Just Call Me Laura Ingalls Wilder

Good Day Peeps!!

I'm in a MUCH better frame of mind than yesterday for sure!   For those of you not on Facebook let me recap.  I had a tough day yesterday, it was LOUD, it was DUSTY, it was HOT, and then, we lost our water, the dog lost his shizzle and I was slowly about to lose mine.    

As with any good HGTV watcher, I knew there would be unexpected hiccups along the way and yesterday the first occurred.  The plumber was here installing the new hot water heaters, because doesn't everyone decide to do ALLLLLL the renovations at once.  Anywho....she was doing her plumbing thing and whoops, we have a fitting that is no longer used because there was a class-action suit against it which translates to there is not a part available to make this work.  I do not understand plumbing speak so please don't hold my plumber accountable for wrong terminology/descriptions because I failed to comprehend any words after "You won't have any water until we can find those fittings".   

Do you guys have any idea how many times a day you use water?   I mean I'm the girl who needs to use the facilities about every hour (teeny tiny bladder) and I do like a shower every day.   

First I had a little panic mode incident...then I called the kennel and see if they can take ole' ReggieRoo a little earlier than planned. 

**  Side note....we had planned to take Reggie to the kennel Friday morning because Hubster is off work and we need to go pick out light fixtures, paint for walls and cabinets, and faucets and leaving Reggie home alone with the construction crew didn't seem like the best idea. 

Next, call Hubster and have him stop at the Dollar General and pick up some extra bottled water.  Third, learn how to flush the toilet using buckets of pool water.  Also, thank goodness we have a pool because we had no indication this would happen and didn't prep extra water in the sinks and tubs.    

We got Reggie to the kennel, got the day's dust and debris swept and picked up, stood in the pool on the tanning ledge to cool off a bit because did I fail to mention it was 84 degrees inside the house?!  Then our amazing neighbors made us a wonderful dinner of Chicken Kabobs, Rice and Salad.  We even had some lemon blueberry loaf for dessert.    

Back home and the house has cooled to a balmy 80 degrees so we made sure plastic was sealed up and kicked the air on our bedroom side of the house for the night.   We also turned the upstairs air conditioner on so Hubster would not start the day sweltering up there.   We slept comfortably and had a shower at previously stated amazing neighbors this morning.    The plumber is wrapping things up now and we should have water soon!

Let's move on shall we?  We have some visible progress to share after all!

My new view from my makeshift kitchen.   The doorway between the kitchen and formal dining room is now closed.   This was a bit of a talking point around here but I still feel confident in making the decision to close this off.

The new dry bar area (drywall guy is working on getting this finished up).  I'm now looking for vintage corbels to go in those corners.   I kaboshed the door idea, it's just not going to be big enough to close off with a door.  

The stairs!   I'm super excited about this, even in the construction mess it already looks so much better.  And we'll be getting new carpeting on the stairs soon.   In home renovation worlds, one project begats another project.  We've wanted to replace this carpet but now it's going to be a necessity instead of a want.

Also, that swirly bottom step and banister is gone.  We're streamling this look and making it cleaner looking.  

Here it is from the den side.  This will make this wall much more functional and it really looks like it should've always been this way. 

Pocket door dilemma resolved and we have a functioning pocket door now.  They're going to patch in the previous door handle hole and put a pocket door pull in for us.  That light switch hanging will also get moved back into the powder bath.    Another thing that will really improve the functionality of our house. 

Fireplace wall is ready and braced for a TV mount for Hubsters big new TV.

Stove area is ready and awaiting my girl's arrival!! 

Hopefully the drywall will be done today although that means the scraping day is soon! 

This area is ready as well.

And one last look at the closed up doorway from the kitchen side.  

There won't be a lot of progress to show after today, there is one lone, very slow, drywall guy working.

Next step is a big clean and re-plasticing of the open doorways because the floor scraping comes next.  That means ole' Samma here will be crabby next week.

The neighbors are feeding us pork chops, corn, and salad tonight so I'm pumped about that but more importantly...the plumber just left.  We're back in modern days over here with indoor running water and working toilets.  

Peace, Love & Indoor Plumbing!

Week 2, Day 2, Update, Update

Peeps....Who knew that besides dealing with the dust coming up with a title for the blog update every day would be the hard part?   Just kidding, but no joke it's kind of hard when there's no big update to elaborate on.     I told you guys it was going to be a slow, noisy week around here and thus far I'm proven correct.

Let's see what we can show you today.

This is the wall where my lovely stove will be going.  The rough drywall is in where the fur down was removed so my cabinets can go to the ceiling.  I'm VERY excited about this. 

The other side of the pantry door with the fur down removed.   

The contractor was finally able to get a better measurement of the angle for the funky cabinet to fill out that corner.

Also, my windows are covered in dust and someone drew a dog picture in the dust. 🤣

They also started closing up the archway between the kitchen and the dining room.  

This will definitely help control the dust when they start scraping the floors.

They ran into an issue with the pocket door, as my neighbor said last night "build a custom house, get custom problems."   The pocket door frames they build are not as tall as our doors so The Leo's are going to try and get creative with this to make the door fit the frame.  Stay tuned as the drama unfolds.  (Not really, but hey, I gotta come up with something to keep you coming back.) 

In other titillating news, the sectional piece is gone!  WooHoo

And when I say gone, I mean gone gone.   Hubster and I carted it out to the road last night and the bulk trash already came this morning and scooped it up.  

We are no longer referring to this as the wine room as it has been drywalled in and is now the dry bar.

It also will not be getting a door.  I think it's too small for a door so they are currently adding the drywall board to the pieces they left for the door trim and I'm hunting for some antique corbels to go in the corner.     Look at me saving money! 

Here's a peek inside, this is the cutout for the new wine cooler.  It's a small but hopefully mighty little space.

Here's a look at the area, we pulled the plastic down on the stairs because they are working on putting up the new stair wall today.     Tomorrow should be filled with fun pictures of progress.

Shall we dine?

By the end of the day, I'm ready to move out of the dust and the house for a bit so I made dinner on the back porch.

Looks like sandwiches again.

Also looks like I pulled out the super snacker machine again too.

Geez, my hand looks all puffy...I am squeezing that machine together really hard though because the sandwiches were too big.

Last night was hot ham & cheese sandwiches and Pringles chips. 

We even skipped the ice cream last night.   We were tired and dusty from sweeping up so I had a glass of wine and called it a day.   

Reggie konked out early too.   It's a BUSY day around here today for sure, I've got framers, and drywall guys, and now the plumber has shown up to start installing our new hot water heaters.  All good things, except the plumber neglected to tell me she was shutting off the water and I sort of need to use the facilities. 

Peace, Love and Water