There’s nothing sexy about plumbing

I’ve learned that the building process has distinct phases, some more exciting than others.

I didn’t participate in the demolition but having watched enough episodes of Fixer Upper to feel as if I had wielded a sledge hammer to punch my way through a wall, I can understand the exhilaration it brings.  Like kids who carefully build a tower of blocks only for the thrill of knocking it down, taking pleasure in destruction seems to be in our DNA.  The joy on the face of the person who adroitly uses the ripping bar to separate a cabinet from floor or wall is undeniable.

Then comes the dull clean up phase but that’s followed by the thrill of framing as rooms rise into previously undefined space and the smooth, pale, clean wood brings the promise of the future.  In this phase, windows are defined so you can imagine sitting in a room, see where your eye will seek daylight and where there will be a dark corner to retreat into.  The roof envelopes the structure so the job site resembles a doll house waiting to be furnished and festooned.

But a house is not a doll house.  A house needs electricity and plumbing.  The pace of work seems to stall.  There are no huge leaps forward.  Outlets appear, small gray boxes distributed about the house linked with yellow wires that spider web between studs.  This is the phase my house is in now.  The dull but necessary phase that sets up the next thrilling one when walls clothe the structure like skin on a skeleton.  The wiring and plumbing are the veins and organs that permit the house to function.  I realize how important this stage is but cannot restrain myself from wishing it were done so I can begin to select a wardrobe.

Here are the latest pictures!

 

And now it begins!

Back in May I was optimistic that, as promised, in one month plans would be approved and work to renovate my house would start.  I began to once again visit tile stores and pull color swatches from Dunn Edwards.  My optimism turned sour as week after week I listened to excuse after excuse as to why nothing was happening.  One one had I was told that the city plan check requests were “common” but that it would take another three weeks for my engineer to get them incorporated into a new set of plans and submitted for approval.  I had to bite my tongue and not shout, it the request was so common, why didn’t you as a professional anticipate it and avoid this extra delay!  Again and again  there were these types of delays caused by not thinking clearly or being proactive.  I had to tell my engineer to go back to the city and find the updated plans because the ones he had pulled s the latest logically could not be if one just looked at them.  Lo and behold, a week later he’d found a newer set of permits and plans that solved a myriad of problems.

It was only with the help of the Chopra Gratitude meditation series that I didn’t get an ulcer or hit anyone!  I decided that I needed to speak up and contribute where I could but still let those working for me to do their jobs, that nagging and getting angry or frustrated wasn’t making anything happen more quickly.  I called my contractor and engineer/architect and told them that I was thankful they were working for me and that I appreciated they were doing the best they could. I asked them to accept my apology for the times I was impatient and rude.  I don’t know if it helped them but it made me feel lighter.

Last week, nearly three months after the permitting process was begun, the plans were finally approved!  Workers showed up the next day to start the “final demo” of the house.  The last of the exterior will come off, all the windows come out and all but floor joists get removed.  Once that has been completed, the work to rebuild can begin in earnest.

I’ll update you again in a week!

Finally, some news.

I realize that I’ve been silent for a long time.  These past months Write Girl has kept me busy as has work.  I’ve been learning to paint, speak Spanish, cook and wield a mean kitchen knife.  And my daughter got me hooked on “Scandal” which I love and can lose myself in for hours. But none of that is what kept me from posting.  The truth? I’d settled nicely into my temporary digs, perhaps too nicely. I have been content to do nothing, to wait for others to make something happen.  Normally, as anyone who knows me can attest, I’m the one pushing, questioning, nagging or negotiating.  Until recently I didn’t have the energy to be that person or see any point in that behavior but now things have finally broken loose and I feel that being my assertive, demanding self will finally yield results.

Two weeks ago I walked the house with the architect and general contractor giving them specific notes and learning what they could and could not do.  I thought that meant the start of work was imminent but I was told that it would be a month – that nothing could happen until the plans were approved.  Finally my prior experience came in handy.  “The demolition can happen,” I told my GC.  He had to concede.  Lo and behold two days later a 40 yarder was parked in my driveway!  Two loads and just over a week later, all the debris from the fire is gone, all the drywall and flooring have been removed. Next week windows go and the roof comes off!

It was odd to walk into the house and be able to see from the front door through to the backyard!  The denuded rooms felt tiny.  I stood in my old bedroom.  It was hard to believe a bed, dresser, chest and bookcase once fit into the space.  They say a room looks smaller without furniture; I can tell you it looks absolutely shrunken without walls!

     

As happy as I am with my apartment, I’m thrilled that the momentum has shifted to getting me back into my house!

Post 365 Days – Week 46 – A lull in renovation

When the renovation process started it was pretty dramatic.  Walls came down.  Floors came up.  Piles of demolition refuse took over the backyard.  There was something new to see each time I returned home.  Now things have slowed somewhat.  The changes are minimal, almost unnoticeable.

I know there is no rushing through this stage.  This is that critical stage when the foundation is being laid.  The correct wiring done so the light switch will be in the right place, the lights will illuminate where light is needed.  I don’t want to be impatient but it’s hard to get through this phase so I went to the movies!

I realized that I’ve come to use the cinema as an escape.  Before this current trip to the movies, the last time I went I did so to get out of the 100+ temperatures for at least two hours.  This time, I went to get myself out of the house so I wouldn’t stress about things that still needed to be done before this place would once again be comfortably livable.  I thought I was seeing a movie about a music protege but when the a coming attraction for that movie appeared on screen, after a moment of confusion, “why were they showing a promo for the movie we were there to see?” I realized that I was not seeing that movie but another.  The movie I was seeing was Birdman and was I in for a treat.

The movie is an adventure into dark comedy & magic realism with wonderful acting and original characters.  Definitely worth seeing – even if you have nothing to escape.

Not having anyone to talk to about the movie when I got home, I went on line and read the criticism.  I think much of it didn’t delve deep enough.  For example, the voice that Michael Keaton’s character “Riggan” hears has been identified as his “superstar ego” or the voice of the superhero character that made him a star. I think the voice is much more than that, more universal.

Having reached a certain age, I think everyone looks back and wonders, “What happened to that eager, optimistic, ambitious person with so much promise, so much to do?”  I think that’s the voice he hears. The voice of youth.  The voice of the past. It reminds him of what he had been and what he expected to be.  I am fortunate in that I work with a lot of young people.  Their fearlessness, desire and sense of wonder sometimes makes me sad for the person I had been. I’m not old but I’m not that person anymore.  I no longer bound out of bed anxious to be at my desk, eager to wrestle the problems of the day to the mat.  As I hold for IT to solve my computer problems, I remember a vague past when I used to be the one to fix not only my own computer but my boss’.  I spend more time thinking about my 401K than about my paycheck. I look forward my daily time out to meditate.  Once I had been like my daughter is now.  When I suggest she do a meditation with me she laughed and said, “I don’t have time to do nothing for twenty minutes!”

That’s the voice that nags at you when you reach a certain age.  The voice that asks, what are you doing?  The voice that reminds you of how much you used to believe you would accomplish.

This weekend to keep myself from counting the electrical wires hanging from the ceiling to see if there are more today than there were yesterday, I’m going to “Ballet Boyz.”  An excellent way to distract myself – watching beautiful, athletic men leap across a stage. Where do you go to escape?

Post 365 Days – Week 45 – Happy Halloween

 

The Halloween spirits must have electronic mojo because after enduring a week of no internet access, Friday morning my internet returned.  Magically it was back.  I have no clue what caused it to leave but I’m so happy to have it again.  The timing was perfect, I was able to take advantage of Pandora’s spooky Halloween music tracks to augment my rather meager decorations to the enjoyment of my many trick-or-treaters.

Oh the house, yes things are happening but they’re not dramatic.  No new walls are going up or coming down.  Wires are snaking through the cavities between studs.  Sounds like a scene from Magic Mike II but it’s nothing that exciting.  Yes, I realize that proper wiring is important as is good plumbing but I got accustomed to seeing major changes and for the past week you’d be hard pressed to identify any progress.

I suppose my kitchen, boxed, wrapped and strapped, sitting in my dining room is progress.  At least it isn’t sitting in a factory or a storage unit.  The GC was eager to remind me that it will still be some time before the kitchen is actually installed.

           

To occupy my mind, I’ve taken to surfing the net and mostly Pinterest to find ideas for how to layout what will be a very short bedroom.  If I put a standard double bed,  just two inches will separate the end of the bed from the start of the french doors.  I could get a convertible couch or day bed instead and have plenty of room or I could put the bed along one of the side walls but then it will either be off center of the window or blocking part of the french doors – neither of which seem like good design.  I was shocked to see how some people have shoehorned a bed into some extremely narrow spaces.  Either none of those rooms are in earthquake prone areas or the people have a death wish!

The GC is estimating a completion date of Dec. 12th.  Let’s see…