Terrible day!

Today I put my whiteboard up on the wall. It's been a constant in my life since very early on in the project. It's the only way I can keep track of the myriad of projects and their dependencies. It also helps keep my sane and positive when I can see just what needs to be done and have estimated times on the tasks.

Like all things house, it was more complicated than it should have been. The board comes with two hangers at the top, which I used in conjunction with drywall anchors. However, due to poor design, the hangers are not sufficient. The board move quite a bit and sticks out from the wall, neither of which is good. I ended up just driving two extra screws right through the frame. It is a junkyard kind of job, but I don't really care since it's not visible from most of the house and I really hope I don't need the board for the long haul. The board also is far from level - it must have shifted while I was marking my holes (it's too big to hold it with one hand while using the other to mark holes). But again, I don't really care.

I updated the window schedule in great detail. It's becoming necessary to stay efficient. If I work efficiently and do things in the correct order, I can save a lot of time. In fact, I figured out how to shave two coats off each window by putting the trim on in the correct order.

Since the main reason for hanging the white board was the windows, I am counting today's 1.5 hours as part of the window and door job, bringing the total hours to date to 222.75.

Here is a shot of my whiteboard:


So far, this day wasn't so bad... just normal annoying house stuff. When I got home from picking up the drywall anchors, it started to rain. Normally, I love rain and I was thankful I had no place else to go. I was looking forward to a productive day while enjoying the rain - Thursdays are my day to be home most or all of the day in my work clothes and I usually get a lot done.

Then I heard it, one of the sounds homeowners live in fear of - the dreaded drip! I followed the sound to the bathroom, and found a slow, steady drip coming out of the light fixture in my bathroom. I crawled up into the attic and made my way around in the only way possible up there - on my stomach with forearms and thighs balanced on two adjacent rafters. I couldn't see any leak and assumed it must be coming from the bathroom fan which vents out the roof. I called the roofer at about 4:30 in the afternoon, and he agreed to come early in the morning. I called C at work and brainstormed, and we decided I should go into the attic and disconnect the duct from the light fixture and put the end in a bucket. I assembled the tools I needed, climbed up, inch-wormed my way over, struggled to undo the duct tape (try laying on two rafters and holding your upper body up high enough to work with both arms for more than a few minutes!) and found the duct bone dry! Argh! (and a few other choice words!) I was stumped. I felt around the bath fixture and found more water and eventually figured out that it was in fact a roof leak. I had to wriggle way back to where the roof is really low over the rafters to see it. I put a bucket and towel underneath and am hoping it holds all night.

Not a fun day. I always laugh when people say "Oh, your remodeling a house, what fun!"