Time marches on

As you can tell from the dates, I haven't really been maintaining this blog very well. I wrote some posts earlier today and 'fudged' the dates, but the reality is I've either been too busy or too pre-occupied to worry about updating this blog.

I'm going to try and change that.

Since last October, a lot has changed, and I've accomplished quite a bit around the house. Not as much as I wanted to, but quite a bit nonetheless. So what has happened? Well:

• Wendy and I separated and Wendy moved into the basement suite
• To accomodate Wendy, the basement suite had some quick work done, including installing a new exterior door and window, and redoing one of the bedrooms with new flooring & paint. The bathroom got a new toilet and sink, but lost some of its drywall. It's definitely "interesting" now.
• The back deck over the main floor kitchen eventually got closed in and covered in plastic. Since it wasn't completely waterproof though, it never got insulated and so the back half of the main floor essentially stayed at ourdoor temperatures all winter long - i.e. cold!!
• Upstairs, the fuse panel was replaced with a new breaker panel and some of the wiring redone. This was a necessary precursor to working on the upstairs bathroom
• The upstairs bathroom was completely gutted down to the studs and subfloor
• The existing cast-iron sewer pipe wasn't suitable to handle all of the new bathrooms we wanted to install, so a new plastic system was installed over Christmas. The system needed the capacity to service 7 bathrooms so the main stack was fairly complex.
• I took up swing dance lessons with my daughter Brooklyn. Of course this doesn't relate to the house, except to occupy some of my time so that work on the house progressed more slowly
• In February, with new inspirational juices flowing through me, I decided to tackle the attic! Even though it was going to be a lot of work, it was an important step because it would give Arielle her own space (she was living in what was to be Kayleigh's bedroom) and would allow us to put in the walls for Corbin's room. Arielle was very excited about this project - we weren't expecting to start it for another year. She helped dig old insulation out of the attic to put the new joists in.
• The attic ended up taking about 6 weeks. Not only did I install a staircase, but I also had to put in a window (to serve as a fire escape), re-enforce all of the floor joists (they were just 2x4's) and put down a plywood floor. That was more work than we intially intended, but we decided to do it right the first time. I had also come up with a way to fit a 3 piece bathroom up there (quite a feat when the peak of the roof is only 7 feet and slopes steeply), but in the end we decided to wait until dormers were installed to install a shower. For now, there will just be a toilet and sink
• The sewer system got finished for the upstairs bathroom, the attic bathroom, and the vent to the roof
• Two weeks ago, new hot/cold water supply pipes were run for both bathrooms and the temporary kitchen sink upstairs. This was a fairly major psychological milestone because it's something that had been hanging over my head since December. With that done, the old plumbing was ripped out, opening the door to completion of the upstairs bathroom
• Kayleigh and I started stripping the paint off the old wood in what will be her bedroom. This turned out to be very rewarding. Not only is it a relatively low-stress job, but it was great seeing all of that beautiful fir revealed under layers of old paint. It was nice working on it with Kayleigh, too - it gave us something to work on together.

So that's it. We've now been in the house for 8 months and still don't have a proper kitchen (that's still many months off). And the upstairs bathroom still isn't finished yet, but at least we're close now - Wendy and I will be shopping for tiles any day now. The weather is finally warming up, which means that soon I'll be able to take another week off work and get the upstairs deck done.