Warning: All photos in this post were taken with my little cell phone. There will be blurriness. And poor lighting.
But!
There is the replacement of the drive belt in our dryer, so it will all be worth it! (Well, to me and mine, at least.)
Anyway – this was not really difficult at all. I did it solo, so you probably can, too. If you haven’t already.
Shall we?
“What the heck are you doing to my playground?”
Yesterday I needed to MOVE stuff.
I go through periods of LOVING the kitchen, loving food, loving experimenting with cooking and baking, and writing about it and photographing it…
And then I hate it.
Okay, not hate. That’s too strong a word. But I get burnt out a bit and need to do something ELSE.
My name is Scratchy, and I will be no help at all in this story.
At some point within the past year, our dishwasher started leaking.
Neither Bill nor I have plumbing or electrical skillz, really, besides knowing how to shut off breaker switches and press "play" on the stereo or "start" on the stove.
Okay, we're not that useless, but still, we're not pros.
And the bad thing about that is that pros generally cost money.
Money we'd rather spend on cooler things like pressure canners or skiis.
And I said, months and months ago, that I'd rather just hand wash the dishes than pay someone gobs of money to fix the thing! Besides, maybe I could figure out how to fix it myself!
And time has gone on and on and on and on...and I'm finally sick of washing the dishes - all the dishes - by hand.
Continue reading "Posting Was Delayed Today Because I Finally Decided to Fix My Dishwasher" »
I know, it's not all THAT exciting.
Unless you're us.
Unless you live in this house.
The handle of our old kitchen sink faucet broke some time ago - back at the beginning of the summer, maybe, or late spring, right when we were gearing up for our big PAINT THE HOUSE extravaganza. So we figured we'd live with it and take care of it later. After the painting was done. Of course, that was also when we thought it would only take a couple of weeks to do all the scraping, sanding, priming and painting. Oh, and the replacing of bad shingles. Oh and the tearing down of clapboards on the whole front of our house and the putting up of tar paper and new shingles. Yeah. In two weeks. Heh heh.
So anyway, we lived with the broken handle (if you lifted up too enthusiastically when turning the water on, the handle would come right off) all summer, and miraculously no glassware or dishes were broken.
But finally the time had come (and we finally HAD time) to replace the faucet. So yesterday we went over to Lowe's and picked out a faucet - nothing crazy fancy, because it would look really out of place in our little kitchen - but something better - not as cheap as the one that came with the house, and something with a higher spout. Something like the one Bill's brother and sister-in-law have out in Seattle - we really liked their faucet. And their whole recently re-done kitchen. But one thing at a time. We've started with the faucet.
So we compared this one to that one, and talked to the plumbing guy at Lowe's, who was very helpful, and finally settled on the Delta Ashton Stainless Single Handle Faucet with Pull Down Spray. (And soap dispenser!) We were torn between that and a similar faucet by Kohler, but decided on the Delta because it had EVERYTHING we would need in one box.
The faucet we liked by Kohler didn't come with a soap dispenser, and we needed something to go in that other hole on the corner of the sink. Sure, we could cap it, but we liked the idea of a soap dispenser. We were going to buy a separate one that came pretty close to matching the Kohler faucet, and we'd also (if we went with Kohler) need to buy some little hoses to connect from here to there. We almost went with it, too, because the plumber guy at Lowe's had good things to say about it...but he also said good things about Delta and their new "DIAMOND Seal Technology" which is supposed to be even better than what the industry standards are.
So we decided to have one last look at the Delta, just to be sure. Back we went (oh, this was SUCH a fun outing for the children) and took another look at the Delta. And, as I've already said, that's the one we went with. Because, as I also already said, it had everything we wanted/needed. The hoses. The soap dispenser. Nothing extra to buy. Yay! We like that.
So we bought it and came home and Bill installed it (with my able assistance), and within an hour or so, we had a new faucet!
And a soap dispenser! YAY!
Of course, it looked really nice and made the surrounding are look horrible, so I had to clean the windows and windowsills and window frames, just so everything else in the kitchen would live up the high standards now set by our faucet.
I know. Pretty silly. But hey, it was like Christmas for us.
And then, of course, we had to waste 200 gallons of water just trying it out.
And Julia got in on the act, too. She likes to wash dishes (because so far it's not on her list of chores), so she got her little stool and washed all the plastic cups and dishes.
And that was the big excitement yesterday.
Of course, it was not the only thing that went on over the weekend, but that's all I have time for this morning. I'll be back later with updates on the fun I had on Saturday.
OH - and the winner of that Cookie Cutter Giveaway!!
Well, besides working on the house, of course.
First, there's this:
What is that?
That's (under the branches - that pale thing) a small tree stump. The tree stump from our cherry tree.
** (I found this post among my drafts. It's from last summer. Thank goodness all this is DONE!)
"Bedrooms Project Updates: Julia's Room and the Hardwood Floor"
I've lost track of what I've posted and what I haven't, with these rooms. So if I've already done these, sorry. Senility isn't pretty in someone so young...
Or ends, depending on your point of view.
My point of view is from a dark and achy tired place.
Oh, the ups and downs of the past couple of days...I'll get to them. Or some of them.
But today? Today is three things.
1. Brew day. Nothing all that new or different - we have them periodically.
2. Sand and Polyurethane the Floors Upstairs Day. The day we've been eyeing on the calendar with increasing tension and franticness and, okay, yes, occasional bad moods.
3. ........I don't remember what the third thing is. Maybe it's Begin Our Nomadic Existence Day. Except we're not nomads - we've got a place to crash - THANK YOU EM AND JOE!
But to back up a bit...
You may or may not remember what I did with Alex's bedroom, so here's a picture -
That was done using three different colors of paint, a sponge roller, little sea sponges, and of course gobs of my own special brand of artistry. (I'm tired and silly today - bear with me.)
So the question on everyone's mind, I'm sure, has been "What will she do on Julia's walls?"
So here's what I did:
And no, that tv cable taped to the window isn't part of the decor - that's to keep it off the floor while the sanding and stuff is done.
Anyway, that's Julia's room. It's not completely done - I'm still planning to have a few butterflies fluttering across the ceiling, but that can be done later. A.P. (After Polyurethane.)
I found the stencil in a book I've had for years called "Border Designs: Cut & Use Stencils." It's put out by Dover press, and I have a ton of books of theirs that I bought for quilting ideas and who knows what else.
Anyway, I'd been originally thinking of putting flowers all over her walls, but I couldn't find a stencil I liked of a rose (her middle name) and then I saw this butterfly as part of a border grouping, and that's the one I settled on. I made copies of it in various sizes and settled on these two - the small is the original size - about 4 inches long - and the big one is the original enlarged 150%.
You can see the stencils, cut out of the heavy duty paper in the book, hanging from the window. They're drying. I will need to use them again, on the ceiling and probably on a bookcase that I'll repaint in the colors of her room and then stencil some butterflies on it.
Anyway, that's Julia's room.
She loves it, by the way.
~~~
So that's one thing.
Another thing - one of the good things these past few days - is Julia is now riding her bike without benefit of training wheels OR Bill running along beside her, hanging on to her shirt collar. Yay!
~~~
Another thing...Bill and I moved nearly EVERYTHING down from the second floor. It's in our living room and our dining room, and there's very little space left.
Sorry it's out of focus. Anyway, that's our living room.
Funny story about all this. See that window? It's also got two little windows, one on each side. Those little windows open. Yesterday I'd opened them, like I'd opened many other windows around the house. And then we piled everything into the living room...and then it was time to go to bed...and the little windows were still opened.
Now, they're skinny little windows, and they face the street, so odds are no one would come along and decide to break in and steal any of our stuff. But I knew I'd lie awake much of the night if I knew they were still open.
I'm like that.
And so, while Bill was in the bathroom, I somehow (don't ask me to describe it) managed to climb over all sorts of things including the side support things from the kids' beds, and get up onto the arm of the couch and close the near little window...and then I had to get to the far window...and...I could hear one of our neighbors across the street talking to someone outside, and all I could think of was here I go, like some caged lunatic, making my way across the back of the couch, kind of pressed up against the big window, half tilted sideways, just - oh I have no idea what I looked like, but I'm sure it was not pretty at all. I managed to get to the window and close it. And then I turned around and stood there, kind of helpless, trying to figure out how to escape from my predicament without embarrassing myself further.
Bill came out of the bathroom and saw me standing there.
"Do you need help?"
"Um...no..."
I managed to get out of that predicament without injuring myself, which was pretty good, considering.
~~~
And I think I'll end this now. We've got to move mattresses and a few other things out of the bedroom and then I need to vacuum and clean the floors upstairs so they're ready to go when it's time to sand.
I'll fill you in on all the other insanity around here later. Oh...it was not pretty....
That's three layers of color you see on those walls. The base coat was the middle shade, then I sponged over that with the darker shade, and finally, after dinner last night, I sponged over that layer with the lightest shade, which is also the ceiling color.
I'd painted the window frame with the ceiling color, too, and then I sponged over that with the very dark and then again with the ceiling color.
Sorry - this one's kind of blurry. This is in the closet. I painted the kids' hands with the ceiling color and had them put their handprints all over the lower wall. Those big hands you see are mine. Bill didn't want paint on his hands, so he didn't participate in our little art project.
And, because I'm such a free spirit and all, I sponged up on to the ceiling, too, with the dark blue and then the light, all around the whole room. Just a little bit here, maybe a bit more there, and also I sponged a loop around the light fixture, which I forgot to photograph earlier.
There's still painting to do - I haven't done the baseboards or the door frames - because we still need to put them in place. I'll save that part for after all the trim is done.
BUT.
We can put the kids' mattresses in there TONIGHT, and move our mattress back upstairs so we're not camping out in the basement any more.
YAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
I'll be back later with - yes, really - the puff pastry post. It's nearly ready. Woo hoo!
AT LAST!
Yesterday we primed Alex's room. I know the entire internet world has been waiting for this day to arrive. I know I have. And yesterday was it. First there were a couple of ugly patches where bubbles and seams left by the previous (sloppy) painters needed to be sanded down, which exposed this ugly yellow paper from the wallboard, so first I put a coat of primer on those two spots (there's an even bigger spot in Julia's room, but we're not done in there yet anyway.
So after I got those two areas patched, I taped down a biodegradable material dropcloth (which alex thought was going to be a permanent part of his room. He liked it.)
and taped around the parts of the window that won't be painted, and removed the remaining switchplates.
Oh, yeah, and I taped around the light fixture, too.
And I taped the outlines of the spots in Alex's doorway where the hardwoods are missing from the floor, just so no one forgets about the dangerous ankle-twisting potential there.
And then, after a delivered dinner of pizza, Bill and I primed the room. He did the big areas with the roller, and I did trim and corners and smaller areas with a brush.
Julia only careened into the room - and the paint - twice, which was pretty good, I think.
And here's the room now:
This morning I need to put another coat on the sheet rock portions of the room - the dark gray shows through - and after that - time to add color!!
So that's the update this morning.
I'll be running errands after Alex goes to school - bank, Farmers' Market, grocery store, Lowe's,
Salk's (an ACE Hardware store - I need a funnel for my canning adventures) and...I think that'll be it.
I'm halfway done with the puff pastry how-to post - it's a long one. Hopefully that'll be up today, but I can't make any promises, now that Alex's room is coming together. It would be so nice to be able to move the kids' mattresses in there by the end of the weekend and set up OUR bed in what will be our bedroom some day, and not sleep in the basement any more.
We are also now on kind of a deadline. Well, we always were - we wanted to get the rooms done before assorted family members arrive in July. But now the deadline is more, well deadliney. The final nightmare project that needs to be done is to sand and - horrors - polyurethane the floor. The WHOLE hardwood floor upstairs, which includes both bedrooms and the hallway. So we'll have to move EVERYTHING to lower floors before the sanding. And it looks like sanding will be done in two weeks. Yes. Two. That's going to be pretty soon. So we need to finish Julia's room and patch the hardwood spots before then.
And then - when we poly the floors, we have to move out for the duration, so the fumes don't pickle my kids' brains. Or ours, though ours are already kind of battered anyway. And we'll move the pets out as well, at least the ones with brains that seem active. My sister is going to let the cats bunk at her place, and I think our friends across the street might take the lizard.
And then, after that - we can move all our stuff back to where it belongs and get ready for the annual July Festival of Family. Just kidding. There's no festival. But there is family. And now we'll have an extra bedroom! Yay.
Okay, gotta go for now. Almost time to run my errands.
That's MY job.
But anyway, I'm doing some rearranging on this here site.
It's probably because I feel so cramped and crowded in the house right now, and there's nowhere to PUT ANYTHING other than wherever I shoved it when we started working on the bedrooms - I need to get rid of clutter somewhere. And since I can't really do that in my house, then I will do it here.
I've taken all those recipes and food posts that used to line the right column of my blog and created a sort of book format for them. Heh heh. All you have to do is click either on the "Glorious Food - Recipes and Stories" button on the navigation bar just below my banner, OR you can click on the little badge that looks like this:
At the moment it's over toward the top of the right column, but that could change as I continue on my quest to streamline my little bloggy world here.
You just click on that button and it will bring you to the same image, only larger, and you click on that and you'll be brought to the table of contents. From there you just click and go. Within the categories I've got links to the recipes AND a handy-dandy picture for almost all of them as well. You know, because we eat first with the eyes.
I predict there will be a couple of other changes - I'm working toward a less cluttered look...maybe just two columns eventually, instead of three. We'll see.
Anyway, I hope it doesn't send you all screaming for the hills. I know some people don't like change. I don't always, either. But I'm not thinking of this as change as much as I am viewing it as reorganizing.
At least there's no dust to contend with in here.
Last Friday I was probably sanding down dried joint compound and then applying another layer of the stuff to the various seams in the sheetrock when Julia wandered up to join me.
She stepped into the space above and asked what it was and I told her it would eventually be her closet.
Innumerable shopping sprees flashed through her little mind and her eyes opened wide as she exclaimed, "MY VERY OWN CLOSET???? OH, MOMMY, THANK YOU!!!!" All this work to make two bedrooms when she would have been happy just to have a closet. We are fools.
Then I figured her cuteness was a nice contrast to all the ugly mess, so I got my camera and had her hang out in the closet for a little while.
Unfortunately she morphed from future fashion addict to melancholy pauper...
to odd little rabbit/kitten creature in need of a home...
And then she wanted to show me her nails - and all the paint she had on her arms and hands - but she was waving her hands back and forth too quickly and all I got was this:
And then she went back downstairs to set fires and torture small animals. JUST KIDDING!
Anyway, let's see...well, this is still here, bleeding Sharpily through the layers of joint compound. I ended up just sanding it down to the surface. We'll have to get rid of it another way.
Let's move into Alex's room and check out the progress there...
Uh-oh - there's that little creature again...
(I know at this moment you're just wishing you could reach out and feel the lovely smooth sanded surface of all that dried joint compound on the wall, aren't you?)
Oh no - don't get too close - I don't think it's a rabbit or a kitten...it's...it's...IT'S GOING TO ATTACK!
QUICK! RUN TO THE OTHER ROOM!
OH NO! THERE IT IS AGAIN! AND IT LOOKS ANGRY! AND KIND OF POSSESSED!
And...cross-eyed...
Okay. That's plenty of that.
Here's some dust to look at.
It must have come from this area here.
I was using this to do the sanding. It's like a sandpaper sponge. You dampen it with some water and it makes the dust heavier than dry dust and it falls straight to the floor rather than up into my glasses and on my hair and in the air. It's kind of cool to work with.
It does not, however, prevent dust from coating the bottoms of my feet like wet snow clinging to the side of a tree....
Pretty, huh?
This is how things looked Saturday morning, before the big weekend push began...
This is the framing for Julia's closet, as seen through the electrical wires that now run through the wall framing in between the two rooms.
The far "wall" of the closet ends before the actual wall of the house, just because it angles down and we'd have to send search-and-rescue dogs in to find anything tucked that far back in her closet. So instead, she'll have a lovely little nook over there.
I love nooks.
I wish I was her and this was going to be my new room....
And speaking of the wall, there's the framing for it, with wires criss-crossing throughout, and light switches and outlets installed for both rooms.
There's still that hole in Julia's ceiling, but if you look closely, you can see that new insulation has been installed, so it's ready for sheet rock.
That's Bill in the front left part of the picture, and you can see part of Joe in the back right area.
And you can also see lots of lovely debris and dust everywhere.
I like it.
It means STUFF IS HAPPENING!
And speaking of STUFF HAPPENING, here's Bill putting in a strip of sheet rock in the little space where the doorframe to the big bedroom used to be.
Yay! Go, Bill!
Here, to represent time passing, is a shot of my insane children playing in the new pool, which has FREEZING COLD WATER in it because the water hasn't been in there long enough to warm up, but my children don't care. It is a pool, and they are going IN.
Of course, this shot was taken BEFORE Joe came over on Saturday to do anything, but I didn't take any pictures later that day or on Sunday, so this one will have to do.
Back to the rooms...
I just took these pictures this morning - walls are up, and Bill started applying joint compound to all the seams and screws last night...
First up, the view as you walk up the stairs. This is the doorway to Alex's room, and partway in you can see the wall of his closet as well.
WALLS!!
This is a better view of Alex's closet (to the left).
Those pieces of wood are pieces of baseboard and molding that will be reattached to the walls after all the construction is done.
A bit of self congratulations from our master builder...
And below - Alex's response.
It's supposed to read "Joe smells" but with the "J" backwards it looks like "Toe smels" - which is probably true. Alex wrote with a Sharpie, so as you can see, it's going to take a few layers of joint compound and primer to make it go away.
Anyway, this is the new wall - or wall and a bit - in Alex's room...
And there's his little "Finding Nemo" switch plate.
See? Doesn't it look like a real room now??
This is a view into Julia's room...there's another little nook at the back there, just beyond the new wall.
I love the nooks.
Her light switch glows a bit in the dark.
Here's a better view of the nook.
For those of you who are also fond of nooks in rooms.
And here's a kind of blurry shot of the opposite corner of Julia's room, where some of the furniture has been shoved. We don't know where else to put it at the moment, so here it is.
And finally... sharp nails sticking out of the door frame that was originally the door frame to our bedroom and will eventually be the door frame to either Julia's or Alex's room. I cut the back of my hand on one of these nails.
Sorry, no blood to see.
And that's the update.
Today I'll be sanding down the dried and hardened joint compound and getting it ready for the next layer. I actually kind of like applying the joint compound - it's a bit like frosting a cake.
Yippee! I do believe the wiring is now complete.
Each bedroom has a light switch connected to an overhead light.
Each bedroom will have, along this wall-to-be, two sets of outlets.
These, in addition to the pre-existing outlets on the outer walls of the room(s).
Phew!
And that means that the holes in the ceiling in Julia's room and the little hole in the wall in our dining room right above the breaker box can be patched and covered and no longer the little eyesores they have been.
Yay!
Next up - framing Julia's closet. I think.
But before that - some much-needed vacuuming and a fun trip to the landfill.
Woo hoo!!!
Let's see...well, the most recent events have included getting the electrical wiring sorted out for the bedrooms-t0-be. What should have been a relatively straightforward process was NOT because whoever rigged all original wiring for this house either LIKED to make things more complicated than they needed to be or just wanted to mess with future owners. Also, the insulation in the house is a nightmare to deal with. It's not the kind you buy buy the roll - nice and neat to work with. No - it's like cheap fiber filling in an old cheap stuffed animal. It was clearly just sprayed into all the house cavities and sealed up behind sheet rock and plaster. When Bill cut a hole in the ceiling of Julia's room, a ton of the stuff just poured out onto the floor.
That's the hole, and you can see some of the insulation over on the left, or clinging to the rough edges of the wood. Awful stuff. He got it all cleaned up that night, and the next morning there was a fresh pile of it on the floor.
You can see some of the stuff on the floor in this shot - and see those bags? Mostly insulation.
I cleaned up that mess and taped large trash bags over the hole in the ceiling to catch any more insulation escapees.
On a less itchy and annoying note, in this shot to the left you can see the new framing for what will be Alex's closet.
It's actually the left end of what used to be the double-sized closet Bill and I had.
So the left side here will be Alex's closet, and to the right is the entryway to Alex's room.
Now that all the wiring is ready to go, I think the next step is to patch up the ceiling in Julia's room and build her closet.
And once all the framing for that is done, it'll be time to put up sheet rock and make some walls.
And then certain sections will need plaster in order to match up with the original plaster...and then...painting? Finally?
And after painting - move in?
NO! What were you thinking? No, after painting, we move EVERYTHING on the second floor - yes E V E R Y T H I N G - off of the hardwoods so we can redo the floors. It's the perfect time to do it - we're already living in chaos, so why not? Bill's got a friend/coworker who has the sanding machine you use to do this sort of job, and so we'll borrow that and do the sanding, and then polyurethane the floors and go live somewhere else for a few days while it dries and hopefully none of the animals will perish from the fumes.
Then we'll put everything back where it belongs, and on another weekend we'll move everything - again, yes E V E R Y T H I N G, from the main floor (that's dining room, living room, hall and music/computer room - to somewhere else in the house and do the rest of the floors. And the we can put the house back in order and I THINK that will be it for the time being.
Anyway, that's the update, for those of you who are interested!
I didn't take a ton of pictures yesterday - I was busy creating a temporary bedroom in the basement, but at one point Bill hollered from the top floor "JAYNE! IF YOU WANT A GOOD PICTURE, COME ON UP!" or words to that effect. So I scurried up a couple flights of stairs, stopping only to get my camera, so urgent was the sound of Bill's voice.
And here's what I saw:
More debris! But wait! That's not all!
The doorframe - it's gone!
Because, as I'd mentioned yesterday, we need to move the door to what will be Julia's room back about 6-8 inches in order to give Alex a standard sized door.
And so that's what they did.
Doesn't look like much in this picture...maybe the next shot will give a better perspective.
See where that two-by-four running along the ceiling ends, near the top right corner of the photo? That's where it met up with the framing for the old doorway.
And now it's gone.
But just temporarily.
In fact, maybe now would be a good time to run upstairs and take a few pictures of the changes they made after these pictures were done.
I'll be back in a minute...
Here's a cute picture of Julia to look at while I'm gone...
Okay, I'm back.
Here's the view as I go up the stairs...
See the new framing? That's going to be one edge of Alex's door, and the little space will be covered with sheet rock. And the original wall will be patched up, too.
Here's a better look...
There - you can see the whole frame for Alex's doorway.
Moving on...
And that's the new frame for Julia's doorway, with the framing for the wall running down the right.
This (above) is a view from inside the room, to the right of the new doorframe in Julia's room. You can see (maybe) that it deepens the area where her closet will be, so it will be wide enough for coat hangers.
And here's some debris, because one can never have enough debris pictures.
Lovely, isn't it?
Today will be "Clean Up That Debris" day, with Julia doing her share by dusting every surface she can reach. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?
Wish you were here!
First - a little note - I'm not going to be participating in Tuesdays with Dorie this week. The house is currently like the inside of a snowglobe, only with sheetrock dust in place of snow, and honestly? I'm not in the mood. Terrible, I know. And it's chocolate cream pie, too, which sounds lovely, but I'm still going to pass.
There, done with my silly explanations.
The project is going to take longer than I'd thought. Mainly because I hadn't really THOUGHT a whole lot about it to begin with. I sort of thought, well, they'll put up a wall, knock down a bit of wall to make Alex's door, put up the sheetrock, and paint. And then vacuum.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA
Yes, I was an innocent.
I kind of picked up on that when I asked Bill yesterday when he thought it would all be done, and his eyes bugged out and his tone became a blend of defensive incredulity. Sorry, didn't mean to ruffle your dusty feathers.
Anyway, as a result, my silly notion that I could just move our stuff into the kids' room FOR THE WEEKEND was a bit...um...stupid.
So later today we'll be moving our boxspring and mattress down to the basement, which will be our interim bedroom until construction is complete.
I think I'm going to need to move a work table and sewing machine and some of my jewelry stuff down there too, as I'm currently without a workshop area now.
Anyway, I took some pictures of what's been done so far. I realize now that it would have been even better if I'd taken shots BEFORE the sheetrock came down, but like I said earlier - stupid.
So just imagine sheetrock and wall where the jagged edges are.
That used to be wall, and the area behind it was our closet. It's going to become the doorway to Alex's room and far portion of the closet will be restored to closetness. See the little dinosaur on the wall? He's wondering where his mother went. We had a large stick-on T-rex on there, too, but she's been relocated.
A better view peeking through the busted down wall area. To the left, you can also see the door frame for the bedroom. That's going to come down and move back about 8 inches or so in order to A) allow enough space for a standard-sized door to Alex's room and B) so we can build a closet in the half that will be Julia's room. It'll be to the left of her doorway.
Scratchy is the site manager - he's just inspecting the work. He likes to stay on top of the workers.
"Yep, everything looks okay so far."
You can see the beginning of the framing for the wall - we couldn't complete it because we needed to get our bed out of that far half of the bedroom and we needed space to maneuver.
Over there, in the image on the left, you can see the closet doors that were taken down, and the scraps that were removed from the closet area.
The other shot is from inside Alex's side of the room. The eventual doorway for Alex's room is right there where Scratchy is walking, and the original doorway, which will be moved in, is to the right. You can also see the very front and very back of Mama T-Rex from her temporary spot on that other hall wall.
Over there to the right of the door, where the ceiling slants - that's where Julia's closet is going to be. There's still some furniture in there - we have nowhere else to put it.
Debris. And clothes hangers.
And that's a peek into the kids' current room.
Those are the mattress and boxspring and bedframe for our bed...we're going to have to move it later today so Alex can get to his own bed.
Fortunately he slept over a friend's house last night and it didn't matter.
But it will tonight.
Anyway, that's the progress report.
I heard Bill banging around upstairs while I was typing this, so I'm sure more stuff has been demolished.
My role, at the moment, is kind of peripheral - I moved most of the stuff out of our room, and I'll be trying to keep our lives running smoothly during the work week while everything is in chaos.
And once the walls are done and the dust has settled and disappeared into the vacuum cleaner, I'll paint the walls and trim and get the kids' bedrooms sorted out. And make curtains. Maybe quilts, too, if I get really ambitious.
But for now - it's time to mix up some lemonade for the demolition/construction team.
It's almost eleven o'clock, and it's up to 80 already, according to the outdoor thermometer in the shade of my kitchen window. Spring only stayed to visit - Summer is apparently moving right in.
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