Rain, rain go away...

Maryland has more than made up for our dry September. It rained again all day Fri. and Sat. and again Sunday night, Monday, and Tuesday. It has also cooled off in a major way now. All the rain has some pluses and minuses-
1. We got the porch trim totally finished Sunday but we didn't get the last piece of lattice done. That's not a big deal, though, we can do it at any time.
2. The painter hasn't been able to come by since last Wed. or Thurs., I can't remember which. It's supposed to frost tonight, so we're rapidly approaching "too cold to paint" land. I hope we can beat Mother Nature to the finish.
3. We ARE ready to reinstall the storm windows, and boy oh boy, I couldn't be happier. Last night the inside of the house was at 61 degrees, and it was cold! Even the dogs seemed cold, but we all enjoyed snuggling up together to try to get warm. We're holding out on turning on the heat (Washington gas said that we should see a 20-32% increase in prices this winter, and I had them adjust our budget payment for the 32% increase) b/c the old windows are still pretty leaky and we'll just be paying to heat the outside. So, this weekend we'll be washing and repairing lots of storm windows.
4. We FINALLY picked up our new basement windowsill from the mill shop. Tom (the painter) is supposed to prime it for us this week, and we'll install it on Saturday (too rainy last weekend to deal with it).
5. The basement isn't leaking, but one of the new gutters is either leaking or has already stopped up. We haven't had many leaves fall yet (just pinecones), but we don't know what the culprit is.
6. The fun frivolous fridge will be delivered on Monday. In preparation, we have to move two cabinets over to make the fridge opening bigger. I JUST KNOW that this will lead to some other project. Hopefully nothing will go majorly wrong and we can rig up something that will work.
7. We're hard at work on planning the basement and hope to have lots to show you over the next few weeks! I'd love to have significant progress down there before Thanksgiving.
I've got another test on the 2nd, so posts will be sporadic between now and then.