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Lord Dudley Mountcatten has been spending a lot of time in our bedroom since our contractor has been working in the living room. And if he’s in there?
So is his favorite mouse.
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How much does he love this particular rodent?
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Enough to pick it up and carry it to bed with him.
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And don’t even think about removing said mouse.
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Unless you want to lose a finger.
😉
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This beam and ceiling repair project has been disruptive to say the least. We’ve lost our living room, our dining room, egress to the back deck and most importantly… the large television my husband is utterly devoted to watching. Sawdust, wood chips and dry wall fragments have been flying and I can’t even imagine the mess I’ll have to clean up when it’s finished.
I hate to say it…. but moving probably would have been easier.
Though while the husband and I have been inconvenienced, there’s one member of our family who seems to be having fun.
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You can see his ghostly reflection on the floor in the middle of that photo.
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Lord Dudley Mountcatten, who is not supposed to be walking around in the plastic room… is constantly found doing just that.
And even when I don’t physically catch him in there?
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I find evidence of his presence.
Unless our contractor has a thing for catnip mice, which is another blog topic entirely.
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His Lordship seems to think the plastic walls have been erected exclusively for his playing pleasure and has a habit of pulling the sheets from their corners and making entrance holes.
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Look at him.
The very picture of innocence…
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But not for long.
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Cats.
They will not be denied…
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Lord Dudley Mountcatten is still fascinated with the temporary plastic room.
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But the other day he stepped it up a notch.
Literally…
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I walked by and saw he had climbed the ladder the contractor left behind and apparently found himself the perfect bird watching perch.
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Perfect until he tried to get down that is.
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After laughing and filming his blog worthy attempt… I rescued his silly butt and lowered him to the floor.
Unharmed, but definitely embarrassed.
🤣
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Work continued on day 5, with the focus on prepping the surface for drywall.
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We have one of those stupid popcorn ceilings and I’m not lying when I say it makes a mess.
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But by the end of the day it was sufficiently scraped… and drywall covered the giant hole.
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By removing all those stupid little pieces of useless plywood the contractor found up there, he was able to give the beam a much lower and less defined profile than it had before .
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It’s still there, but no where near as deep, which is nice.
Next step will be mudding. (Which spellcheck just changed to muffins. You can never go wrong with muffins, but I don’t think they’d give us nearly the smooth finish we’re hoping for.)
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The end should be in sight now…
Though I know His Lordship is going to miss the plastic room.
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Things started out well early that morning with Lord Dudley Mountcatten innocently gazing at the plastic room.
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Yes, I’m talking about you.
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He knows he’s not supposed to go in there, so of course it’s the only place he wants to be…
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And before long our smiling, happy contractor was busy replacing the insulation and installing strapping for the sheet rock.
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By mid afternoon he had both sides of the beam done…
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And the ceiling was ready for the next phase.
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Which is when he hit a snag.
Thankfully it wasn’t with the project per se, but when it started drizzling outside and he set up his saw in the garage to stay dry… things went a little haywire.
We love Tom. He’s a very clean and conscientious worker. So when he started cutting things in the garage, he turned on his shop vac to suck up the sawdust and splinters at the same time… but in doing so he also overloaded our sometimes squirrelly electrical system and knocked out power to the entire garage and part of my laundry room.
This resulted in a solid hour of trying to figure out why.
Thankfully Tom knows his way around electricity and after removing a few outlets, testing various circuits and doing a whole lot of other things I can’t explain…. he had it up and running again and would be able to resume work.
Until my husband came home a few minutes later and decided it was time to call it quits and consume adult beverages in the man cave.
No sheet rock was installed that day.
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But at least we had garage lights to illuminate our way home.
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Day three was noisy but relative smooth sailing.
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Excess wood… that served no purpose other than to act as useless shims… was removed, and everything was repositioned, leveled and put back where it should be.
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Extra heavy duty hangers were installed on both sides…
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And all the rafters were secured to the beam as they should have been 30 years ago.
When the contractor left for the day?
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His Lordship was on the move.
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He thinks we put up the plastic room just for him.
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Work has begun on the ceiling repair/beam replacement project and yes, it’s a serious mess.
Things started slowly….
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And the dust barrier made for an interesting silhouette.
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Can’t say I’ve ever had a plastic wrapped room but if it saves me from dusting, I’m all for it.
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Inside the plastic cell, things were not as clean.
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Ceiling sections on both sides of the beam had to be removed …
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And if nothing else, it made me glad flooring replacement is next on the remodeling bucket list.
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Work for the day ended here with some good news for a change. At first glance the contractor doesn’t think the beam has been structurally damaged which means repairs would just be cosmetic. He’ll know more tomorrow when he starts ripping things apart, but the original shoddy construction did leave him puzzled.
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Numerous little pieces of plywood were nailed over the beam for no apparent reason.
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Once all that comes down he’ll do a thorough inspection to make sure everything is safe and hopefully get right to putting things back to normal.
My fingers are crossed. Not having to replace the beam will save a lot of time and money.
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As you can imagine, Lord Dudley Mountcatten was not pleased with today’s events and spent the entire afternoon under our bed.
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He did venture out at night to inspect the changes.
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And managed to wiggle his way under the plastic.
Cats.
They know no boundaries.
😉
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Cats are creatures of habit and do not like change.
They pick their sleeping spots in our houses and expect they will always be there when needed.
So if a section of the living room is cleared to make room for a contractor to work and a couch that used to be in front of a prime bird watching window is moved…
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Lord Dudley Mountcatten makes his displeasure known.
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Whining, crying, mewling.
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This includes the what the hell is going on here? look. We’re getting it 24/7.
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On a side note, there’s nothing like moving furniture and a rug that have been in the same spot for 20 years to make you realize new flooring is the next project on the list.
🥴
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My husband was teleworking yesterday and someone was helping.
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Lord Dudley Mountcatten loves my husband and follows him everywhere. The kitchen. The bathroom. The bedroom…
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Naturally this includes the office and the government laptop.
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And because His Lordship is a cat?
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He had to attack the mice.
😉
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You never know what summer in my state will bring. Last year it was hot and dry, this year we’ve had rain every other day. July was brutally hot and humid but most of August has been pleasant.
The other morning?
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It was downright brisk, which I love… but by noon it was almost 85 degrees, which I don’t. They say if you don’t like the weather in Maine wait a minute. Or in this case 6 hours.
Have you ever had a Facebook memory make you cry? Mine did today when it reminded me we lost our beloved Huffington 11 years ago.
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He was run over by a speeding car in front of our house and I swear I still haven’t gotten over it. I know you shouldn’t have favorite children or pets, but this little guy was special and is still very much missed.
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Talk about overkill.
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I like boats as much as the next girl, but this offends every New England frugal sensibility I have.
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Random backyard woodchuck shots…
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Because I can.
❤️
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River's world..... 