Sunday, August 23, 2009

Summer Arrived Late & Other Woes

Where did the summer go? Well, first it was late getting here which Jeff and I really didn't mind. But then about two weeks ago, SLAM, hot and humid out of no where. Here it is the last week in August and I'm predicting a late fall. Jeff will be standing in a classroom this time next week "sweating his bag off". I know, hard to believe my angel would use those terms. The things you don't know.

In the spring our plumbing from the bathroom leaked into the ceiling below and Jeff had to cut the roof... sorry, ceiling out of his office to find it, clean it up and dry it. He didn't have time then to fix the ceiling so we had a gaping hole for a few months. According to Jeff this shouldn't bug me because it was in his office and I hardly go in there. I on the other have a problem with gaping holes in the house regardless of how often I enter the room. It's a bug/spider thing. Ok, maybe even a boogie man thing.

Near the end of July I suggested, yes, I suggested, that since he would have to move all the furniture and computer stuff out to sand the drywall he had to add to the ceiling that we may as well rip out the green shag carpet that came with the house and update the paint on the walls. Shockingly to me he went for it.

It has been quite a kerfuffle to get the drywall in the ceiling done. Once we removed everything (some went in living room, some in basement, some in garage--ack!) Jeff thought it would be a good time to rearrange some duct work to put a cold return upstairs. I have not been friendly to this idea since he first mentioned it ten years ago. Again the hole thing. For some reason I caved in.

He's always been handy to have around and I'm actually quite proud of him for being a do it yourself kind a guy. He likes to try things, if they don't work, he'll curse a little or a lot depending on what is required but in the end he cleans up the mess and tries again.

So here we are today. The duct work has been rearranged, there's a cold air return upstairs, there is a wall finished behind the deep freezer in the basement, there is a trap door in the office ceiling just in case the piping there caffs again, there's a few painted shelves and tomorrow he's going to paint the walls. In a few days the carpeting will go down (yes we went carpet shopping together - I wanted to buy the first one we saw but we actually did the whole shopping for a car routine instead). Then we'll finish with trying to get all the furnishings (and crap) back into the small space. It's been fun to watch!

Here's Jeff drywalling over the extra duct work that went up to the cold duct in the floor upstairs (in front of the linen closet and bathroom). The pink stuff is ready made drywall that is pink to start with but turns white when it's dry. He says it's crap. He went out and bought some other stuff for the next coating. Above his head is the hole he cut out to repair the above pipe.


Here is from the other angle. See the little vent he put in? He moved it over from beside the plug when he did the duct work.

Here's the ceiling panel he put in "just in case". Half of it has been drywalled already and the brown part will be primed and painted. It will be visible but uber visible (I'm hoping).

I have some cute pictures of Shelby and I helping out that I'll post tomorrow.