And So It Goes--More on the Remodel

Poosa and Chauncey enjoying the new floor.

Ok, I believe I left you, faithful readers, after the steel beam install and the utility trench digging!  Well, needless to say, lots has happened since then.  My flooring in the center portion of my home is now finished and so the floor lets us know that this is a two room home now with all the floor being scarlet Marmoleum except for my bedroom which is blue. 

Poosa checking out the new floor

And major electrical work has also been done getting ready for the moving of my electric meter and the installation of the generator circuit box.  One window over the washer/dryer was removed and the window from the old laundry room was put in instead since it is smaller and there needs to be another electric box for the generator installed so I needed more wall.  The gas line is in and gets inspected on Wednesday at which point the meter gets unlocked and then my furnace and hot water heater get swapped out for gas appliances (sounds so easy, but I know both are big jobs).  And hopefully before too long my gas cook top and my convection oven will be installed as well.

This is where all my utilities and the generator will be
located and I think that eventually I will fence it all.

The trench is gone, thankfully and the plants replanted!

Yesterday I worked very hard (and I'm very sore today from it, but still vertical!) to pack up most of my living room so it could head off to storage.  We now have two storage units for this project and I think most of my stuff is off in storage, including but not limited to the cat walks, cat furniture (not all, obviously, or my cats would be seriously upset), my new stuff such as the aforementioned gas cook top and convection oven, door trims, most of my fabric, one sewing machine and table, my loom, boxes of books and dvd's, etc. etc.  While I was doing that, there were guys putting down bark over the backfilled trench and today all the plants which had to be uprooted for the trench got replanted, so the outside is looking much better overall.

All the stuff heading to storage (and there was even more!)

Swapping of windows.  The plastic one will become a
picture window.

And now I'm discovering the joy of less!  It has been interesting packing stuff up as I'm realizing that things which were really important to me are not necessarily still important.   This remodel gives me a chance to rethink things and as I think I have mentioned previously, it is a wonderful metaphor for the excavation of me and discovering who I really am.  I suppose this healing work could have been done without 2 years of major remodeling, but I really think I have learned a lot on many different levels thanks to the remodel.  And the current knowledge about myself helps me to know that this emptier look (for me anyway) is definitely nice!  So when the stuff comes back, I shall be determined to maintain the same uncluttered look, even if some of the stuff has to go!  I think the spaciousness is fantastic!  And of course, that is the entire point to removing walls and opening up the room so that I can spread out and have an openness even with two sewing tables and a loom and lots of cat furniture, etc.

Finally got to move back into my kitchen!

Anyway, all this stuff had to go into storage for the next phase which is the demolition of the living room, removing the last of the cheap pink paneling and the cheap pink tiled ceiling (the only virtue in either of these is the color) so that the walls and ceiling may be properly done with sheet rock.  I will be "allowed" to stay in the living room during the demolition phase and have stuff just pulled away from walls for access, but in a couple weeks when the entire house except my bedroom get sheet rocked, the pets and I will be confined to my bedroom, so I'm prepping for that as well.

New living room look, which for me is really spacious!

There really is a lot less clutter--believe me!

Other side of the living room much cleared out.

This week will hopefully see a new furnace and hot water heater, more electrical work, and the framing out of my new living room picture window (which will be just like the one I already have but on the other side of the door).  The actual windows have been on order for forever, but got backordered so they won't be in until Feb. 15th.  Nevertheless, we are moving forward in a determined and logical fashion.  That's the update for now!