11/10/24

Rick left on Thursday again, and I arrived on Friday. We had more rain at both places this week, and the temps were cool but warmed a little by the end of the weekend. Rick re-wired the north living room wall and put up the sheetrock before I arrived. We started putting up the mini-split in the living room Friday afternoon and finished Saturday. We then worked on the south and west living room walls and the hallway walls. 

On Sunday, we put up some of the sheetrock on the south wall of the living room. I worked on "muddin" the screw holes (I'm not allowed to work near the seams as my skills are not that great) on all of the sheetrock that we've hung in the house, including the 2nd round on the original sheetrock I mudded recently, while Rick re-wired electrical outlets for living room and outside near the front door and the living room light switch. We also started planning the kitchen remodel. 

We'll be away for the next 3 weekends on a cruise. When we return, we'll put in that last window (if it arrives and as weather allows), continue re-wiring and getting all of the sheetrock up in the living room and hallway, start taping/bedding/texturing the walls, and start tearing out cabinets in the kitchen.

The football boys played at home on Friday night and won the district championship. The volleyball girls won the area championship on Saturday afternoon and play Tuesday for another trip to the regional tournament. Our house has a front row seat for all of the school festivities.

The Lady Stangs leaving for their area championship game Saturday morning with an escort out of town from the fire department

11/3/24

Rick left on Thursday, and I stayed and worked Thursday and about half a day on Friday and arrived late Friday afternoon. Rick installed the mini-splits for the master bedroom and 2nd bedroom on the south end of the house and finished everything up after dark on Friday night. It was much cooler than it's been, and we had storms both Saturday and Sunday (I heard 2+ inches). It wasn't quite enough to completely close in the massive cracks in the yard yet but was much needed and appreciated. 

Saturday, we finished putting up sheetrock in the 2nd bedroom and worked on wiring, insulating, and prepping the east wall of the living room for sheetrock. We stopped a little early on Saturday night and attended the Fall Festival at the school--I still call it the Halloween Carnival. We watched the program and played Bingo until almost 1am (and won a lot of stuff)! It had been over 40 years since I'd been.

Thankfully, it was the night to "fall back", so the extra hour of sleep was helpful. On Sunday we finished prepping and putting sheetrock up on the east living room wall.  Next week will likely involve installing the remaining mini-split in the living room (probably on the north wall rather than the east wall) after we get the electricity and sheetrock completed. If the laundry room window arrives, that might be installed as well. We'll continue to work on getting the electricity and sheetrock on south and north living room walls and then move to the hallways.

This showed up on my car screen for my suggested work route Friday morning. That's a little creepy.

Mini-split in master bedroom

Mini-split in 2nd bedroom

Finished sheetrock and mini-split in 2nd bedroom

Enjoyed using the old Bingo cards and seeing the old businesses

I zoomed out and guess it distorted the shot. Rick's cap really didn't look like Elmer Fudd.

A couple of neighborhood hoodlums

Living room wall mostly put back together

Cool cloud formations after the Sunday storms

East wall sheetrock completed & one of our bingo prizes ready to hit the yard next weekend

10/27/24

It was another Friday-Sunday weekend. The window connector arrived, so we were able to install the front two windows on Friday. It was a little more complicated than a single window but was relatively smooth. Rick also removed the wall furnace from the living room wall.

Saturday, we worked on running electrical plugs, prepping the walls/baseboard areas/windows, and installing sheetrock on exterior walls in the master bedroom. Rick also foamed all of the new windows and put up the exterior trim on the new front windows.

Sunday, we repeated the process for the 2nd bedroom but didn't finish. As is almost always the case, we ran into lots of challenges that slowed us down. 

Next weekend, we'll complete exterior wall sheetrock for the 2nd bedroom and begin repeating the process in the living room. We'll also be taping/bedding and possibly texturizing walls in preparation to install the mini-splits for heating. The last window (in the laundry room) has been ordered and should arrive in a few weeks.

 

Found a rough sketch of the seats in the dining room nook on a random board pulled out of a wall somewhere in the house.

We won 60-0 (called at half).

Front porch light now working 

Sunrise and the volleyball girls leaving early for a Saturday morning game

Master bedroom

2nd bedroom

Rick is re-doing electricity in the attic as we go. It was less than ideal.