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the_siobhanAccomplishments Unlocked:
My first ever attempt at mudding drywall. Getting that shit smooth is a skill people - mine looks like a Joy Division album cover. (I figure I'll just slap on multiple layers and it will all wash out in the sanding, right?)
Plumber called that the parts are in so he'll be here tomorrow
Got a somebody to build the frame around the exposed pipe in the basement, he'll be here on Sunday
I contacted a few places about making the doors since they are odd sizes so they have to be custom-built. Prize goes to the guy who got back to me right away, was really clear and helpful, and was able to make recommendations.
Door-making guy mentioned the possibility I might need a fire door downstairs since it's on the same floor as the furnace and the laundry room. (Apparently laundry rooms are the second highest source of fires after kitchens.) After many emails and phone calls to the city, the Fire Marshall's office, and the engineer who drew the original blueprints I have -- three completely different answers. Head, meet your faithful companion, desk. I'm going to go with the one from the Fire Marshall, since if I get in trouble they'll be the ones doing the inspection.
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Somebody who hasn't been following me since the start of this nonsense asked for the background on the house. So to summarize:
It's an old house and the kitchen was falling off. Ex-housemate and I agreed to do a complete tear-down and rebuild because the room was basically 100+ year rotten old wood and couldn't be repaired. Kitchen was a tiny space the size of a walk-in closet so this was also a chance to make it a bit bigger. Ex-housemate lived in the basement, including a room under the kitchen. They wanted to move their girlfriend (now wife) in with them so they wanted to dig out and expand the basement as well so they'd have more room. We hired contractors to rip it all out and build a bit bigger.
That was in 2020. For various reasons it took over a year to get the permits. The lockdown wasn't even the biggest delay. In retrospect I should have taken that as a sign.
Three years ago? Four years? I swear I have lost track - the work finally started. All of the furniture from the basement went into storage and everything from the kitchen went into boxes, and it sat there for years. I didn't have access to the backyard - where the shed is - for the whole time because the back wall was boarded up. The entire main floor was filled with boxes. We did meal prep on a 12"+10' wooden shelf using a microwave and a hotplate. Our refrigerator sat next to the television.
Work was delayed by (not necessarily in order)
the existence of not one, but three concrete floors sitting on top of each other in the basement
the discovery of a stream bed running under my house
my contractor getting cancer
my contractor developing severe hernias because he didn't take enough time after surgery to heal before going back to work and having to have more surgery
the contractor's site supervisor taking the opportunity while he was off work for three months to rip him off for large quantities of money and supplies
the site supervisor's work having to be ripped out and re-done because he was using the wrong (cheaper) materials and pocketing the difference
the contractor's truck being stolen
the contractor's truck breaking down (multiple instances)
everybody on the work crew catching Covid on multiple occasions
and now another surgery date that happened this past March
During the years all this was going on, things got bad. So, so bad, y'all. Housemate got really depressed and just... stopped getting off the couch. Meanwhile I was juggling working full time with being the support person for my very sick father-in-law. I was paying all the bills and doing all the follow-up with the contractors and I felt like I was losing my frigging mind. So I just started eating and everything else in my room - only went downstairs to use the microwave.
Last summer the housemate moved out to to live with their wife instead. All their stuff also moved out of the house, which meant I finally had room to move things around. The kitchen finally got finished. So I started opening up boxes.
And the boxes, holy shit. We were originally quoted three months on the work, so we just boxed everything up and figured we'd deal with it later. Tinned food we figured we'd be unpacking shortly. Things belonging to my partner who died in 2019 that I just couldn't bear to sort through when I put it away. Stuff we figured we'd find a use for "some day". Partial boxes of things that we bought and then just lost track of in the chaos. (4 boxes of lightbulbs! 6 boxes of contractor bags!) Things that just got shoved under the stairwell rather than deal with them (Two trips to take back empty beer cans.) Props from the housemate's LARP hobby. We just shoved things into storage because we had to get it ALL out of the way fast.
So I'm sorting it all out now. And on top of that I'm trying to figure out how to finish the work the contractor left undone in the basement because since he told me he had to go back for more surgery I haven't heard a peep out of him. I have no idea if he's even still alive.
On the plus side, once the basement is done I don't have to rush with the rest of it. Although getting the backyard to at least channel water away from the base of the house would probably be a good thing.
So yeah. Getting there. Slowly.
---
Somebody who hasn't been following me since the start of this nonsense asked for the background on the house. So to summarize:
It's an old house and the kitchen was falling off. Ex-housemate and I agreed to do a complete tear-down and rebuild because the room was basically 100+ year rotten old wood and couldn't be repaired. Kitchen was a tiny space the size of a walk-in closet so this was also a chance to make it a bit bigger. Ex-housemate lived in the basement, including a room under the kitchen. They wanted to move their girlfriend (now wife) in with them so they wanted to dig out and expand the basement as well so they'd have more room. We hired contractors to rip it all out and build a bit bigger.
That was in 2020. For various reasons it took over a year to get the permits. The lockdown wasn't even the biggest delay. In retrospect I should have taken that as a sign.
Three years ago? Four years? I swear I have lost track - the work finally started. All of the furniture from the basement went into storage and everything from the kitchen went into boxes, and it sat there for years. I didn't have access to the backyard - where the shed is - for the whole time because the back wall was boarded up. The entire main floor was filled with boxes. We did meal prep on a 12"+10' wooden shelf using a microwave and a hotplate. Our refrigerator sat next to the television.
Work was delayed by (not necessarily in order)
During the years all this was going on, things got bad. So, so bad, y'all. Housemate got really depressed and just... stopped getting off the couch. Meanwhile I was juggling working full time with being the support person for my very sick father-in-law. I was paying all the bills and doing all the follow-up with the contractors and I felt like I was losing my frigging mind. So I just started eating and everything else in my room - only went downstairs to use the microwave.
Last summer the housemate moved out to to live with their wife instead. All their stuff also moved out of the house, which meant I finally had room to move things around. The kitchen finally got finished. So I started opening up boxes.
And the boxes, holy shit. We were originally quoted three months on the work, so we just boxed everything up and figured we'd deal with it later. Tinned food we figured we'd be unpacking shortly. Things belonging to my partner who died in 2019 that I just couldn't bear to sort through when I put it away. Stuff we figured we'd find a use for "some day". Partial boxes of things that we bought and then just lost track of in the chaos. (4 boxes of lightbulbs! 6 boxes of contractor bags!) Things that just got shoved under the stairwell rather than deal with them (Two trips to take back empty beer cans.) Props from the housemate's LARP hobby. We just shoved things into storage because we had to get it ALL out of the way fast.
So I'm sorting it all out now. And on top of that I'm trying to figure out how to finish the work the contractor left undone in the basement because since he told me he had to go back for more surgery I haven't heard a peep out of him. I have no idea if he's even still alive.
On the plus side, once the basement is done I don't have to rush with the rest of it. Although getting the backyard to at least channel water away from the base of the house would probably be a good thing.
So yeah. Getting there. Slowly.