You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September 2006.
Where the heck have we been? Oh, you know, around. We still have no internet connection at the house so updating is tricky. Currently we are parked at the town dock in the truck, picking up the free wireless access in the nearby park. If you want to feel highly suspicious sometime, may we suggest using your laptop while sitting in a pickup that has a washer and dryer stacked in the back? It looks like we are trying to offload hot goods.
Anyway, we are still trying to minimize the chaos in the house while getting as much work done as possible, but there isn’t much to show. The bathroom and laundry room are tiled, grouted, and sealed (hence why we’ve collected the used washer and dryer from the very nice person who sold them to us on the cheap. Clean underwear, here we come!). Doors have been hung in the bathroom and bedroom. The cabinet for the kitchen sink is built and the sink has been dropped in, but not connected. We’ve fixed the not-so-hot hot water problem in the shower. The entryset is on the front door. We organized the kitchen into something resembling a kitchen. Things are progressing.
In other news, we’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon. Before we moved in, we were mildly concerned about the number of spiders that were still in our house. They moved in when the house was still 100% construction zone and made themselves quite at home. We don’t mind spiders at all. They are helpful little buggers, really. They eat the mosquitos! That is something to love in an eight-legged critter. But there were spiders everywhere in the house, which was a little unnerving.
Since moving in we’ve still noticed spiders, but they are dead spiders. And there are dead moths. And dead unidentifiable…bugs (do we look like entomologists?). There’s bugs, and they are all dead. Weird right?
Not really. Turns out that our cat, in addition to thoroughly enjoying the giant jungle gym that is our house while continuing her campaign of terror against the dog, has found time to develop her skills as a consummate bug hunter.
Keep a sharp eye out. You might be next for Reboo, the Great Huntress.
Gotta go. The coppers are circling. A photo post will follow soon.
The move is complete. Laundry baskets full of shoes are stacked up in front of the fridge. The bathroom supplies are next to the miter saw. We have a shower but no sink, the hot water isn’t actually "hot", and you need to be really careful not to splash because the bathroom floor isn’t grouted yet. We have a stove and microwave for cooking, but only condiments in the house (can you make a meal from Worcestershire sauce and dijon mustard?). It doesn’t really matter because we aren’t sure where the pans or plates are.
The kitchen, bathroom, laundry room and bedroom have walls. The only room with a door is the bathroom (we are a modest house). We have a closet, but no rods to hang things from. We have a television, but it is currently hidden behind a stack of drywall. We have a growing pile of laundry (made worse by Cherie’s recent travels), but no washer and dryer. We have power, but few installed lights so we still need to use flashlights. Our mattress is on the floor.
The dog spends her time fruitlessly searching for a comfortable place to lie down. The cat keeps trying to escape. There is dust covering everything, including the animals. We don’t know where the checkbook is. Getting from room to room requires climbing over tools and boxes. Our front door still doesn’t have a doorknob. There are bits of drywall, stacks of wood, and tufts of insulation everywhere.
Home sweet home.
It has finally happened, we got power today. I showed up to the house around 6pm tonight to find out that the power company had run the wires. It was now up to me to throw the switch, and throw the switch I did. Several switches or breakers were turned ON, in fact. After turning them on in the basement I ran upstairs and turned on the kitchen lights for the first time… only to realize, we need light bulbs. So, to feed my need for power I grabbed the first thing I could find with a cord to plug it in. The bright red Kitchen-Aid mixer never sounded so nice. All I could think of was, "Look at me, I’m sailing, I’m sailing!" I liked it so much I checked all the outlets with it. I got the refrigerator plugged in and running. Tomorrow I move everything to its newly cooled compartments. The bathroom fan works too. I am still filled with joy at this minute. Next problem telephone service and Internet, but that is not to be thought of until tomorrow. I’m sailing!
The chaos is about to begin. We’re packed up and mostly moved out of our rental. Only mostly moved out because, you guessed it, there’s still no power at the new house. Our landlords? They are nice people.
Cherie is about to leave for a week and a half, leaving Michael on his own in the powerless house. There’s no internet service at the new house yet, which is probably not surprising to anyone. So we will probably disappear for a little while, unless something very exciting happens (hint, hint, electric company) and Cherie needs to update from the road. But we’ll be back! New and improved! Now with even less sleep and more sawdust!
Before we slide off the face of the earth for a bit, we thought that we should do another one of those plot hole entries. A round up of all the things we’ve been meaning to tell you but never seemed to work into the conversation.
For example, not too long ago we were relishing the thought of another houseguest. Yet another sucker to cajole into free labor, what could be better?
Behold, Kate:
Here, Kate is using the Sawz-All to cut out door sills, but she also helped us sand drywall. She remained remarkably chipper through the entire process, because that’s just how Kate is.
Speaking of drywall, did we show you the upstairs hall?
Looks done to us! Well, okay, it needs to be mudded. But it has walls and that is a big step.
Mudding is, of course, intended to fill the gaps between drywall pieces and create a smooth wall surface.
Michael does the mudding. Cherie is never, ever allowed to mud, as it takes a steady hand and coordination, neither of which Cherie has. However, she is allowed to sand the mud after it dries:
No, she’s not going gray. That’s drywall dust.
This dust is miserable. It gets everywhere:
That’s dust, wedged into the cracks of the kitchen floor. The shop vac took care of it.
The shop vac didn’t take care of our friend Todd, who generously helped sand the bedroom and bathroom, but perhaps we should have tried it.
We’ve been taking breaks from drywalling to fret over our new leech field. The site work contractor is required to seed the field with either grass or wildflowers in order to prevent erosion (we think, there may be another reason but we are too lazy to research it). We picked wildflowers because we don’t own a lawnmower, nor are we particularly interested in having a big ol’ lawn down by the road. A field of wildflowers, though, that sounds promising.
Greenery is already coming up:
Do you see the problem? Look closer:
Those aren’t wildflowers.
At first we thought that the site contractor had accidentally put in the grass seed. Then we realized that, no, there were wildflowers growing in the shadow of the this beastly stuff. Finally, the problem became clear.
The contractor hadn’t covered the seeds with straw, but hay. Straw doesn’t have seeds; hay does. The hay seeds found the new soil much to their liking.
Apparently, we now have a hayfield.
And people wonder why Cherie is fleeing the scene.
Update: The Code Enforcement Officer was seen at the house. Repeat, the Code Enforcement Officer was seen at the house. She was doing inspector-like work and clipboards may or may not have been involved. All signs point to progress.
Stay tuned for further updates.
Today the electrician finished his part of the electricity connection…
Wait, let’s back up.
Here’s the order of events that we have been waiting on:
1) The electrician finishes his wiring to the pole.
2) The electrician calls the Code Enforcement Officer.
3) The Code Enforcement Officer inspects and (we assume) approves the work.
4) The Code Enforcement Officer (how many times can we say that?)
calls the electric company.
5) The electric company runs the wire from the street and turns on the power.
6) Cherie and Michael bask in the glow of artificial light.
Today numbers 1 and 2 were accomplished. Now we need everyone to send their good wishes towards the Code Enforcement Officer. If she gets that cold that’s been going around and calls in sick, we fear that we will be forced to drag her out to the site, pajamas and all. And that might bias her against us for our future code enforcement needs.
So stay healthy Ms. Code Enforcement Officer! And come see us soon.
No, we don’t have power yet. Thanks for asking, though. We wish that the parties responsible for providing us with power were half as concerned about our situation as you all are. (Note to Cherie’s co-workers: While she appreciates the interest that you all are showing in the state of the house, please stop asking about the electricity issue. Your concern is noted, but really, if you keep asking then Cherie is liable to break down in the middle of the office and start ranting about the power company and the electricity conspiracy against her. And that is just unprofessional.)
So, no, no power yet. Trust us, when we actually get power our joyful celebration will be heard not only across the state, but across the nation and possibly even internationally. At least in Canada.
But, the Great Electricity Conspiracy didn’t stop us from making our house look a little more like a house. A few rooms, at least.
First, the bathroom:
It’s been painted and tiled, and it also serves as an excellent example of why Cherie shouldn’t save picture-taking until the end of the workday when she is so tired that she can barely hold the camera up. The walls aren’t really that color; they really are darker and more green. Also, Michael did a stunning job of tiling the floor, but you can’t tell it from this shot.
This is a wee bit better. The color is closer to true, and you can see that the tub surround has been grouted, but the floor still isn’t showing its true good-lookingness. We’ll get some better shots. Someday.
Our bedroom has also improved and been badly photographed. Primer + floor = almost livable!
Now you are just about up-to-date. No power, pretty bathroom, improved bedroom. That’s pretty much our weekend.
Oh, and there was that little incident where the sun tunnel ate Michael’s head.
Perhaps the electricity gods were demanding a sacrifice. Or the solar gods were exacting revenge.
