A Second Story
Monday, May 24, 2004
Color My World
We powered through painting this weekend. We are all sore. Here are most of the results of our hard work. I'll post the picture of the beautiful bathroom when I remember to take the camera upstairs.
Friday, May 14, 2004
Our House....
Kicks Arse!! The upstairs is sheetrocked, and they will come mud and tape next week. The stairs are done, and the hole in front of the front door is complete. It is so open and airy!
Here is the hole... it is kinda hard to get a shot of it.
Here are the stairs. There is a lot more room under them than I thought! So many possibilities!!
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Rack 'Em Up
Derek brought home our latest addition - yep, you are seeing it right folks - a pool table. It was FREE. It is a little worse for wear, needs new felt and some TLC, but it was FREE. Ever heard of Freecycle? It is an internet user group that allows people to say "hey, I have a rice cooker I never use" or "please take my old pool table" and if you respond fast enough, it is yours. And it is free, and it is cool, and it saves a lot of junk from the landfill. You can also post "wanted" ads too, which are often farfetched in my opinion ("wanted: laptop" or "wanted: 4 brand new bikes")... but I did give a baby gate to someone who wanted one because her old cat couldn't navigate too well anymore and would fall down the stairs.
ANYWAY, brush up on your game play, because this baby is going upstairs!!
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Speeding Past Progress
Today was a banner day at the ole Second Story. We had our two faithful crew members, the electrician, the roofer, and two sheetrockers. FOUR vehicles here at once! The roofer finished off replacing the old roof (and it looks bitchin'). The sheetrockers finished sheetrocking the upstairs, so everything looks like a room now.
Tomorrow the sheetrockers return to clean up, then people come to mud and tape, then someone comes to texturize it. So in a couple weekends, we are going to paint! We have a crazy palate of colors, so it should be fun.
Today they installed the final french doors. We had to go to Home Depot to buy door knobs, because apparently when you buy doors, they don't come with them. Go figure. When we got back from Home Depot, they had erected a tent in the dining room and cut the hole for the stairs. The stairs should be finished tomorrow. !!! Then back to siding, then the deck, then the finishers come...
Monday, May 10, 2004
Progress is Progress
The workers weren't here friday or monday - they had to do some finish work on another job apparently. Hopefully they will be here tomorrow. The roofer who is going to replace the small remaining part of the roof that wasn't covered by the 2nd story arrived friday with a trailer for the old shingles. He takes them somewhere to get recycled into tracks (as in field) and stuff. That is cool. Like most sub-contractors from around here, he managed to tell us his odd life story in the first 10 minutes (divorce, getting kicked out of his house after 25+ years, etc etc). Isn't anyone normal anymore? He showed up today and implied it would be finished due to the rain, but when we got back this afternoon he was gone and the roof was covered with a tarp. Thanks to the weather, it is now half covered with a tarp, so hopefully it won't leak. Our sheetrock was delivered and stacked upstairs, and ***drum roll please*** THE FRENCH DOORS WERE DELIVERED! Huzzah.
The construction has caused us a bit of a problem with our farm animals... we let the chickens wander when the construction crew isn't working. However, the crew has left lots of gaps around the property where fencing used to be, and now we find the chickens all over the place. In trying to keep them from crossing the road, we are constantly luring them back with promises of bread. Luckily our stupid hens have decided to follow the rooster everywhere, so we just need to lure him.
Monday, May 03, 2004
Snail's pace
Week 2.5 and they are still siding. They are maybe a little over halfway done. Grrr. Had a pow wow with the contractor - the project is now estimated to be complete June 1, not May 15. Lots of sob stories. Ah, well. They put wood under the eaves, and it looks really nice. We've passed all inspections so far, and everything seems to be falling into place. It seems like we are so close, yet so far. They should be insulating this week, so we can start sheetrocking on friday.
