Happy Halloween!

Gruff Halloween greetings from Sal Pickles of Pickles' Saloon!

This is one bar you don't want to start trouble in.

Week 33

Thank you, AJ, for your exciting post last week!

This week another thing was completed: electrical!

The electrician came on Thursday, and installed the light over the medicine cabinet:

He also added the little plastic box that keeps the outdoor outlet dry:

And replaced two light sockets in the garage that had been destroyed by other subcontractors:

We no longer need a flashlight to get around in the garage at night!

Lastly, he passed the final inspection:

What a relief to have another thing fully completed!

In other news, I discovered this week that we are being invaded by mice again. You may recall the Great Mouse Hunt of 2013, that involved a weekend of extensive mouse-proofing in the kitchen and back porch, and resulted in the live capture of an invader in the bedroom, thanks to the assistance of Sergeant Pickles of the Rodent Roundup:

This time, I discovered the intruders myself. I got up early for work and was standing in the kitchen, drinking my coffee, when I realized I wasn't alone: I saw a little brown mouse scurry from under the big blue chair into an open space under the cabinets, and then I also heard one right next to me, rustling in some plastic bags on a counter. Even though the construction sealed all the openings to the outside under the kitchen, it seems that they are still able to get up into the walls of the main part of the house and infiltrate the kitchen that way. Diabolical! That afternoon, while re-mouse-proofing (some of my stuff from last year had been removed when the new tile was installed), I investigated around the rest of the house to see if they have also been exploring beyond the kitchen. Indeed they have, including behind the bookshelf in the bedroom, presumably while we all slept not three feet away. Nice work, Pickles! Demotion! Busted back down to Private!

Next up: more bathroom work at the end of next week, and maybe the roofer will finish up.

Week 32

Hello everyone! It's your lucky day. Christine's out of town and I'm your guest blogger for the week. I've got my supplies for this task:

$5 is the for the delivery of my dinner. I can't cook AND blog.

And now for the part where I show you all the pictures Christine took of this week's progress. Folks came by and put this translucent sheeting over our staircase. You probably can't see it in this picture cuz, uh, it's translucent. This way we can stay dry from the rain that never falls here while we walk down to our awesome new room.

Also, the dudes put in the cabinet that Christine lovingly restored. It looks so nice with the repurposed wood that frames the tub. Can we please, please, please get water to come out of these things soon?

Also this week: Christine busted her butt to make things look even nicer around here. She sanded and stained our front door so it's freshened up and also matches more closely the windows and counter in the kitchen.

She stained the windows in the kitchen where Pickles likes to sit and watch her nemesis.

Here is said nemesis:

We're a bit short on progress this week (week 32,,,,aaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhh!!!) so I thought some photos of yard invading squirrels were the least I could do. In other major news, I turned the dog bed sideways. WHAT! Exciting. Note the portrait of the siamese cat that graces the head of Zoe's bed. She loves cats (and by love I mean she would really love to kill one).

That's about all I've got for you. Tomorrow's Monday morning. Ugh, here's what I think about that:

Week 31

Ok, the bathroom got no closer to being finished this week after all. But in the one day they had to work this week (again, scheduling problems), they did get the decking outside the French doors done:

And they made progress with the overhang over the back stairs:

Slowly but surely, we are getting closer to finished! There are really only three must-haves left on the list for Mr. Bunkport's crew: bathroom, replace the flue for the upstairs heater, & finish the overhang. The rest we can either postpone, handle ourselves, or skip entirely. The guys have one day to work here next week, as well -- getting all three things done in one day, plus general cleanup, is a tall order, but keep your fingers crossed!

Week 30

As hoped, lots more got done this week, and we are indeed very close to being done!


Thursday

Doorknob on the door between the garage and new room:

Front of tub sealed and installed:

Hole cut into wall for recessed medicine cabinet:

Bathroom door hung:

The beginning of a replacement overhang that keeps the back steps dry in the rain:

Like a lot of the houses in this neighborhood, the house is two stories tall, but has no interior staircase. So when you want to go from the main living space on the second floor down to the garage to do some laundry, you actually have to go outdoors to do it. I think most people here (and our insurance company) consider this a one-story house, because the street-level story is not officially living space. Any way you cut it, having that overhang there sheltering the stairs is nice. Instead of keeping the solid one that was there, we are replacing it with a translucent material, to let light through.

Friday

They started putting in decking outside the French doors, to hide the drain and level off the pitched surface (it pitches toward the drain on either side):

Here is a picture from above, that shows how the way they are doing the planks mirrors the lines of the steps:

On Friday, I also got the ok from Mr. Bunkport to start moving stuff temporarily stored in the yard and in the house back into the garage!

Here is the yard when I started:

Once I moved that pile of stuff under the brown tarp, I was very happy to see that no rodents had nested in it, and very surprised to see that this lily planted by the previous owner somehow survived the year (albeit in a strange, albino state):

I also started refinishing the medicine cabinet, at the suggestion of one of Mr. Bunkport's guys:

They had to trim an inch off each side to get it to fit the space, and he pointed out that the wood looked like it might be nice, and that it might be worth stripping to find out. So I got out all my stuff & off I went.

Pickles, as usual, was not very helpful:

Basically, I spent the rest of the weekend completing those two projects. The wood on the cabinet did turn out to be nice, and it happened to have some wood filler in spots, which matches the effect of the reclaimed wood on the front of the tub and on the bathroom door. Here it is, ready to be put in the wall:

Meanwhile, our offices are almost completely clear, and that big pile of stuff is gone from the yard:

Having that pile of stuff sitting there on my vegetable garden bed for so long -- on and under plastic tarps -- had the effect of killing all the weeds off. I set those leftover tiles there to prevent weeds from seeding themselves again. The way the tiles warm up in the sun gives me the idea of making a dog pad somewhere in a sunny patch for Pickles to nap on.

Speaking of napping, once again, while I was hard at work all weekend, this was Pickles' contribution to the cause:

I did some more odds and ends, as well, including hanging the photograph Mr. Bunkport gave us last week downstairs, about a foot from where the picture was taken many months ago:

Lastly, I wanted to make sure to mention that AJ made this contribution this morning, as she was getting ready to leave for her first performance with her Taiko drumming troop (which ended up lasting about 12 hours, including setup, tear down, etc.):

Thanks, AJ!

Next up: decking should be finished tomorrow, along with (dare I say it...) the bathroom!