Progress, It seems

Greetings! Did you know it’s hard to photograph interior construction in a way that makes sense?

That photo is a few days old. I just went downstairs to take more but got sidetracked in conversations with the contractor, the cabinetmaker, and the electrician. As a result I took no photos. Life is complicated. Maybe next week.

In any case, what the photo above attempts to show is that the kitchen is being framed in, as is the new (enlarged) laundry room/butler’s pantry. The bathroom is also being framed in, but we need an inspection of the plumbing in the slab, which should happen on Monday. (The plumbing permit came through this morning, which is good news.)

At the moment, the electrician and his apprentice are installing stuff for the new service feed from the pole to the house. I have no idea when the switch will occur, but they are in the process of getting ready for it.

One of the contractors is fixing the siding of the house where we opened it up to look for water leaks and where two windows were removed. The other is framing out a wall of the bathroom, I think.

The plumber was here yesterday to work on the last bit of in-slab plumbing, and while he was here, he discovered a small gas leak in our utility room He’s returning later today to fix that and to help us temporarily rearrange the hot water heating loops so they are out of the way in the bathroom. It’s honestly amazing how many times we have to change things from their current state to something different, which is not their final configuration. In the software business, we called that “yak shaving.”

In short, renovations — particularly in older homes — are a huge mess. But things are moving along at this point, and we haven’t had any nasty discoveries in the last week, which is good.

In other news, the dog was stable at her last vet appointment, so we are going three more weeks on a minimal prednisone dose, and if she remains in the reasonable range on her blood work, we’ll try stopping the steroid entirely. Fingers crossed.

Finally, last week I shared a video from Julie Nolke, who always makes me laugh. Here’s another one, but it’s a bit dark.

Hope you are having a great day and that you are definitely NOT launching any nuclear missiles!