Cabinetry order has been submitted. Up to a week before we'll have an estimate. This is where we'll feel the pain of not doing it ourselves. Though I may have just set us on the course for saving $3000 on shelving in the dining room. Save here, spend there.
Tomorrow I start cleaning the ceiling. Hope my back is up for it. Time to bring on my yoga-awareness, move smart, take breaks, and stay fluid. Scheduled as a one day job -- though I'm expecting gritty, wet, hot working condition. Blegh.
I just got a text message telling me it was time to update my blog. I'm not sure what level to begin thinking about that one.
We've been busy. Really busy. The kitchen is almost done. The recent snap of actual winter weather meant our plumber bagged out on us for an emergency but, we should be on for tomorrow. I've been shooting a time lapse shot since we started to drywall. It's fun to watch it cycle through the phases. As of yet, I'm not exactly sure how to post them but, in order to oblige a request and post I'll take this moment to mark a passing.
After a year and a half of solid service our beloved shop-vac is no more. It's pretty amazing how much we sucked up in that puppy. Here, here, to the faithful shop-vac, you served us well.
Tomorrow: the return of the kitchen...
Fall comes and we find ourselves firmly planted in year two of our renovation. Not a lot of words as of late mainly because house work has become so routine it's sometimes beyond comment.
Work is happening. Maybe not at the rate we had planned, but it is happening. The big plan had us finishing the kitchen by Thanks Giving-- that's not going to happen. One step at a time.
After our late summer flurry of reconstructing the back wall of the house and roofing the kitchen the task at hand was putting it back together. As you can see from the photo we used standard fiberglass insulation. Now you may wonder how this jives with our "green" building approach. Well, it doesn't. Here's the problem (and it's so lame I can't believe it's my alibi) getting green materials in the small increments we need for this house is nearly impossible. We found it out with the Hardi Plank exterior and were right back there when it came time for insulation.
There's gotta be some sort of collective buying power that the Home Depot 2 blocks away has that it could package greener options and still make a profit. In fact I have a whole new integrated marketing plan worked out for Home Depot. If any of you out the know or are the CMO please drop me a line (if I were prone to emoticons I would insert a winky here.)
As you can see from the photos the kitchen is beginning to come back together. The soffit framing has been installed and all of the ceiling insulation (well let's say "most") is up. Electrical is the next thing. The schematic has been designed. It looks like we will run a sub panel off of the main to run the kitchen and bathroom. We did the same thing with the second and third floors. In fact the only thing left on the original electric is the dining room and basement. I expect before it's all done we will rewire that too.
After attempting to use the bathroom sink to do dishes we realized what a wrong headed notion not having a kitchen sink was. We got the old sink out of the backyard and made this nifty 2x4 stand and were back in business. To drain I rigged up a funnel with a piece of tubing (think beer bong) and we were back in business.
Finally, after having sat in the back yard all summer it was time to clean up and reinstall the radiators. We wire brushed the multiple coats of paint off of them revealing the natural metal color. The surface was finished with a clear mat sealant and they were reinstalled (carrying those things up nd down stairs makes you realize exactly how heavy they are). Just in time too the cats are very happy to have them to hug as the evening temps begin to drop.
Bet you were looking for an updated picture of the exterior siding. Though progress HAS been made since last post, I think the as-yet-unexplained absence of work on Friday and Saturday affected our enthusiasm. Will try to remedy first thing in the morning so we have a record of each (agonizing) step. Hopefully we won't have occasion to post more "no progress" reports...
Could be a pre-mature move, but we started restoring basement to a proper work space rather than a surrogate bedroom. Added shelving to laundry room in a bid to make some breathing room in the otherwise packed-to-gills storage room. Biggest motivator: the stench of death. It's amazing what a dead animal will do to make you want to break out the bleach and get all your shit off the floor.
Mini-landing at bottom of steps is further enhancement to basement. Great opportunity to use multiple tools and skills on a low-profile project. And most importantly: injury-free!
Friday, the mason finished hanging cement board on basement interior wall, which is the last piece of work to take place inside the basement itself. Though it may seem like a minor accomplishment, completing this critical task means we will be able to move clothes and bed to basement during the upstairs renovation. Plus it was good to know the mason hadn't completely disappeared on us.
Saturday, we relocated the remaining raw materials for the exterior foundation work nearer to the door, cleaned cement dust off all the horizontal surfaces, rearranged some big items, and picked up the front yard (can we really call that cement pad between house and sidewalk a yard?). It's not that these team projects aren't without their share of friction, but I gotta say we're working together incredibly well. In fact the nudgy things we say and do at other times are all but absent when we're giving the house our all.
Crowning achievement of the day was hanging the prototype bookshelf we made last weekend. And today we raided The Container Store for the plastic bins you can see suspended below the shelves. Giving the power tools test runs like this feels so smart, eg not so much need for exacting measurements, cuts, etc at this point. And despite the rough edges, looks damn good.
We spent a great deal of time in the basement today. I'm hoping we're starting at the bottom to create a base of operations for the renovations to come. Conversely, I could just be creating my lair of tools, toys, and training equipment from which I may never emerge.
Basically everything was set-up (read: not set-up) badly. The tools were in the small room and there were crates of books and various other hoo ha all over the main part of the floor.
We packed all of the things we thought we would not need until much later into the small room and got all of the tools and house keeping stuff a little better organized.
This is all in preparation of us dealing with the enclosure around the water main and how we will reconstruct that to match the work the mason has been doing.
wheat and chaff
On the plan we're doing ok at best. Last week I mentioned that it sometimes takes longer to set-up and strike a job than it takes to do it. This week I am finding the plus side of that equation is that there are limitless jobs to choose from. Nothing really has priority over another at this point; if you're tired of painting trim, miter and nail up some cedar for a while. Not working for you? How bout a bit of electrical fixture installation?
We've got a couple of big jobs queued up for each of the next three weekends (kitchen cabinets and trim, stairs installation, and sliding bathroom barn door respectively), if successful by December 1 you will see a blue sheet of perfection (at least I'm allowed to dream).
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