Remodel: Day Twenty-one (and $1800 later)

Chez Shepard was an absolutely loud and colorful three-ring circus today.

Rico returned with a crew to do touch-up painting, especially over all the places where he repaired the drywall earlier. We will have to wait until the paint dries to know if we can call that phase of the ceiling work completed.

More tile was laid.

pool lane stripe : tiles on wall

Additionally, Tony from S&S Trees paid a visit. We have several trees on our property that need help: an ash tree receives biannual innoculations against ash borer disease, a sugar maple has fungus that indicates a hollow portion, and several volunteer trees are growing in inopportune places. These things we knew and were confirmed. We walked the property and talked about removing a volunteer mulberry tree that is growing in the shadow of a cedar. I would rather nuture the cedar, which is already mature. We talked about removing a lilac bush that doesn't flower, but has anemic foliage and scraggly suckers that render it super unattractive. And, we talked about pruning the existing canopy so that all our mature trees (an oak, the ash, and a newer maple that grew from a volunteer!) maintain their health. Tony is going to develop a multiyear plan to help us ease the expense. He's a great guy, really affable and interested in our neighborhood (he also manages our next-door neighbors' trees), and it was a pleasure to turn my attention to outdoor projects.

Then a plumber arrived--independent from the remodeling--to address two plumbing issues that developed over the weekend. The sink in the boys' bathroom and the kitchen sink were backing up with water and a pipe under each sink was leaking. I had encouraged the boys to use the guest bathroom downstairs, but it never really sank in so their sink was always full of water and draining very slowly. Also, the workers are using the toilet in the boys' bathroom, and their tub (our only tub) has become a surrogate utility sink. MSP Plumbing sent a plumber to snake both lines and another plumber to replace all the galvanized (read rusty, holey) pipes under the sink. All. New. Plumbing. Woot? While they were at it, I asked to have a drippy faucet repaired but the controls were corroded and the entire set up had to be replaced, which meant another appointment.

Plus, Simon was home sick with a fever and required monitoring. It was great for him to witness the renovation work as well as what is required to maintain the house by way of other service calls. He has been operating under the impression that I eat bonbons and read books all day.

Despite the extra high level of chaos, I managed to have a really productive day. Since I was stuck here all day, I was able to get a lot of putzy work done. And, at the end of the day, I felt a sense of relief at having taken care of problems.