No, we haven't moved back in yet

It seems we keep finding more projects that we have to do before we can move back in. We still haven't put tile down on the hearth in the bedroom (...because we haven't even gotten the tile yet). We've also decided to paint at least one set of stairs before we bring the cats back; it sounds like it'd be pretty challenging to paint stairs with two cats around who are used to having free reign. The risers and railing need touching up, and we're going to paint the stairs black, so it's nothing too involved, but I'm sure it'll take much longer than we think. Speaking of stairs, here's a look at the stairs going up to the third floor, before I finally took the shop vac to them:

Now just imagine this saw dust and dry wall dust all over your living space, and maybe you can understand why we moved in with Michael's parents temporarily.

We have made some more progress elsewhere in the house. With the help of one of our neighbors, the living room and hallway downstairs are primed. It never ceases to amaze me what a difference a fresh coat of paint, even primer, can make. This space is so much brighter and feels even bigger. I've decided on Restoration Hardware's Cappuccino for the walls in the living room and hallway; this color will continue up the stairs and into the second-floor hallway. I absolutely love this color, and I'm so excited that I finally get to use it.

One other thing, and this is purely to entertain the crazy cat lady in me:

This is the wall below one of the windows in the bedroom, before it was painted; I just had to get a picture of the dirty paw prints on the wall. It's actually pretty gross, when you think about it, but I still find the little paw prints cute. Back in the good old days when it was just Kirin and me, I had a screened-in porch that Kirin got more use out of than I did. I didn't keep the porch as clean as I should have, which lead to Kirin leaving gray paw prints all over the white bathroom floor. I still found them adorable. (I swear I'm not one of THOSE cat owners.)