Finis!
As of 1:30 this afternoon, our garage is FINISHED! This thing has been needing to be done since we bought the house ... back in 2000! I first got seriously started on the project in August 2009, when I started phoning contractors, meeting them for estimates, etc. We refinanced our house in September 2009 to get the money to do the project, but I had a terrible time getting a contractor after that. This contractor's bid was drastically out of our price range; that contractor didn't return phone calls; this other contractor's English was so poor that I felt he didn't really understand what I was wanting; and then yet another contractor didn't even show up when he said he would ... and didn't even call to explain! There were a couple of contractors who even refused the job after seeing our sad, sad little crumbling garage.
But then, in August 2010, when I had been working on the darn project for a year already, my friend Debbie gave me Ting's number, and the rest -- as they say -- is history. Ting, as I have mentioned here before, rocks.
Hurray! Garage! I will try to take some pictures tomorrow if the weather cooperates.
So ... tomorrow I call the plumbers. For the past several years, we have had repeated traumatic plumbing problems due to tree roots that have invaded the main sewer pipe that runs under the garage. We didn't want to have plumbers in there working in a garage that was threatening to collapse on top of them at any moment, so we held off. Now the garage is stable ... and so it's time to call the plumbers. More major work! More jackhammering! But I predict that this part of the home improvements will be completed much more quickly.
And we've asked Ting to do a couple other projects for us when he has time: replacing the terrible aluminum windows in Shannon's office, and replacing the steps to our front door (as the top step is about 4" taller than the rest, and so people are always tripping on it rather dangerously). I'm not sure when this work will get done -- neither project is urgent -- but Ting has agreed to take on both projects, and so ... well ... the home improvements, construction noise, strangers roaming our property, etc., will continue.
In other news, I woke up this morning to find my computer totally spazzing out, giving constant, multiple error messages about a problem with a USB port. What was the problem, you may ask? Well, the cable I use to charge my Nano and my iPhone had been literally gnawed to pieces. Pieces, I tell you! I glared viciously at Lucy -- there is no doubt in my mind about who is responsible, and I'm sure it wasn't Shannon -- and went out shopping for a new cable. Perhaps I should wipe the cables thoroughly with banana or something, since Lucy has an irrationally violent fear of fruit. Bad kitty! No donut!
In other other news, I've decided to sell my old, heavy, beloved wooden desk that I bought for $20 when I was living alone, back in the early 90s. I've done a lot of proofreading at that desk! But it's gargantuan, and it won't fit through either of the doors into our house, and so it has been living in the foyer for the past 11-12 years, and that's where I've been doing most of my proofreading. But the foyer is almost entirely made of windows, and in the winter it is frigidly cold, so I have to proofread in the dining room. And, you know? I discovered that proofreading at the dining room table is actually a bit more convenient than the desk, because I have more room to spread out my reference materials, design specs, mss, etc. So now I have this unnecessary desk that won't fit into the house ... and it's in a spot where we could really use a coat/hat rack. (Shannon seems to be accumulating more and more hats, and the cats like to eat one of them, because it's all woolen and tasty and has dangly bits and a pompom.) So today I posted the desk on Craig's List, and I'm hoping someone will come and haul it away sometime soon.
I feel like I'm getting so much stuff done! It feels good.
But then, in August 2010, when I had been working on the darn project for a year already, my friend Debbie gave me Ting's number, and the rest -- as they say -- is history. Ting, as I have mentioned here before, rocks.
Hurray! Garage! I will try to take some pictures tomorrow if the weather cooperates.
So ... tomorrow I call the plumbers. For the past several years, we have had repeated traumatic plumbing problems due to tree roots that have invaded the main sewer pipe that runs under the garage. We didn't want to have plumbers in there working in a garage that was threatening to collapse on top of them at any moment, so we held off. Now the garage is stable ... and so it's time to call the plumbers. More major work! More jackhammering! But I predict that this part of the home improvements will be completed much more quickly.
And we've asked Ting to do a couple other projects for us when he has time: replacing the terrible aluminum windows in Shannon's office, and replacing the steps to our front door (as the top step is about 4" taller than the rest, and so people are always tripping on it rather dangerously). I'm not sure when this work will get done -- neither project is urgent -- but Ting has agreed to take on both projects, and so ... well ... the home improvements, construction noise, strangers roaming our property, etc., will continue.
In other news, I woke up this morning to find my computer totally spazzing out, giving constant, multiple error messages about a problem with a USB port. What was the problem, you may ask? Well, the cable I use to charge my Nano and my iPhone had been literally gnawed to pieces. Pieces, I tell you! I glared viciously at Lucy -- there is no doubt in my mind about who is responsible, and I'm sure it wasn't Shannon -- and went out shopping for a new cable. Perhaps I should wipe the cables thoroughly with banana or something, since Lucy has an irrationally violent fear of fruit. Bad kitty! No donut!
In other other news, I've decided to sell my old, heavy, beloved wooden desk that I bought for $20 when I was living alone, back in the early 90s. I've done a lot of proofreading at that desk! But it's gargantuan, and it won't fit through either of the doors into our house, and so it has been living in the foyer for the past 11-12 years, and that's where I've been doing most of my proofreading. But the foyer is almost entirely made of windows, and in the winter it is frigidly cold, so I have to proofread in the dining room. And, you know? I discovered that proofreading at the dining room table is actually a bit more convenient than the desk, because I have more room to spread out my reference materials, design specs, mss, etc. So now I have this unnecessary desk that won't fit into the house ... and it's in a spot where we could really use a coat/hat rack. (Shannon seems to be accumulating more and more hats, and the cats like to eat one of them, because it's all woolen and tasty and has dangly bits and a pompom.) So today I posted the desk on Craig's List, and I'm hoping someone will come and haul it away sometime soon.
I feel like I'm getting so much stuff done! It feels good.