(by Bg Porter)
Fingers X-ed that this 19th week is the last week of the project whose cardinality is expressed using a prime number. Maybe not. 23 weeks is likely, thanks to the cabinet guy. At 29 weeks I cry. At 31 weeks I start demolishing the place again from inside. At 37 weeks we firebomb the place. At 41 weeks the authorities dig through the remains and discover the bodies of my enemies.
After that it starts getting bad.
We moved into the house twenty years ago this week, on 6/1/1996. I had really hoped that we’d be done with this project by 6/1/2016, but that didn’t happen.
Some stuff did happen.
(Previously.)
More Cabinets. The wet wall (pantry, sink, dishwasher, refrigerator) cabinet boxes are all in place now. 
Yes, the space for the dishwasher does seem way too small, but I’ve measured it at least 6 times. This week we’re hoping to see at least the base cabinets that will live on the right side of this picture, surrounding where the stove is going to go. I just got word that the planned Monday installation is going to slip to Tuesday at the earliest. Did I mention that the cabinets are the gating factor for this whole project now? The appliances and countertops are the major remaining pieces, and neither can really happen until we have places to put them. Continue reading “Renovation Week 18: Zeno, Jr.”
We’re now at the point where we’re frustratingly close to seeing the end of this whole thing, which is still better than a few weeks ago when we were frustratingly unable to imagine wrapping this up.
(Previously.)
The biggest thing this week: first sign of cabinets coming into the house:
Continue reading “Renovation Week 17: Underneath the Gathering Thunderstorm”
This week we met a new baby bunny friend who’s living in the hostas by the driveway. Her name is “Shirley Hemphill.”
(Previously.)
Starting to see more signs that things are getting close to being usable/livable.
The kids’ bathroom was mostly wrapped up on Wednesday, enough for them to be using it again. We still need to finish up the linen closet that’s being built, but that’s further down the priority stack.
Continue reading “Renovation Week 16: Don’t Call Me Shirley”
(Previously.)
A Phrygian king who was condemned to remain in Tartarus, chin deep in water, with fruit-laden branches hanging above his head; whenever he tried to drink or eat, the water and fruit receded out of reach.
It’s starting to feel like the end may be in sight. When I think that, I’m reminded of a work trip to Las Vegas where a group of us decided to walk to the Luxor, which looked to be about a 10 minute walk away from where we were. An hour later we were still walking and it looked exactly the same distance away from us. Continue reading “Renovation Week 15: Tantalus”
(Previously.)
(Happy 79th birthday to Thomas Ruggles Pynchon).
Too tired to write many words at the moment. This week:
They built the bathroom linen closet cabinet and installed it into its spot in the bathroom.
Continue reading “Renovation Week 14: Antagonizing The Horn”
(Previously.)
I spent most of this week cooped up in a conference center in Lake Arrowhead, CA with my cow-orkers, for the Art & Logic Annual Conference. This is the only chance that most of us have to see each other in person during the year.
UCLA Conference Center Continue reading “Renovation Week 13: The Courier’s Tragedy”
(Previously.)
In English, ‘twelve‘ is the largest number that’s said with a single syllable.
Much visible progress since the frustrating relative lull of week 11, starting with a much too brief visit from my parents as they drove past on their trip to a permanent residency in Florida.
An hour or so was about all they could take of being cramped into the single usable room downstairs. Continue reading “Renovation Week 12: Resume”
(Previously.)
Not a ton of visible work this week. Some outside stuff getting the windows ready to be trimmed.
New windows at the bottom of the stairs are in, so now all the new windows are in place.
More work getting the family room ready for insulation and sheetrock, including new recessed fixtures and a fan box so we can put a ceiling fan in someday if we like.
Also, work in the kids’ bathroom getting things ready to tile. Keenan comes home from school in three weeks; it would be great to have our full complement of facilities in place before he gets back.
This week? Not sure. Hoping that we can get progress in the family room and get the kitchen floor stained. Our original schedule put this at a 12-16 weeks, and we’re obviously bumping heads against the bottom end of that range.
(Next.)
When we last left you, dear reader, we were suddenly replacing a wall after discovering a hidden civilization of carpenter ants where we intended to put the new sliding glass door. After stewing on that situation all weekend, they were able to reframe that entire northern wall quickly and finally get the new door in place:
