On Thursday and Friday, the contractors took care of the final touch-ups in the bedroom and bathroom. We are still waiting on a custom made linen cabinet in the bathroom, and I still have to take care of some closet organizers in the walk-in closet, but for all intents and purposes. that phase of construction is complete. Our seven year old daughter had the honours of taking the first bath in the massage tub on Thursday. My wife followed on Friday, and I finally had my turn on Saturday. Wonderful!
Also on Thursday, the contractors dealt with what we hope will be the final major structural repair in the basement. The previous owner had installed an oversize window in the basement without a proper header inside to support the framing and without a proper lintel outside to support the bricks. The structure is now properly supported inside with a piece of angle iron and a couple of jackposts. We are waiting on a new window, and when that gets installed, so will the lintel outside.
I wasn’t very happy with the lack of progress on Friday, and admittedly, much of that was my own fault. Clearing out the kitchen took much longer than I anticipated, and I had to make multiple trips to the supermarket to get more boxes. While I was doing that, the contractors busied themselves with cleaning up the basement, which mostly involved moving my stuff around. That was something I should have done myself, and it certainly wasn’t worth the amount of money I was paying them. But of course, there wasn’t much else they could do, since I had not yet finished clearing out the kitchen.
The front hallway as seen from the back.
View of the main hallway from the front door.
Bathroom door is on the left, bedroom door is on the right.
Over the weekend, we busied ourselves with getting the rest of the stuff out of the kitchen as well as moving some of the stuff from the living room into the bedroom. Our daughter is temporarily set up in the new laundry room, which is just barely big enough for a twin size bed and a small dresser. Meanwhile, our family room is overflowing with stuff.
The stress finally takes its toll
On Sunday, as I was moving our “stuff” around, trying to find room for it and maintain room for ourselves, I reached my breaking point. A happy camper I was not. We have a ridiculous amount of “stuff,” much of which could possibly be classified as “crap” and “junk.” When we actually start moving into our permanent rooms, there will be a lot of purging. But we are a couple of weeks away from that and in the mean time, we have to live in what is now a very crowded family room. Frankly, I don’t know how much more of this I can take without completely snapping….