When you live in a construction project for eight years, it’s easy to think nothing’s happening. But that’s not true; our house has lots of changes all the time.

A glimpse of the upstairs foyer with new paint and refinished railing.

And it’s a very nice house, even though some people think we’re nuts. Other people ask what’s happening with it and seem truly interested (morbidly curious?), so I thought maybe it was time to do a photo update and brag on my super-talented husband a bit.

Inside the shower stall in the upstairs guest bathroom. John did the tile work.

Once upon a time I was a pretty big help to John on the construction end — one of the many things we bonded over, initially, was our love of remodeling, painting, etc., and I could even float sheetrock — but January 2006 came, destroyed my rotator cuffs and changed our lives a bit.

My puny shoulders had been hanging by a thread for years from overexertion in the weight room, but an unconscious student whom I caught and lowered to the floor finished them off. Go figure.

One surgery in March and one in December left me highly functional as far as range of motion goes, but extremely handicapped when it comes to repetitive motion. So now if I paint, I have to rest for days. If I clean blinds, I’m out of commission for weeks.  Again, go figure.

Sometimes ironing hurts. And I actually like to iron.

All that’s to reinforce that John’s gotten rather a bum deal as far as having a partner in construction, as least since our beloved and missed Tom Goodwin broke on through to the other side.

I pick colors, I paint, I advise, I kiss the (one-man) crew, but my guy is stuck with the heavy-duty duties.

He really is an artist. But don’t take my word for it – see for yourself.

The hubster also made the oak top and cherry slats (notice the gorgeous curves) on the tub surround.

So, I painted the cranberry — whoopdedoo. John made the sink cabinet. The charcoal gray is primer, but it’s actually quite pretty, too.

New French door to Laura’s office — the old ones were just too far gone to salvage, but the new ones look great.