Today is my last day of spring break and then back to real life! I am always eager to get back to my normal schedule because I don’t do very well with no structure for long periods. But I think I managed to have an overall successful and satisfying break. As far as the house goes, I think this weekend we surpassed the “worst” point in the reno. I’ve been saying for a while now that its going to get a lot worse before it starts to get better, and I’m not sure we can say that anymore. During the week I ripped out almost every last piece of flooring exposing the subfloor, caked in dust and grime thats been slipping between the floor boards for 90 years. No matter how much we sweep and vacuum, we have to wear shoes everywhere to keep the dirt from spreading not to mention the random holes and loose pieces presenting tripping hazards. And then yesterday I pulled out all of the old ceiling insulation in the kitchen. With the addition of having no drywall on 1.5 walls in the kitchen and nothing but our appliances and the sink resting on a wooden frame Brad made, we were at the maximum amount of demolition we will experience in this house. In a small house, dust, insulation and garbage raining down from the ceiling has be difficult to contain.

But by the end of the day yesterday we managed to get a few pieces of plywood down over the subfloor to reinforce it and cover the holes and the dusty old floor. And now we have the new insulation in the ceiling, so we aren’t looking up at the underside of the roof anymore! We also knocked out the last few fixes to the electrical (which included heating a PVC pipe on our gas stove and bending it between studs in the wall, which was fun) and *fingers crossed* the inspector will be able to sign off on it next week. Then we’ll be all lined up to install the drywall in the ceiling next weekend with the help of our friend in Boulder. Having an actual ceiling and wall is going to make for a huge improvement! And then the next step is starting to lay down hardwood floors through the living room and kitchen! The thought makes me giddy with excitement.

We ordered our “ready to assemble” kitchen cabinets and got a 20% off discount, which made me happy. But I’m afraid assembling them will be a bit miserable…of course, B will probably find that process pretty simple compared to what he has been doing, so maybe the level of effort from me will be minimal. Our Boulder friends are midway through installing new cabinets in their place and seeing how good they look has me excited. Still many looming decisions like what kind of counter top, new fridge, sink, faucets, etc…I have things in mind for these, but worried we’ll end up dipping in to savings to cover it all. I’m expecting the kitchen will take through the end of May, so we’ll have a little time to add to our coffers.

Four months in to this renovation and we aren’t at each other’s throats or anything…so I call that a pretty big win!