Bruce loves mountains. I think we'd be up north in the Georgia mountains every weekend, if he had his way. I like mountains, especially the view from the top of one, but getting to (and leaving) a mountain has never been my favourite thing because of the curvy roads (especially those hairpin curves). I don't feel quite so seasick if I'm the one driving, or if I sit perfectly still, but I'd still prefer not to be on a mountain road if possible. Now, however, we appear to be metaphorically stuck on one.
I have come to the conclusion that home renovations are the equivalent of a ride to the top of a tall, tall mountain. The promise of a great view is beckoning from the distance, and I know this house is going to look wonderful when all the work is finally done, but the road is long and winding a great deal. So much so that I'm beginning to treasure every lull (i.e. break from a hairpin curve) we have.
One such lull - our kitchen/dining room floor looks wonderful! The tile is gorgeous and goes very well with the kitchen cabinets (I forgot to take the "before" photos, so unless you've seen the floor at its worst you may not understand why I'm so giddy about the tiles). Bruce and I both love, love, love our newly tiled floor, and I think that's what is keeping us going amidst this chaos.
Our contractor came by on Tuesday with one of his guys to look at the wall in our mould room in order to try and figure out where the leak was situated (only the insane insurance guy thought it came in at ground level). So the contractor, George, and his colleague, Frank, started removing some of the drywall around the window (which is where we normal folk thought the leak was, which is why we ordered new windows in the first place).
It's not always pretty to be right. (I'll put in photos when I get them from Bruce, so you'll be able to see what I mean.)
The wood around the window in the mould room is almost completely rotted through. And, according to George, it looks like there's been a leak there before that someone tried to fix (but not very well). I don't know how long this leak has been there, but judging from the condition of the wood, it's been quite a while.
So Bruce took photos, George took photos, and then Bruce called our insurance company. They said they needed a letter from George stating what was found (since apparently a contractor is more believable than a mere homeowner). George faxed them a description of what he found as well as his estimate of what it will cost to repair the damage. Then we had to call the insurance company yesterday to follow up, i.e. make sure they received the fax. They had, but naturally they weren't going to do anything with the fax until they heard from us. Now that Bruce has followed up the fax with a phone call, they can officially move to the next stage of the process, which is to get the inspector to call Bruce to set up an appointment to come to our house and look at the damage for himself. We have no idea when that phone call will take place, but at least we've got the ball rolling (uphill, of course, since this is a journey to the top of a mountain).
This means we can't do a thing with that room until the inspector gets here - we can't get the wall fixed and we can't put in the new carpet.
But the rest of the house needs attention, too, so we'll just close the door to that mould room and focus on everything else.
We're getting new closet doors installed. That sound simple enough, right? Take off the old ones, put on the new. Except this is a nausea-inducing journey, remember? The closet doors we had were from the '80s. They were heavy, made of metal (heavy metal being a very '80s thing!) and were continually coming out of their tracks. They were a pain to open and close. These days, closet doors are made from wood and are much lighter. So that's what we've opted to have instead of our iron monsters. Except that closet doors are now about 80 inches tall (a little over 2 metres), and the metal ones were taller (perhaps another 20 cm or so). That means they have to put in a bit of a filler between the ceiling and the new closet doors.
That in itself has turned out to be a complicated process, because it's not just a matter of putting in the fillers. No ... First, all our closets have to be emptied. Otherwise, the plaster that covers the wood used to fill in the space will get all over our things when it is sanded down. So, we have a FUN weekend ahead of us. We have to empty out every single closet and pack stuff into boxes. We can use one closet for work clothes that we'll need in the coming week, but everything else needs to be put away. In a small house with very little empty space. FUN!!! And then after all this is done, we'll have more chaos when the new carpet is put in, as I don't know how the men will be moving around furniture. All the dining room furniture had to go into the living room when the tile was being laid, which meant we could barely move around in the living room. Goodness knows where the living room furniture is going to go when they have to put down the carpet. But hopefully I'll be in the office that day and Bruce can enjoy that madness all by himself! (I had to endure the tile turbulence by myself, so it's only fair that he has a turn.)
The men will probably be working on the closet doors most of the coming week. I'm working from home on Monday and Thursday (my wonderful boss agreed to my request without hesitation) and Bruce will be here on Tuesday and Friday, his usual work-from-home days. We both have meetings on Wednesday that we have to be in the office for, but the rest of the week will be filled with hammering and loud air guns that scare Belle and unnerve Beau. (Have you ever heard an air gun drive a nail into wood? It is jarring and almost deafening.)
The guys doing the work - Frank and Mike - are nice guys and are doing a great job so far. My only concern is the amount of dirt and dust that all this work is kicking up. My lungs are not happy.
As our muscles and backs begin to ache from all the moving and packing we'll be doing this weekend, I'll just have to keep reminding myself about the lovely house we'll have in January when we finally get to the top of this mountain ...
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