Monday, August 17, 2009

Day Ten: A big one.

Today was a BIG day.

We were first on the scene today at the house – yeehaw! (We even had time to stop for an extra-special treat: Peet’s mochas! Mmmmm… makes life better!)

Matt met a plumber through his work who lives in Santa Cruz… and was interested in trading electrical work for plumbing! Hot dog! Alex was a great sport, getting up to the house nice and early to get cracking (ha…) even after working up at the current job site until EIGHT PM the night before! (A solid 13 hour day… and then he put in at least nine at our place. What a trooper.) The bathroom continues to reek of rat pee… and now the WayBack (aka the enclosed rear porch) is starting to smell as the stench wafts out the back window… We’re going to try bleach tonight… Dad got the rest of the bathroom walls off while Alex went in search of supplies. Just when you thought the smell couldn’t get any worse… he uncovered an even bigger nest area. Ugh. Again, my hero! Dad and Matt put their heads together to finalize wall plans for the bathroom – I see another trip to Home Depot on the horizon! (BIG ugh.)

Matt’s brother Mike showed up early to help tackle the massive project of re-wiring half the house in one day… The house had wire mold run every which way to get power to ceiling fixtures, fans, etc. As of this afternoon, however, there were miles of romex run on the exposed plywood for the roof, covered with hard metal strips to ensure the roofers don’t nail thru our wire when they put the new roof on tomorrow. Mike and Matt working together are such a trip – they have a seemingly endless supply of goofy nicknames and inside jokes that they throw at one another all day whilst performing super-ninja-electrical-tricks. It was great to get Mike out to see the property (and even better that his lovely wife and awesome kids let us work him to the bone *all day.*) They had matching sunhats and sunglasses on while working on the roof – it was hilarious that their hats match the chapeau favored by their other brother, Mark. Someday I need to get a picture of the three boys in their matching fishing hats! I wonder if their dad has one, too?!?!

The carpet came up in the master bedroom, exposing the last major expanse of potentially questionable fir flooring – THREE FOR THREE! We rock! Yes, that’s right, all our flooring is kick-butt. Yeehaw. Wow. Dad did a great job pulling up ALL the tack strip and prying out all the carpet staples. We’re so stoked. I was worried about the bedroom – it had not been taking on the feel that I envisioned when we decided to go for this place… BUT I am happy to report that the finished product is absolutely lovely. The undertones of the ceiling and floor look beautiful against the white walls. (Now if only I had a few magic privacy hedges to hide the neighbor’s house/roof… Perhaps next week!)

Mom continued to kick butt applying a second layer of primer to the kitchen walls. I painted the inside shelves of one of the cabinet units and discovered that it wasn’t looking too great with just the shelves painted – we need to paint the entire inside. Joy. At least the ten layers of funky contact paper are gone!

I crashed big time in the afternoon – too much on-my-feet time combined with lack of sleep caught up with me. I threw a towel down on the floor in our bedroom and took a short nap. Methinks more sleep will be necessary in order for my continued involvement in the house projects. I can’t imagine how Matt is still standing – he’s basically working 12 hour days, seven days a week when you add up his job and home work schedule. Too much work and not enough sleep – when is CrankyMatt going to emerge? ;o)

Alex did a great job – the new copper is in and ready for our bathroom fixtures. Now if only the smell would disappear… (yes, it really IS that bad.)

We ended the day by ripping out the old hood and marking the skylight placement for the roofers. They start tomorrow – it will be interesting to see what their work is like. They started work a day early without asking us last week: we arrived up at the house on Thursday evening to find that we no longer had a roof! Then the owner stopped by at 10am instead of 2pm yesterday to discuss the work for next week (when Matt was at work.) Again, without calling first. We haven’t signed anything with them, so this is rather bizarre behavior from a contractor. But they seem to be highly regarded by our friends in the local residential construction business, so hopefully it will all work out!

Late dinner at the Taqueria, even later grocery shopping at SnobHill… then home to fall in to bed, exhausted. But hey! We made it a whole day without having to visit the Depot of Homes! And that is a good, GOOD thing.

2 comments:

Jon O said...

wow. I'm so excited each morning to read through the work you and Matt are getting done. I can't wait to join you for a glass or wine or water in the new place.

jen said...

AHHH!!! I didn't re-set up my notices when I got the new laptop and didn't realize you were blogging all of your awesome progress! This is fantastic. Now I can catch up on all the details. I look forward to going on this crazy journey with you, remotely. Congrats again on the new house. I'm still so excited for you. Look forward to talking to you soon!

much love,
Jen
(Maybe I'll start blogging again too, now that I will be on here regularly!)