It's official!

Look what arrived in the mail today.

Jeff's master's diploma, three years and many life changes and grueling hours of study in the making.

And guess how he is celebrating.

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Yes, my friends, we are in the middle of a bathroom remodel.

Let's paint the walls, she said, in an intemperate fit of home improvement madness.

The linoleum is kind of old, so is the baseboard, she said, after reflecting upon the scene in front of her eyes.

And if we do that, we should probably replace the shower, because we've been talking about it for years. And we can finally get rid of the shower doors!

And so a $50 paint job became something much, much bigger.

It's just as well that the sink is in our bedroom.

We are not big DIY people, in case you didn't know this about us, so a friend will be doing most of the installation. After getting his quote on the job, I decided we should save some money and do the rip-out work ourselves, so Jeff got all manly with a borrowed Sawzall and ripped out the shower, the debris of which you see above. I was quite proud of him, for not breaking anything that shouldn't be broken, and for not being grumpy while he was doing it. The old shower was held to the studs with many nails, so it was a painstaking task.

We have both been working on scraping the vinyl and glue from the subflooring, which is back-breaking work and I will not be sorry when it is over. 

Meanwhile, we are in the middle of the best blizzardy snow that we in the valley have seen in a few years, so the project is on hold for a few days.

Thank goodness.

And, finally, back to where we started.
The new graduate.

Summa cum laude.
Feel free to send felicitations his way.