Houston... we have a PERMIT!

Almost four months to the day after Hurricane Ike struck our little "slice of paradise," we have the permit from the city to remodel our house. You have no idea what a relief this is for us, as it was quite the battle to get it in the first place. As you'll see from the photos below, we hung it in the front window today (yes, that is blue painters tape... we forgot the regular tape and that was all we could find in the garage... I'll fix it this afternoon). We are so excited about this green piece of paper. It's not much to some people, but for us it's a step in getting our lives back. I literally had to hold back tears when Jay hung it in the window today, because even though it's only been four months, it feels like it's been four years.

We're meeting with the contractor tomorrow, and hopefully the next thing I'll be doing is ordering a dumpster for the back yard!