Work, work, work

Epu is as I type painting the undersides of the living room archways. When he finishes this tonight, the living room will be officially ready to move into. It already has a window air conditioner installed, not that we've needed it with the beautiful, beautiful 70s and 80s summer we're having. Al Gore, how do you explain that, eh?

Then there's the basement. Major work hours have been poured into our basement in the past week. It was unexpected, and it left a hell of a mess, but it was free and it may contribute heavily to solving my mold allergy problems in this house.

What happened is my uncle (not the carpenter or the plumber, but my mother's brother who is visiting from Australia) came down to see us on Sunday with the plan of helping out with a few of our projects. Epu asked for help closing up the holes the electricians had put in our basement, and the next thing I noticed, they were off to Menard's to buy supplies. (You save big money, save big money, when you shop Menards!) I was making up the guestroom/baby room/boxes of junk room when I looked down into the backyard and saw them carrying big rolls of insulation from the car. Hmm.

Apparently my uncle noticed that the wall they were to patch was kind of rotty feeling, so he talked Epu into tearing it out and replacing it. This is a plaster and lathe wall that goes between the concrete foundation and the basement ceiling. Sure enough, the wood and the plaster was soft and spongey. So they tore it out and put up a cement board wall. My uncle stayed an extra day and worked 14 hours a day to cut the wall pieces and put them up. Now we have a new wall, almost -- Epu has to buy a little more material to finish a foot or so of torn-out wall -- and we also have vents between the basement and crawl space, and we also have a millimeter of fine dust covering everything in the basment. From the cutting of the wall board. I'll have fun trying to vacuum that up once the final bit of wall gets cut.

If there is one thing I've learned from our house owning experience so far, it is that I have some amazing uncles. My plumber uncle, by the way, didn't accept the check we mailed him. And today, when a plumber from our home warranty service came by to rod out a pipe I'd clogged up by shoving stuff down the garbage disposal too fast, he noticed my uncle's pipes and complimented them. Apparently we have admirable pipes.

My to-do list for tomorrow is to vacuum the living room and get ready to arrange the furniture. Next week we will get the living room rug back from the cleaners so I guess the room won't really happen until then. Also, I am working on ordering custom built bookshelves with a computer desk for Epu incorporated.

I am also going to bring my camera to my parents' house this weekend so I can upload some pics of this place, since of course the cord to our camera is in a box somewhere.