How exciting is drywall??

The answer is : VERY. The above photo shows our denim walls. Yes, the entire addition has been insulated with denim. Or, to be more specific, reclaimed denim scraps that have been made into insulation that is as effective as the hideous fiberglass insulation that is standardly used. I do like the karmic justice of having used fabric as my lifeblood and using the scraps in my home.

This photo above shows our DRYWALL in the kitchen. ( and that little window will have a mountain view!) I have never been more excited by drywall. It's the beginning of the end once they are drywalling. Oh. My. God. It looks like a room again.

We really only have a few more weeks left. This started end of August. It was end of Oct. when our kitchen became non-functional. It is now end Nov. I vacillate between "holy shit how can I take this another moment" and finding it normal to stack dirty dishes in the bathroom. It's the end of the project. The cost swelled beyond all expectations, even for 2 people who have remodeled before and were prepared to go over budget. ( note to self, when a contractor comes in at 50% of the other bids, you should try to figure out why before you hire them....like maybe they bid only the cost of installing one light in a kitchen that started out with 4 lights and is having more space added to it...nope, you end up with 11 lights, and you will pay for 11 lights. so let's just multiply that part of the bid by 11...) I have washed dishes in the tub for, oh, 4 weeks. I think I may weep when the new dishwasher is installed in about 3 weeks. That's 7 weeks of dishes in the tub, people.

It will be beautiful. We'll forget the inconvenience, the dust, the endless check writing. It's what I tell myself every day....

Fun with the 80's

This is how I went to work one day this week. In my vintage U2 tee shirt from
The Unforgettable Fire tour in 1984, a concert I attended. (of course, paired with a Stella McCartney blazer to spruce it up a bit...) Vintage rock tees are all the rage - I seriously could sell this for a few hundred bucks on Ebay. But it is far too precious. I had to point out my tee's origin to people. It's worn so thin, threadbare and perfectly soft. I fear ruining it. Many were impressed in the hallowed halls of fashion where I spend my weekdays. Like my 23 year old coworker who realized she WAS NOT BORN when I was at that concert.....

This concert is near the top of my top 10 concerts ever list. I have always kept this tee to commemorate it. U2 was not "U2" yet. They were still playing in small venues. The Aragon Ballroom on Lawrence Ave - in the heart of Al Capone's old Chicago, where my Aunt attended many a Swing dance back in the 1940's - was boarded up when last I drove past it a few years back. On this night in 1984, we were in high school. Out on our own in downtown Chicago seeing a show. My best girlfriends in tow - screaming till we were hoarse. Those best girlfriends remain in my life to this day and forever. Even if one of them notoriously can not get the words right..."Wash my arms in the name of love?" I don't think so...

I can't recall if we got beer or if we were simply covered in it from the cool-whip type containers it was served out of and subsequently sloshed to the floor from. Aside from a completely energized show by an up and coming, soon to be legendary band, the night held it's own magic. U2 always ends with their song "40". (I didn't know this then, but every time I have seen them since they end the same way....) At the end, Bono sings the chorus and the audience sings along. The guitar stops, walks off, bass stops, walks off, finally the drums stop and it's just the Rock God that is Bono on stage keeping the crowd singing. Finally he walks off. Every othrt time I have witnessed this, the crowd sings for a few minutes and trails off. Not so this cold December night in 1984. The crowd didn't stop singing. We sang the refrain walking down the steps and out into the night. It echoed thru the streets of Chicago as we left. I have never since seen anything like it.
Oh, and the house....it just drags on....This is the view from my bedroom door into the soon to be bathroom framed in back.....We're in plumbing stage now - hopefully will have inspection this week. The electrical took 2 full weeks because we had to replace our entire electrical panel. Surprise!! Once we have passed our plumbing inspection they can drywall and I believe things will start to go fast.....or so I hope......It's about week 4 of no kitchen at all. I'm ready for it to be over.

Yes. We. Did.

It's hard for me to focus on much more than the amazing result of Election Day. Who'd a thunk it a year ago? The progress this country seems to have made is heartening. The only sad note for me is the anti-gay initiatives that passed in several states. Denying gay marriage in CA, in Louisiana making adoption illegal for gay people. Really? There is still progress to be made on tolerance. It saddens me that my numerous gay friends who I love dearly are being discriminated against. Hopefully one step forward in equality with Obama as president will tip the scales for tolerance in other ways. Hopefully.

That's all for my political statement tonight. We were up so late last night in celebratory mode
that I'm really exhausted today. My friend Ricki is in town for work, she came over to watch the election returns with us. We ended up playing rock band and laughing our asses off until midnight.

We have windows!! We have windows!!! See photos above. The skinny windows on the top photo have a view to the mountains - obscured by a tree. Peter is threatening to cut the tree drastically in order to get a peekaboo view going. Not sure we really need to, since the front wall of the kitchen is now open to see the bigger view thru the dining room window. We're getting a little mountain view whore-ish over here...Bummer note. Our lead guy on the remodel was in a motorcycle accident on Friday. He's okay but spent some time in the hospital and has been off work. It seems to have slowed us down a bit. I'm leaning towards early December as a finish date for this monster.... we shall see. It's getting quite chilly in here these days with November weather and no insulation in a chunk of the space.

Progress report

This is the fun part when I can start to do before and after shots. Above is before we moved in. The house has been painted since, the fence continues to fall apart. (It's on the list. Just not this year's list.) Now feast your eyes on the new kitchen back porch. They have just started siding, the railing for the deck is only partially finished. It will wrap around the bench that you can see the bench on the right side of the railing - cuz where better to sit down and remove my gardening boots? The electrical is done. The plumbing is started. We have a hole in the kitchen ceiling while they are doing the bathroom plumbing. Hence some fun with peering from the upstairs into the kitchen this morning. It's week 2 of no sink, washing dishes in the tub, and subsisting on microwave dinners and take out. We probably have 3-4 more weeks to go. I mean, come on, we have to amuse ourselves to keep the annoyance at bay.

Kobe, me, and my foot!

Now I'm off to Home Depot.....