Thursday, February 28, 2008

The Most Boring Pictures Ever


Not too much progress to show yet, although there is a great deal of drilling and pounding and people on ladders making holes in the ceiling. There are new recessed lights going into several rooms and hallways--the kitchen, and the workroom/studio, and the back bathroom too. It will be amazing to see what we're doing! This house has always been very dark, partly due to its orientation to the sun and partly to the size and location of the windows. We've done our best with lamps but that only goes so far!

These are the sketches of the new kitchen cabinets. I mean, how boring, right? Pictures of black-and-white sketches! It will be fun to see how they compare to the finished cabinets.

These are actually the working drawings that are pinned up on the wall as a guide to the plumbers, electricians, and other tradesmen who are going to be installing stuff.
So these are views of:
The south and west walls, with the range and refrigerator;
The north and east walls, with the sink in front of the opening to the studio/workroom;
and the Butler's Pantry, which will go in the former mudroom between the kitchen and the back bathroom. This will be a good place to stash baking equipment and perhaps display punch bowls!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

What a Difference a Day Makes!



Posting quickly just to show you the latest progress in the house project. The kitchen is now a shell of its former self--no cabinets, all the layers of flooring removed, and only the refrigerator still in place. Because the water line to the ice maker can't be shut off until the plumber arrives, it has had to stay in place. There was a flood the first night when they found out that little factoid!

By the time I got back from quilting class last night, all the rest of the carpeting was gone (except for a few squre feet in D4's room) and the hardwood flooring exposed. I think it will look very nice once it's been repaired and refinished--there is water damage under most of the windows, for example.

They're bringing in a third bin today to hold the furniture, since that didn't fit into the other two. It's a bit scary having so much "stuff" that it fills three bins of that size! Not to mention all the stuff that left in the big dump truck yesterday... Oh well. It's "stuff" and we'll deal with it. One way or another! My crystal ball sees a humongous yard sale... or a hefty donation to the Goodwill folks... in my future.

(Not my good yarn. Nope. Still loving my yarn.)

I've been impressed with the packers/movers/demolition crew. While they don't have the kind of sense of "what goes together" that I'd like to see, ideally (I mean, who packs four shoes and leaves the four mates alone on the floor? Wouldn't you throw in BOTH green sandals??), I have no complaints about other things.

Today is knitting group, and while my instinct is to hunker down and spend the day playing with Audrey, I'm going to make the effort to get the two of us there. Otherwise I'm going to turn into a hermit, hiding out from everything in my shell of a house!

More pictures on the Flickr page so click on the badge to see. Also do check out Audrey's blog for her latest activities!

Monday, February 25, 2008

Packing

Sea of boxes.

The living room, with D3 and D4 in the middle of packing up a whole lotta stuff.
Everything has to be labeled, of course, especially the fragile things.


Just look at those dimples!

Too Much Stuff!

That's been the mantra today. I've heard it from the contractor, from the packing-job-foreman, from the packers, from my helpers, from my daughter, and from myself.

The view when stuff started coming out of closets and hidey holes. Well, okay, some of it has been like this for a while now.
Here's the same view after it's all been carted off. Oh, those boxes in the corner? That's my interim kitchen! There's a table with the microwave on it, and the coffeemaker is going to live in the bathroom for a bit.

Looking at the old kitchen from a couple of angles. The refrigerator was supposed to move to the back room but they couldn't get the water line to the ice maker turned off. Once the plumber comes in to fix that little detail, we'll have the fridge in the new "kitchenette."

They are planning to start the demolition on the kitchen within the next day or two, as soon as they finish packing up the rest of the house.

Don't ask. We have bins and they are filling up fast. We may need a third bin, since so far there's very little furniture in them. Just boxes and boxes and tubs and tubs.

The packers? Well, let's just say they lack a certain finesse. It's going to be very interesting seeing what's in the boxes they've packed when it's time to bring everything back in.
Oh, and of course, there are now the resolutions that it's NOT all coming back in. Exactly how that will be implemented, I don't know. I just know... it's not all coming back in. Just the yarn. And the fabric. And... well, maybe a few things.
Garage sale, anyone??

Okay, going to go take some more pictures. Even if I can't always post (they are letting me have the computer for a few more days) I will try to keep pictures uploaded to my Flickr page, so just click on the Flickr badge and you can get caught up on this mad, bad, totally insupportable project!