Week three update

Technically this is the end of week three, but week two was not very productive because I was gone all week and Craig was gone two days for a business trip and two days for his cousin's wedding.  But before he left, he was able to remove our old window and with the help of a friend, install the new glass block window/backsplash. He'll be explain that process later since all I did was pick out what I wanted, provide beer for the helper, and keep Lucy out of their way.

Then, when Craig got back, but before Lucy and I did, he took the opportunity to remove the old kitchen flooring with it's yucky asbestos middle layer. The tiles were intact and sandwiched between the newest two vinyl layers and the plywood subfloor which he removed intact plus he sealed the whole area off from the rest of the house then thoroughly cleaned up afterwards but we still felt more comfortable doing that while the house was baby-free. I did miss getting to see him in the full bunny suit though :-(

The morning after I got back, Lucy and I had to get up early to greet the electricians. They spent the morning:

• Removing the outlets from the wall we removed
• Adding new outlets for countertop, fridge and stove 
• Adding wiring for our new hood and undercabinet lighting
• Updating the kitchen and dining room lighting to have three way switches - so we can turn on either the kitchen and/or dining room lights from both the living room entrance and the garage entrance.

I'm refinishing old light fixtures to keep the lighting budget in check and was still working on the new (to us) fixtures. I thought I would have them leave the old ones in place until they come back for the finish work but they had to take the old dining room chandelier down to alter the wiring and I felt bad having asking them to reinstall the old one only to have to switch it in a few weeks. Luckily the dining room chandelier was the one I was farthest along with so I had them put up our new one even though it still needs tweaking. I love how it looks and can't wait to get the other ones done and share it all with you.

After the electrical work was done, it was time for the inspections. We needed both county and fire inspections and I was not sure what to expect but, aside from a little scheduling miscommunication, they were easy peasy and by Thursday we were approved and ready to start putting everything back together.

Since our schedules had to be adjusted for me to head back to my parents quickly, we only had one night to get a lot done but we worked well together. When he removed the old flooring, Craig found a few spots where the window had leaked. The window itself was replaced before we moved in so the problem had been fixed but the floor underneath was weak in a few spots. While Craig replaced those floorboards, I worked on the insulation and listened to Craig alternate grunts and groans with whoops and hollers as he listened to the Yankees and the Tigers battle it out. I'm really glad the Yankees lost or we might have hammered us out of a house.

We gave in and started cleaning up around 11pm but both of us had made pretty good progress. Craig needed to do a bit more sawing to finish up the floor and I needed to do a bit more insulation but was waiting on the floor since he was in the way :-) But by then, Lucy has woken up and was having trouble going back to sleep so I nixed the sawing idea and we headed to bed. Hopefully, Craig will get all that done Monday because the drywall guy comes Tuesday!

I'm really excited about getting the drywall done because the room will start to look more like a room again and hopefully the level of dust in the house will start decreasing. Right now it is threatening to take over unless I sweep 4-5 times a day. But on the positive side, all that practice means Lucy is actually getting pretty good at sweeping and holding the dustpan for me.

Here is a photo: