A Lovely Sunday in Construction Land

New Studio Apartment

Cozy Studio Apartment

It has been a productive week in construction land!  At times it was really, really cold!  The plus side to having no rain this week (which is a major plus when roofing is involved) is that it was clear and cold!  On the worst day the temperatures inside my home (yep, inside) dropped to 48 degrees!  But I have the best roofers anyone could ever ask for and they did a fantastic job in just 5 days to get everything secured and water-tight!  They start on the next phase tomorrow with the metal roofing, gutters, caps, etc. all in bright blue!  Meanwhile, I have been refining and reorganizing things in our new studio apartment so that the 6 of us are cozy and comfortable.  I now have lots of cat furniture for the three cats as well as numerous dog beds for the two dogs, so everyone can have a favorite spot or two!  I have two litter boxes and cat and dog feeding stations.  After all, there are 5 of them and only one of me, so it is only fitting that their stuff should dominate!  And if they are happy, we all are happy!

Our New Home

Today Kathy, my best friend, sent down a crew to work in my yard and plant lots more color!  Lance positioned it all and it is so pretty that I cleared off as much as I could from my desk so that I can see out into more of the yard.  It all looks quite fantastic and having that newly planted garden to look out on, as well as the space in my studio which is not in a state of demolition, is very helpful toward maintaining my sanity.  I think we will probably be in this studio for a couple months, until April or even May, but that is ok as we are safe, warm, cozy and really I have all the space I need to write and read.  I'll resume quilting and weaving in the spring.

Living Space for Six!

Meanwhile, the rest of the house is still nothing more than exterior siding and interior studs, trusses, etc.  I do have access to the kitchen area and the laundry area and we can go in and out the front door, and truly that is all I need.  But nature abhors a vacuum, so now there is a painting station in my living room so that wood for my garage can be primed!  It all works and that is the main thing and it gives the cats things to play on when they go out there.  


I'm loving my new gas cooktop and in fact have more mushrooms to saute tonight as I've done for the last three nights.  Most of the kitchen including my sprout garden is on wheels and so it can be moved around as needed.

Main Part of My Home

The new 1/2 bath and closet on the laundry side of the room have been framed out.  The laundry sink will be next to the washer, with just a wall between, and a lovely window above it.  The toilet will be on the other side, hidden by the pocket that will hold the pocket door.  It is small, but functional and several of us will be glad when that is in!  Then next to that, just behind the pink door in the photo below, will be a small broom closet.  The bathroom will be green as it was before and the broom closet will be yellow.  I may have a two room house now, but that won't stop me from having a rainbow house!  Instead of 6 rooms with 6 colors, I will have two rooms, a 1/2 bath, and 3 closets!  But the rainbow will remain!

Framed Out Closet and 1/2 Bath

Framed Out Closet

And across the "hallway" from the broom closet and 1/2 bath there will be the purple closet.  The old purple closet had a boxed in area with three entrances so that Laoise could have her very own cubby (which she frequently shared with Thackeray), and rest assured, dear Laoise, your cubby will return in the new purple closet.  Eventually, all the kitty walks will return as well and they will add more rainbow flavor to it all.

See what use is made of open space!

As I mentioned earlier, nature abhors a vacuum so my living room now serves as a viable construction zone.  After all, all the pets and I need is the kitchen and then on weekends, the laundry, so the rest is fair game, first come, first served.

Kitchen in the background; painting station in foreground.

Not much here except exterior siding, roof plywood, and lots of studs, but this makes it easy for both my plumber, who will be putting in a sprinkler system, and my electrician, who has already removed most of the old faulty wiring and who will be re-wiring the house to code, properly, and with things where I want them!

Newly framed out areas, closet on left; closet and 1/2 bath on right.

This shows both the purple closet and the yellow broom closet and green 1/2 bath in one view from the kitchen.  It will be really wonderful when it is done, functional the way we use it, and fun as well.

 

Garage roof with new plywood and waterproofing

 From the outside the new water-proofed garage roof is easily seen.  The plywood on the garage was rotted, but that wasn't obvious until the old roof was torn off, so I am very glad to have that all secure and properly done (and so is Eglantine, my bright red 2001 Beetle!).

House roof is all done with new plywood and waterproof membrane.

And my house roof is also complete now with new 5/8" plywood and a waterproofing membrane.  The old plywood was only 1/4", so this roof is much sturdier and will last a lot longer than I will!  It is very nice to know that I'm doing the last roof I will ever have to do!