Our Monona Mess

  Gas, Structure, and Lots of Little Things On Monday, the granddaughter of the previous owner of the house contacted us out of the blue and asked if we would sell her the old front door.  Of course, we gave it to her and while she was here, we got to show her the house now and hear about her memories from when she was little and visited this house. It was so much fun to connect the past with the future of this house! On Monday and Tuesday, Dave continued to to make the holes bigger downstairs and to reinforce the floor before the new gas lines were put in.  And then on Wednesday morning, MG&E ran the new lines for the stove and the fireplace and Dave hooked up the electricity so we could have a working stove.  This weekend, Dave worked on the beams in the attic. And adding the reinforcements in the living room walls. As well as supports to hold up the ceiling while we do the work. While he worked upstairs, I did very little but drive kids around, get groceries, ...

  Last week, we took the old storm door off the front of the house and exposed the old wood door.  We liked how it looked, but we know that it is in rough shape.  So we replaced it,  We originally hoped to keep the door handle, but it is too small for the pre-drilled holes in the door and it needs to be refurbished.  We decided to put a new one on and keep it for another project later.  Dave also put the remaining kitchen pulls on and I continue to more and more into the kitchen.  On Sunday, Dave and I cut a big hole in the ceiling of the office to run the new gas lines. Last week, MGE came to give us bid on hooking up the stove and running the gas line for the fire place and this week they are coming back to actually do it.  Dave needed to cut open the ceiling and of course, it was full of surprises, including cut floor joists and unsupported concrete.

Last Sunday we discovered that the Mulberry Tree was cracked, wepting, and hanging dangerously over the neighbors garage, so we got someone to come quick to remove the damaged parts.  It turns out the the tree company we chose is owned by our across the street neighbor's grandson. She was so excited to see her grandson working in our yard.  While his crew was there, Dave also put them to work on removing bushes, trees, and stumps around the house. In all, they removed 17 stumps.  Some were sad to see the yew's leave, but they were so dense that we could not get to the front of the house to turn on the water or clean the windows, there were several different types of rodents living in them, spiders had taken over, and the box elders and tree of heaven were growing through them like weeds (and harboring harmful insects). They just needed to go and now we have clean slate to do our own landscaping

  And a Dirty Chimney This week was another slow week. It is hard to have much ambition to work on the house in the evening these days, but we need to get moving again soon.  At the beginning of the week, the chimney sweep came to clean the chimney so that we can get ready ot convert it to gas.  About 8 minutes into getting started, he said it was the dirtiest chimney that he has ever seen. It is all clean now, but we found out that the cap does not meet code so we will have to have new one built before we convert the fireplace.  Dave has been painting trim and mid-week, he started putting the trim on around the doors. The back door looks great with its finished look. He also finished our bedroom door.  And he painted the trim in the bathroom and started building the jamb for the laundry room door too.  This weekend, Dave started putting the new pulls on the kitchen cabinets.  And Lauryn finally took the protective plastic off the refrigerator. 

The time has come to switch to weekly updates. School has started, we are waiting for countertops to come in and the weather to cooperate, and changes just do not happen as fast anymore. This week Dave ran the wiring to the island and got the microwave hooked up. He and Tyler worked together to modify the trim to get it to look built in. He also put most of the outlets in the kitchen and hooked up the sconces over the kitchen sink. Tyler came and spent a couple of days sanding woodwork and then Dave primed it.  This weekend Dave had to work and we went to Milwaukee for Lauryn's birthday, but Dave did start installing the beverage station in the living room. I spent Saturday sleeping (it was a tough week), cleaning, and beginning to line the kitchen drawers with cork and move into them.