Summer Break (Somewhat Literally) Is Over!

So, we decided to take the summer off from working on the house, mostly because, without air conditioning, it was simply to hot inside to function.  Instead, we focused on maintaining the yard and hanging out on the sailboat.  I'd say we were sailing, but the wind did not cooperate this year.  Oh, well.

In other news, when we ready to start working on the house again, the hubs broke his back.  The ladder on which he was standing (13' above the ground) broke, and he fell.  By the grace of God, his breaks (L1, L2, L3, and L4) did not require surgery and did not cause him permanent injury.  He was in quite a bit of pain for several weeks, and was out of work for several days (yes, only days - can you believe it?), but he is otherwise unscathed.  These are photos he took of, as he calls it, "the scene of the crime."

A few weeks after his fall, I slipped on the back steps to the deck and broke my ... pride.  I still have a large goose egg on my posterior (3 1/2 weeks post fall) and bruising, but most of the color has left.  Also, I am far more comfortable than I have been.  As long as no one touches it, I'm okay.  I'll spare you any photos. (;

And so, now that we're both mostly healed, we've begun home projects again.  The first involved the hubs crawling into the rear crawl space under the house to connect pipes.  He installed our temporary kitchen sink!  One of the base cabinets is standing next to it, and we have a propane camp stove (with oven!) to prepare meals.  Our first non-microwaved meal cooked indoors?  Grilled cheese sammiches!  Oh, how I've missed the simpler things!

 

 

 

I even did a few dishes!

First, a celebratory bit ... We got a platform bed frame!  For free!  No more getting up off the mattress from the floor!  We will eventually be building a platform frame from plans I found online, but in the meantime, this is heavenly!

Today, while the hubs worked outside, rearranging the garage, and reorganizing other things, I did likewise indoors.  This is what the front rooms looked like this morning.

This is how they looked after phase 1.

I moved all of the kitchen cabinets into the front corner.  The bathroom wall cabinets are in the corner to the far left.  The area in what will eventually be our TV room was emptied to make room for this stuff:

Since the refrigerator is already in this space, I decided we should make this our makeshift kitchen.  The sink will still be in the actual kitchen space (once it gets connected, that is), but the microwave table and the pantry goods will be in here.

For what it's worth, I got all of the stuff out of the fridge room and sorted into categorical stacks in the front corner of the front room.  I just neglected getting photos.  It was ridiculously hot, and we got showers and went into town for air conditioned eats and an air conditioned movie.  I'll post an update later.  Happy Memorial Day, everyone!

Unpacking & Decorating

I took today off from work to spend some time getting things a little more settled.  I put some magnets on the refrigerator.

 I had a friend over to visit and crochet in the TV room for a while.

 

And I unpacked some of my books and put them in the bookcase from my daddy's house.  And no, your eyes aren't deceiving you; the Death Star is floating.

Cleanup on Aisle Four!

Remember the downstairs bathroom?  Well, we couldn't just leave it the way you last saw it.  Today was cleanup day.

In addition to driving me up to the house to do cleanup, the hubs also surprised me with having purchased and installed flooring in the landing upstairs.  Ain't he a sweetie?

The Front Bedroom (aka the Temporary TV Room)

When we decided that we were going to make the house livable for reconstruction, we agreed on a list of things we needed in order to get by:

• a functioning bathroom,
• a bedroom,
• a functioning laundry system,
• a place to unwind after long days, and
• a way to feed ourselves without going out every day.

We have successfully created the first two.  The third is technically already in place, since the previous owners left their washer and dryer.  We just cleaned them and made sure they worked (and were safe to use).  The washing machine is in the basement for now while the dryer resides in the first-floor laundry room, but that will change once we shore up the floors.  Since we've already been working on the second floor and only had one unfinished room, it seemed logical to move on to the next item on the list.

This is what the room looked like before we got our hands on it.

The whole room as seen from the southeast corner.

 

The window makes me sad.  A child obviously occupied this room.  Said child used dry erase markers to draw on the window.  By itself, this fact is not sad; however, coupled with the fact that the coloring took place after the window had been cracked, as evidenced by the marker lines tracing along the cracks ... It just breaks my heart.

The first thing I did was to clean the window (way back on 2018-02-10).  Meanwhile, the hubs removed the baseboards so we could get the rest of the carpet bits removed.  Then it was time to prime (2018-03-17).  Say "goodbye," Mr. Lion!

Yes, I ended up wearing a fair amount of the primer.  This was the first time I did the ceiling.  (The hubs has handled that aspect in the earlier tasks.)  Turns out that standing under the roller is not a great idea.  Also, for those who wonder, oil-based primer does not simply wash off the skin as does latex primer and paint.  You either need a solvent (no thank you), or you have to wait for it to wear off over time.  I was speckled for a while.  Not like I didn't already have more than my fair share of spots. (;

Also of note, since we were out of ceiling paint, I had to get more, but this time I splurged on the color-changing kind.  Totally worth the extra money!  It made it so much easier when I was putting on the second coat to see where I'd actually painted!

And then the hubs primed the floor.

Next up was the paint (2018-03-18).  After the success with the paint in the landing, I decided to go for another Oops can.  This time, the hubs wasn't completely sold when I opened the can, but since he'd agreed to try out anything I picked (based on the safety-net assumption that we'll need to repaint after we level the downstairs), he let me get to work.  Once it was on the walls, he changed his tune.  We may need to replicate this one.  It's beautimous!

Insider tip: make sure the primer is dry before walking on it.  Good thing we're carpeting. (;

The Landing / Upstairs Hallway

Right on the tail end of finishing the bedroom (the same day, actually), we went ahead and primed and painted the landing as well.  I needed something to do while the hubs was installing carpet.  This is what it looked like before I got started.  The first photo is taken from the doorway leading to the front bedroom.  The second is from the corner shown in the first, so you can see into the bathroom and down the stairs.

This is what it looks like with the awesome Oops paint I bought at Menards for FIVE dollars!  Guys, seriously, before you drop real money on paint, check out the "Oops" paint.  Basically, it's paint other people had mixed and decided they didn't want.  To keep those people from coming back and getting what they asked for at a discount, the store changes the color before putting it on the Oops shelf.  But that means you could find just about anything.  Of course, it also means you have no idea what you'll find, but they dob a little on the lid to allow you to see the color before you buy it.  Anyway, this is what I got for the space that the hubs will be using as his office.

Bonus: me sweeping the floor ever-so-gingerly so as to not kick dust up onto the still-tacky walls, so the hubs could roll primer over the floor before we left for the day.  Can I tell you a secret?  I like the Oops paint more than the colors I purposely chose for the bedroom and bathroom.  Who'd have guessed?