The first week of April & renovation progress

I was warned... renovations ALWAYS take longer than you expect... AND THEY COST AT LEAST TWICE AS MUCH!! There aren't any pictures because I am NOT going to crawl under this house to take pictures of our new copper pipes.


Wednesday, April 1, 2009

I had a reaction to my new pain med and woke up not feeling so on-top-of-the-world this morning. By the time the boys got here, I had lost everything that was in my stomach – which pretty much amounted to nothing. I got R and #1 Son out of bed (the lazy bums) and I went back to bed. No April Fool joke there. Saltines and ginger ale for the rest of the day’s nourishment.

The next No April Fool joke was the electrical inspector. Good old Mario FAILED (the electrical inspection)!! GRRRRRRRRRR… Now this company is owned by a friend of Ron’s so he called, gave them heck, and Mario was back within the hour. All fixes were done at no charge. I wasn’t too on the ball, but I do remember that one of the things was that we did NOT need that exhaust fan in the bathroom. It’s there now and we will use it, but it was NOT mandatory. OH, right, he (Mario) had not vented the fan properly either. So with all this, the boys have been set back almost a whole day in this production.

Tuesday night I had made reservations at a local motel for Wednesday and Thursday night as that is when Greg thought the water would be turned off. I actually didn’t need the motel either night, but is sure was nice to get away from the boys (all of them) and the dog for a while. Now it looks like the water will be turned off Monday until Tuesday noon. OY!!!


Thursday, April 2, 2009

R and #1 Son are almost done refinishing the old vanity. It looks just wonderful. The wood stain is removed and sanded, and it has been painted a bright white. Saved a few hundred $$$ by doing that. The flooring will be a beige/tan/gold marbled Congoleum. Tile looks so nice but I am not a fan. I chose the paint color called “tropical dream” (it’s a light green). The tub surround, vanity top and window sill will be a cultured marbled onyx called “seafoam.” I found and oval mirrored medicine cabinet and sconces for either side of it with a similar oval base (in brushed nickel). I am so excited!! LOL and the sheet rock isn’t even up yet. BUT… the tub is in place!! It doesn’t appear to be as high as the old tub which will be a blessing for me – easier to get in and out. And we are putting in hand rails for safety.

The boys were here bright and early, and didn’t leave until after 6 p.m. They asked if we had a guest room. I offered them air mattresses on the sun porch. They laughed and went home. They believe they can have things done by Tuesday – plumbing, that is.

R and I took Ramona to obedience class. That dog has a real problem being in the same room with other dogs – especially small dogs. She could “sit and stay” forever as long as you have a treat in her hand to feed her every few seconds. But nothing else was working – she really wanted to herd that Chihuahua; and as long as the Chihuahua yapped, Ramona’s instinct and barking were set off. She tugged so hard on the leash that R pulled his back out trying to control her. From now on, #1 Son (the plus-sized former Marine) goes with me. But that dog KNEW I was pissed at her behavior; on the drive home, she stayed safely sitting in place on the back seat… NO problems. Now this bothers me why? I have never labeled myself as a “dog” person. I have always been a “cat” person. I thought having a dog and dealing with her training would give R something positive to do during his retirement. He always talks about the dogs he had (BIG dogs, not little dust mops). Yes, he said, a dog would be nice. And HE picked out Ramona. He chooses to do only what he wants to do. My hair gets shorter after every class – my temper also.


Friday, April 3, 2009

Last night I stayed at the motel room ALL BY MYSELF!!! It was so nice to have that huge king bed all for just ME!! I was in a much better mood this morning when I arrived at home.

I noticed that my laundry area is even looking like it’s been spruced up. The boys (Greg and Ron) have gone off to a BBQ picnic lunch and will be back to finish laying the new pipes in place (they will attach them starting Monday). Hopefully this weekend will be fairly quiet.


Monday, April 06, 2009

Thank goodness the weekend was quiet. The boys arrived about 9:30 this morning after stopping to pick up the new copper pipe and didn’t leave until after 7 this evening. We have NO water… well, that’s not quite the whole story. We have our neighbor’s hose hanging over our side fence so the toilet gets flushed. And I do have about 8 gallons of bottled water (we ‘do’ our own filtering). We aren’t doing any cooking… a salad, tuna sandwiches or a bowl of cereal. And the rest of the donuts that Ron brought in this morning. I just didn’t want to go to the Super 8 motel again tonight. I’ll deal with the lack of running water and sleep in my own bed, thank you very much. Also, baseball season has started and I’m not sure that the motel will have the channels I want to watch. The basketball finals (I thought it was MARCH Madness) have wiped out my Monday night TV favorites.

From all the drilling and sawing of pipes under my house, it sounds like they are making progress. I can't wait til this is done and we can start putting the bathroom together. Today starts week #3 on this project... they started digging up my back yard on March 16th.