And One Thing Leads to Another

So I mentioned the [partial] rehabilitation of the dining room? Apparently being able to see the room again has inspired Troy to work on it again.

It didn't hurt that he got all the holes plugged in the shop...yeah!! The mudding is also done, and he now has to wait for it to dry before he can start painting. Paint! Can you believe it? That's, like, finally a layer you can actually see when things are considered done. Wow. Milestone here.

Back to the drying mud...that may take a while as the shop is still quite cool--about 50^F now that the holes are plugged and the windows are insulated.

So that brings me to the dining room. When the shop was finished today, Troy moved his supplies and himself to the dining room to finish the job there. So, yes, the dining room holes are all plugged too.

There is more mudding and sanding to do there, so I may have removed the plastic dust barriers just a little too soon?

Well, as Troy reminded me, it can always go back up...

Room Reclamation

Long before the shop was usable in any way, Troy claimed the dining room as a work room. It was already a mess and cordoned off with plastic from when he and Joel blew insulation into the walls.

I had done a "rough" cleanup after the insulation was done, but since then there has been a lot of wood cut in the room (that means a lot of sawdust) and Troy and I topped off the insulation which made another mess.

Now that the shop is largely functional for these types of tasks (after all, Troy's logic for building the shop first was so that he could work in there while fixing up the house), Troy has agreed that the dining room's stint as workshop is over.

My mother had the unfortunate timing of visiting me while I was fired up to get this done. So, much like our Christmas company, I put her to work!

But in my defense, this is the type of job that is right up her alley. We made a big difference in only about an hour.

It was a lot of vacuuming and sweeping. We didn't actually move any of the stuff out to the shop. I'll do that later. (I thought I'd actually give Troy time to make a place in the shop instead of just dumping it in there.) A lot of it is equipment Troy uses for starting seeds (which he did in the dining room last spring). He'll be doing that in the shop this year. For one thing, the temperature there will likely be more constant than in the dining room!

Without a wide angle lens, it's a little hard to get a good shot, but let me try:

Before is on the left, and after is on the right. Taking down the plastic has made such a difference in the living room as well!

And the dining room is much more open; all the stuff along the edges waiting to be moved:

Small steps...making a difference in day-to-day life!

Insulation: Day Twelve (Twelve's the Charm?)

We did more insulation this past Sunday. I hesitate to say that it is the last time (kind of like never saying never) but Troy is pretty eager to seal up the holes and stop some moisture problems that have come up. So maybe he will seal those up before that nagging thought comes back to him that he needs to stuff just a little more in.

We had to have this conversation again: (quote from last time)

I then said that I thought I was going to have to explain how calculus works and the fact that no matter how many times we went around the room, he could always fit in just a little more. Less each time, but still more each and every time to the nth degree. He laughed and agreed and confirmed that we are done. (I'm sure those of you who know Troy are not surprised that I was worried he would want to do everything again. Sometimes I think it's my job to keep his thoroughness in check. But not this time.)

After explicitly telling me we didn't have to do the whole building again because he wouldn't be doing the full holes, Troy went around and did each and every hole again. He did start with the "more empty" ones first, but just couldn't stop there. It's a good thing the machine runs loud so it could covered up my [tolerant] grumbling.

When Troy picked up the machine at Home Depot, the guys at both stations (check in and pickup) recognized him as the "guy that gets the insulation." It's been months since we've been there but they still know him. In fact, they act like no one else rents the machine.

But surely that can't be true. It was a different machine, and Troy had to do his standard modifications:

Maybe we're the only one doing this on Sundays and these guys only work on Sundays? I don't know. I guess it really doesn't matter. At least Troy doesn't need to explain what he needs.

Troy's been still working on taping and mudding the drywall. The last stretch to do has been the seam between the ceiling and wall. And of course, now he has a lot of holes to patch too. Work in general has slowed the last little bit. While not giving up or stopping entirely, we are enjoying a respite. (We even watched a movie the other night!)

ETA: It was just reported that Troy patched the holes on the north, east, and most of the west walls this morning! Wowsers.

Shelling Popcorn Video

My inexperience led to the fatal mistake of holding the camera on its side to record this. If you have a laptop, I'd recommend holding it on its side to see the video right side up. If you have a desktop, I'm sorry. Don't be alarmed if you can't hear the sound, there isn't any. We have the world's most primitive "video" camera.

One more detailed take:

Notice especially the popcorn flying out the top--we're still finding kernels on the floor despite several sweepings.

Pop! Pop!