Our Old House

We watch a lot of "This Old House" here in this old house.  Which, more than anything, is just frustrating.  They make everything look so fast and effortless.  Besides the fact that they show several days worth of work in an hours time, and the fact that they have a huge crew of skilled workers and craftsman and any tools a builder could wish for, everything is just so darn EASY for them.  They'll be putting in a pocket door and say "We pre-drilled all our holes, and mitered all of our mortises, so now we'll just check to make sure it is plumb.  And it is!  So we'll simply scribe this trim onto this tenon and . . . there!  A pocket door in 2 minutes!"   We watch it as re-modelers looking for ideas, but mostly it sets us up for disappointment and frustration when things take 7 million times longer than they take on TV.

I think the world needs to see what is is really like.  And don't try to tell me there are shows on HDTV about remodeling nightmares, and people doing all their own construction work, and 600,000 other blogs doing the exact same thing, cuz I don't want to hear it.  I want to show you what it is like to live in a house that is always under construction, to feel with me the pain and excitement of choosing faucets, to walk with me over a floor covered in bad linoleum.  What if you could see how slow and painful and dirty the whole process is?  Would you be intrigued? Bored?  Or would you just feel sorry for me?  Cuz I'll take it.  I figure if I have to live this way, the best I can hope for is that everyone feels bad for me.

So, you are in luck my intrigue/boredom seekers!  I'm, going to do it.  I am going to start posting about my house remodeling like I never have before.  You are going to hear so much about insulation and plaster you are going to barf! I hope you brought your breath mints.  I don't want all your bad breath messing up my concentration.

For some time now we have been finishing up the last few things needed for the building inspector to come and inspect.  I've mentioned before how this stage has nearly dragged on into eternity.  But now we are close.  Richard took the blue prints down to the City Offices just this morning to schedule an inspection.  I don't know how that meeting went, but I'm hoping no news is good news.  There are just a couple little things we have to finish before he comes, so hopefully a scheduled deadline will help us finish those.  We are so close now I can smell the drywall mud.  Things are about to get exciting!

And you better hold on to your hats, kids at home, cuz I'm taking you with me!  You'll get to see it as it is happening!  You'll get to see the whole process from Middle to End. Unless I get bored and don't want to post about it anymore.  That is totally possible too.

I'm going to go upstairs and take a picture of the bathroom right now, cuz that is the room we'll be working on first.  I'm not going to tidy it up or anything.  Raw honesty.  That is my thing.  And also I am way too lazy to clean it up.  We're lucky I'm willing to walk all the way upstairs to take a picture.

Presto!

ooh, it is cleaner up there than I expected.  That room used to be the catch all for all the stuff that didn't have anywhere else to go, but now all that's really in there is a rogue cardboard box and a wandering potty seat.

And tools, of course.  But who DOESN'T have a bathroom full of tools these days, am I right?

So here is the view looking north:

That is going to be the shower there in the back.  There was a window there, but Richard bricked it up, as you can see.  Still got bricks all over the floor and everything.  We took the clawfoot tub back outside cuz it was in the way, and we've got to figure out some way to refinish it.  We could have it professionally refinished, but that would cost about $1000.00, which incidentally, is roughly the cost of a brand new claw foot tub.

Here is the view looking south:

aw.  Sweet, innocent little bathroom.  It has no idea that it is about to be spackled, and painted and decked out like a geisha.  And if you look at that picture of me in the mirror long enough it starts to move.  Weird.

Ok.  So that is where we are.  As soon as things change,  you will be the first to know.  Elesa Out!