ON THE SEVENTH DAY

... and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

                                             -- Genesis 2:2, King James Bible

Seven days -- what a record in efficiency.  My productivity pales by comparison.  Of course, I am nowhere near Almighty nor Omnipotent.  (Handel's Messiah is playing in my head with all those resounding adjectives and synonyms for God.  Ah, it must be Lent.  Scroll down to the end if you celebrate Easter.)

There are still boxes to sift through and rooms to put in order.  But I am resting, just for the moment, and taking in the view.  This project has taken a whole year.  Technically, more work still needs to be done, a bit inside and outside, but at least we can now live in our (mostly) renovated home.

Late afternoon vista from our Living Room
The views extend all the way to
San Francisco and Berkeley on a clear day.
At night, we see the twinkling lights of Silicon Valley.

For several weeks, I could only savor the exterior landscape.  Boxes dominated the interior landscape -- their own cardboard city, raining dust along with styrofoam and packing tissues.  We finally managed to tackle the initial towers over the weekend, dismantling the columns like Lego sets after play.  Best of all, we cleared up enough space to hang favorite paintings we hadn't seen properly in years.  In the nick of time too.  We expect guests to stay, one right after the other, from this weekend on.

Frequent visitors, dining on our front garden,
seen from our kitchen nook

It has been an all-consuming but rewarding undertaking.  Thank you for your patience over the past months!

Have you renovated or done construction before? 

  

This foyer area was
laden with boxes until this evening!
We designed wall niches
to display our special pieces
throughout the house

*****

For those of you who celebrate the Lenten Season and Easter, here's a favorite, humorous rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus, from Handel's "Messiah".