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Motivation Strikes Again!

Amazing what a new blog format will do! Proof positive - this Saturday. Mike was pretty busy with winter time vehicle maintenance - you know, winterizing the boat, tuning up the skid steer, fixing the heat in my truck, putting a new chain and sprocket on the 4wheeler.... standard fall/winter stuff.

He came in around noon after finishing up the boat and I casually mentioned the hallway drywall and asked if he wanted to finish it up or if our neighbor Rich could come by soon to do it. (Since it was half done already and just needed another skim before it could be repainted for good.)

Well, somehow this led into a discussion of our downstairs guest room soon-to-be baby room and before you know it, I'm pulling out my paint color scheme and Mike's in the room inspecting the drywall! And wouldn't you know it, soon after that we're taking the old twin guest mattress and the desk out of the guest room and hauling it to the dump!

When we got back, Mike was back out in the garage to fix my heat. But me - I completely cleaned out the guest room. (save for the heavy stuff) Curtains, nick nacks, junk we'd been storing in there - everything.

Of course, it pained me to mess up the upstairs office after just having cleaned all the Halloween stuff out of there the previous weekend! Now it looks like this:


Ok, back to the bedroom:

Then I figured I might want to start a list of things we need in here. A new door for sure - this one was bought as a temp and doesn't match all the rest of the house's wood doors. Plus, it's taken a lot of abuse. We actually lived in this room during early renovations and this door separated us and our stuff from the dusty gross and unfinished house beyond.

Of course we need outlet covers - 5 of them. And one outlet has yet to be installed! Plus two switch covers and one switch for the closet light... oh yeah, and a closet light. Closet doors too.

Window trim and curtains.

Then there's the floors. Unfortunately the floor is super soft in this room. You jump on it and the whole room shakes. You can see the floor buckling - it's terrible.

That evening our neighbor Rich stopped by and of course he got all excited when Mike mentioned drywall. Especially when the two of them came in to look at the room and the hallway. There wasn't much that needed to be done. In fact, Rich asked if he could come over some evening this week! Mike suggested Monday. Great, done deal.

So in one swoop, we go from stagnation to motivation.... it's funny really. When we decide to move - we move QUICK. I think that's what has really allowed us to make such great progress over the years.

Anyway, tonight the guys will be working drywall. I have my dance class, so timing is perfect. Maybe if we're lucky, Mike will be able to paint this weekend. That's a lot to ask for a short week with Thanksgiving stuck right in the middle - but you never know when motivation will strike!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Two questions:

Is that a plumbing pipe sticking up out of the floor?

What are you going to do to stiffen up the soft floor?

kitrainia said...

No plumbing - in one pic you can see the edge of a metal bed frame, which we still haven't removed and in another Mike's drywall hock (I think that's what you call it) is on the floor with the handle facing up - and it does look kind of weird from a distance if you don't know what it is.

For the floor, our carpenter actually recommended ripping up the top layer of wood and replacing it with 1/2" plywood, then going over that with 3/4" plywood. A few more well placed joists on the underside wouldn't hurt either.

I can't imagine us plywooding anything until January though. Paint is definitely easier to cross of the to-do list from an economical view.

Making it more difficult - the living room and hallway should get the same plywood treatment. We'd love to do it all at once and then just slap down the 3/4 hardwood. But again - all that plywood and then the hardwood flooring... expensive!