Remodel – Holidays upon us

Thank goodness I made the judgment call to tell the kids we might not be ready for houseguests at Christmas. Because, nope. Here’s the state of the hall bathroom on December 22.

The new medicine cabinet is in, although they broke a light fixture putting it in. There’s no sink or countertop. The toilet is hooked up, although they’re going to have to unhook it again to tile behind it.

Here’s the new tub. We’re making progress.

Don’t worry, that scary turquoise color is not my attempt at southwest style. It’s just tile backing and won’t show when it’s done. And, lol, no, my tub isn’t a southwest style terracotta color, that’s just the paper they taped to the outside of the tub to protect it during the tile install. The bathtub is white. And it’s a nice big one. The funny brown U-shapes on the wall are plastic spacers they use to make sure the tile is lined up exactly right before they put the grout in.

The bathroom looks terrible right now, but it will be nice when it’s finished. But yeah, it’s not done yet.

Meanwhile, John says that the reason we had an ungodly large spider in our living room wasn’t because I haven’t had pest control out recently. It’s because of all the holes in the walls. So I did an inventory of holes in my walls.

You probably don’t really care to see pictures of all the holes in my walls, but I’m posting them here so my friend, Tracey, can do a careful check when she arrives, to make sure they are all plugged up. Because yes, my first, brave, overnight visitor is due to arrive from California during the second half of January, and I plan to be ready. With no spiders!

Holes to be gone:

Yeah, don’t even ask. We did not put that outlet hidden in the recesses of the wall ourselves. That gem came with the house. I don’t know how or why it’s there, but it’s surely not to code.

In case you’re curious, this next one is the guts of the bathtub, as seen from the hall closet. Doesn’t it sort of look like the tub is just sitting on a few stacked bricks? Huh. Is that ok? (La-la-la-la; nothing to see here, moving on…)

I now have a light in my closet and can tell my dark greens from my dark blues and my blacks. Not that anyone cares about clothes anymore, post-pandemic. But I like to be able to see my clothes.

This next large hole is in the master bathroom. We’re not remodeling the master bathroom yet, but they went ahead and did a little plumbing work while the plumber was onsite fixing other corrosion issues (we have lots of corrosion issues). And they had to open up the wall to do so.

I believe my contractor and my husband are both assuming we can just leave it that way until we’re ready to remodel this bathroom at a later date. Um, guys, we might not remodel this bathroom until this summer. Meanwhile, this gaping hole is like a foot from me while I’m in a very vulnerable position. Maybe we can temporarily block it off well enough to keep the spiders from biting my butt.

This next hole is in the ceiling where the range hood used to vent.

It currently has a piece of painted cardboard over it. Thanks John, but…I know that hole is still there!

I could just buy a range hood and get it installed already, but I’m completely stuck regarding range hoods. The type for kitchen islands and peninsulas are insanely expensive and I’ve never seen one I like.

Look at these monstrosities that hang from the ceiling over the ranges that are out on peninsulas or kitchen islands. Talk about in-your-face. (Random picture from the internet)

The current style includes an elegant piece of curved glass at the bottom. And I’m thinking – glass and grease. Great. (Another random picture from the internet)

They also make a style that recesses into your ceiling, but our ceiling is 5 inch thick wood topped by some tarpaper – with no gap, which limits what we can put up there. Plus, the guys didn’t think we should cut an enormous hole in the wood ceiling in order to put the range fan up there. But I don’t want it hanging in my face either.

I do like the fan that’s part of my built-in microwave on the wall to the right of the stove. It’s perfect – I can’t even see it. But the concern is that it’s too far away from the stove to be effective.

I’m tempted to skip the range hood all together, but I have a gas stove and I probably really should have a better vent.

I don’t even remember where these two holes are and I just took these photos this morning. I’m thinking that’s the hall bath ceiling.

These holes are small but they’re in the guest room, so I want to get them filled.

We also got our front door fixed, so it actually opens more than about a foot. I have no idea why they didn’t quite finish out the tile under the front door back when they were tiling MONTHS AGO, but my threshold has been sitting around uninstalled for months, and the door wasn’t working right. Apparently they were waiting – since September – to install it on the COLDEST DAY OF THE YEAR.

It took, for some unknown reason, at least two or three hours – the door hanging open the whole time – to get that little project finished up.

The front door works now. One more step in the right direction.

I guess the weirdest thing about living in the middle of a remodel is having guys coming and going with no notice. I’ll get up in the morning, wander out to get my coffee, and they’ll be electricians out there. Then I have to take my coffee fixings to the bedroom, where hopefully there’s working electricity.

I quickly learned to drag clothes on the minute I stepped out of bed. That way I’m not chasing Biska down the hallway in my robe. Biska LOVES the guys, and they love her too, so keeping her corralled and out of their way keeps me hopping.

One day earlier this week the noise was suddenly so ridiculously loud that I ran around the house like a crazy woman trying to get ready to go somewhere, anywhere. I grabbed my shoes, my dog, her leash, and some water, and ended up on a 2 hour walk. I wasn’t getting my work done, but at least it was good exercise.

Yesterday afternoon I was working in my office when I noticed my house was unusually quiet. I got up and looked out front – no trucks. They had all left. I had my house to myself! I put on a little Christmas music and went back to work. Next thing I know, someone opens my front door, tromps down the hall, loudly uses the hall bathroom (the one they are remodeling – I guess that’s why they bothered to hook up the toilet even though they will have to unhook it again to do the wall tile – so they can use it). Then the guy tromps back down the hall and back out the front door. The house was quiet again. I don’t even know who it was!

Don’t worry, if you are scheduled to visit me, we will pause the remodel, so there won’t be random guys coming in unannounced to use the facilities. It’s not like a few days off is going to slow our progress down appreciably!

Speaking of my remodel being slowed down (repeatedly), have I mentioned the French doors have gone missing? We ordered them in November. It was only supposed to take one week for them to arrive, but now I can’t even get a status update.

I guess we’ll go a bit longer without French doors. It doesn’t matter too much. But if I had doors, I’d be working in the living room instead of in my bedroom, which is adjacent to the banging in the hall bathroom.

That’s all for now! More updates soon. Happy Holidays everyone!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Kristina’s Website: Life Coaching for Adults with Autism