Gratz Industries HQ: In which we get a handle (or three) on our new home

As of Halloween 2007, we are now the proud owners of one half-finished, unusable home. The last half of the money has been paid to the builders, and we're now officially dirt poor again. It looks like there will be no Christmas for one little girl this year--but that's all right, we'll just tell her she's been bad and that Santa doesn't love her anymore.

So the first thing we did as new homeowners was to put door handles and deadbolts on the doors. Have you shopped for door handles lately? These things can be expensive. We bought three door handles (two for the exterior, bottom-floor doors and one for the door to our third floor porch) and three deadbolts. Total cost: $230! That cost per square foot keeps inching up and up, but we'll end up saving on things like labor and expensive cabinetry in the long run.

We're making a list of all the things left to do on the house (because we like lists), and next up is the exterior siding, which we'd really like to get up by winter to help protect the house. Oh, and there's the big pile of crap in the front yard we want to go through to salvage anything useful . . .