Our Monona Mess

  While we work on the house often, it physically changes little from week to week.  Things that you cannot see in the last 2 weeks include:  Dave continued to work on beams in the attic and cleaned out old insulation and added new insulation Dave finished painting the windows and we put on the rest of the storms I sanded all the trim for the entryway and textured the entryway walls I also shopped for and ordered the new fireplace for the living room.  They, finally, came to measure for the countertops and they should be here in about 3 weeks.  Changes that you can see include the wood structure added back on the front of the fireplace above as well as the insulation in the walls. We put in a new door at the top of the stairs. Well, Dave put it in, but I ran to Delavan to pick it up from Lowe's because we could not find one locally.  Dave also added finished wood trim to the other doors and floors in the kitchen. As Dave continued to work on the roof struct...

  We have been lucky to have such mild fall weather because our house is not ready for the cold yet. We are ready for fall though.  Dave let a rouge pumpkin plant from an old compost pile grow in our yard this year and we got 18 pumpkins from it.  Not really sure what to do with them all.   This week, Dave worked on cleaning out the old insulation in the attic and laying new insulation over the part of the ceiling that is new. Now we do not have cool air pouring into the living room. Hopefully soon we can put up the drywall too and close it in.  Dave also worked on painting the windows while the weather was nice and we put some more of the storms up to keep the cold air out.  I worked on painting woodwork while I could still do it outside.  And we got new rugs for the breezeway to keep the mud and muck from coming into the house. While cosmetically, not much seems to change on the house these days, it is really little things that keep improving li...

  At the Ceiling The ceiling continued to be the focus this week. Dave installed the pendant lights over the island  and the recessed lights in front of the cabinets.  Getting the lights out of the way gave me room to put stuff away in the pantry and upper cabinets. I purchased some more storage, including some lazy susans.  Dave got the base beams done in the attic and then he built the beam to go across the structure to support the ceiling. It took some large screws to attach them.  He has also been slowly jacking up the tresses from the living room. As the kitchen gets closer to finished (still waiting on counter tops), I wanted a place for people to sit and talk to me while I cook, so we brought up some stools and put them together.  I cannot wait to see them in the kitchen with the countertops.

  In order to put the beams in the attic, Dave had to deal with the giant mass of conduit that he discovered right where the beams need to go. That mass of wires feeds electricity to the living room, entry way, front of the house, the office in the basement, and of course, the attic where he needs to work.   He also needed to open up the soffit in the basement to trace these wires and get ready for blocking.  Nothing is ever that simple in this house. Of course he found a junction box right where the hole needed to be. The wires run from junction to junction needlessly and getting into all of it created a moldy mess. In the end, he got the beams in on the entry end of the living room and we just do not have power in the attic, living room, or entryway yet. While Dave worked upstairs, I continued to line the kitchen drawers and move into the kitchen One night, we also wallpapered the laundry room and Dave put on the wood trim.  The laundry room has a very finishe...