A [not so] Beautiful Mess

Grandpa Lawrence and Grandma Bertha came to help out yet again today. We had a bit of a catastrophe. But we'll get to that... (You've gotta stick around for the good stuff. ;)
Grandma and I started our day with a doily and lace washing party. 

Then Grandma moved onto washing all my glassware. She noticed that there were still paint remainders from our first week in the house. So, of course, she went to town scrubbing my sink with nail polish remover. :)

My garbage disposal has been out of order for at least a week. 

The culprit: 8 Screws 

As of today, it is back in working order!

After the guys conquered the garbage disposal and Brian and Grandpa fixed some outdoor light fixtures, we went out for a delicious lunch.

Following a quick hardware stop, we returned home and Grandpa went to work beautifying my entryway with this cute little chandelier. I had lovingly tucked it away in the garage back in Vancouver, "for someday when we bought a house." :)

Brian headed into the attic to check out the electrical so that he and Grandpa could determine what would be needed in order to install can lighting sometime soon.

Up he went...

...and before we knew it after a minute or two of creaking heard overhead, 

down he came 

through the ceiling.

Grandma ran from the kitchen, Grandpa and I jumped from the entry and I exclaimed, "AREYOUOK?!!!!" The Mr. let out a quiet, slow, regretful, "Ye---ah" and me, being who I am, [prior to helping my dangling-from-the-attic-hubs down from his accidental perch] sprinted for my camera and began snapping. 

Here goes the craziness, as we were able to document it...

How handy, a chair back for standing on!

Insulation. 

Itchy, smelly, dreadful.

Make-you-sneeze, make-you-cough, make-you-wheeze. 

Insulation. 

Everywhere.

Note: my little chandy, abandoned, forgotten, hanging haphazardly, blocking the front door. (We had bigger fish to fry.)

Once we'd determined that Brian was fine it was absolutely hilarious.

Grandma and I erupted into constant fits of laughter for an hour following "the incident," until she left to head for home! Besides scooping dustpan after dustpan of insulation and hacking up a storm, there wasn't much else to do. 

Sweet, Comforting Grandma

Here we are. There's a 4x6 foot gaping hole in our ceiling. But don't worry, we just covered it with some cardboard. No big deal. :)

My living room was the one room in my house that I felt was complete, hence yesterday's blog post. Ironically, today my husband came crashing through the ceiling into what was formerly my 'completed' living room, bringing with him a huge box full of insulation and enough dust that there's a grey haze in each of the pictures. Now my living room looks like this...

Amy, thank you, thank you, thank you for giving Brian a ShopVac for Christmas! 

It came in reeeal handy today.

My antique end table is officially a goner. Who knew it wouldn't be able to support the weight and force of my husband falling from the attic, through the ceiling, onto it's ancient, cute little legs?!

Far more important than old tables,

HURRAY! My husband is okay!!!

...but my ceiling, it's gonna take some work...

Oh! I almost forgot! 
My Grandpa did manage to finish installing the chandy.
All night, when tempted to look over at this...

...instead I chose to gaze at this...

I talked to my dad on the phone today. He told me a story about the recovery of his recently injured hand and referred to having taken two steps forward and one step back. You know, Dad, after today, we know just what you were talking about.

Now I am going to close my tired eyes and end this very odd day.

Here's to taking two steps forward and no steps back tomorrow.

Also, thank God for laughter. 

Without it, today would have totally sucked.