Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Soreness

The day in the crawlspace really took it out of us. Bruised and abused, we decided to spend Sunday in the hospitable light of day. We ate breakfast sandwiches on the porch of our old place, our lovely (and cheap) rental, the house where we got married…not that I'll be sad to leave or anything. Anyway, breakfast, then off to the project.


Taking out the big window in the attic seemed like a straightforward, useful and pleasant task. A previous owner had put in a bay window (the center pane of which subsequently blew out in a storm), and we knew from old real estate photos that the original flat window looked a lot better with the proportions of our house's façade. So we ripped off the plastic covering the hole (well, "covering"; actually it was only attached at the top, and the sound of its flapping in the wind was definitely contributing to the creepy, abandoned feel of the house), then dismantled the frame piece by piece. The two side parts, the angled windows, were old and original to the house, with lead weights. It all came apart pretty easily—trim, windows, roof, supports.

And standing on a roof is always exciting. I felt bad for breaking a drill bit taking out screws, but John assured me it's normal wear and tear. I'm such a newbie at power tools and afraid of breaking stuff. That'll change, I'm sure.

Once we were done: wow! Our view is sweet! I pictured two rocking chairs in here once this is our bedroom, facing the mountains. Supah nice. The window is huge once it's not divided in 3.


Our other big accomplishment was to clean up the ceilings in the front bedroom (which we'll occupy when we move in in two months…er, one month and three weeks--!) and the kitchen. Just taking out nails from joists and getting the drywall scraps out of the corners. Pretty easy and satisfying. The kitchen has screws, not nails, so we'll have to finish that when we go back with our new drill bit. Same thing has to be done in the rest of the downstairs. Now we're ready to put up light fixtures and ceilings, then paint. Feels nice to know we can have a finished bedroom, a little retreat from the chaos, without too much more work.



Our friends came over for steaks on the fire pit (which is huge and well-seasoned), beers, and the tour. This was our first hangout at the new house! Stars were out, a hound dog came by to visit, bunnies rustled in the bushes. But we still haven't seen the moon…


- Erika

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great view from the master bedroom! I think this is the first I've really seen of pictures of the property....well, I'm sure I've seen other pictures, but now that it is official, they are much more exciting! BEAUTIFUL
much love
Bekah