Day 60! We made it! Well, that was Friday, and I’ve been so busy since then that I didn’t even get a chance to tell you about it. So, Friday capped off a great week (and capped of 12 weeks of work so far!). Caleb and J.J. finished tiling and grouting the backsplash, Dave finished building the pantry nook (which I LOVE, by the way), and started working on the shelves for the baking nook, while I cleaned, sanded and painted the radiator covers for the entire first floor. We were all busy, motivated by the Shakira and Beyonce channel on Pandora. (Let the record show, this was a request by the boys – they even sang along to some of the diva-tude. It was rather cute.)
Ain’t it good to know that you’ve got a friend…
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Day 59 was busy, eventful, and soooo satisfying. Team Dave got here early and began working on the math and layout for the pantry cabinet right away. Since the weather was mainly dry, and pretty much sunny-ish (partly sunny – I get it now, weather people) he decided to dive right into the carpentry since the rain has been keeping him indoors painting for a week. (Plus I think he craves sawdust. It’s a sickness. I don’t think he’s getting treatment.) Shortly thereafter, J.J. and Caleb arrived at immediately started walking tile up those walls. It was a great start to the day (especially after the whole plumbing fiasco from yesterday).
C’mon y’all know I had to kill her…*
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Day 57 started off great. Stone getting worked on (sinks, seams and sealer!) and paint happening all around. And then I got ill. Feverish, sleeping all day, sick to my stomach ill. Not fun. So I missed the rest of it. And now we’re finishing day 58. So it’s a combo post, not because nothing happened, but because sickness struck again. Ugh. (Still mending, not quite 100% yet… maybe 67%? Perhaps 78%? Remains to be seen.)
But, my health issues aside, so much has changed in a day! The whole house is painted, or nearly so, tile is being installed, countertops are in, the sink is in, the dishwasher is in place… we can almost imagine a day in the not too distant future where we’ll actually get to have a kitchen! It’s so good. So, first, on Tuesday, Team Stone finished up the install on the countertops (which look UH-MAY-ZING, by the way), and Team Dave finished painting, oh, just about everything! (Love you, Dave!) I staggered downstairs at one point later in the day (in my pj’s, looking ever so pathetic, I’m sure) and was amazed by how much paint can change the feeling of a space. No more do we have paint samples painted all over the walls in the foyer, or dingy looking trim. It’s all fresh, bright, and clean. It made me as happy as anything can make someone in my state. (I promptly went back to sleep.)
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world…*
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Day 56 started week 12 (!) today, with all of our eyes on the finish line. Team Dave got here at the crack (again) starting off the week finishing up painting the trim in the downstairs. I even got in the spirit of things by finishing up the paint on the balustrade in preparation for painting the entire railing system at the end of the job (don’t want to have tradespeople coming up and down the stairs grabbing onto wet paint, do we?). But my painting efforts were interrupted (happily) by the arrival of Team Stone with our countertops! I happily ditched my fresh container of paint to snap some photos and drool over the absolutely gorgeous stone (thank you, Team Quarry!)
For what it’s worth, it was worth all the while…
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Days 49 (Thursday) and 50 (Friday) completed week 10. They also completed our time with Eric (who leaves for his new life in Arizona on Sunday). That makes ten weeks of dedication and skilled craftsmanship; 50 days of bleeding, sweating, smiling, laughing, hammering, sawing, measuring, crouching, sanding, caulking, painting, cleaning, and growing a beard (he didn’t really have one when we first met him). So, in tribute to Eric, and all of his hard work, I asked him what song he’d like to title his farewell post. He said, Green Day’s “Time of Your Life” in honor of his grandfather who died this summer (they sang it at his funeral). We’ve had a lot of life lived all around us this summer. It’s been pretty amazing, and pretty overwhelming at times. I hope it was worth all their while.
Take a break, you must be tired from the strain…
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Day 47 (Tuesday) happened completely without us. I mean, we had a Tuesday, but not at the work-camp/homefront. Jeff and I had to make a trip to NYC to beautify a bride-to-be (Jeff’s sister) while the Team kept at it with the baseboard trim. They also mocked up the piece that will sit atop the cabinets – I believe we’re calling it the head casing? – though it’s really so much more like a piece of cabinetry. After much discussion and planning, we came to a decision! We have a plan for the cabinets, one that I think it will make them appear more built-in, more custom, more classic, almost original-esque. Very happy indeed.
Day 48, however, began with a bang. Literally. Dave’s car had a (non-injury causing, non-dangerous) tire blowout on his way here. And while Dave was sorting out what turned out to be only a nuisance (thankfully he and the car were unscathed), we met with our glass shower door representative, Tom of Oasis Shower Doors. Once Tom took a look at Caleb and J.J.’s amazing work, he insisted upon helping us out with the prices so that we could use the higher end glass. (Thanks, Tom!) We’re paying a bit more than we hoped, but we’re getting exactly what we hoped for, so everything worked out in the end. Exciting!
Like painted kites, those days and nights, they went flyin’ by…
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Week 9, days 41 through 45, came and went while we dawdled along on vacation. I can’t say that Jeff dawdled along, he worked most of it, while Bec and I alternated between napping, cooking (well, she didn’t cook, of course) and going for walks. Though the weather was so chilly that the walks and outdoorsy times I had hoped for were sort of curtailed (I didn’t pack correctly, while rushing around trying to FIND things on our way out, and after we learned the hard way that our dryer at home was not working), I did manage to see the sea, the sunset, and had a walk in the sand.
OhmygodwhathaveIdone? (Do it again) AllIwantedwasalittlefun (Do it again)…
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Day 39, and I’m still reeling from the quantity of things that got done today. First, a roster of people working at the house today: Dave, Eric, Frank, Brad, Matt, Josh, Caleb and J.J. (I’m out of breath just listing them!) Second, a list of things they worked on: sinks, faucets, toilets, refrigerator, dishwasher, wall ovens, cooktop, trim paint, door jambs, shower tile, door removal, stair sanding, floor sanding, clean-up and reorganization. (Phew!) The project just went from plodding along to full-throttle in the span of a day.
It takes two to make a thing go ri-ight…
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Day 38, and man, am I tired! The house was a hustlin’ and a bustlin’ today, with various Teams staying here as late as 7pm. We had Team Carpentry working the cabinet install (wall oven unit and fridge/pantry area), Team Tile working the shower, floors and thresholds (they worked like fiends today!), and Team Brad working some more electrical install (beginnings of wall ovens and an errant outlet that needed to be done before I covered it with a pile of boxes). So much was happening, and while I had to sneak out to run a few errands, I definitely sensed that change was afoot.
Basic space, open air; don’t look away, when there’s nothing there…*
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Day 37 was kind of like a dud firework – you’re all excited for it to go off, and then, and then… it fizzles. Which, in this case, isn’t really a bad thing, it’s just the way things went. We had our countertop installers come by (Team Stone) to make some templates and confirm the details of the space, and had a wonderful surprise early visit from the plumbers (hooray!). However, our Team Carpentry was a man down (illness), and Team Tile got tied up with other business elsewhere (you mean to tell me I’m NOT your only client? Well, I never!), which made progress grind to a crawl. Planning, organizing, and design decisions were made, but not much physical happened.