November 22nd....mud

Not much more here. We've been working on budget stuff (yuk....I don't think I'll get my fireplaces or rock) and waiting, waiting, and a little more waiting. Oh...we did finally get the outside corners of the drywall mudded (we, as in the guys we hired to do it). They still have to do more coats of mud and sand. Plus, we I think we decided to go ahead and finish the upstairs so that we can remain under 80% of our loan. Huh? Yeah, apparently we can finish the upstairs for around $18,000, but it will add a LOT to the appraisal of the house because we'll be adding like 800 sq. ft. (which keeps the loan to appraisal value below 80%). So now, we'll have a 3000+ sq. ft. house, but it won't have rock on the front or fireplaces. The good news is that we can add the fireplaces at a later date. The bad news is we can't go back and add the rock to the front of our house without shelling out major cash, which we won't do.
I hate to end with a bad vibe, so I'm going to brag on my husband for a bit. Our 10 year anniversary is coming up December 28th. Yeah! Saturday, he took me to a bunch of jewelry stores and let me pick out exactly what I wanted. Not only did I get to pick it out, but he went ahead and bought it for me and I get to keep my diamond out of my original set so that we can have it made into something else later. Here's a picture!