progress without pictures

Not sure if this rates an entry, but we've made progress on a few fronts.

• Sunday (delayed from Friday, Saturday ... he was busy) we contracted to have the living room carpet here replaced. We thought it better to give an allowance for potential purchasers to choose their own, but recommendations from books and realtors pushed us towards pro-actively replacing carpet with something neutral, new, fresh, etc. Booked.
• Monday we started an appliance tour looking for local sources of opinions, advice, appliances, having toured the big box stores previously. We started at, and ended with, Bouchard-Pierce, who supplied appliances and cabinets for our previous kitchen and bath remodels. We ended up with a not too flashy, nor too shabby, grouping of appliances that met our wants, needs, and budget: gas range with convection oven, French door 'fridge with just the options we wanted (and no more), and microwave. Dishwasher still TBD.
• Next we visited the glass shop to book a shower enclosure for the master bath. The folks at Chittenden County Glass (a mom and pop shop, so it appears) were great to work with, and came up with a plan for our non-standard (compared to the nominal design) shower.
• Tuesday, we moved some stuff to the dump freeing up living room space.
• We committed to 3 of 4 kitchen appliances in time to qualify for rebates expiring today. No pressure.
• We visited the siding supplier to get color samples. While siding won't be installed soon, the color choice will influence roof shingle colors, which need to be decided soon as the roof trusses are expected to be installed this week.We may have chosen the siding, but we'll let it age a bit before booking.
• We made a quick pass by the cabinet supplier to add a medicine cabinet to be recessed in a wall in the master bath, important to add before the plumbers get to start filling in the space in the wall behind with vent pipes, etc. 

We are grateful we don't have jobs that would interfere with all this daytime driving around. Let's hear it for age and retirement.

PS. Yesterday on a drive-by we met neighbor, Jackie (from lot #15, we are #17), who was taking her dog (a Jack Russel Terrior?) out for a walk. She was very pleasant and welcomed us to the neighborhood. We chatted for quite a while. Good vibes.