Dusty Business

Andrew began the wiring process Saturday. At first we thought it wouldn't be too bad, in terms of the mess it would leave behind, but that quickly changed. One of the long term goals includes changing the location of the breaker box. Now it is in the pantry. One day it will be in the laundry room (that too is a long term goal). So Andrew and the electrician, our brother-in-law, Paul, decided to go ahead and install and run the wire from the location that it will one day be in, which right now is a spare room. I call it that because it's pretty small (11 x 10 feet) and mostly functions as a closet/ computer room.
So the first step in installing the new breaker box was pulling down the paneling. The entire room was paneled at some point, but Andrew only pulled down the stuff on the wall that's getting the breaker box.
This is said wall:

The location of the box will actually be on the wall behind the door.


So off with the paneling.

The paneling was placed over the existing walls (after they put up 1 x 4 in boards every few feet). This we had suspected since all the trim and moulding were covered by paneling. What we did not expect was the wonderful preservation of this delightfully old wallpaper.



I don't know why, but I just love this stuff!

So then they (Andrew and Paul) cut a nice big rectangle into the plaster and lathe so they could hang the new box. The long term plan here is that one day, when we get to work in this area of the house, all the paneling, plaster, and lathe will be removed. Then the one room will be split into 3 areas: laundry room, bathroom, and closet. So in order for the breaker box to make sense now and then, it had to be installed where there was no paneling, plaster, or lathe. But since we don't want to live in a construction zone, and had previously decided to do one room at a time and seal that sucker off, boys decided that cutting that nice big rectangle in the wall would be cleaner than taking down the entire wall of plaster and lathe. Here I agree. It was cleaner, but not that much!!! It trully is amazing how much dust plaster creates. It left a nice thick layer all over everything in the room. It took a nice good cleaning (which, to be honest, was needed back there), but we got it done in time to start work and school on Monday morning!

Oh, and we also got that nasty water damaged wood above the fireplace replaced!!!

It's been a While...

since we posted anything, I see. We have actually been pretty busy though. The living room is completely bare (that's right- all the plaster and lathe is GONE from the walls!) Now we're just waiting on getting this little problem fixed:



The "header boards" have water damage. We've got a guy coming on Friday to make sure the damage isn't in the joists or causing any other structural issues- Andrew just wants to be sure and I completely agree!

So after that Andrew and Paul will begin wiring the living room. That's exciting because that means that we get to pick out light fixtures soon!!!

We also replaced the old kitchen faucet:



which was beginning to make me crazy because it was getting hard to wash the French oven under that thing and since it's winter- Andrew's been making a lot of soups, chilis and stews! (They've all been very good) So my sweet husband spent almost his entire first Sunday of 2007 installing a new faucet.


Now we both agree it was worth it!