Progress in the Pumpkin Shell!

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Would someone mind telling me what happened to June and July? I have heard that they were each at least five days long but it sure didn't seem like it. I'm still not convinced of it either.
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But some progress on the house has been made despite my planning and envisioning skills and some friends have been asking for photo updates for months now so here they are. I normally don't like to show a project before it is completely done but, at this rate, I am not going to have them wait forever either. You see, I will finish off certain parts of these projects myself but not until I get my wood shop out of the big trailer and set up again. Here enters the rub; with a house so small, I need to have mostly finished places to receive the considerable trailer contents burying my shop tools. That's where my most excellent help comes in. I supply the electricity, they bring their own tools - yes, yes, they can actually find their work tools! How novel a concept! Now I will introduce you to some of my fabulous helpers:
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Here is 'Jimmy the Drywaller'. See that impish grin? That is Jimmy consistently, accompanied by an absolutely mischievous, delightful laugh. He has the most positive and upbeat personality and outlook that I had found in ages so he was a blessing to have around hanging drywall in the living room, the bedroom, the kitchen and the well-house. He is incredibly content living a lifestyle below his means in a paid-off house with a few dogs, his barbecue and no debt. There is something very wise in his lifestyle choices that we should all pay attention to, the sooner the better, in fact.

This photo shows him applying a second skim coat to the original in-your-face, grate-an-orange or grate-a-moose wall texture. I wanted something a little imperfect in the otherwise smoother new finish. He did his best but neither of us were ever very good at intentional imperfection to imitate folk half-fast style. We got a little better at it by the time he did the main bedroom but that report is for another time down the road.
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And here is "James the Floor Guy" (not to be confused with Jimmy the Drywaller). He's another delight to have around although his compressor drove me to utter distraction because it would kick in nearly every time I got on the phone in an effort to deal with those still daunting business matters.

James is another fascinating and interesting guy to talk with - broad and unexpected connections and a widely varied skill set. He remains an active custom potter and, although less often now, a musician (rock and blues, former regular gigs at the Mineshaft in Madrid, etc) . And a very dedicated soccer dad.

Above, taken after he finished the bedroom, worked his way down the hall and was now headed west with the living room floor. The next step would be heading east from center and doing the dining area and kitchen. Yesh, yesh!!!
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The kitchen begins metamorphosis!

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The 'before photo'. This is what the kitchen looked like when I finally arrived. W&G had done little or no packing up before I arrived a month and some late (an abandonment of original plans that worked oddly well to their benefit) so my kitchen goods are shown sitting in the brown box pile in the center and would remain that way for another month or more. It was extremely taxing to forestall that need to nest and settle in afresh after Terry died. It was a stability and sense of permanence that I desperately needed but didn't establish until just now and it had painfully prolonged that off feeling of being yet another homeless person alone on this cold and rocky planet. Having a comfortable and predictable nest is good, even if it is just being able to sleep atop your motorcycle, up above the creepy crawlies in the desert. Been there, too - but you get achier and fussier when you hit this old fart stage, just trust me on that.

Gayle had done a good job of stripping and painting the cabinets when they arrived and I had thought about repainting them myself but I finally had to admit that they were utter crap. There were some cabinets which I dared not put anything in since they were pulling apart and visibly threatening to collapse or fall off the wall. So, for the first time in my life and aided by failing stamina and a profound lack of enthusiasm, I decided to buy new cabinets. With the failing appliances that the 'home inspector' missed, I also decided to bite the bullet and buy new appliances. My hard-learned lesson from this was "Don't waste your money on home inspectors - it is generally a complete waste of a few hundred bucks!" According to W&G, the lard-arse didn't even look under the house for structural matters.


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Here is the kitchen after cabinet removal but before John rebuilt the far wall and Jimmy arrived to do his drywall work. There was also much plumbing rearrangement and rewiring to be done before James could start the flooring.

See that toaster on the marble top Eastlake? That was my kitchen for a while until even it had to go. There's our Chesterfield, also chased out of the living room by James. Soon everything would be evacuated out to the old metal silo. It's all still out there but the logistics zoo has died down and tranquility is returning in small dollops.
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And finally that part of a gut rehab which starts you on the road to believing that it really will happen someday - the oak floor is in, the tatty, nasty walls have a new and uniform skin. And Daisy has found the whole scene worth collapsing in even though I would continue doing dishes in the bathroom for some time to come. The now ill-placed ceiling register and the six large can lights that screamed 60s/70s from the ceiling were not long for this life either. But we were over the long hill climb of demo and devo and had reached the elusive acme.
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In the first 'before' photo, you can see that the washer and dryer took up much room and, well, just sort of turned the kitchen into a cheesy multi-task circus, as did W&G's two refrigerators. So I went with a stackable laundry set and sacrificed the right side corner of the kitchen for a 36" square closet space which would house the pair and have them facing out into the otherwise long and loitering hall (shown above). John will eventually enclose the pair with a bi-fold door but I wanted them to return to the kitchen as the next priority. I have laundry facilities again, who cares about the door!
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They got the cabinets installed next and then the new range top and built-in oven plus a sink with real running water in front of the window. Things were starting to feel downright civilized!
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And now for my supreme treat. Pictured here are John and Davey juggling two foot square panels of new tin ceiling. None of us had ever installed a tin ceiling so there was some nervousness in the planning but they did a great job of it. You are looking at Davey using a wide broom to hold the whippy panels steady while John screws them to the wooden grid above. Originally, tin ceilings were devised as a light weight way to cover over original plaster and lath finishes which had started to crack, crumble and fall down. I have always loved them.
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And here they are again, well into the home stretch. It took a lot of time and finagling to align the new light and heating outlets but it worked out smashingly, all centered in the stamped designs as hoped for. God bless John for the patience to accommodate my requests for non-standard fare, including hanging the upper cabinets on that far wall lower than standard so that I would have room to display various taller copper items and such above them. I think he is starting to even enjoy the quirky way things are falling into place.

The countertops will remain in limbo since the coppery laminate sample chip which I had carried around for years is, of course, no longer available. I might just go with solid copper sheet since I already have some on hand. We are leaning towards hammered, then chemically aged (darkened, not verdigris) and then the high spots polished back to bright. This all remains to be seen and I am in no rush right now.

And I might just leave the tin ceilings in that raw shiny finish with just the recommended coat of clear unless my experiments with a copper-colored clear finish work out. That raw finish was the most affordable of their offerings and I liked that hint of tech industrial on an otherwise classic Victorian ceiling. It should keep visitors' eyes distracted from the little piles of dog hair on the floor that Daisy and Brou are busily throwing off at the moment.

I will be back in another month. By then, I hope to have the non-fun paper part of life finally under control. Oh please wish me luck on that.
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