Week 29

Not much happened this week due to scheduling difficulties, but one big fun thing happened: the bathroom door arrived:

This represents essentially the last of the reusable wood from the old parts of the house: two floor joists and some kind of old headboard left behind when the previous owner's nephew had it cleaned out after she died.

Mr. Bunkport also brought a house warming gift:

This is a photo of a cabinet, shaving mirror, & out of control jasmine vine that were in the back downstairs room (where the giant French doors are now) before this renovation project began. So thoughtful! Thank you, Mr. Bunkport!

Next up: I think we'll be able to get the guys two full days next week to work, so if all goes well, we may actually be able to get very close to done. Cross your fingers for us!

Week 28

Not too much visible work this week. Mr. Bunkport has been hard at work on the bathroom door at his house -- the reclaimed wood is dry and brittle, and in one case had years of animal urine stains (& smell) secretly lurking under the old varnish, so it's taken him a while to complete the work. Sounds like it's now ready to hang, though, so get ready for those pictures next week!

In the meantime, here's what was done on Mars this week:

Trim on the outside (garage side) of the door to the new room:

Trim on the inside:

The wall above and next to the re-done bathroom tile has been repaired:

Ready for repainting!

Mr. Bunkport put the flange on the toilet drain:

And they started to install the rail for the door:

(The blue tape is marking which bolts are anchored in studs.)

Next up: installing the door, toilet, sink and cabinet, and tub faucets.

Week 27

The steady march towards completion continued this week, with several things getting finished.

Monday & Tuesday were quiet. A lot of looking at things & measuring things. Mr. Bunkport also taught me how to apply tung oil to the new counter to seal it. I put on three layers this week, with another two or three to go. It's a nice honey color now (sorry, it's hard to see the difference in pictures, so I left them out).

After that's done, I am going to see if tung oil will stain the interior of the windows a similar color; if not, I'll get a honey colored stain & use that instead.


Wednesday

The plumber made his final trip to Mars on Wednesday. He vented the water heater and washing machine drain:

If you click on this photo to make it bigger, you can see that the red house has a large statue of the RCA-Victor dog on the roof:

Pickles noticed it one time going out on a walk, & got very, very concerned. Who is that & how did he get up there?! She has since forgotten about it.

Anyway, while the plumber was here, he also added an outdoor faucet for the back yard:

The electrician also completed his work. Outside lights:

I'm torn -- they look kind of dinky up on that big wall, but we also wouldn't want something bigger -- the yard is tiny, and anything bigger would be kind of excessive. Maybe they should have been placed lower on the wall. Well, either way, they work & that's great. We an always make a change later.

He also reinstalled the light over the back stairs:

To get the dog up & down the stairs at night, we've been relying on the neighbor having a string of decorative lights turned on. It was a little dicey on the couple of nights they had them turned off.

He also installed the rest of the recessed lights and the bathroom fan:

Thursday

Thursday was a clean up day, and also the day that Mr. Bunkport started building a bathroom door out of other reclaimed materials from the house, plus a large piece of frosted glass he found for $10 or $20:

The room is so tight downstairs that we don't want to have normal, swinging doors taking up space, so we're going with a barn-style door. Same idea as this.

Friday

On Friday, they began the installation of the fire door between the garage and new room:

And the tile-setter prepared the surface for the redo of the bathroom tiles:

Saturday

After a long day on Saturday, the tile was completed:

Here is what it looked like the first time, for reference:

The difference is that the tiles are much more closely set, and have a dark grey grout instead of white. It's a much more modern feel, versus a more institutional look. Although at this point, having a bathroom that looks like it might be in an insane asylum might fit our mental state more closely.

While he was toiling away downstairs, we were cleaning the house upstairs, clearing away the last of the mess and dirt and dust, and getting ready for a little birthday party.

We have our dining room back!

There are just two things still waiting to go elsewhere: one large neon sign just out of the shot and that small wooden shelf to the left of the built-in. What a relief to have all that stuff out of there!

I was hoping to have the stored stuff out of our offices and yard, and back into the garage this weekend. Mr. Bunkport said that I could stash it all in one corner of the garage -- it just seems like it will be in the way, though, so we decided to just leave it be for a little while longer.

Five people came over for the party: Amanda, Matt, Susie, Paul, and Jon. It was a DIY theme, where everyone made some wonderful food or did some kind of clever craft, plus DIY mini-pizzas for dinner. Those five people, plus AJ, myself, and Pickles, that equals seven humans and one 50-pound dog. All in the kitchen. All at the same time. All doing things. Without any accidents or trampled toes. It's easy to get caught up in the list of things that still need to be done, & miss the forest for the trees: what a wonderful space we now have!

Here is Amanda hand-stuffing olives with blue cheese and anchovies, and Matt making a complex piece of origami:

The finished piece, in a place of honor among the plants:

Susie making a Thai chili paste that is going to blow the top of my head off later (which is a good thing):

I was remiss in my documenting, & didn't take pictures of her making Ethiopian mead (honey wine), or of Paul making three types of pickled garlic, but here are the jars up on the top of the fridge, ready to begin their fermentation:

I also didn't get a photo of Jon and his three types of homemade cured fish, plus all the delicious things he brought to accompany them. He was dissatisfied with the texture, but my two cents is that it was absolutely delicious!

Meanwhile, AJ was starting a cultured butter, making pizza crusts for people to put toppings on, & making this blueberry pie (pastry also from scratch):

Thank you everyone, for such a wonderful evening, and thank you for leaving all these creative, delicious things behind for me to admire, look after, and enjoy!

Amanda also brought a little extra special something for me to put in the home brewery once the construction is done:

As you can imagine, I have encountered many creative pronunciations of my name. Most recently, "Di Psoriasis." My favorites of all time are "Destroyers" and "Duserhaas." Amanda was a German major, so that last one caught on as a nickname several years ago. Three years ago, as we were looking for a house, I decided that I wanted the new house to have some kind of space to turn into a brewery, and that the brewery would be called the Duser Haus. In my head, I pictured some sort of old style sign on the door...and Amanda produced exactly what I had in mind! Thank you very, very much, Amanda!!!

Next up: installation of bathroom door, sink, and toilet. Plus other odds & ends. Getting closer!

Week 26

More big milestones this week. Getting closer to finishing!

But first, a picture from photojournalist AJ, of Amanda & me painting one of the kitchen walls last week:

Thank you for your contribution, AJ!

After painting all day Sunday last week, Amanda stayed overnight for slumber party fun times (which consisted of us all nodding off at 9:30) and to help with the painting happening on Labor Day. Unbeknownst to us, Pickles also brought home overnight guests that day: fleas. Then, on top of all of us getting chewed up the night before, the salad we ordered in with pizza for lunch on Monday wasn't...quite...right, & we all got belly aches. What a way to thank Amanda for giving up two days of her long weekend!!!

Anyway, back to Week 26. Two big things happened on Friday. First, the countertop was installed:

From another angle:

Inspector Pickles approves:

The counter is made from wood that was previously holding up the house. It makes for a very beautiful surface, with a lot of character. Here's a detail, showing one of the beetle-damaged pieces:

Here's a picture of the same piece of wood, from underneath:

Beautiful...when it's not holding up the house.

We also got a real doorknob and deadbolt on the back door:

Hooray!

Nothing happened on Saturday this week. Instead, the guys came on Sunday to install outlets and switches, and to retile the bathroom (it had not been done to Mr. Bunkport's satisfaction). Unfortunately, it ended up being unexpectedly loud, because they decided to rip everything out & move the tub valve. So now we're back to this:

Sorry neighbors!

Still, there is more good news. They vented the dryer:

Yes, that's right: for the first time in 26 weeks, we have laundry!!

We immediately did a load of stinky, flea-ridden dog bedding:

And then this happened:

Looks like a leaky drain hose. AJ, Mars master plumber, is going to pick up a new one tomorrow. Surely we will have laundry fully up & running by this time next week! It must be true!

Meanwhile, we do have outlets and light switches all complete in the kitchen.

Exciting outlet:

Breathtaking switches:

And the beginning of the outdoor light switches:

Mr. Bunkport & I also went over to a sort of junk yard for recycled building supplies to look for cool fixtures for the bathroom. We found this medicine cabinet for $10:

After Mr. Bunkport left, we moved the big blue chair temporarily in our storage/dining room  back where it belongs, in the sun room. The dining room is almost a dining room again!

It looks oddly under-furnished in there now. 

Pickles doesn't care. And she'll sit in that chair wherever she finds it:

We're both very busy at work right now, so losing our usual Sunday relaxation to construction was rough. But except for staining the counter, the windows, and the door, the kitchen is officially complete! We celebrated with a toast:

And we had our first dinner at the counter. 

Next up: staining the counter, completion of electrical & plumbing work, completion of the retiling, and beginning to move stored stuff out of our offices & back into the garage.

Week 25 (+1 day)

More progress this week. Apologies to our friends who look forward to catching up with the project on Mondays; Labor Day felt like a continuation of Week 25, so I thought I should just post it along with everything else.


Monday

On Monday, the tile floor was sealed:

Well, sort of. I asked about some spots that still looked unsealed, and the head tile setter reported that it hadn't been done properly. He went back & did it himself on Tuesday.

Said tile setter also made great progress on Monday:

We were expecting the tile to stop around 4 feet high, so were surprised that he was apparently planning to go all the way to the ceiling. We talked to Mr. Bunkport's guys on Tuesday morning to find out why. Turns out, the reason was related to their having to build out the walls slightly to meet the tub, to avoid water problems later. They agreed that perhaps the full wall was a little too much, and we ended up with them pulling three rows down to arrive at a height around six feet.

Tuesday

They finished the tile on Tuesday:

If you look closely above the tile (click on the image to blow it up), you can see how the wall bumps out about an inch.

Another detail: they finished the corners with this brushed nickel strip:

Looks great!

Meanwhile, they were hard at work on the kitchen counter & tub front, building a worktable for them in the garage:

Very exciting to see it coming together!

And that afternoon, Pickles had a nap in the sun, in her once favorite/favorite again room:

Wednesday

On Wednesday, another piece of exterior trim appeared:

And more progress on the counter:

They also primed the walls upstairs:

And down:

Thursday

The counter & tub front got one step closer to done:

Friday

On Friday, they added an edge strip to the counter:

And installed the tub piece:

Saturday

Sheet rock guy had to come again on Saturday to do some additional work, including finishing off that bumped-out wall in the bathroom:

They offered to have the painter come again to re-prime on Sunday, but I had actually managed to buy paint and round up very kind & willing friends to help us paint over the long weekend, so I said we'd just do it ourselves, so that we weren't waiting around all morning for the painter to arrive.

Sunday

Amanda joined us Sunday morning, and we hit the ground running, putting a light cream color on the walls in the kitchen and sun room:

And painting some stools generously given to us by our friend Robin:

We painted them the same red as the accent wall that Adrienne has always wanted in the kitchen:

We did another wall on the other side of the room, as well. And Adrienne, disgusted by the grungy freezer door that refused to come clean (and clearly drunk on the color red), did this:

It was a very long day, but we finished! We chose these particular colors to play up the warm light we get in the afternoon. It looks pretty great.

Labor Day

Both Amanda & Susie joined us to do the downstairs on Labor Day. We started with priming the bathroom:

There are no lights in the new room yet, so we used this 1000 watt lamp to light our work. It was like painting next to the sun.

After priming, we put the same cream color on the walls downstairs (same idea: play up the warm afternoon light):

After that, we moved on to the bathroom, painting two walls & the ceiling a bright white:

Meanwhile, the dog was absolutely no help at all:

People still painting:

Dog still sleeping:

After the white, we put a nice blue on two of the walls:

This is the same blue that we put in Adrienne's office, & which was generously given to us by Amanda & Matt.

More painting:

More lounging in the sun:

I didn't take any photos of the finished cream walls, because even though the trim is white, it's too hard to see the contrast in the photos, & I didn't want to bore you. Here is the finished bathroom, though:

Enormous thanks to Amanda & Susie, who gave up their time this weekend to help us get this done!

We were so happy to have finished the painting, and so tired, I didn't think we would get to tackle reassembling the kitchen. But Adrienne soldiered on, and I was so inspired by her fortitude that I followed suit.

I mentioned in Week 23 that most of the stuff that normally lives in the kitchen is currently in the dining room. This is the horror we've been living with:

Here is the dining room after we finished as much as we could (given that there is still some more work to be done by Bunkport & Company):

We have a kitchen again!

Up through this week, one of us has been able to take noise-sensitive Mrs. Pickles out & away to Amanda's & Matt's basement. Unfortunately, Adrienne is back to work & I need to go back to the office this week -- that means that the dog will be here alone & that means, in turn, that Monday-Friday work has to stop. We're both worried about what this means for the timeline, but there's no way around it. Mr. Bunkport doesn't seem overly concerned about it, so we're just hoping for the best.

Up next...at some point: kitchen counter & electrician!