So it's been a while since I've posted anything, huh! The moving business was exhausting. I'd rather renovate than move any day of the week. Or every day of the week, which is pretty much how long it took us to move all our stuff out of the old house. Luckily our former landlords are very understanding people. What with that and with our new internet service taking a week longer than expected to get hooked up, blogging really wasn't in the cards. Which is not to say that nothing interesting happened! I'll break it down into a highlights reel for you:
Last week we decided to locate the source of The Smell in my new bedroom. Using my superior nose power I deduced that it was coming from the closet.
The ceiling of which looked like this:
So I figured it was probably moldy drywall smell. We pulled off that damaged panel, and the smell definitely worsened. But a delicate sniff determined that the panel itself wasn't the culprit. Girded up my loins and smelled the rest of the drywall. Seemed to be coming mostly from one corner. I picked up a handy crowbar, and punched on through. (cue The Doors...) Phew! What a stench emerged. Dad heard the banging and came to take over. He loves demolition.
Okay I guess I gave the game away there. Two words for you: mouse graveyard. He got to work with his shovel (seriously, I am so grateful for The Dad, because I do not think I could have dealt with the awful combo that was The Smell and a load of dead mice) and by the time he was down to the bottom he'd counted twenty. A week later and we still haven't taken out the rest of the drywall. The Smell is still there, and I'm afraid it might be like dying mouse pilgrimage site back there or something.
So that was our first adventure.
Lest you think it's all fun and games and Smells and dead animals around here, let me direct you to Exhibit 2, which is Dad trying to stop the master bathroom toilet from running. It had been running an extra long time after each flush, but finally last Friday when Mum flushed it and it ran for about eight hours solid, we decided the time had come to act.
What you don't see in this artistic photo is how the shut-off valve was so corroded that when Dad went to turn it, the whole thing just broke the heck down and started spewing water all over the floor. Mass scramble for buckets and sponges and the all-house shut-off valve! Want to know why that panel in the ceiling of my closet was so damaged? Well it was actually a good thing we took it down when we did.
Pity I didn't take a video, because it was actually a very picturesque waterfall running across the pipes and right down onto my closet floor. Ever tried to find a plumber on a Friday night? It cannot be done. We finally got one guy to call us back, but his threat of charging double time on weekends (who can blame him, really) scared us right off. Friendly guy, though, and he turned out to be our hero as he spent a half hour on the phone with Dad, walking him through exactly how to fix the problem. Just needed a small part from Home Depot. Which, yes, was closed at the time. "It's just like camping!" says Dad, as Mum and I brush our teeth with bottled water and remind him sternly that Home Depot opens at 7am on Saturdays.
By 1pm Saturday we had our water back on, which was really several hours longer than we would have liked. (Though we did get to check out the town library as they're the closest public bathrooms. It's very nice!) Know what's truly amazing and wonderful? Indoor plumbing. We are really learning to appreciate our modern first world conveniences.
Those were, I think, the really major events here at Chez Homebodies. Of course we've been busy starting lots of other projects that aren't done yet.
I scraped the gross decals off the bathtub:
... but haven't gotten the strange rust stains off of the enamel yet.
Did a lot more destruction on the hall floor between my bedroom and bathroom:
... but it's a long way from ready to put hardwood on.
When that all seemed too overwhelming, I went my happy place, which is trying out paint samples on my walls.
Green for the bathroom and gray for the bedroom, and white trim all around.
And over the weekend we hired a great big chipper-shredder and started on the outdoor demolition.
We did a lot of yardwork. A LOT of yardwork. I'm talking whole trees came down.
But those befores and afters, I believe, are a tale for another day. For now, time to rest.
Cheerio, friends!
--Lily
No comments:
Post a Comment