All consuming

I haven't been posting much lately, but for good reason. I've been sucked into the home renovation black hole.  In ten words: we are tired of it and just plain tired, too.

When I look back at this year so far, we've been in full-on home improvement/home renovation mode since the beginning of February when we decided to sell the little yellow house.  That's eight months and counting. 

We have a major deadline -- we're planning to move the father-in-law into our downstairs during the third week of November.  Obviously, that means we have to have it in livable condition by then.

Here's what we've been up to since demolition:

• First things first.  We bought steel-toe work boots and canvas Dickies (real work pants) for the renovator-in-chief. 

• Thanks to Byron's plumbing abilities, we have new water pipes for all the hot and cold water in the house.  He used PEX to re-pipe the house.  The disgusting part was discovering the thick layer of grunge and slime that was inside the galvanized steel pipes that Byron removed.  Luckily, we had been filtering all our drinking water.  But still . . .
• In addition, we are now the proud owners of a new and expanded electrical panel serving the house. This will allow us to add the circuits and light fixtures we need for the downstairs. 
• We've taken many of the appliances out of the upstairs kitchen, replaced them with others, and will reuse the older ones in a downstairs kitchenette.  Part of this process included adding natural gas to the upstairs kitchen, moving the hot water heater, and putting a hookup for a gas insert fireplace in the downstairs fire box.
• Added new shelving and a pantry in the upstairs kitchen.
• Cleaned the chimneys and installed a flue cap on the roof.  Had our first fire in the fireplace this week.
• Added a wall of shelving to the upstairs living room for media and books.  (While not technically a renovation, we must have our books at the ready just to cope!)
• Finished painting and trimming out the baby's room.  The nursery isn't ready, but getting closer.
• Built a raised bed in the garden--the dahlia bulbs had to be planted.  It was that or certain death.

• Byron is rewiring the entire downstairs for light, power, and sound--including dedicated circuits for appliances. I think by the end of this weekend, we'll be ready for the rough-in electrical inspection.
• Hired an engineer to figure out how to remove part of a load-bearing wall in the downstairs and add a post and beam.

On the agenda for the next 10 days:

• Adding water and waste hook ups for a downstairs kitchen sink, replacing the downstairs shower with a bathtub, and adding hookups for a washer and dryer upstairs.