In order to finish the wiring job, we had to get under the house to run the new wiring to the panel. Looked around and discovered no easy way to get under. This surprised me. Although I’ve never been under there, I thought I’d be able to when necessary. Nope.
The most significant work needs to happen in my kitchen. I need electrical and plumbing upgrades. A friend from my days as an FRC student came up to help me with phase 1 of a very much needed upgrade. This phase:
Earlier this Summer, things were moving along nicely. I went through almost everything I own, tossed a bunch, organized most of the rest, transformed my shack into an orderly place to store my belongings and tools, and was about to get some help on some substantial work.
I am forced to make a small change in my program. I’m moving my move-in date from Nov.1 2009 to Nov. 1 2010. Like I said. A small change.
Before
I have had an ongoing problem with my front door. It’s the result of poor design. The roof slopes over the entrance which means all precipitation including snow ends up dumping right in front of the door. I asked a carpenter friend to help out by coming up with a simple solution to extend the overhang to 3 feet in front of the entrance door. He did. It works. Couldn’t have done it myself.
Some time ago, I worked with a friend to lay some tile on my small bathroom floor. It turned out great! Made a big difference. The next day we walked into the bathroom to inspect the finished product. To my horror, it all cracked! Turns out the floor was slightly spongy - not enough to really notice. You can’t do that with tile. The floor has to be absolutely rigid. (Makes sense after the fact.) I didn’t know. I was catatonic. We had to pull it all out, add support to the floor and relay the tile. I tried to organize the tile to put it back in the original order. Glue got on top of most of the tiles. Not sure how I’m going to get it off. At least its solid now.
Completed a milestone today! I finished turning my shack into a decent, orderly place to store my stuff. In order to get here I had to clean it out first, which means I had to go through practically everything I own. That was hard. Then I started building shelves. Got better at that as I went along. Then I had to start packing it again in order to make room in the house to start the real construction.
Slowly and painfully, I go on. I’ve gone through about 85% of my stuff. Now I need to rearrange it somewhere. As I begin work on each room, I need to move the contents somewhere to free up construction access. So, the last few days I’ve been working on making shelves in the shack to more efficiently hold stuff. Got my drill and saw out. Making them out of 2x4s. Slow and crude, but functional. When that’s done, I’ll pack it and start working on the music room.
My house is not ordinary. It came from an uncommon start. My neighbor, having lived across the street all her life told me all about it. When the old mine shut down, the owners told the miners they could take haul their shacks off the mountain and do what they pleased with them. My lot, purchased by one of those miners was prepared for two of those cabins. The old man built a foundation and did a good job of cobbling together those cabins into a small house. My neighbor says she has photos somewhere of a wedding on the lawn in the 50’s.
