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!!!

Day 2 of Being Home Owners

Day 2 was long, but we got a lot done. We searched the house for hidden remnants of carpet and and found them in the hall closet and at the bottom of the attic stairs. Andrew ripped those suckers up.


With all the carpet removed, we were ready for the sander. While Jeremy and Andrew went to Home Depot to pick it up, Sarah and I hacked at the kitchen floor.



Then the sanding began. It lasted for many many hours, but we sanded all the floors of our 1489 square foot home!

















Sarah and I even got to man the sander. Which was very fun, so I highly suggest you try if ever given the opportunity.























But mostly, Jeremy and Andrew sanded while Sarah and I tried our best to get all the sawdust up by sweeping the floors thousands upon thousands of times. [The next time we re-do the floors (har har) we'll definately invest in a shop-vac.] We did get a pretty good upper body work-out. Honestly though, we spent most of our time standing in dusty rooms talking, which I'm sure was great for our lungs.
And even though the boys worked hard, don't worry, they did get some rap time in:



We also found a spot on the wall that
easily exposed the many layers of
wallpaper on our livingroom wall. Which I thought was pretty cool. It's generations exposed (at least until we rip it all down).


Even though we were all completely exhaused by the end of our 12+ hour day, it was a lot of fun and we got a lot done, yet again! So we went home and collapsed in bed. From what Andrew says, it took me about two and half minutes to fall deeply asleep!