still working away

Today looks like the last day of priming. We've given up on regular sweeping and have called in the help of sweeping compound for what seems like endless drywall dust and chipped bricks. I'm going to get cracking on the year + of dried-up, caked-on dust and dirt on all of the heating ducts because it's been driving me nuts since day one.

We hope to have the place habitable in two weeks or so. After priming is painting. After painting, we pour the cement and lay down some laminate flooring. Then the shower goes in, then we wrangle with the kitchen that still won't put itself together. New problem: where do we put the range hood? One of those things we just haven't thought of until now.

No one said it, but we were all thinking it: the seven-foot sheet of plywood that covers up what was once the giant hole in the hallway floor is not stable. I thought I was the only one holding my breath every time I walked over it and swearing I'd never walk over it again. But it's been in place for a couple of weeks, and the creaks and sways are not mere settling. We have to get someone on that this week too before (gulp) moving day.

Good news about the basement: we think we'll be able to put in a second bathroom for Brad to save him walking the length of the entire place (and a flight of stairs) to come upstairs.

Bad news about the basement: because it's early and I'm running on six gallons of coffee and some especially greasy hash browns, I don't have the stomach to detail what it is exactly that Jeremiah found in the basement plumbing-wise. Hint: certain things are not meant to be flushed. Especially repeatedly, for years on end. Hint two: I'm no plumber, but sewage pipes are supposed to lead to sewers, right? 

And I guess our dream rooftop garden will be delayed while we seal the roof and find a way to convince one of the tenants that the roof above our bedrooms, while conveniently located, is not an appropriate place for her to let her dogs relieve themselves.  

Our spirits aren't dampened, though. It'll just make for incredible stories months from now when the joint is so amazing that no one will even believe the state in which we found it.