On Your Mark, Get Set...

Ed finished the Trex deck two weeks ago, and I forgot to post a picture. That darned stuff is really heavy! Hopefully it will last forever, especially since it is on the "weather" side of the house.

Things are starting to ramp up now that the holiday is over. There will be a delicately timed string of events sometime at the end of August and into September. We have to finish the apartment, still without stairs. The doublewide has been sold and will be moved. At that point we can build the stairs to the apartment, get the rest of the interior finished, and move in. While all of this is going on, we will be living in a 5th wheel, generously lent to us by a neighbor.

In a perfect world, the apartment would be all done, painted and finished just like on one of those home improvement programs on TV. I'd just have to show up with an overnight bag and toothbrush and just make myself comfortable. In the real world, the mad scramble has begun and won't be semi-normal until almost Thanksgiving, which is the four year mark since we moved up here, and 18 months since we started the garage/apartment phase.

The other night we made a to-do list and time-line. Wow...what a reality check! We're in a time crunch and we haven't even started the clock!

Insulation

Sheetrock, order wood stove, removed deck from doublewide

Install front window, choose tile, paint, flooring

Prime/paint interior, seal/stain interior wood trim

Finish electric fixtures

Install flooring/tile, buy fridge

Measure for cabinets, install bath fixtures,buy countertops

Balcony rail
August 25: Doublewide moved!

Build stairs

Install cabinets,countertop

Install kitchen appliances

Furniture

Sit on deck and enjoy fruits of our labors

Ed retires mid-August...thank goodness!

We spent most of Tuesday cleaning up in preparation for the insulation guys this next week. All the old bits of wood, sawdust, wrappers, empty soda cans, plywood cut-offs, all had to go downstairs, then into various trash/recycle piles.

After all the sweeping was done, things looked pretty good.

Downstairs, in the garage, the same thing had to happen. Almost everything had to go down to the barn, and Ed's 71 Boss 302 Mustang, actually had to go....eeek...outside! Everybody worked together to get it all straightened out...well, almost everyone.

Yes, Mittens and Midnight, scourges of the rodent and bird populations, killers extraordinaire, were exhausted by all that mousing and stealthing. Poor things.. it's a tough life...

Removing the deck from around the doublewide is primarily my job. I had taken down some of the rail already and I started on the floorboards. It is nice cedar decking, so I'm taking out all the screws and stacking the wood. I have the floorboards that border the spa off, and will work on the frame this afternoon.

I am waspophobic..an irrational fear of wasps, not so irrational when you've had a nest of those bombers from Hell swarm over you! Ohhh yes...I've seen them hovering about, trying to look innocuous! I'm not fooled by their casual and seemingly uninterested demeanor. Anyway, I take off a few boards, peek around looking for a nest, take off a few more boards, peek again..you get the picture. I'm pretty sure they either have a nest inside the spa (unused) or between the spa wood and fiberglass. Either way, I don't want to stress them out, so I work pretty gingerly around

the area.