Moving and Improving - Part 22 - Press button if assistance is required...

We did everything we could (read: actually had ability to do) in the week leading up to Mary and Robert's visit. We patiently waited to attack them with our remaining questions regarding electricity, painting and plumbing. We are so lucky to have such a valuable natural resource in our parents.

While they were in town we crossed most of the remaining projects off our list and got things done that we didn't even know needed doing.

We had talked about removing this cabinet ...and with tremendous effort, this roadblock was removed and the kitchen was opened up to more light.
We cut yet another hole in the house...for the dryer. I got to take the crowbar to some of the siding and replace it.









Our grout mess was removed by Mary and the tile left sparkling.The plumbing was completed. And our tricky light switch was mastered.
Over the weekend we also replaced the siding and purchased new paint to match the outside of the house. The previous owners left every color of paint imaginable, except for the outside. The paint I had mixed matches pretty well, it just needs to have some sun exposure...

Moving and Improving - Part 21 - Doggie Door

The mudroom is also going to be home to the cats food and litter so we needed to have a way for them to get from the house into the mudroom, so we purchased the appropriate sized pet door for the size of the cats. In this case, it was a dog door. Erm...a medium sized dog door.We also killed the TV which was rather fun and involved a couple of phone calls to Direct to figure out what to do with the dish. The answer is nothing. All the same, from my perspective, it had to come down.

Moving and Improving - Part 20 - Reduce, Re-use, Recycle

First, we grouted, then we locked ourselves out of the mudroom again and ticked more items off the "while drying" list.

At the top of the list was putting together the compost bins we've been thinking about for some time. We wanted to do a dual bin system so that we could add to one and then stop and let it decompose properly for (hopefully) next year some time, fingers twisted for spring, but more likely fall or even next spring. Since we're a two person household and we won't be adding the normal household green matter (grass clippings) it will be a stretch to have a fully mature compost quickly.What I like best about it, is that it enables us to reduce our garbage pick-up. I signed us up for once a month. We get once a month garbage and bi-weekly recycling and it thrills me (almost as much as toilets).
What Joe likes best about it is that all the materials we've poured into this project were re-used (with the exception of some of the hardware-screws, and the base of the bins, which falls in the kinda sorta category of having been leftover from the picnic table). The majority of the wood was broken down from hop pallets that Joe saved from the landfill and fencing material.

We have two more pallets yet to break down to create lids (which we're going to put hinges on for ease of use) and the front will go up as slats as we fill the bins and stir them. YEAH!While Joe assembled the bins, I made progress on clearing the mess in the compost area.

Before:
After:

It's a nice little gated area that can be closed if we wanted. We relocated the wood pile there for now. The window resting next to the pallets is another acquisition from the re-building center and will become the top lid for a cloche for early spring seedlings. Still have to build it, but I think it will do well in this sunny spot and right next to the compost.

Moving and Improving - Part 19 - The many faces of the pantry.

It was a laundry closet.
Then it was a closet with an ugly cabinet.

After that, it was just an ugly closet (with a bald spot).
Since the whole closet was not adorned with the beautiful wallpaper, we decided it all had to go.
So the closet remained a closet for a little while longer while we peeled it...So it was dried glue walls for a bit.
And then, I discovered that liberal amounts of soap and hot water applied with a sponge removed the glue and if the excess goo was washed intermittently with a clean rag, it became a white room.
Not white enough though. I gave it some spackle and a coat of white paint that I found in the garage while we decided how to proceed.

Excess paint in the garage, but not enough to do much with except paint a small room...
Shelves!!
And then it was a pantry.

Moving and Improving - Part 18 - ...then we'll quickly lay the tile...

After insuring the best dust free environment we could, we put down the adhesive and tile. It took eight hours...and included a trip to the hardware store for more adhesive.It might have gone quicker, but we were doing our best not to repeat the errors from the bathroom tile. (Which required me to take up six of the tiles from the bathroom and re-set them - after a long day of tiling the mudroom).Another problem we experienced with the bathroom was that people needed to use it, and therefore were walking on the tile before it had time to properly set. So we shut the door on the mudroom for 24 hours and did some more projects from our "drying time" list.

Moving and Improving - Part 17 - Dust

Having heard about the joys of drywall from Michelle and Andy, I was prepared for dust. Perhaps not quite this much though.

I really wanted to take the broom to the task of cleaning up and amass one large pile of dust for a photo, but to reduce the amount of particulate in the air, the vacuum got the job.

After the third and final sanding:

Moving and Improving - Part 16 - The waiting game

I felt a bit like watching the kettle with the drywall mud. I thought it would dry faster so we could move on...not so. Instead we re-visited the remains of our "to do" list to find tasks that we could undertake while we waited for various things to dry.
While waiting for the mud to dry Joe used our new ladder to make some repairs on the roof, we moved the washer and dryer into the kitchen and planned and built a stair for the entrance to the mudroom. Is it a stair if it's just one? I think we put more planning and effort into the stair then was entirely necessary, however, it's a firm step and proud.
That's me trapped in the former laundry room with the washer. It's heavier than it looks, and we had the added pleasure of moving the fridge to get it through the path.
Temporary location, displacing the kitchen table and later becoming a workbench for electrical.