Remodel, day 38
Oct. 4th, 2007 06:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynA lot of stuff has been happening the past week -- roofing, plumbing, electrical, and sinks and faucets are here waiting for cabinets, and then next weekend the appliances will be delivered... whew. Some stuff hasn't been exactly what I wanted it to be, and the plumbing and electrical are definitely problems when you live and work at the same place, but I'm getting through it. Tomorrow I'll need to work at dad's, though, which is never much fun, but probably easier for me to get to than my friends' who've offered their places. I was pretty pissed off today though when the electricians left (after Brent had left) and they didn't clean up the gigantic mess of plaster they'd knocked into my hallway and office an hour earlier. They just left it there, and Brent's going to get an earful from me tomorrow, mos def (they also left giant holes I can't really cover much, and it's incredibly cold here). He hates when subs are sloppy; today he was muttering from the moment he came in, swearing and stomping around, because the plumbers still hadn't finished (they've been here since Monday and he keeps saying "quality of work doesn't make up for screwing around and showing up whenever they damn please" and he feels his reputation is on the line (which it kind of is).
Earlier we were doing that thing where you just stand around and stare at something, trying to figure out solutions that have no real good fix, just what's the least horrible. We just kept staring at the floor, looking at the place I ideally would have liked the little hatch door that code requires I have for access into the crawlspace but couldn't have because there's a beam in the way, as if somehow, an answer would creep out between the floorboards. I really didn't want it in my bedroom, but I didn't have much choice. "Well." "Crap." "Yeah." "Hmmm." With these long pauses in between. He's so sweet -- he put on Springsteen just for me after I mentioned having been a fan.
I have these moments, though, where I get just unbelievably sad. As it starts to come together more, I think more often about sis_r and how much I wish I could share this with her, and it's hard. I can only do this because she left me money, but I wish more than anything she could see this, that I could send her pictures every day with an update.
Anyway, last night, I went over to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mlyn's to do laundry and to make grilled cheese sammiches because man, you want so bad the things you can't do once you can't do them anymore, and she was watching her Ghost Hunters show. I mentioned that I don't believe in ghosts, but they were doing a good job of being creepy anyway just with the distorted voice tapes and the infrared cameras that made everyone's eyes look really monstery. So I go home and don't think anything more about it, but I wake up at 1 a.m. and when I get up to pee, I hear music coming from the addition space. And it's pretty loud. And there was no music before, when I went to bed. My mind starts racing -- what could it be? Could someone be in there? -- it would be really easy to break in. Maybe it's a car idling outside, and the window was left open and that's why it sounds like inside? OMG, is there a ghost who heard me say I don't believe in ghosts?
I was so freaked! I was all, crap, if someone broke in, what the fuck am I going to do? But the music kind of faded out and i thought phew, car, and started for the bathroom, when Creedence suddenly blasted forth from the space, and it was a song I always thought had a kind of creepy tone to it, Sweet Hitchhiker. And it was even louder. So I got my robe, and screwed my courage up, and went into the space, reaching for the lightbulb that had a switch they'd hung by the door. Only it wouldn't work. Which only creeped me out even more. I went back to get the emergency light and then tiptoed back in, but the light simply served to make things look EXTRA SPECIAL CREEPY. I found Brent's boom box, which was set on auxiliary, so I turned it off, hoping with all my might that it wouldn't turn itself on again as soon as I left the room. I played with Olive for a few minutes, trying to calm down, but I had a bad case of the heebie jeebies. When I finally got back in bed, it occurred to me that, as i had been bending over to turn off the box, someone who could have easily been hidden could have jumped me when my back was turned, since there are so many crannies now. That only served to make me feel even more vulnerable and to pull the covers up over my and Olive's heads.
Boogie men or another criminal in the backyard? You decide. I mentioned it to Brent this morning and he merely laughed, never gave me the slightest explanation to make me feel better, such as "it was programmed to go on at the wrong time" or "sometimes if it's left on it will kick back into play once the MP3 program stops" or something comforting like that. He was too busy swearing about the plumbers. I think the next explanation is cylons.
Brent marked off all the spaces so the plumbers and electricians know where things go, and so I could see what it would look like. We figured out at least that the dining table I most wanted wouldn't fit.
Then this one came a few days later, when he put in the frame for the counter.
Last week I got a real roof just in the nick of time. About two hours after the roofers finished, we had a torrential rain storm.
I got a new electric box today and lots and lots of plugs and can lights all set up. Meet the new box -- definitely not the same as the old box.
Yesterday and today Brent put the stuff (tar paper?) that goes under the siding on. We were hoping the windows would come today, but they never showed up, as he needs those and the door (which we did get today) to do the siding on the back. But at least the mysterious black stuff and one spot of siding are up (it keeps pouring rain just when he gets started) now, and if we get at least a few hours of dryness, he can get it looking almost like a real house outside!
Earlier we were doing that thing where you just stand around and stare at something, trying to figure out solutions that have no real good fix, just what's the least horrible. We just kept staring at the floor, looking at the place I ideally would have liked the little hatch door that code requires I have for access into the crawlspace but couldn't have because there's a beam in the way, as if somehow, an answer would creep out between the floorboards. I really didn't want it in my bedroom, but I didn't have much choice. "Well." "Crap." "Yeah." "Hmmm." With these long pauses in between. He's so sweet -- he put on Springsteen just for me after I mentioned having been a fan.
I have these moments, though, where I get just unbelievably sad. As it starts to come together more, I think more often about sis_r and how much I wish I could share this with her, and it's hard. I can only do this because she left me money, but I wish more than anything she could see this, that I could send her pictures every day with an update.
Anyway, last night, I went over to
mlyn's to do laundry and to make grilled cheese sammiches because man, you want so bad the things you can't do once you can't do them anymore, and she was watching her Ghost Hunters show. I mentioned that I don't believe in ghosts, but they were doing a good job of being creepy anyway just with the distorted voice tapes and the infrared cameras that made everyone's eyes look really monstery. So I go home and don't think anything more about it, but I wake up at 1 a.m. and when I get up to pee, I hear music coming from the addition space. And it's pretty loud. And there was no music before, when I went to bed. My mind starts racing -- what could it be? Could someone be in there? -- it would be really easy to break in. Maybe it's a car idling outside, and the window was left open and that's why it sounds like inside? OMG, is there a ghost who heard me say I don't believe in ghosts?I was so freaked! I was all, crap, if someone broke in, what the fuck am I going to do? But the music kind of faded out and i thought phew, car, and started for the bathroom, when Creedence suddenly blasted forth from the space, and it was a song I always thought had a kind of creepy tone to it, Sweet Hitchhiker. And it was even louder. So I got my robe, and screwed my courage up, and went into the space, reaching for the lightbulb that had a switch they'd hung by the door. Only it wouldn't work. Which only creeped me out even more. I went back to get the emergency light and then tiptoed back in, but the light simply served to make things look EXTRA SPECIAL CREEPY. I found Brent's boom box, which was set on auxiliary, so I turned it off, hoping with all my might that it wouldn't turn itself on again as soon as I left the room. I played with Olive for a few minutes, trying to calm down, but I had a bad case of the heebie jeebies. When I finally got back in bed, it occurred to me that, as i had been bending over to turn off the box, someone who could have easily been hidden could have jumped me when my back was turned, since there are so many crannies now. That only served to make me feel even more vulnerable and to pull the covers up over my and Olive's heads.
Boogie men or another criminal in the backyard? You decide. I mentioned it to Brent this morning and he merely laughed, never gave me the slightest explanation to make me feel better, such as "it was programmed to go on at the wrong time" or "sometimes if it's left on it will kick back into play once the MP3 program stops" or something comforting like that. He was too busy swearing about the plumbers. I think the next explanation is cylons.
Brent marked off all the spaces so the plumbers and electricians know where things go, and so I could see what it would look like. We figured out at least that the dining table I most wanted wouldn't fit.
Then this one came a few days later, when he put in the frame for the counter.
Last week I got a real roof just in the nick of time. About two hours after the roofers finished, we had a torrential rain storm.
I got a new electric box today and lots and lots of plugs and can lights all set up. Meet the new box -- definitely not the same as the old box.
Yesterday and today Brent put the stuff (tar paper?) that goes under the siding on. We were hoping the windows would come today, but they never showed up, as he needs those and the door (which we did get today) to do the siding on the back. But at least the mysterious black stuff and one spot of siding are up (it keeps pouring rain just when he gets started) now, and if we get at least a few hours of dryness, he can get it looking almost like a real house outside!
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no subject
Date: 2007-10-05 02:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-05 06:01 pm (UTC)Hey, between Killa's visit here and your vid, I may actually try to watch FNL on the discs. It has pretty much all my "ick" buttons, but Killa says the older female character -- the coach's wife? -- kicks Laura Roslin's ass, and that's a pretty high rec for me.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-05 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-05 03:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-05 06:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-07 12:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-05 04:13 am (UTC)And gah-- did I tell you I received the DVD? Like, weeks ago?! I don't think I did, but I did, and thank you!!!!
no subject
Date: 2007-10-05 06:06 pm (UTC)I am still, two days later, creeped out by the music. The addition is this big, empty, echoey, huling thing with holes in the floor, the walls, etc, and it's very spooky at night anyway, with the street light coming through the tops of the boarded up window area, and the wind we've had lately moaning through the holes.
So when you throw in the music, it's just way, way too horror movie for me to handle. I'm not normally a fraidy cat, but I definitely was thinking, "Don't open the door!" as I was, you know, opening the door.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-05 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-05 05:59 pm (UTC)Where you headed next week? Italy? We should meet up for tea -- I haven't seen you in an age and I'd love to see you, whenever you get back.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-05 06:46 pm (UTC)May I ask how you came up with the plan for your addition? Did you work with an architect or designer or directly with the contractor? I'm considering some renovations and would appreciate hearing more about this. Thanks.