It’s been three months since my last post and we’re now officially into autumn, so it seems like a good time to give an update as to what’s been happening with the house: NOTHING!! We painted in the heat of summer and it appeared as though we were making some serious progress. With such great progress, we felt justified in taking our time to procure local cedar to trim out the windows and doors. Well worth the wait! It looks beautiful, natural, and really makes the color pop. After that, we took a month off before spending a few days caulking and staining the trim. The depressing aspect of that work is there’s nothing visual about the progress. It had to be done; we did it; and then it looked no different. Naturally, we decided to take another month off.

What we have been doing the past three months is having a gas! I’m currently reading a book set in the 1920s and this is what all the kids say when they’re having a good time. Wondering how this spectacular saying came to be, I did a little googling and found that before James Joyce first penned it in his 1914 novel Dubliners and before being picked up in the US during the Jazz Age, the saying appears to have originated with nitrous oxide (laughing gas). Apparently in the 19^th Century, scientist Humphrey Davy noticed the use of nitrous oxide led to intense laughter followed by a state of euphoria. Seeing no harm in the use of said gas, he provided it to the British upper class as a recreational drug at gatherings that quickly became known as “laughing parties.” From there, it didn’t take long for the saying “it’s a gas” to become code for having a GRAND time! Unfortunately some other scientists realized prolonged use of nitrous oxide led to memory lost, etc. etc.

Science: it giveth and it taketh away!

So, it’s been a gas of a summer and we haven’t made much forward motion on the house. But it’s all good – who can complain when there are so many incredible gases to be had!? Rather than have you doubled over in laughter by documenting all our gassy times with my hilarious writing skills, I’m thinking pictures can share the gassiness of our summer fun just as nicely. Enjoy!