Saturday, August 17, 2002

Wow! I've been gone a lone time, eh?

I've been simply overwhelmed with this house thing. I couldn't really afford much here in this area with a crazy market, so I ended up with a small duplex that needed LOTS of work. [Ten people from Peru had been living in it without any evidence of any use of cleaning product.] In fact, it needed more work than either the inspector, the seller, or I realized...much to my dismay.

My mother has been here for two weeks and leaves tomorrow morning. We have worked from 8 in the morning to 8 in the evening Wed. through Sunday of those two weeks. We are exhausted, we stink, and I've done more laundry in the past two weeks than I have in the past two months.

To date, I have a new roof, a repaired chimney, a new first floor ceiling, a new a/c, new toilet innards, new kitchen tile floor, 1 new window, 7 repaired windows, a new water heater, a new washing machine, a new laundry area beneath the basement stairs, the walls all scraped, sanded, floated, textured, & painted, and the framing and rough-in plumbing for the basement bath. The yard has been cleared out as well. Needless the say, the neighbors are none too happy with the brush, trash, appliances, and cabinets waiting by the curb for my special pick-up on Tuesday.

The basement bath and bedroom enlargement was supposed to be done before now, but the wall guy injured his arm. He was also the ceiling guy, the molding guy, and the kitchen cabinet guy. Trying to get someone to put up the main floor ceiling on short notice was nothing short of a nightmare.

Tomorrow I have to clean up all the contractors' trash & stuff to prepare for the floor guy on Monday who will take control of the house until next Friday with the exception of the kitchen. Monday evening, the kitchen cabinets will be installed.

The weather has been unbelievably hot and unbearable. I have been fighting nausea and weakness for two weeks, drinking gallons of water and gatorade each day. BOY WILL I BE GLAD WHEN THIS IS OVER!

So...what have you been up to lately?