The Ups and Downs of Renos

April 16th and we have got quite a lot done, but also not enough. 

Sometimes the amount of work to be done is so overwhelming I need to take a step back and review what we have got done and how far we have come just to lift my spirits. There is just so much work to do my head spins with it. 

On the positive side, with the new doors in we were able to finish our energy audit and our house, while still not super energy efficient is much, much warmer. And we will be getting the government rebates as well.


                                          Old door.
Chipping out the frame to fit the new door.


New door from the outside.



New doors from the inside. I can open and close these doors!

Do I have a kitchen yet?

 No. And there is always something new to figure out how to solve. That is the stove wall. And you can see the fake tin ceiling tile- that was white and then painted copper-that I will have to repaint white.

This is the kitchen wall with the pine wainscoting removed. I can fill those holes in the plaster and steam off the paper. Not to much trouble to repair. I was so happy to see this.

This is the wall next to the window in the kitchen. They removed the plaster and the lathe here. They left plenty of room for the mice to find homes. Peter found three nests (long vacated) in this wall. But I can't repair this. I will have to drywall or panel the wall. I should tear down all the plaster and lathe as the entire wall on this side of the kitchen is like this. But I am not a fan of drywall. But can I have a wood wall kitchen? How will I clean it? How is it with grease?  I will spend the next few days really thinking about this. How much time and effort do I want to spend on my kitchen? So much of what I do revolves around this space. I love being in the kitchen, baking, cooking, creating. A dear friend just got me a Vortex airfryer as a housewarming gift and I have it out on our front porch dehydrating clementines. I am always cooking and preserving.



The hardest part right now is dealing with the water flowing through the basement.
We have so much water coming in that my husband has installed a pump to pump it to the sump pump to pump it out. And it is not clean smelling water. So our house reeks during and after a rainstorm. So, so, so discouraging. I can handle many things, but I am struggling with a stinky house. 

So today I met with a landscaper. I have asked for the price of a lot of gravel. I am not going to worry about my kitchen as much as I want one right now, yesterday in fact. I am going to be trenching and digging and diverting water away from my basement.

I have lived without a kitchen for almost six months. I can survive a while longer. I am off to grab my shovel.

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