Happy New Year

We dedicated 2008 to rebuilding; December in particular.

For example, the ham-handed framers did a less than adequate job on the great room bump out. It leaked.

Although Alex’s team didn’t create the problem, they did try various remedies. On Christmas Eve, we returned home from a family gathering to find snow melt on the floor. (Of course, I took photos and e-mailed them Alex and Steve.)

On December 26, Alex, his partner, Voncho, and father, Angelo, came to resolve the problem once and for all, opening the wall, building up the area, adding flashing and plenty of water-proofing while also installing the correct sliding glass doors. So far, so dry!

Yet the floor remained un-level, dropping three-quarters of an inch from the original sub-flooring to the new doors. Joe took care of this on December 30, by shimming the sub-flooring with carefully ripped 2x4s for the new section of the room. Another item off the long punch list Matt prepared.

Yesterday, while trying to adjust the height of our rented scaffolding, Matt and I instead bashed a hole in our freshly painted wall when the platform collapsed. Since neither of us was injured, we called it a minor set-back. Spackle to the rescue! It goes on pink, turning white when it dries. Several layers later, we’re still working on making the wall right.

Today, when removing blue painter’s tape from the wood trim on our media cabinet, I managed to take a lot of fresh paint off with it. Once again, a project moved backwards.

We were both getting frustrated and were fixin’ to get into a fight—with ourselves, each other, the house or a random hobo. More likely, one of us was about to fall off a ladder with some sort of majestic, DIY-limiting crash. Taking a prophylactic measure, we quit after putting in only four hours of painting.

This gave us fresh perspective. Instead of seeing only what is left to be done, we could see that the end of the project wasn’t that far off.

It is day 289 since demolition began, day 213 since hiring a builder, day 166 since getting permit approval and day 156 since the first crew arrived to officially begin the renovation.

We also realized today is not only day one of a happy new year; it is our eighth day in a row of painting and priming. Tomorrow, my “vacation” ends and I head back to the office. My tired bones will appreciate getting, um, back to work.