The carpenters working here are a father and son team. Today, son dislocated his ankle on the outside stairs carrying sheetrock out to the truck. So, off to the ER they went and the cabinets will wait.
Cabinets in here this afternoon ??
Really? It’s hard to believe, but the kitchen space is almost ready for its cabinets. A little more flooring needs to be laid down and a little more drywall sanding needs to be done and then the cabinets will be carried in. They won’t all be installed today, but it will certainly be good to have them out of the living room. With all them and the appliances in the living space, it’s hard to be comfortable any where. Let’s hope all goes well.
Snow . . will . . not . . stop . . ! . . ! . . !
As snowstorm after snowstorm marches through our area, features of the landscape have disappeared, almost every corner in town is a blind intersection due to the piles of snow, a large number of parking spots in town are completely gone due to snow piles, and folks are getting grumpy here.
Here are photos of the Tuesday snow storm, with snowfall of 18 – 22 inches which came on top of the previous Friday’s snow storm with also 18 inches of snow. Forty inches in less than a week has caused many problems.
And now we’ve had freezing rain on top of all this snow. Everywhere you turn folks are having problems with water inside their house from the ice dams on their roofs. We have heat cables at the bottom edge of our roof, so that’s not our problem. However, we did have huge icicles hanging off the edge of the roof. Apparently one of the bigger ones fell over the weekend directly on the decorative light at our front door totally bending the frame of the light and knocking all the bevels loose. One of the big rectangular bevels is totally missing. Hubby thinks he may have swept it away with the broken pieces of icicle at the front door. Guess we’ll find that in spring when all the snow melts.
Walls! Ceiling!
It’s starting to look like a room again rather than a hollow shell. Sheetrock walls are going up, ceiling too!
Walk-in Refrigerator
My house has a walk-in refrigerator! You probably call yours the garage. It’s probably the “tomato” – “tomoto” thing. But it is convenient that it is so *#&@ cold here in Connecticut that food is staying fresh and soda cold in the garage. Which is also a good thing when the sub-zero (our real refrigerator and the only thing surviving the demolition of the old kitchen) is one floor above this tiny operating kitchen and behind a sealed plastic wall. I’ve found a good way to diet — if the fridge containing all the snacks requires shoes and a coat, a set of keys, and a trip up the stairs out thru the dining room slider and into the kitchen slider to get to. No wonder I’m losing weight — and I thought it was all the worrying about the money being spent on this remodel.
So, with all the stuff out of the room it looks so big. Wonder how we can keep the illusion as we put the kitchen and sitting room back together? The carpenters started laying the new hardwood floor last week, but work got delayed by last week’s snow storm (8″ on Friday). Tomorrow is supposed to see ALL of the sheetrock installed — that will be quite a feat! Then work will most likely be halted again as we deal with this week’s foot of snow. One storm a week — more than we need — seems to be the pattern. Hubby has really put the hours on the snowblower and my errand for tomorrow is to pick up a cable to repair it before Wednesday’s “big blow”. I’ve taken the annual picture of hubby and blower, but will have ample opportunity for more, I think.
Kitchen reconstruction – day 1 !!!
At last, some reconstruction has begun. The electrician has hung all the boxes that go above the sheetrock, but today the carpenters will begin laying the hardwood floor. The first day of reconstruction. This is what it looks like right now……
It’s Christmas Eve!
At last!
The day is here.
We will be in church tonight celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.
All preparations are done (almost). My to-do list worked just like previous years — there’s a big long list and I start checking things off from the top as I get them done and crossing them off from the bottom as I realize I’m never going to get to them. Eventually the two sections meet — usually on about December 22nd or 23rd. With some of hubby’s gifts yet to wrap and put under the tree, I’m running a little late, but this has been an unusual last couple of months. Kitchen construction resumes with the electrician and the carpenters next week. But in the mean time hubby and I are enjoying 6, count em’, 6 days of having the house to ourselves!
Α – Ω
Kitchen destruction – Day 5
The kitchen area is now completely gutted. As we peel back the layers, it is very interesting to discover the wack-a-doodle things the prior owners did on the first and second remodel of the kitchen. This large blank area in the middle of the floor is the result of a re-tiling from 14 years ago when they apparently did not remove and reinstall the island. No wonder it always felt a bit short as they had raised the level of the floor around the island without raising it too. So, those ugly white, cracked tiles are soon to be gone. Handy thing about putting in new windows. The carpenters are tossing all the old stuff out the rough opening for the window so they don’t have to walk through the finished area of the house with construction destruction debris. And, of course, there is a big open hole in the house and the temperature is 20 degrees.
And where am I hiding out, you might ask? This is my temporary hovel in the laundry room/downstairs kitchen. Everything in one tiny little space including the table which now serves as my office where I’m about to start writing the annual Christmas card.
Kitchen destruction – day 1
The plastic wall is up and I’m taking this photo from where the other small plastic door will go — as if this could keep the rest of the house warm and dirt-free. This was just before the first day of destruction began and before the carpenter ants were found in the base of the greenhouse window. They are still crawling in and and being sprayed as I write this. Wonder how many there are and how far the damage goes? Guess we’ll find out as destruction day 1 continues. There will be a bit of reconstruction today as the new bay windows will go in where the old windows were. And they are quite a bit larger, leaving us the possibility that the damaged wood will just go to be replaced by new windows. Keeping fingers crossed as I type.
Note that even though the house is in shambles, from the outside there are still signs of Christmas (see the big wreath on the window?).
Old kitchen be gone!
After two very hard days of work, the old kitchen is fully packed up and moved either upstairs to a spare room or downstairs to a very tiny mother-in-law kitchen for the next few weeks. Two cabinets are already down and headed to Housatonic Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore operation tomorrow. The rest will come down and out by the end of the week. And then the walls come out as we look for wood rot and any other damage that might be there before we reconstruct. Ceiling is coming down too.
It will be the coldest day of the year so far — high temp maybe up to 27 degrees — and this window in the photo is coming out tomorrow. Good timing on our part, don’t ya’ know. But in its place will be a giant deep bay window. Then the second bay goes in the next day — right before the weather changes and the temps get back up into the 40s. But at least it’s clear and not raining or snowing.
