November Madness

Is it REALLY November 2011? Clearly, maintaining this blog did not make my priority list! And I wish it had - it's fun to re-read these old posts.

It's been a tough one, this rehab. In over our heads with full time jobs, family and other responsibilities, you know - LIFE! Work on the house happens when we're not too physically or mentally fried to tackle yet another evening of manual labor.

But - the push is on to host Thanksgiving dinner. Um - yes, 2011 - in case you were wondering! With only just two (short) weeks to go, we WILL get the first floor habitable to have dinner.

The breezeway is 95% done; just need to whitewash the ceiling but that can come later. Kevin built three coat closets, and they turned out great. Right now the room holds all of our free-standing kitchen cabinets plus appliances. It's a bit crowded to say the least, and preparing food is a pain with zero counter space. The sink remains in the real kitchen, in the main body of the house. We moved everything into the breezeway so we can tackle the real dirty work in the stone part of the house to prepare for installing the kitchen "for real."

Over the past two weeks we have been working on the drywall in the dining room ceiling. Of the four main rooms in this part of the house, three of them had the original lathe and plaster on the ceiling, plus two layers of drywall. The DR had only the plaster plus just one layer of drywall and it was in terrible, rough condition. It has been a real challenge to make it all blend with the adjoining rooms so it doesn't look as uneven as it is! Nothing is square or level in a 170 year old house. We are mastering the fine art of "feathering" the drywall mud.

Kevin has also been pulling wires for the electrical outlets and light switches for the first and second floors. Nothing minor! We also need to chose lighting for the first floor. The ceilings are low so it will probably be flush to the ceiling. Trying to keep the costs down on that too, because lighting can get very pricey.