Tag: renovation

(Previously)

                               OLD LADY
         Thank you, thank you, Mr Bradlaugh. Now, Mr Bysshe.

                               SHELLEY
                               Shelley.

                               OLD LADY
                                Oh...

                     THE DWARF REFILLS HER GLASS

                          OLD LADY (cont'd)
 is going to read one of his latest psalms, entitled 'Ode to a crab'.

                               SHELLEY

   Well, it's not about crabs actually, it's called 'Ozymandias'.
                           It's not an ode.

                I met a traveller in an antique land
           Who said 'Six vast and trunkless legs of stone
                         Stand in the desert
               And on the pedestal these words appear
                 My name is Ozymandias, King of Ants

                      (OOHS FROM HIS AUDIENCE)

              Look on my feelers, termites, and despair
                I am the biggest ant you'll ever see
            The ants of old weren't half as bold and big
                          And fierce as me'.

                          ENORMOUS APPLAUSE.

— Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Ep. 41: “Michael Ellis”

This was supposed to be an easy week. Continue reading “Renovation Week 9: Them!”

(previously.)

This week: Some more rough plumbing and finally some new windows.

Now that the kitchen floor is in place, the plumber was able to come in and get rough work in place for the second sink in the island, and also run the gas line for the stove.

Continue reading “Renovation Week 8: Windows”

(previously)

An abbreviated update from my hotel room in Austin, Texas.

Six weeks in, and hoping that we’re about half way done. Expecting electrical inspection to happen this week, and it sounds like once that’s in place, a lot of other things can start to happen in fairly rapid sequence.

Big things that were done this week: Continue reading “Renovation Week 6: The Middle of the Film”

(previously)

The first big change this week — a new plywood subfloor went down.

The only downside to this is that if a robber walks across the kitchen floor in the middle of the night, the squeaks and creaks are all gone, so the entire house won’t wake up any more. I looked for every single squeak that we’ve gotten used to and can’t find any of them. Continue reading “Renovation Week 5: Build a Great, Great Wall”

(previously)

New This Week:

Lots of bathroom/plumbing work. All of the rough plumbing is in place, ready for inspection:

I’d never seen this kind of piping before. Continue reading “Renovation Week 4: In the Mushroom Kingdom”

(previously.)

The biggest surprise this week: learning that my kitchen has been completely uninsulated since it was built. I wonder how much money  we’ve literally burned over the last 20 years heating this place, between that and the windows that never quite closed or sealed correctly.

 

Also, more unplanned destruction this week, as the contractor wandered the house attempting to map out the electrical circuits in the place. Continue reading “Renovation Week 3: The Weakening”

(Previously.)

Not a ton of visible change this week. The skeleton of the wall that used to divide the kitchen and dining room is gone, so you can now get a feeling for this as a single room:

Some plumbing demo was done while I was in Pasadena for work, and we’ve put down deposits on the cabinetry and ordered the bathroom fixtures. I’ll be happy to start writing more checks for things that I want added, not to have people wreck stuff and leave my house a mess. I can do that myself.

Continue reading “Renovation Week 2: A Man, A Plan”

(Previously.)

A noisy and messy week here — the demo crew came to gut the upstairs bathroom and most of the kitchen. Not a great couple of days to be working from home. Scarlet was especially apoplectic with all the people and the noise.

The fun thing at the moment is that since both the bathroom floor and kitchen ceiling are gone, we can see up into the second floor.

 

Continue reading “Renovation Week 1: The Destroyers”

(Previously.)

After a long long period of not believing that this project was ever going to actually happen, we’ve hired a contractor and find ourselves suddenly in the position of not being ready, scrambling to get things in order for demolition to begin this week. They’re actually going to gut the kids’ bathroom first, so we get a few more days of access to the kitchen, but we’re still getting as much moved out of there as we can.

A few before pictures:

The wall on the left here dividing the kitchen from the dining room will be gone soon.

(Boy, I hate this 70s-tastic kitchen) Continue reading “Renovation Week 0”