Sad news, and a new direction

I haven't had a lot of time to update this lately. This is Primarily becuase of my father's health that started landsliding this summer, when he was diagnosed with esophogal cancer. Sadly, he didn't survive the treatment. T__T His heart was too weak for it, despite being able to walk into his appointments, and he faded within a week of starting chemotherapy. Long explanation short, his white and red blood cell counts went down to zero, and his heart stopped. Mid-sentance with a doctor, from what I understand. :( The house is very quiet without him. :( Mother and I have been picking up the pieces, though. We were able to refinance the house, so I'm now a co-owner, and the mortgage payment is something we can afford. We've already made a difference in the utilities; we no longer have a 8' flourecent light, a TV, a gaming computer, and a stereo all going at the same time almost every day, so the electricity bill has dropped almost $100. O_o The water bill has also gone down, but not nearly so dramatically; $25 is $25 though, and we'll take that. We've also started work on some long-needed house repairs, and we're going to be fine. My brother has been a big help in everything, which is greatly appreciated. Within all the busy-ness, Mother and I have switched rooms, so I am now in the upstairs bedroom (ie, the attic), and she's in my old one. The upside of this is I now have more space to be in, and should be able to get most of my belongings out of boxes. The down side is the house is more of a mess than it already was. If the cleaning progress was a staircase, with the top landing being total cleanliness and organization, we were somewhere in the middle of the stairs before Dad died. We are now somewhere around the first step, though still on the staircase. We are also still at least at the stair case, and trying to climb it. (I suppose a hoarder house would be someone who hasn't even looked at the stair case to know it's there, or if noticed, hasn't bothered trying to climb it - yet. I'm not quite certain how the anology would work there. O_o ) So, given that the house is in need or repair and general organization, I've decided to use this space to show how Mother and I are getting the house more organized and repairs done. She's already replaced the dining room chandelier with something that hasn't blown a CFL bulb yet (and I mean that literally, since the chandelier tended to melt the bases of the bulbs; seriously, it was freaky), and replaced the front exterior light that hasn't worked since I was a kid. Unfortunately, I don't have any before and after photos of those two projects, as both were done with the assistance of Aunt Sally (Mom's little sister) while I was at work. Both projects also took longer than they were anticipating, but that's besides the point. My plan is to start working on some of the repairs and organization items that we need to have done, and post before and after photos once the task is complete. This does mean that updates will be random, but that can't be helped (not to mention that I haven't been able to make updates in a timely manner, anyway). I plan to start with the kitchen and work my way out from there, but we're probably going to be skipping around a bit, given that it's getting colder out. Wish us luck! :)