*drum roll*

The next set of projects…
Hopefully to be completed before our “do absolutely no work on the house” 4 day weekend in August…Our first non-working-on-the-house-non-going-out-of-state vacation in several years…
We will just have to see if it is possible for us to sit for 4 days and not work on something. Pat’s boss says it isn’t.
Anyhow…
1) Finally finishing putting the new vent fan in the master bath. The old one was taken out last spring and a new one purchased, but other projects became more critical and it never got finished(the projects last summer: patching the vapor barrier in the attic crawlspace, insulating the foundation, building “planter boxes” along the back wall of the house to keep water out of the crawlspace, tear off and completely replace the deck including sistering in new joists from house out because the old ones were rotten, replace the slider, tear out the leaking chimney and fireplace and replace with a wall and new roof section.)
2) replacing the drywall in the garage where we had to tear it out to move the dryer vent.

We have taken it very easy this summer. I feel rather like a slug. In April we sucked the cellulose (treated newspaper) insulation out of the attic crawlspace and then decided that we were in over our heads on the re-insulation. We could have done it on our own with the cellulose again, but its compaction rate is about 6 inches in the first year, and once it is wet it becomes paper maché, which has very little r-value. So we had a contractor come and blow in fiberglass for about the same amount of $ as it would have cost us for fiberglass bats. And we didn’t have to do it. 🙂 The blown in fiberglass looks a bit like cotton balls. The difference in the temperature in the house was very noticeable. Last summer, I could hardly stand to be in the library on hot days, because even with the window open it was stifling. This summer is is comfortable even in the late afternoon. Part of the whole condensation problem that prompted us to do vapor barrier things and new insulation was because the dryer vent left the house just under the eave vent. So the air that was coming in which is supposed to pull moisture out of the attic space in a properly vented house was coming in with gallons of water every week. Before we could get new insulation, we needed to move that vent, so that is why there is a BIG hole in the garage ceiling. And a dryer vent pipe bend in the computer room. That will get concealed this winter(?) though. The plan is to make a built-in set of book shelves over it and drywall around it.

And we did the kitchen stuff. and….dealt with the cat. and….watched all 4 seasons of Enterprise. and…slowly worked on the window seat (mostly Pat since he is on the hand planing portion)…

So, just those 2 more things, and patching and painting in the middle bathroom and I will be relatively happy about what we have gotten done this summer.

It is really odd. As tired as I was last summer, and as much as it cost, I enjoyed it. I felt good. Sorta. I was sore and muscle achy and sun burned, but it was an honest I-worked-really-hard-for-this sore and achy. And my RA didn’t seem to bother me as much.
And it had been a long time since I felt physically powerful. When we were tearing down the chimney, I had hold of a vertical 4×8 sheet of T-111 siding and was rocking it back and forth to get the nails and staples to let go. Our neighbor was talking to Pat over the fence and said, “Wow, she is really strong!” I have felt fragile for so long that that comment gave me great joy.
Unfortunately, I have a bad habit of ignoring what my body is telling me when I am in the middle of something, which all leads to tears in the end. Like now. My shoulder has been cramping for a while, so I’m stopping…