Not much to report

I started the day by letting the plumber in at 9:00 to work on installing the heater. He had a helper who turned out to be the cousin of the person who sold us the house. What a coincidence. They only stayed about an hour, and I worked on again filling the trash and recycling bins for pickup on Friday (better in the bins than in the house). The house is almost trash-free, and I think one more trash day after this Friday should do it. Of course, that doesn't count the 40+ bags of trash C carried out to the garage.

C and I were both feeling really drained today. Remodeling is really fun (for me anyway, C hates it), but it is exhausting. We met the guy who cleaned up the backyard (see entry on Jan 17) to get an estimate on cutting holes in the concrete foundation in the backyard. It's a weird situation - the previous owner was going to build a rental unit(s) in the back, and poured a foundation for the building. He didn't get a permit, which is not surprising. There's been a lot of work done on the house since it was built in 1952, and no permits have been pulled. Because there was no permit, we have no idea what is going on with the foundation and the adjoining walls between us and our neighbors. We had a structural engineer here, and he was concerned that if the foundation and walls were tied together structurally, breaking up the foundation could cause the walls to fall down. So, he suggested we get holes cut in the concrete so he could better inspect it and advise us. It's been really hard to find someone willing to drag their equipment out just to cut 3 12" square holes. On a whim, I called our hauler who seems to be able to do anything or call someone who can. He's going to come out and cut the holes on Tuesday. Yay!

We were then off to the home store to do a serious shopping run. We were concerned that not having certain things ready to go (e.g. tub, toilet, water heater, etc) would hold things up. At the last minute, we cancelled our trip. Both of us were just wiped out and couldn't manage it. I'm glad we cancelled. It was a much needed break. I asked C to work his photo magic and get some good progress pictures to post. Here are some shots to show what we've been up to.

Well, we wanted another bathroom, but this wasn't what I had in mind.


I hate clutter, and I really have to fight my instincts to straighten up during remodeling. It doesn't pay. There will be stuff laying out until we are done (and probably several years after).


No more tires!


The last of the trash in the house (the stuff on the right is the plumber's)


The old heating registers were removed. We are installing a new heater in the attic. The old one was not working and wasn't salvageable. The rectangular hole in the floor is open all the way down to the dirt under the foundation. The hole in the wall goes straight through to the hallway (a register was removed from each side of the wall).


A better shot of the hole in the floor from the registers.


This is where the flue was removed from. It's in the end of a closet that is in the bedroom you can look into. We may be able to reclaim the space back into the closet. It's about 1 1/2 feet of length that can be added to the closet.


Not exactly the desinger bathroom I have in mind yet.... old tub faucet and shower control are visible near the lower right.