Category: life

i’d been feeling so overwhelmed lately that i forgot to mention the flooring delivery disaster i dealt with the week before thanksgiving…

so, we were expecting a delivery of wood flooring from fedex freight. they scheduled a 3 hour window with me and didn’t show up till the very last minute as the sun was setting. so, it was late and cold and the truck was as big as a house. our wood was the very last delivery so it was jammed into the opposite end of the truck and difficult to remove. it was also a huge pile of wood but fred the fedex guy was patient and managed to get it out of the truck and onto the ground in one piece. both of us thought it was a lot of wood but the delivery schedule listed our name, address and shipment of 1100 pounds of red oak flooring so we didn’t question it.

fred tried to push it up the driveway into the garage but the slope was too extreme for the weight of the wood. so we took the package apart and fred wheeled all 50+ boxes of wood into the garage on a hand truck. i did what i could to help load and unload the hand truck. when the work was done it was very dark and we were glad it was over.

when mathew came home he said it was the wrong wood and about 3 times too much of it. then fred called and said it was the wrong shipment. we had received over 3000 pounds of maple flooring.

the next day robert the fedex guy showed up with another giant truck and a smaller pile of wood, but no lift gate to get it out of the truck, which is about 4 feet off the ground. i asked him if he would be taking the incorrect shipment out of our garage first and he didn’t know what i was talking about. i just about cried right there on the street. after begging me not to cry and a long conversation with a dispatcher he decided to leave the correct shipment and fred would return to pick up the incorrect wood later that day. of course because he didn’t have a lift gate he had to load and unload the wood (not in boxes this time) onto a hand truck and stack it in the garage. fred arrived after dark and so did mathew and together they packed up the incorrect shipment to send it on its way.

i’m not sure if you’re really feeling my pain, it hadn’t started out as the most relaxing week and my work was already suffering. luckily the fedex guys were super sweet (as all delivery guys seem to be.) they could have (should have) left the deliveries on the sidewalk but they did whatever they could to make life easier for me. robert even gave me a pep talk about not skipping thanksgiving and told me i could purchase entire thanksgiving meals from whole foods or bi-rite if necessary. in the end i’m glad i didn’t skip thanksgiving, it turned out to be a really nice day with family. and now we have quarter sawn red oak for the downstairs living room and hall/entry.

(left) this is half of the flooring in the garage and (right) half of it in the downstairs living room getting acclimatized to its new environment. i wish i had taken photos of the monster pile of maple, but at the time it just wasn’t funny; i couldn’t look at it.

countdown to grandma: 9 weeks

saturday was a steady work day. progress with few photos.

(left) second entrance, exterior before. (right) mathew caulking siding gaps after scraping old paint.

mathew spent most of his weekend outside on the ladder, (right) and up on the roof after a small scaffold was made. i spent most of saturday stripping interior trim paint.

on sunday mathew started by prepping areas that i would work on. (left) drilling a hole for wiring to come through the wall from upstairs. (right) mathew removing paneling in the stairwell leading to the garage.

(left) i spent sunday making this built-in cabinet pretty again. (right) mathew working above the second entrance.

i added insulation. strange stuff with plastic instead of paper.

(left) my cabinet with new gypboard. (right) late night painting. the neighbor came by and asked “when do you sleep?” it didn’t feel that late but it was COLD. mathew should be wearing a sweatshirt…

it was a late night, and mathew’s birthday! we had dinner after 10pm and vegan ice cream for dessert.

we had a casual family gathering last saturday night to celebrate my parents retirement.

the rest of the weekend was all about prepping the downstairs living room walls for plaster.

and then finally applying plaster.

mathew is getting really good at this! while mathew was working on this level i was down in the garage stripping paint from trim that will go around the new window.

we took some time off last weekend to attend a high school friend’s wedding. we had a really great time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

it was a beautiful ceremony at the coolest venue ever, the lawrence hall of science in berkeley. in fact, we were impressed with pretty much every detail that night. congratulations jennifer and doug, we wish you all the best, and thank you for including us in your special day.

on sunday we finished painting the exterior window trim.

and it was time for the scaffolding to come down.

this weekend we rented scaffolding, the parts were delivered and mathew put them together. i helped a little (but most of my weekend was spent stripping paint off trim.)

(left) mathew removing siding. (right) the view i had for most of the weekend.

mathew working on the third level of the scaffolding.

(left) what it looks like to stand on the second level. (right) mathew replacing siding after installing barrier paper.

after we removed the old (crappy) window.

preparing the opening for the new window.

(left) more barrier paper. (right) the new window!

(left) installing and squaring the new window. i helped with measuring and squaring. that took a while and the sun was rapidly going down. (right) success!

on saturday we got a phone message from our friend mae, wanting to drop by around 9pm that night. we didn’t hear the message until after we’d finished working and were too exhausted and hungry… after 9 we’d finally had dinner and were thinking about sleep, when mae’s sisters, stef and nancy dropped by to see if we were home and to give the green light to the rest of the group to show up. we felt bad about sending them away but we were too exhausted to stay up or really socialize. and stef brought this lovely gift! the gee sisters are always so thoughtful and generous.

as time keeps rushing by, we’ve made the decision to only work on the house on weekends and socialize on week nights. it’s been a year since we started working on this house and my 84 year old grandmother is still living alone.

because of family visits on saturday AND sunday, we had less time to work on the house, but still managed to get stuff accomplished. we only lost about 8 hours.

remember all those holes mathew made in the walls? we rented a machine and installed the blow-in cellulose insulation. sorry no photos, i was downstairs in the garage while mathew was upstairs in the living room with my dad. my brother jason helped me loading up the agitator/blower (sorry, there ARE photos but they’re on jason’s camera…)

later after my family left, mathew and i switched places so i installed the insulation in the second entry while mathew filled the machine. (left) a photo i took of myself. it’s a very cool machine we rented, we had it in the garage but controlled it with a remote. and it was even powerful enough to blow insulation up to the attic, 2 flights up.

on sunday mathew’s dad, daniel came over for brunch. then we went downstairs to see if the wood in the entry was worth saving.

(left) it was! (right) the edger and a sandpaper disc they call “pizza.”

(left) filling a few more holes with insulation. (right) patching the holes and large gaps with plaster.

and because he just needed make a little more progress, mathew pulled down all the damaged plaster in the hall built-in cabinet. now it’s really ugly! he’s thinking there might have been a light-well here in the past, it would explain why there was water damage in the middle of the house.