Insert closet-related joke here

Well, I was trying to make it an even three months, but I just couldn't go another day without posting. No, really. My dad threatened me with actual, physical harm if I didn't post something. And given that he always used to be able to smack me in the head from the front seat, even when I was sitting in the very back of the Land Cruiser, I decided not to test the true length of his reach, and just post.

So, let's see, where did I leave off? Um. Wow. That long? Huh.

Well, how about we tackle the big question first, the one that everyone asks me when they notice I haven't updated the blog in ... gulp ... eighty-four freaking days:

"Are you guys done yet?"

And I'll give you the same answer I've given them for the last 84 days, "No, it's gonna be another two weeks."


First things first: we did manage to finish the floor in the laundry room, and let me tell you, those vinyl planks are great. They look good, they're easy to install, they're cheap, and they're easy to clean:



That looks pretty damn spiffy to me.

The next project was to rebuild the closet under the stairs. Actually, the next project was to add some structure to the stairs before they bent too much farther out of plumb, and THEN rebuild the closet.

So here's the first stage of the structure we added; a brace along the left side of the closet to hold everything steady - we had no illusions about being able to bring it back to plumb:



The next step was to add some bracing so I'd have something to hang the drywall on, and some extra supports for the landing:



Take a closer look at that one, especially the bracing on the left, if you want an idea of just how far out of plumb the stairs were. Oh hell, just check it out from the other side:



And here's the bracing (after some rather extensive modifications to the existing crap) on the side by the workshop:



And here it is with my solo contribution, the hanging of the drywall:



Before we get to the next picture, I feel obliged to point out that I had almost nothing to do with it. All I did was try not to make TOO much of a mess hanging the drywall. All of the mudding and sanding (and I do mean ALL of it) was done by the War Department. I tried like hell to talk her out of it and convince her to call Tony to come back and do it for us, but she wanted to do it herself, and damn me if she didn't do a hell of a good job:





I did help with the trim and painting, but the really good work there is all hers. It's also hard to see behind the cat boxes, but we also completely walled in the alcove under the stairs and painted it over to match the color in the stairwell.

Right, so that's where we stand. Next step is to figure out a door of some kind (we have an old closet door we were hoping to reuse, but once again, I failed to anticipate that, and didn't build the opening to suit it which means we'll have to either come up with a different solution, or do some nifty modifications to the door or frame).

We also need to do the ceiling in the laundry room, but that's more a long term thing. We've burned through the entirety of our renovation budget (and then some) and the ceiling isn't a high priority right now, unlike getting the garage sorted out, and repainting some of the outside trim before the summer gets here.

So, next time (and I promise it won't be long), I'll put up some pictures of the finished bathroom and office, but I did want to show one thing before I sign off.

We had some serious snow back in December, and it afforded us with a crystal clear illustration of what all our hard work has accomplished. Here, take a look at this, and then I'll explain what you're looking at:




That's the back wall of our house during the worst of the snow - we got about 25-30 centimeters, quite a lot for Victoria. Anyway, if you look closely at that picture you can tell where the wall of my office ends and the wall of the laundry room begins. You see, we haven't insulated the laundry room yet, so we're spending quite a bit of money and energy to heat the walls, which is dissipated out into the snow outside, melting it away from the brick. In my office, however, all that time and effort we put into framing and insulating the space is paying off: the heat is staying on the inside, where it belongs.