A week of projects

This week, I'm on February break, which means we have a full week up here to "relax" by way of working like crazy.  A week of home improvements really does feel like a break--that's a good thing.  Plus, if you saw the last post, you'll see that we are taking sledding breaks.

I'm taking on a new room this week and Justin is working like crazy to get the major part of the plumbing complete and ready for the new shower which we think might be our project over spring break.

We have been using the Prius as a pickup truck.  8 foot posts will hold up the basement floor.

Dangerous?  Perhaps.

Justin's Yummy Stew kept us warm!

MMMMMMMM.

At night this house gets COLD, upstairs especially, and so we tend to spend most of our time in one of the downstairs rooms in the evenings.  We have an old TV that was left here and I bought a cheap DVD player and converter box (the TV wasn't prepared to connect to the new-fangled DVD player!).  The room in on the front of the house, opposite the formal "parlor."  Up until two days ago it had a lovely pink and green flower print (newer wallpaper) on the walls.  After this week, we hope it will be a cleaner, more modern, more livable space.

Stripped wallpaper.  Yikes!

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No wallpaper

Primed. Coming later...light warm gray on the top with a slightly darker shade of gray below the chair rail.

We decided that this would be a non-TV "sitting" or reading room.  It gets awesome light, especially in the morning.

After doing a bit of plumbing and room sanding/painting we took a moment to pull up the carpet and explore what was underneath.  What you see is pumpkin pine floors.  Someday we'll either finish themselves or have someone come and finish them.  But we think they have potential to look pretty great! 

(Click here to see what they might look like when finished.)

Fun with plumbing!

Justin moved the components of the filter systems to the other side of the basement to make room for a second well pump in the future.

This pipe might not seem like much but Justin has worked tirelessly to put in new drain lines for the kitchen sink.

At home in the basement at his very own tool bench.

Copper pipes have been Justin's best friends this week.  He re-ran the entire cold water piping for the house to improve the water flow.

The kitchen drain line had this nice feature (with an open top like that!) in the basement.  No longer!

Side project!  Justin changed the handle onto the other side of the fridge while I made dinner.  I don't know where he gets the energy to do all of this!

Justin emerged from the basement to do some Sitra work.  It's my vacation week, not his!