HFM

Gruff Halloween greetings from Sal Pickles of Pickles' Saloon! This is one bar you don't want to start trouble in.

Thank you, AJ, for your exciting post last week! This week another thing was completed: electrical! The electrician came on Thursday, and installed the light over the medicine cabinet: He also added the little plastic box that keeps the outdoor outlet dry: And replaced two light sockets in the garage that had been destroyed by other subcontractors: We no longer need a flashlight to get around in the garage at night! Lastly, he passed the final inspection: What a relief to have another thing fully completed! In other news, I discovered this week that we are being invaded by mice again. You may recall the Great Mouse Hunt of 2013, that involved a weekend of extensive mouse-proofing in the kitchen and back porch, and resulted in the live c apture of an invader in the bedroom , thanks to the assistance of Sergeant Pickles of the Rodent Roundup: This time, I discovered the intruders myself. I got up early for work and was standing in the kitchen, drinking my coffee, when I realized I wasn...

Hello everyone! It's your lucky day. Christine's out of town and I'm your guest blogger for the week. I've got my supplies for this task: $5 is the for the delivery of my dinner. I can't cook AND blog. And now for the part where I show you all the pictures Christine took of this week's progress. Folks came by and put this translucent sheeting over our staircase. You probably can't see it in this picture cuz, uh, it's translucent. This way we can stay dry from the rain that never falls here while we walk down to our awesome new room. Also, the dudes put in the cabinet that Christine lovingly restored. It looks so nice with the repurposed wood that frames the tub. Can we please, please, please get water to come out of these things soon? Also this week: Christine busted her butt to make things look even nicer around here. She sanded and stained our front door so it's freshened up and also matches more closely the windows and counter in the kitchen. She...

Ok, the bathroom got no closer to being finished this week after all. But in the one day they had to work this week (again, scheduling problems), they did get the decking outside the French doors done: And they made progress with the overhang over the back stairs: Slowly but surely, we are getting closer to finished! There are really only three must-haves left on the list for Mr. Bunkport's crew: bathroom, replace the flue for the upstairs heater, & finish the overhang. The rest we can either postpone, handle ourselves, or skip entirely. The guys have one day to work here next week, as well -- getting all three things done in one day, plus general cleanup, is a tall order, but keep your fingers crossed!

As hoped, lots more got done this week, and we are indeed very close to being done! Thursday Doorknob on the door between the garage and new room: Front of tub sealed and installed: Hole cut into wall for recessed medicine cabinet: Bathroom door hung: The beginning of a replacement overhang that keeps the back steps dry in the rain: Like a lot of the houses in this neighborhood, the house is two stories tall, but has no interior staircase. So when you want to go from the main living space on the second floor down to the garage to do some laundry, you actually have to go outdoors to do it. I think most people here (and our insurance company) consider this a one-story house, because the street-level story is not officially living space. Any way you cut it, having that overhang there sheltering the stairs is nice. Instead of keeping the solid one that was there, we are replacing it with a translucent material, to let light through. Friday They started putting in decking outside the French...