Remodel, day 3,000, er, 42
Oct. 8th, 2007 06:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynThis is the point where we've hit the hard part. A lot is happening, but it's the stuff that has a huge negative affect on everything around here. The plumbers, finally, have left. They were here for six freaking days, and on Friday it was unspeakably horrid and they didn't leave until after 6 because they were going to leave me without hot water since they plumbed the wrong lines (though my ass would have gotten a nice facial with the hot water going into the toilet tank). Brent has been just beside himself over it; he's never, on all his jobs, had plumbers take this long and screw it up so much (this is what happens when you leave the apprentice alone to plumb a challenging job). Brent insists it isn't that challenging, either, but it has left both him and me frazzled. I have to keep driving places so I can go pee, and they leave the bathroom a mess, but OTOH, I have a now functioning tub drain for the first time in decades and don't have to take a shower in ankle deep water. Brent's trying to figure out what to do about all the plaster they punched out around the old lines.
At least it passed inspection after the older guy was here fixing things today, but it was another day without water, toilet, etc., and then compounded when Brent told me I had to move more stuff out and change things around because he needed to move the protective wall out and into the hall. So my puny living space has become even punier, and the microwave cart had to go in the office, and I can barely turn around in the office anymore. The good part is that he's taking the hall wall out, which has annoyed me for forever because of the heinous patch job someone did, so I'll get a whole new sheetrocked wall, no lathe and plaster anymore. I had to box up all my CDs for the third time in less than a year, and move 1,800 discs and the cabinet out to the garage so he could push it all back while they patch up the ceiling.
It is so stupid, but all this has left me at the point where I have wibbly chin and am on the verge of crying (see picture of my "living" area and you'll see why). Between the jackass electrical guys, the week of plumbing, and now the dark cave of living room, it's just feeling like a bit much. Nothing compared to someone living in Burma or Darfur, so I keep trying to remind myself to snap out of it, but then after a few hours I get wibbly chin again. I spent the whole weekend trying to talk myself into finishing my post about Vividcon, but I never did, because I just felt so down. I guess this is like hitting the wall for remodelers.
While we were waiting for Incompetent Plumbing Apprentice to try the second of three round of useless fixes to the wrong lines, the windows arrived unexpectedly and so Brent put them in, because he had to wait, anyhow. I like them, even though screens will obscure the view when they go in.
He also put the door in, though it has the old handle and there's no trim around it yet. I got a keyless entry lockset -- it has a blue lighted keypad, so that I don't have to worry about locking myself out again, since that's something I do rather all too frequently.
The cool thing about the glass door is that it lets in a lot of light, which will still be visible in the living room. This shot is me standing pretty much where my new couch will be, facing the back door, while Brent was tearing down the old temp wall and putting the new one up. On the left you can see where the counter will go, and then that piece of plywood leaning against a stud in the foreground (no, not the plumber, though he's kind of cute, he looks like Rob Morrow's little brother and he at least was able to fix all the problems from Friday) is where the new wall between the living room and kitchen will be. It's going to be very open and airy.
This wall used to be where the badly patched hallway wall was (for those who've been here, it's where the giant rabbit mardi gras poster was, by the bathroom). Even though it's hard to lose the space for the next few weeks, it'll be nice to have that fixed.
These two pics show my new "hallway." It's kind of depressing and hard to move between the microwave cart, where I have all my subsistence items, and the fridge, where the other subsistence items live. I hope I don't hurt myself on the part of plywood that juts out.
Poor Ollie, she's having a harder time these days. It just seems like there's a constant parade of people doing scary things, and taking more and more of her space away. She just got here, and then I put her through this. She is displeased and hides under the bed sometimes.
At least it passed inspection after the older guy was here fixing things today, but it was another day without water, toilet, etc., and then compounded when Brent told me I had to move more stuff out and change things around because he needed to move the protective wall out and into the hall. So my puny living space has become even punier, and the microwave cart had to go in the office, and I can barely turn around in the office anymore. The good part is that he's taking the hall wall out, which has annoyed me for forever because of the heinous patch job someone did, so I'll get a whole new sheetrocked wall, no lathe and plaster anymore. I had to box up all my CDs for the third time in less than a year, and move 1,800 discs and the cabinet out to the garage so he could push it all back while they patch up the ceiling.
It is so stupid, but all this has left me at the point where I have wibbly chin and am on the verge of crying (see picture of my "living" area and you'll see why). Between the jackass electrical guys, the week of plumbing, and now the dark cave of living room, it's just feeling like a bit much. Nothing compared to someone living in Burma or Darfur, so I keep trying to remind myself to snap out of it, but then after a few hours I get wibbly chin again. I spent the whole weekend trying to talk myself into finishing my post about Vividcon, but I never did, because I just felt so down. I guess this is like hitting the wall for remodelers.
While we were waiting for Incompetent Plumbing Apprentice to try the second of three round of useless fixes to the wrong lines, the windows arrived unexpectedly and so Brent put them in, because he had to wait, anyhow. I like them, even though screens will obscure the view when they go in.
He also put the door in, though it has the old handle and there's no trim around it yet. I got a keyless entry lockset -- it has a blue lighted keypad, so that I don't have to worry about locking myself out again, since that's something I do rather all too frequently.
The cool thing about the glass door is that it lets in a lot of light, which will still be visible in the living room. This shot is me standing pretty much where my new couch will be, facing the back door, while Brent was tearing down the old temp wall and putting the new one up. On the left you can see where the counter will go, and then that piece of plywood leaning against a stud in the foreground (no, not the plumber, though he's kind of cute, he looks like Rob Morrow's little brother and he at least was able to fix all the problems from Friday) is where the new wall between the living room and kitchen will be. It's going to be very open and airy.
This wall used to be where the badly patched hallway wall was (for those who've been here, it's where the giant rabbit mardi gras poster was, by the bathroom). Even though it's hard to lose the space for the next few weeks, it'll be nice to have that fixed.
These two pics show my new "hallway." It's kind of depressing and hard to move between the microwave cart, where I have all my subsistence items, and the fridge, where the other subsistence items live. I hope I don't hurt myself on the part of plywood that juts out.
Poor Ollie, she's having a harder time these days. It just seems like there's a constant parade of people doing scary things, and taking more and more of her space away. She just got here, and then I put her through this. She is displeased and hides under the bed sometimes.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-10-09 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-09 01:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-09 02:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-09 07:09 pm (UTC)Jay
cool...
Date: 2007-10-09 10:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-10 03:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-10 05:12 am (UTC)