll just have to settle for the first week after New Year’s. 

I’m not going to lie, I’m trying to remember what the heck even happened, house project-wise. Oh, wait, I know! The downstairs hallway got closed in, and I moved out the tools, swept, mopped, and spackled and painted it so that all the parts of the house that we see when coming in and out of our living space are officially no longer construction zones. Hooray! We still have to hang all the mirrors and art, but at least it looks decent now, and Johnny B came in and added an outlet for us, so we can do exciting things like plug in a wax warmer if the hallway smells bad, or run the vacuum or even a space heater when it’s -20!

While spackling, I removed some loose plaster and a piece of wood that filled in the old vent chute, and awesomeness of awesomeness, it happened to be another piece of an E. Bauer sign, just like I found in the subfloor a while back! Maybe it’s not an exact match? Hard to tell, but definitely old, since the Sanborn fire maps list his store as vacant by 1903. I plan to make it look like a cute little door, because, well, it already looks like a cute little door, see? 

Here it is comparing it to the other piece I found in the subfloor: 

So… I guess that’s it? Sorry that’s not a lot, but it’s something! Maybe I’ll have more for you in February. Have a very restful January!