(de) Construction

The first half of July has been spent in deconstruction and reconstruction mode.  The new house turned out to be more labor-intensive that originally planned for. (doesn't that always happen?) However, my dad took it in stride and thankfully patched holes in walls until we ran out of drywall mud, then continued to patch holes after we bought more.  The walls have all been repaired, painted, and the tape has been pulled, and Mick (grandpa) has installed all new light fixtures and ceiling fans.  Before/After pictures will follow once the carpet is in.  As I write this, the first coat of polyurethane is drying on the newly refinished hardwood floors, and the carpet is being laid on Monday.

One of the bigger projects has been the main upstairs bathroom.  First, it was wallpapered and then painted an offending shade of bright yellow.  The wallpaper was peeling and in obvious disrepair.  The bathroom was my first major project, and it took me three solid days to get all the nasty wallpaper off.  Wallpapering should be a crime punishable by massive fines, or you should be required to remove the wallpaper you chose to put up.  It is NOT a fun job.

Second, the bathtub/shower was tiled with those white tiles, you know the kind I'm talking about.  Well, the one right next to the faucet was cracked, allowing water to leak downstairs into the kitchen ceiling every time the faucet was used.  "Out With The Tile", I proclaimed.  Ugh, not so fast.  After ripping out the tile and trying to install new fixtures, my dad found out that our plumbing was not up to code and we could not buy a fixture that would fit.  Call the plumber and $400 later we have a new piece of pipe (literally the size of my fist...plumbers should NOT be so expensive) and my dad could finish off the tub.

If you know me, you know I do not like to clean more than I have to.  The thought of keeping tile and grout clean was making me sick to my stomach just thinking about it, so I opted for a nice fiberglass surround for the tub walls.  Much easier to keep clean with two kids.  The bathtub stays.  My dad is almost done with the tub, and then we can paint the bathroom.  The last room we have to paint in the house.

Next up on the list of to do's: counter tops for 3 bathrooms and the kitchen, doors (seriously, why were there large holes in every door in the house?), and then we will tackle the jungle that awaits us in the backyard.

Hopefully the hard manual labor part of this project is over and the rest of the project will just involve my credit card.