It’s starting to look like a room again rather than a hollow shell. Sheetrock walls are going up, ceiling too!
Walls! Ceiling!
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 not over, it’s only just begun!
As we receive God’s greatest gift, that of his son, Jesus Christ, born as a baby to bring salvation to us all — remember that Christmas is not over, it has just begun. May the seeds of love planted in our hearts continue to grow and flourish during the coming year.
Merry Christmas to you all!
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.
Late November happenings at Squirrels Manor
Ah, the last day of November, my parents wedding anniversary. I am assuming they are celebrating in some fashion up in heaven. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! I miss you both.
And, back here on earth, Thanksgiving has come and gone, not without a bit of adventure however. We didn’t have guests scheduled this year as my kitchen was supposed to be under construction. Construction being somewhat delayed, we could still cook there so hubby and I got up on Thanksgiving morning, not too early, and began the prep of the turkey and the stuffing ingredients. Somehow, (how?, perhaps we’ll never know) hubby managed to drop a big glass mixing bowl and break it. I was turning away from what I was doing to ask him what the <>?L:!! was going on and saw blood dripping on the white tile floor. He didn’t know at first he had cut himself. So, turkey back in the fridge and us off to the Emergency Room for 9 stitches in his index finger. He COULD have just said he didn’t want to help this year — such drastic measures weren’t really necessary! At least it wasn’t the new hardwood floor (yet to be installed) that he was dripping blood all over just as it wasn’t the new ceiling and lighting rail system (yet to be installed) that I smoked the night before when I burnt the cranberries. Anyone thinking what I am — that maybe we weren’t SUPPOSED to be cooking this year?
And the Christmas cactus is it’s usually impatient self and couldn’t wait ’til Christmas for full bloom . .
The hibiscus is trying not to be outdone. I didn’t think it would live inside over winter and said so to hubby — in the plant’s presence the other day. Something like — “this plant is not looking too good, I don’t think I’m going to be able to keep it“. The next day he (all my plants are he) opened a beautiful bloom and two days later, this one. Guess I was wrong and was being told so in the only way plants can talk — with outstanding beauty!
Oh yeah, it’s advent now. Not much Christmas decorating has been done here — not much will be possible. But I did purchase the advent candles. I imagine every picture I take will have construction items in the background.
If I turn my back and concentrate on my computer, I can almost pretend that my sitting room doesn’t actually look like this (photo on left). But this beauty (photo on right) will soon be in my kitchen — with some handles on it so I can get the drawers open.
And, last but not least, we have had two visitors for about a week that are to go home tomorrow. They have been real quiet and don’t eat much. Good house guests.
Let the picture taking begin
It’s finally here! Start date for the kitchen remodel, that is. Hubby and I both took some photos of the old space so we can look back on them with fond (or not so fond) memories. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I smoked the ceiling accidentally with burning cranberries on the stove and hubby cut his hand badly on broken glass and got blood all over the floor. Then early this morning, the coffee maker malfunctioned for some reason and for the first time ever and ran coffee onto the counter, down the cabinet face, and onto the floor. Guess we are getting our last oops in with the old kitchen and I’m certainly glad this didn’t happen with a new ceiling, new wooden floors and cabinet doors. Time to charge those camera batteries and get ready to document the big (read that “expensive) renovation!