Week 46

A few things this week:

First, I hung up this very nice photo of AJ that Jon took while they were in Japan a couple years ago:

It has been in storage since he gave it to her for her birthday last May. About time for it to come out & be seen! I hung it in the sun room part of the kitchen:

Second, AJ lent her Taiko drumming muscles to help me finish the fence/wall thing at the bottom of the stairs:

I also hung up my trusty shovel on the side:

Next step for that project is to get the panda/bamboo mural started.

The weather was beautiful this weekend so we also spent some time working in the yard. AJ positioned some succulents in this planter, to see if they looked good there before transferring them:

And we made another big succulent planter out of old foundation stones that came up out of the pit when they excavated down (the plants go in the spaces between the stones):

Lastly, I put the hammock back out, after more than a year without it:

And this is how I spent the rest of the afternoon:

Next up: I didn't actually schedule the painting & gutters with Mr. Bunkport because I thought it was better to wait a few days for further word on timing on the city paperwork. I'll call him this week, though, because this needs to get rolling.

Week 45

You guys! The plumbing is finished!

Sink!

Toilet!

Tub!

Well, mostly finished. If you look back at the sink, you'll notice that the faucet doesn't really match the tub fixtures (click on the tub picture to see it larger). That is a temporary faucet, put in while we waited for the final one to come in. The final one arrived on Friday, so it's just a matter of swapping it in. The main thing is that we have a fully functional bathroom downstairs, and we have passed the final plumbing inspection:

I think I see our friend Susie, the bath aficionado, on the front steps right now, towel in hand.

We are very excited about this, both because we can now fully use the room downstairs, and because it feels like an enormous milestone: it's one of the three remaining things that we can't do ourselves. The other two are painting the exterior and putting up the gutters (well, we could do those things ourselves, but our being on a ladder 2 stories up seems...unwise). Those are just a matter of scheduling, which I will organize with Mr. Bunkport on Monday. 

After that, we just wait for the paperwork to finish wending its way through the Planning Department, and then get the final inspection done. Even though our to-do list is a mile long (staining the doors downstairs, caulking window trim, repainting part of the bathroom, etc. etc. etc.), that's when I will call this project officially done (and will stop numbering the weeks here): when the final inspection is complete & the permit is finally closed.

In mouse news, it's been a whole week without any new sign of the little devils, so I think I finally conquered them. As further proof, I accidentally left a fresh loaf of bread & a stick of butter on the cutting board overnight -- if they were still getting in, those would have been demolished. Success!

My big project for this weekend is getting better after having come down with bronchitis this week.  I feel much better today, but Dr. AJ has issued strict orders for bed rest. My usual habit is to pick right back up with my projects the minute I feel better, and then, of course, promptly start feeling poorly again, so she may have a point.

Next up: AJ will try out the bathtub this weekend, using the bath bomb that the Martins thoughtfully gave her for Christmas, and I will work on getting better. And then Monday, I will schedule the final work with Mr. Bunkport!

Week 44

Both of the cabinets started last week got finished this week.

First, the bathroom vanity is now a much more manageable 33 inches tall:

Second, I pretty much finished the hidden garden tool cabinet at the bottom of the stairs. I still need to add panels to cover the 2-foot-tall open space across the top -- they're cut and painted, and now just need to be installed. But the cabinet itself, and the access door leading to the space between the houses are just about done:

A couple more bolts, and a little more paint, and they will be completely done. 

Next week: finishing this project, and possibly working on succulent planters in the yard.

Week 43, and Happy New Year!

Mr. Bunkport sent some guys over to do a little work this week. First, they scrubbed the concrete floor clean of all the construction junk that has accumulated over the past months:

Second, they brought in a custom fabricated bathroom cabinet, made from an old pallet. Here it is with the concrete counter on top, and the sink:

It comes complete with the carpenter's drawing taped inside:

The height needs to be adjusted, the surface sealed, and a backsplash poured, but this is pretty much what it's going to look like.

As for me, I spent a couple hours on Saturday cleaning and organizing the garage, getting everything out of the storage lump I mentioned last week, and into some semblance of order. Also, I realized that the 4-inch-deep space on the left of the fence/wall at the bottom of the outside stairs (the project I started last week) would make a great hidden storage cabinet for garden tools and plant food boxes, so I got the hardware for that. This is the space I mean:

I spent Sunday doing yet more mouse-proofing. These little guys are unbelievably wily. Pickles was of great assistance in making sure that none of them had nested anywhere inside the house.

Next week: I hope to finish the fence/wall/secret-cabinet project, and Mr. Bunkport's guys are going to come to do some more work on the bathroom.

Lastly, and most importantly, Happy New Year!