Unlike most people that are stuck in just one little place we are counting our blessings that we can split our time between two places. It’s nice to enjoy a change of scenery when we want. We are also super grateful for the school closures. It has allowed our high school children to finish up their schooling early in the morning and then spend the rest of the day helping on ol’ Bertha. It has been a blessing to be able to give Derek many more helping hands on the job site.
We finally have our electrician in and the good thing about construction is everyone can work in their own little spaces while still applying social distancing. That aside we are so happy to finally have Paul in the house finishing up what I couldn’t.
We are sad that our plumbing helper hasn’t been able to come by. It has been just too dangerous for him to be near anyone so that he doesn’t take anything home to his adorable, sweet wife. We just love her and hope that she does stay safe and gets healthy. We have done a little go keep moving with the plumbing job though. We have partially filled in the large hole in the side yard with sand and part of the soil that will have to be compacted before we continue filling it in.
Yesterday was a great day. We finally got our windows in to replace all the broken ones. We want to get those handled first and then we will see if we have the funds to replace all of them after everything else is finished. We are still doing our best to get into the house without any mortgage.
Just on the front of the building we have gone from this….
To this! We Kept the main floor window boarded because it’s an original leaded glass pane that we don’t want vandalized.
Monday Granger and I decided to try and make a little more room in the back basement by tearing out the old boiler and the platform it was standing on. This will help make more storage space and help us get things out of the way for the plumber and the electrician. We already have a basement full of stuff even though we aren’t in the house yet.
We also had one more issue to handle. It was always our plan to continue to use the wood burning stove that came with the house, but after going over the code for what is necessary for the pad we decided to get a vent-free gas fireplace instead. This way we don’t cut clear into the middle of the space between the dining room and the front parlor. We wanted this area to be as open as possible for when we have big family gatherings, and we definitely have a big family.
We are still very hopeful that at this pace we will be able to move in before the end of the year. It’s just crazy how many little tedious things need to be done in order to move on from this first phase. Just when you think you are about done you stumble upon yet another thing that needs to be addressed. Derek make a comment the other day “I’m finally done with framing! That’s at least the 10th time I have said that and I know it won’t be the last.” He is really moving now and getting so much done so quickly. We are all really proud of his hard work and craftsmanship. We are so grateful to have him working so hard for us all.