Just RK

The first of the contruction/remodeling projects are done, except for priming and painting, which will happen tomorrow. Here's where the fireplace used to be. I've never been so happy to see a plain jane wall. And here's the new kitchen pass-through, though I am sure it is more likely to be a look-through only. We spent a few hours tonight, Rachel and I, cleaning and wiping everything in the kitchen down thoroughly, as there was a ridiculous amount of drywall dust on everything and in every little crevice. Amazing. I'm sure I'll be finding it for a long time to come. But at least the kitchen is ready for some preliminary move-in of items tomorrow. My parents and the two youngest siblings are coming to town tomorrow to do the painting and help out with getting things ready for the Saturday move. This is a lifesaver since I've been completely non-efficient lately. I'm accomplishing nothing. In a funk, maybe. Overwhelmed, maybe. It's bad. Thank goo...

Today was a long day... but we got some work done, which is very good. I started the day with the necessary supplies. No, it's not much, but when you've got a Hello Kitty boombox, what else can you possibly need?!? I worked some more on the bathroom wallpaper. Of course, I'm quite short, and I didn't take a stool, so I was limited in my range of reach. But the good thing is that the top layer is coming off in nice big sheets, and the paper layer underneath is coming off that way also when it's sprayed with water...yep, just water. How cool is that! Now THIS is the way to remove wallpaper! It appears that they put up the wallpaper before they put in the cabinet and lighting stuff, fixtures, etc., and that makes it difficult to get it clean. But it'll help when I have a screwdriver available to take things like light switch plates off. At least one main wall is done, mostly. Tonight M and his brothers and their oh-so-helpful Pop came up and made a couple ...

This morning I was planning to meet the handyman at the house to go over some things we've asked him to take care of for us. But the call I got before 8 am was not the one I expected... it was Rick, the project manager for the construction company. He said since they were able to finish demo yesterday, he had a couple carpenters who could come and finish us up today. Yeah, that's right! Construction that will be done a week ahead of schedule!! I was way excited and Rick just laughed at me. Here's what it looked like when I got there. Outside... And inside... the hole is slowly disappearing. So I went over to meet them and give the final ok on the opening to be cut in the kitchen/living room wall. Anthony had the opening drawn out on the wall so I could see it. (If you click on the left picture, you can see where the drawing is. The other is the opposite side of that wall.) I looked at it and said it was good, then as I looked more, I decided maybe I wanted it bigger from t...

This morning I went and let in a team of guys to do some demolition. They did. Here's how it looked when we went back tonight to close things up. Well, to close the windows, anyway. In case you missed it, here's what was there prior to 11:30am today. (Don't fret. The new bookcase on the right got saved for use elsewhere.) If the schedule doesn't change, the great big pet door/alternate garage entrance will remain until Monday/Tuesday when the framing crew comes to finish up. That's why we're not moving in yet...make sense?

Braska and I went to the house last night to check things out. Not sure what I thought I'd find but an empty house (and it was dirty...what's that about? Clean your house when you sell it, people!! We left ours spotless!), and that we did. But there was a big dumpster in the driveway. That's for the demo that starts today. Pics of that when it gets underway. You can check out Braska's tour of the house on her blog . There's work to be done cosmetically for sure. We'll get to some sooner, some can wait. This is the border in Braska's room. Pandas are her theme anyway, so it works. The blue is not what I would choose (not that I would ever choose any border either) but we're gonna leave it for now. This is the border in Pepino's room. Noah's ark is always good, but the green is a bit much for me. But again, it'll stay for now. Looks like Pepino's got a theme picked out for him/her already. There's alot of wallpaper in the bath and the k...