Two weeks of nearly straight-out renovation and many thousands of dollars later, we are at a good point to break away. And it is absolutely needed. The relentless joys of renovation are wearing us out.

We could certainly stay here long if we cared to. There have been snags which we could correct, given time. The big one was a shortage of grout. Being a good general contractor, I have been inventorying supplies each night and estimating what we might need the next day. But we did run unexpectedly short of grout, and by the time we saw the problem, it was Sunday of the holiday weekend and there was no hope of getting more. Nobody except the tile store seemed to carry the color we are using, and they were closed.

Oh well. The floor is 95% done. All the slates are laid, and most of the floor is grouted. The rest will have to get done later. We are leaving on schedule, Monday morning. We have reservations at the Grand Canyon which I am NOT going to cancel.

So the "lock-and-leave" house is ready for its first test. The neighbors are alerted, everyone has our contact info, there will be a house watcher coming by, and we've verified all the plumbing and electric. The air conditioning is off, the water heater is on "vacation" setting, smoke detectors are working, and a dozen other details have been taken care of. The house can await our return in a few months. No hurry. We'll be back when the time is right.