This week has been pretty busy. Jean and I are both tired, but we're glad that so much got done.
Wednesday June 29, I finally got someone to get our tile job done in the bathroom. I ended up changing which guy was going to do the job. Jean and I were excited that it got done--or rather--mostly done. We have a little bit that needs to get done in the closet because we just barely ran out of grout before he could finish. I've been trying to get him to finish the job but I'm having a lot of trouble actually talking with him. I've never grouted before, so he'd do a better job of finishing it than I would since he's already done almost the entire thing.
Another project that got done last week was our new circuit breaker box in the basement. We needed to have a new one frankly because the old one wasn't big enough for all the things that needed to go in it. The heat pump especially needed to have two spaces, but it was so inconvenient to get two spaces in the old box that we opted for a new box in a better place.
Wednesday, July 6 a guy came out to connect our heat pump to our new circuit breaker box. That didn't work out so well because he ended up not having enough cable. He felt bad about it because he had to drive all the way from Livingston to us (48 miles) for nothing.
Also on Wednesday, I had been really busy working on the underground sprinkling system and the lawn. I mowed it that day, causing Jean's and my hay fever to really flare. I cleaned out the picnic area and fixed the broken gasket on the river pump. That night I put a couple coats of grout sealer on the bathroom floor except in the closet where the tile isn't finished. Man, I was tired! It was about to get incredibly busy, though!
It started about 8:00 a.m. the next day (which is like the middle of the night for me because of my work schedule). The first to come were a crew of 4 guys who installed 12 windows in a day. Pulling out the old windows was a little difficult for them because Grandpa built this house. Nothing was going to come out without a lot of effort!
Tim, Zana, Jared, and Kassie arrived at the house a little later. Zana and Jean helped dig a couple ditches in the yard for our Internet cable and our satellite TV cable. The Internet cable ditch had almost been completed but Zana and Jean finished the worst of it--through a thick system of roots. The satellite TV cable ditch was not nearly so problematic and they got that one finished and the line buried by the afternoon. I am so thankful to Zana and Jean for that. Tim continued to work on the bathroom and came across a few hiccups in attaching the plumbing to the sink and the plumbing to the toilet.
Have you ever watched The Money Pit when Hanks and Long wake up after dealing with house remodeling for months? Long opens the bathroom cabinet and asks the construction worker to please give her something that would normally be in the cabinet while Hanks had to walk through a maze to get water--resulting in a domino effect of destruction. I woke up about 11:00 or 11:30 a.m. (I even slept during some of their hammering and other construction noises!) and walked into the dining room realizing that we had been invaded. I was still bleary-eyed and saw a guy in front of a gaping maw in the dining room where the window had been. At first I thought it was Zana's father until I said good morning. The window guy turned to me and said good morning, probably thinking, Where have you been? We've been busy all morning! I had to laugh at myself afterward. At least the coffee in the kitchen was still hot!
Soon after I woke up, Dad and Bonnie arrived. They originally planned to haul out a whole bunch of junk out with their trailer, but someone was still using it, so they just came to have lunch with us.
Eventually, the heat pump guy returned and connected our heat pump to the circuit breaker and made sure that everything worked. By the afternoon, the air conditioning worked! I guess it was kind of pointless for the rest of the day until the windows were installed, but we were glad none the less!
I started getting lunch set up for eating at the picnic table near the river. It was pretty convenient to eat out there considering the activity going on at the house. I started a fire at the fireplace. It's sadly getting in disrepair, but I don't know how to fix it. I remember so many Fourth of July picnics at this outdoor table over the years and I was reminded of "the good ol' days." One day I might not be able to have those picnics here. The night before Jean made some shrimp pasta salad (a Dore tradition for summer picnics). I cooked some burgers and hot dogs. Then we had lunch, but for me it was breakfast.
That afternoon I fixed an underground sprinkler line that got nicked when Zana and Jean were making the ditches. Afterward, I started filling in the long ditch for the Internet cable. I got some of the yard watered too.
But wait, that's not all! Friday July 8, two window guys came back and installed three of the four doors that we ordered. The dining room door will probably be installed on Tuesday, along with the tractor beam and medical staff. :)
Tim and Jared came by the house also on Friday. I played Halo with Jared (with his dad's permission) while Tim continued work on the bathroom. The bathroom looks really great thanks to him, and we appreciate all he's done for us. Also on Friday he discovered why the old sink wasn't draining well. There was some bad clog in the line that would probably happen again because the pipes are metal and not PVC. We just decided that it would be better to replace that drain line with PVC under the circumstances.
Our house has new windows and doors. We finally have air conditioning and a heat pump/propane heating system. The bathroom is that much closer to being finished. We can use that toilet in there again! The shower needs a couple tweaks and it's perfect.
I need a day off after my days off!
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