Progress, driving me up the (dry)wall

How bratty am I allowed to be? I spent a lot of time complaining about not making progress. Now? I’m going to complain about too much. Why? Because things have been a frenzy. I wanted a break after the patio door. Instead, the Irishman stepped into my house and said, “We should Sheetrock the living room!”

But what about the radiator pipes that need adjustment? The thermostat wire? The glued-up plywood scraps to get the floors to stop moving? Well, I scrambled to get the plywood up before he came through with the drywall. And up it went! He snapped a chalk line to keep the boards straight, and we made use of his awesome lift. Actually, we’ve used that all along but this time my roomie got a pic.

Anyways, we got the room nearly done last weekend. But not the piece under the toilet or the 3 near the front of the living room. The plumber was to come Thursday to deal with the radiator pipes. The toilet flange needs to be caulked down to the tile. Now when we wash the floor the water runs under and drips through on the outside of the pipe. Flushing doesn’t harm it.

Jumping ahead, I was exhausted all week. But I also agreed to bring the Irishman in AGAIN. And I was supposed to go with him on a weeknight to get all the materials. That didn’t work out. Wednesday I was stressed. Thursday my plumber let me know he wouldn’t be able to come after all. I pushed back the woodwork order till November 3rd. I told my neighbor that we’d need to do odds and ends instead of drywall. I went to bed at 8. It was a good day.

But is that what worked out? Not exactly. He came in and said “we should sheetrock the front of the living room.” So I ran upstairs, pushed on the pipes a bit, and found that I was in fact able to get the radiators in. And up went the rest of the ceiling.

For a bit of an ego boost, the Irishman said that walling up the outside of the vestibule was hard. We had crazy Victorian framing that was cut back when the original hall was ripped out in the 30’s, so needed to shim it out to make the corner. Originally, the trim was really wide to wrap that corner, and I decided I didn’t like it that way.

Here’s a reminder… and isn’t it nice to see the current and before start to look alike again?

Living room, front

A few subtle changes here and there. Smaller recessed lights and the house isn’t falling apart anymore.

So what’s so wrong with all this? Aside from the no free time and the frenzied prep work, there’s the mess. I actually slept in this bed last night with the room looking like this.

We trashed this room to finish the drywall there, too. So now with my one week “off,” I have a massive amount of odd jobs to do before drywalling the kitchen. Or maybe I’ll have to break it to my friend that I need to take another one. Anyways, be ready to read about odd jobs and planning ahead.