I'm in Love!

Look what arrived today! We've been getting mad deliveries from all the stuff I've ordered, but this is by far the one I've been most excited about. And it did not leave me disappointed - it's beautiful! All 180 pounds of it. Yikes!

Nino liked it too. Don't worry, he and I talked and he does not plan on making a habit of sitting in the sink once it's installed. 

In other news, the wrecking crew continues to make amazing progress. I'm thrilled to announce that demolition is complete, and the rebuilding stage has begun! They encountered one surprise though, and that is that *someone* (I suspect the same person who plumbed our bathroom drain with hose clamps) notched into about a half dozen of our ceiling joists, significantly weakening them.

That's not all! The notches caused the bathroom floor to sink, so they poured a concrete slab in the bathroom floor to bring it back to almost level (it was definitely still not level, just for the record). So, there's now a big hole in our bathroom floor/kitchen ceiling.

Our contractor assured us this is not a big deal to fix, so before they put up the new walls they need to reinforce a few ceiling joists, and replace some bathroom subfloor. I was very pleased to find the materials already here when I got home today - 2x8's for the joists and plywood for the subfloor . . .

 . . . as well as a big pile of studs! Proof that rebuilding has begun! And these guys aren't just laying around - check out the brand new stud wall already built in our office!

 

This is the framing for our new half bathroom, as well as the new smaller closet we're having built to replace the closet we knocked out to make the kitchen bigger. 

And see those metal slides in the middle of the photo? That is the first of three pocket door frames to be installed in the house! This one is to enter the half bath from the office. The others will be for entry to the bathroom from the upstairs hallway, and to the closet from the kitchen. All three frames appear to have been delivered today, so I suspect we'll see them in place in the very near future.

 

The crew working on our house has been really great about keeping original pieces that are reusable, so here you see two original doors as well as quite a bit of original oak trim. We'll reuse these two-panel oak doors for the half bath and closet downstairs, and the trim will be be reused throughout all the downstairs construction. 

So this is where we are - just three days in. We're very impressed with the pace of progress, and love this whole setup where we go to work and come home to find all kinds of surprises! So far all good, so hopefully it stays that way. As far as next steps, we have a plumber coming Monday, as well as our cabinet maker for final measurements, and then the electrician comes Wednesday. How's that for progress?

Now that demolition is finished, I'm ready to clean up the plaster dust that's settled throughout the house. And then I'll probably have some cereal for dinner. Because that's just what you eat at times like this. 

Wrigley was feeling left out after the whole Nino-in-the-sink thing, so here's his shining moment, sitting next to all the lumber piles. He's just one of the studs.