This July 4th weekend was spent mostly twisting wire. I went room to room, installing outlets. 32 to be exact, with about eight more to go, followed by a variety of switches and light fixtures. Considering that an outlet takes anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 minutes to wire depending on the number and guage of the wires coming into the box, I'd say that's pretty mediocre progress.
My worst fears were realized this weekend, when we had one of those violent 12:15am thunderstorms. As the lightning flashed and the rain streaked down, the only thing I could think of was, "is it dry in there?". You see, from the beginning, we found that the corner where the addition hits the rest of the house (the corner just to the left of the pile of drywall being loaded in this pic) presented something of a challenge for us. There's not a lot of area for a gutter to be hung and rain from both the new roof and the old roof all flows to this corner. As Bob was building the structure, that corner was constantly leaking to the point where I thought the floor was going to cave in.
So as I lay there listening to the rain, I figured I would sleep better knowing we're all dry.
We weren't.
Even after the roof was up, the siding was hung, and all was sealed in, we found that there was still a leak. Not a bad one, but is there such a thing as a minor roof leak? So the buckets came back, the towels and rags were laid down, and in the morning I called Bob.
I gotta hand it to Bob. In the pouring rain Tuesday morning, he and his roofing guy climbed up on there to inspect. But first, while standing in the pouring rain, he lit a cigarette. John Wayne woulda been proud. Anyway, he had a hunch as to what the problem was, so he spent all day Wednesday tearing it up and redoing it.
On the progress side, we also ordered flooring over the weekend, as well as some new kitchen cabinetry and bathroom countertops. but then we get into a whole chicken/egg scenario. What goes first? The floor? The paint? the cabinets? These all need to be worked out. Meanwhile, Bob is pushing to get this done, cuz he just got awarded another job.
Speaking of which, he called me Wednesday night around 9pm asking if he could tear out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room the next day (today). One one side of this wall is the fridge and a cabinet. On the other side is currently a bookshelf, the stereo cabinet, the TV, and a crapload of temporarily relocated toys. In the wall are various electrical wires. There was about 3 hours of unwiring, storing, and relocating work to do. I told him he had to be f'ing kidding me. So that happens Monday.
It's weird. We're really down to the wire now. As of today the siding is done (pictures to come), and the drywall finishing begins. Then Bob's got to paint the ceilings and prime the walls (which we will then paint) and after a few minor chores he's outta here. but then that's where WE come in. We're doing the flooring. We're installing light fixtures. We're getting the furniture. We've got a long way to go.
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