Monday (10/22)- what is worse than 3 in nails in toe kicks? 0.75in wire nails that you can’t get a grip on.

Tuesday – I took the night off, it was much needed.

Wednesday- Stripping paint off of wood work is a huge time suck, not necessary a bad job, just slow.

Thursday- to my distress the garbage man did not pick up my trash, but he did leave a recycling bin. So I am hoping that he just didn’t realize that I had trash, not that I did something wrong…

Then I worked on removing trim in the dining room, the fancy stuff in all of the inlets in the wood work. 

Friday- Lisa came by and we split a bottle of wine while stripping paint, it was a very nice girls night in. 

Saturday- I took the rest of the trim off in the dining room and in the hallway.  Then Uncle Larry, Aunt Nancy and my father arrived and craziness started.  First Uncle Larry showed me how to fix the plaster that been removed. 

the hole in bedroom 2's ceiling

Step 1: nail lathe back to the studs, Step 2: remove dirt with a wire brush, step 3: vacuum hole,  step 4: mix some of the joint compound, not too much, step 5: apply, step 6: clean up.

The ceiling with the first layer of plaster back on.

 

Then a plaster contractor showed up and I took him on a tour of everything I want done.

Aunt Nancy helped me get some cleaning done, like vacuuming out the vents and sweeping up the messes. 

Uncle Larry then figured out how to run the line from the attic to the basement throw the wall, this resulted in more messes for Aunt Nancy to clean up. We got the junction boxes in the attic wired while Dad and Andrew worked on wiring outlets.  And finally we got the wires to the electrical box and the quickest thing of the whole day was Uncle Larry adding in the new breakers. 

As tricker treaters started to appear on the street, my father and Larry figured out the switch in the main room.  I now have two switches on the front wall, one for the outside light and one for a light in the living room, it is pretty awesome. 

Dad got more outlets working in the basement. We ate stew for dinner and then it was time for the Green Bay work crew to head home.  Thank you guys so much for making the trip down!

Sunday- Cousin Scott came and looked at the house again to make his estimate.  Some of the outlets need a bit of work to get the cover plates to sit flush. And there are a few loose spots on the walls.

Sailing was cancelled due to conditions, so Scott (not cousin Scott) showed me how to take a toilet off, assuming that it was not installed correctly to begin with. The toilet flange was not actually screwed into the  floor so the toilet just came off, with the tiles still attached tightly.  I imagine Jason saying something like, “ honey, come look at this, my caulking skills are really getting better, there is no way this is going to leak!” The toilet then moved from the bathroom to the kitchen and then to the back yard( there was still some water in it so it was a good thing that it was a sunny day.

We (and by we I mean Scott) had to saw the rusted bolts off, which was the most difficult part of the whole thing.  Then Scott started working on getting the new flange attached and I read the box for the new wax ring, which said to make sure the wax was at least 70° F for the wax to ‘flow’ properly.  Now I didn’t think that microwaving it was a good idea and there is nothing in the house that is over 55°.  Expect for me.  So I stuck it in my sweatshirt and scrapped the floor because that is the warmest activity.  Then we put the toilet back on. 

Scott had to get to work at this point so I scrapped on the walls a bit more, put plastic on the front window as it needs to be replaced and started striping the purple door way.  Then I went home.