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My (not so) retired husband was working a job with our contractor yesterday.
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It consisted of ripping off siding, removing a door, framing over it and putting up new siding.
While the contractor dealt with the door, my spouse removed the siding…
Only to find this buried underneath.
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It was at that exact moment the homeowner came out to check their progress and my husband had to explain, no… he wasn’t the artist.
🤣
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When I was painting the living rooms walls, I removed all the light and outlet covers. That included the ridiculous switch on the right the previous owner had installed.
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It went to the hot water heater which apparently she shut off every night. We never do that and I was tired of looking at it so I had the contractor remove the annoying red light. This meant rewiring some lines in the basement.
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And the discovery of a corpse.
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Poor little thing.
Trying to keep my husband from talking to the contractor …. while paying him $55 an hour to listen…. I found a project to keep my spouse busy.
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Installing cellular shades on our new bedroom windows. He gave me the look when I told him that meant putting holes in the new trim but before long he was reaching for his hammer for some none too subtle adjustments.
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This job took the better part of an afternoon..
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And didn’t seem to bother His Lordship over much.
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When my husband started chatted up the contractor again, he was asked to help with some laser assisted measurements.
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And after the measuring?
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More talking…
😉
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Due to uncontrolled rampant dust covering every square inch and nook and cranny of our house…
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Another plastic walled room was erected.
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This time carefully avoiding the furnace’s air intake…
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Which had been sucking in dust and evenly distributing it between rooms.
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The contractor also added a zippered door so His Royal Highness could access the room at night without tearing giant holes in the plastic like he did last time.
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I have to be honest…
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I’m beginning to forget what a clean house looks like.
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As you know we started the home renovation projects last summer…. and by now? I fully intended to be done, feet up and comfortably seated on our new furniture.
Meanwhile back at Casa River –
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Lord Dudley Mountcatten explores the changes…
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And while our contractor is prepping the floor…
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My husband was roped into cutting in the ceiling paint along the edges of the wall.
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Taking up the damaged sub floor sections, the contractor discovered tar paper …
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And one seriously, not even close to level, major hump in the middle of the room.
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Of course he did.
It’s our God forsaken cursed house after all.
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At this point? If he dug up a blackened corpse in a coffin covered in satanic symbols…
I’d just see it as explanation.
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That hutch is heavy, it’s easier to paint around than move.
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The new flooring?
It’s currently clogging up my kitchen.
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Easy to install?
Clearly it doesn’t know who it’s dealing with…
🥴
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The Marvin window specialist didn’t show up the day they were scheduled, which for once was a good thing. Our contractor is back in town now and thankfully will be meeting the rep at our house later this afternoon.
That’s the good news.
The bad news looks like this :
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Not exactly optimal window repair and/or extraction weather.
And while I feel sorry for our contractor… it seems like the expert is getting what he deserves for making us wait an entire month.
😈
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Remember the long searched for door we bought the other day?
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The one the salesman assured us was rated for exterior use?
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Turns out it wasn’t.
And according to our contractor, it’s not even close.
Of course it wasn’t what we needed. This is a renovation project at our house where all attempts to improve things are doomed.
Destined to fail.
And more than likely cursed by an angry pickle God.
As I said previously, I’m done. We will take this useless door back to the store and send our contractor out to buy the next one. Maybe he’ll have better luck.
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The new composite boards were stacked and ready.
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The contractor set up a tent to beat the heat of the baking sun.
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He started work on the framing.
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And then my husband went out to talk.
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And talk, and talk, and talk.
At the $55 an hour we’re paying this guy, I could do with a little more work and a lot less talk so I hauled the husband inside and got him busy organizing some of his old magazines and newspapers.
Bad idea. Very bad.
Because as soon as he found some interesting ones?
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He took them out to show the contractor.
And then he talked, and talked, and talked.
Jesus wept…we’ll have to remortgage the house before this is through.
And if Jesus weeping wasn’t bad enough?
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The heavens decided to weep that afternoon as well.
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Torrential rain, heavy downpours and big mud puddles.
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Left us with very little progress.
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But there is a great big tool trailer parked on the lawn.
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That’s a plus, right?
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I know the picture is bad and you probably can’t read the writing, but this salon I drove by last week?
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Claimed to be The Best Little Hair House in Augusta…. and that made me laugh.
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This is the January squirrel from our new calendar…. and if momma red dons a pair of skis? I’ll be sure to post a picture of that as well.
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I think we’re all entering the new year with a little trepidation, aren’t we…?
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Look!
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Our contractor does exist! I even caught him putting on the third coat of polyurethane.
And I had to take this picture as well, because the husband is so thrilled he’s going to have a bar?
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He walks out there everyday and communes with it.
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Our contractor has an uncanny knack for showing up when we’re not home or sneaking in when we’re not looking.
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Like the other day when we walked into the barn and found he’d laid the top of the bar on the base…
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And dropped off the stained pieces for the facing.
This end looked good…
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The other end?
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Not so much.
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It seemed the corners didn’t quite fit together as planned.
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So glue and clamps were deployed.
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He called us later that day and told us not to worry, all would be well.
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I’m trusting he knows what’s he’s talking about. And actually, by neon bar light?
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It didn’t look half bad.
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Next week a contractor will be here to build a bar in our barn.
Yes, you read that correctly, a contractor… one we will pay. Actual money. That surprised me since the husband has does most of the Barn Mahal construction himself, but this guy also built the bar at our local pub… so instead of having a spouse made amateur facsimile, we’ll have a serious bar.
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With these giant extremely heavy boards the husband has kept from the original framing back in 2012.
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The boards that have been moved, shifted, relocated, bumped into and cursed for 8 long years…. so all I can say is, yay.
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Of course the other day we had to move them one last time.
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Because my other half wanted to get an idea what the future boozer would look like.
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And yes, that’s a driftwood Christmas tree on the right.
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My girlfriend made it, used it one year, then gave it to me for our porch. Unfortunately we experience a cross breeze from our neighbor’s field equivalent to the Ames research center wind tunnel NASA uses to test its rockets. That tree literally flew. Which is generally not what you want Christmas decorations to do.
So it’s been inside the barn for a few years and despite my pleading that it would be a nice addition to the bar room, husband wants it gone.
Tons of useless rusty crap? He’ll find the room. One unique and quirky decorative tree? Bye bye.
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River's world..... 