Renovation (Week 16)

Last weekend I attempted to destroy the evil Ivy that grows in my front yard. I was able to get the bulk of it out, but it was a pain in the ass. I couldn't find my gardening gloves so I did it gloveless with a pair of pruning shears. It worked, but I ended the day with many blisters, after having started the day with only one (cooking related, BTW, use two or more potholders when removing a cast iron skillet from the oven after broiling in it).

If you are reading this from another part of the country you might not realize how evil Ivy is. Believe me, it is evil. In Seattle it grows everywhere and kills all plants around it. I've been told that it grows so quickly because there aren't the harsh winters that are required to hold it back.



This week we got a few more things finished besides trim. This is the laundry chute and laundry table in the basement. We used the leftover hole in the floor from the old chimney for the chute. The table came out very nicely. This isn't something specified in detail. When the chute was finished we measured out how deep the table should be and then the contractor built it. And it's beautiful. There are even nice edges.

Since the drywallers accidentally drywalled in part of the laundry room and Laurel has always thought the room was very uncomfortable, we decided to build out the north wall and finish the whole room. So they've roughed in a wall which will soon be drywalled over.



I think that I finally have a photo of the drywalled upstairs without crap all over the place:



We also now have shelves in the new linen closet. Again, they came out great.




The painters are coming tomorrow to do the initial coat that needs to be done before the cabinets go in. Supposedly this will be the only way to properly paint the edges between the wall and the cabinets. It makes me wonder how it's going to look when we eventually change colors. Oh well.

We're starting to get very excited because the cabinets are scheduled to be delivered on July 27, in a week! Once we get those everything else can happen.

As always, all photos from this week can be found here.