Previously… in July.

Damn. Has it been four months already?

I guess that’s what happens when you’re doing it yourself, and going on a few trips in between. If I wasn’t such a control freak about things, maybe this would go faster. Or if I paid someone else to do it.

This post is more for me than anything, to document my (lack of) progress. It’s rather picture heavy, but continue reading if you’re interested…

Weekend 2014/07/06

Fourth of July trip to Chicago, so nothing done.

Weekend 2014/07/13

Got the first floor walls up…

Weekend 2014/07/20

I decided the 8′ ceiling on the first floor was going to make the building too tall. So I lowered the ceiling to 7′, installed the floor joists for the second floor, and started laying down floor sheathing. Apparently I failed to take pictures of that first part.

Weekend 2014/07/27

Finished installing the remainder of the second floor sheathing…

Weekend 2014/08/03

Installed the half walls on the second floor that the roof tressels will sit on. I think I forgot to take pictures…

Weekend 2014/08/10

Started making and installing the roof tressels…

Weekend 2014/08/17

Rain?

Weekend 2014/08/24

Decadence trip to Texas, Florida, and NOLA

Weekend 2014/08/31

Decadence trip to Texas, Florida, and NOLA

Weekend 2014/09/07

???

Weekend 2014/09/14

Weekend 2014/09/21

Weekend 2014/09/28

Vegas trip

Weekend 2014/10/05

Weekend 2014/10/12

Rain…

Weekend 2014/10/20

Weekend 2014/10/26

Weekend 2014/11/02

Weekend 2014/11/09

Snow!

For those of you in project management or have to work on projects to begin with, do you know sometimes how mid-project you find out you need to do another project so you can complete your project?

Well, that happened with the never-ending Master Bathroom project.

Let’s just say I’ve run out of places to put my tools…

I have no place to store the tools I’m using! We don’t have a garage or other storage shed. There’s the fowl barn, but it’s dirty and open, and the last round of tools I had up there were pretty much ruined either by the birds or the weather.

So the Husbear decided I needed to have my own barn. To put all the tools in. Because he’s tired of them in the house.

This is our anniversary week when we usually go driving around somewhere in the USA. But this year we decided we should stay home and work on the home, as we’ve been pouring all our energy and money into his salon and my tattoo studio this year remodeling both.

So Monday I started digging, measuring, leveling out, and installing the foundation blocks. I only got a little over half the pillars installed that day:

It was hot and humid, and I hadn’t done that much manual labor in ages. Plus digging through the Arkansas ground (aka ROCKS) takes a lot of energy.

Tuesday I woke up really early after a night of Beveraging and being out late. Like 5AM early. I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I waited for it to get light enough so I could work outside. I finished the foundation, and waited on Lowe’s to deliver the lumber we ordered.

Once the wood got there, I started installing the floor framing. Which took no time at all.

I didn’t expect to get that much done so quickly, so the Husbear and I headed back to Lowe’s to pick up the floor sheathing. I had time, so I may as well get to work on it.

I was finally done. Or my body was. Plus the Husbear and I wanted to go out to eat dinner for our anniversary.

Today I woke up way late. My body was tired. I got to work on the last of the floor sheathing, and got it all installed today.

And that’s it for today. At least as far as my barn goes. We head out of town tomorrow, so I’ll pick back up on it and start the wall framing next weekend, hopefully.

I replaced my first toilet yesterday. Well, not my “first” toilet, but I changed out a toilet for the first time.

It was a crappy experience. Pun intended. (You knew that was coming, didn’t you?)

The upstairs toilet gave up the ghost. Not so much that it was fully broken, it was just no longer fully operational. Which is a bad thing when that’s currently your only working toilet in the house.

So it had to go.

The Husbear had been eyeing some environmentally friendly toilet he had been seeing at Sam’s Club for the last year, so we stopped in and purchased it. I think that’s the strangest item I’ve purchased there. So far.

And then the fun began.

I went to unscrew the toilet, but the washers and bolts holding it place had corroded to nothing. So I pulled the old toilet up, with the wax ring remaining on the closet flange. With some… “stuff”.

I had to scrape off the old wax ring by hand. I had gloves on. Although one of the gloves tore mid scraping. Gross! I lost count of how many times I washed and sanitized my hands during this process.

I installed new closet bolts, a new wax ring, and then I set the new toilet in place.

It was actually easier than I expected. A first!

Now which button to I press for number one?

And it feels “different”. It will take me a bit to get used to it.

Yesterday, on what should have been a glorious Beveraging Monday and Saint Patrick’s Day combined, I was sitting at home when I started to smell something electrical burning.

You know that smell: electically ozone burningess.

I looked all over the house trying to narrow down where it was coming from, and I couldn’t find it. Nothing. After a bit, I just chalked it up to wafting in from somewhere outside.

I got ready to head out to meet the Beveraging Crew, and as I sat in the truck, I saw the electrical service panel box in my rear view mirror.

So I got out of the truck and walked up to the service panel, and I could really smell that smell.

Damn.

I reached for the panel. It didn’t feel hot. So I opened it.

And this is what I see:

Great. The incoming power line to the main breaker was burning!

So I call the Husbear to let him know.

Then I call the electrician service we use. They dispatch an electrician out to take a look. Who then calls the power company to have them come out to shut off the power and cut the power lines to the house.

Great. No power.

And there’s nothing they can really do until the morning.

Lucky for us we purchased a small home generator at the beginning of winter, just in case we had any power outages. Which we didn’t. Until now. So the Husbear fired up the generator and plugged in some essentials: the refrigerator, the entertainment center so he could watch TV, and the fan in the bedroom. He fired up the wood stove to, since it was supposed to be cold through the night.

The electrician arrived at the house this morning around 9 AM, and started tearing the electrical boxes and lines off the side of the house.

And then he put up the new box and starting rerunning the wires.

And as of 3:56 PM today, we have power again!

And a new robot on the side of the house…

And a rather large and unexpected hole in our wallets. *ugh*

With each room renovation we do and replace the existing wiring, I’m actually surprised the house hasn’t burned down in the decade we have owned it. Not because of our new wiring, but because of the old cloth-wrapped 2-wire wires. I guess it could have burned down yesterday had I not been home.

On the bright side, the new electrical panel is one more thing we can cross off the “to do” list.