Home Stretch

{ Thursday, February 19, 2009 }
I think we're starting to see the light at the end of this crazy home renovation tunnel. Last week was pretty tough--we were both worn out from all the work and overwhelmed with the process. The original plan was to simply remove the old nasty flooring, replace it with wood and paint the walls, ceiling and trim.

The first two steps were complicated by our confusion over whether we could lay the wood over the top of the particle board that we found under the carpet. The answer is no--it cannot be done. So we hired someone to remove it. When our contractor removed the particle board, he found that the plywood subfloor was not securely attached. So we hired him to screw the subfloor down.

We also found, under the carpets, evidence of leaks. We were already aware of one leak but were totally unprepared for all the others (there's at least one leak in each room). Long story short, fixing the leaks is going to require us to replace two sliding patio doors along with a toilet and then to hold our breath and cross our fingers that we got them all and that our new floors don't get ruined by future leaks. Oh, and we'll also be hoping that, once the old doors are removed, we won't find much damage to the wood below. Fun times, I tell ya!

But, the point is that the end is near. The sweetie has worked like a champ on the painting and is within spitting distance of being done. My contractor coworker came over last weekend and wired the two bedrooms for overhead lights, while I swapped out the ugly kitchen light fixtures for pretty new ones.

The new floors should be done this weekend and the new doors go in next week. Incidentally, we also move next week, so there's little wiggle room in the schedule. My fingers are already crossed for other things--guess I need to start crossing toes!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yikes- it's going to be worth it when it's all done though. Hang in there!