A Not So Quick Update

Well well well...
Here I am and where is everyone else?
Yea yea, its been a few months since my last update, and while I put this site on my calendar, I don’t expect anyone to actually go to it. As it turns out, some of you still do, which is a lot like going to the fridge for an icy cold beer even when you know its empty.

In my defense, its been crazy busy here and I have photographic evidence to back up that claim.
For example. We decided after a long winter of chipping ice and shoveling out the INSIDE of the garage, that the garage would keep our stuff dryer if it was actually gone, so early on, we hatched a plan that would get rid of the garage/ice rink and the big concrete pad next to it while simultaneously gaining an endless pile of dirt for Dylan and the dogs to track throughout the house (including the walls and shower curtain). Along with this new “beach front”, we built an addition to make our small house 14 x 14 ft larger. (When I say ‘we’ built, I mean someone else whose far more qualified than yours truly.) Every day has been like Christmas, or actually more like Hanukkah, since its been about 8 days since they started, but my point is, I’ve been really excited to get home and see how much progress they’ve made. And let me just say that each day I’ve been amazed at what these guys can do. While it takes me a weekend to frame in a closet and drywall it, not including mud, sanding or trim, these guys have damn near built this entire addition, including the siding to finish the outside. They’re still working on the inside, but I have no doubt that they will impress me with that as well. So far, everyone of the professionals we’ve hired on this have gone way above my expectations for timeliness and professionalism. As a bonus, we poured a concrete floor (again, by “we”, I mean someone else) underneath the addition that will give us about 14 x 14 x 4 feet of additional storage. This was one of many great ideas pitched by Kim’s bosses who own the best plumbing and heating company in town. Actually, without their help and expertise this project would still be stuck in our heads. Not only are they incredibly knowledgeable in all things of this nature, Steve is a virtuoso /hell on wheels with a backhoe and not afraid to prove it, manipulating its massive steel limbs with surgical precision he quickly made the tons and tons of concrete go away. I of course stood by and um.. helped him uh... well, I stood there and swept my driveway so as not to feel completely useless. Of course he would then load the dump truck and spill new sand for me to sweep, back to work I go. My work never done.

Projects for the near future include a deck to put on the front of this addition, a smaller deck for the front of the house, replacing the basement windows, completely redoing the sump pump situation downstairs, (for you west coasters, this is located in the basement where I do the laundry (by “I”, once again, I mean someone more qualified), because the basement is below our sewer lines, we have to have a well and sump pump to get the water up to the line. This is very common around these parts, but needs to be handled efficiently in order for it not to smell like a well with grey water in it. We’ll rely on Rickleff Plumbing and Heating (the best plumbers in town) to help us through this.
While I have photos of the addition going up, you’ll have to wait on the other projects until someone puts more money in my bank account. But we’ll keep chipping away at it.
Essentially, when we get done with this place, it will be like new and we’ll have actually fixed up our fixer upper.

Whew! I’m beat, not used to typing all this at one time!

For you locals that may need stuff built, I highly recommend Swats Concrete, Novey Construction and of course Rickleff Plumbing and Heating.

Oh, and I’ll post pics of this project soon and many other things we’ve been up to. I’ll work diligently to update this blog regularly again.