The house has been progressing, bit by bit, or, as DH puts it, “coming
along, singing a song.”
DH has spent the
last several weeks installing the floor heat mats and tiles in the
bathroom, followed by grout; it’s almost done, but a bit more grout
needs to be applied around the edges, as soon as said grout is
delivered.
It looks very nice, and will look nicer still, once it's finished and we've put in the pedestal sink DH found at the Habitat Restore, for $5 (score!). Oh, also, we installed a bathroom door, another really pretty Restore find that is heavy duty enough to not rattle in its pocket.
This weekend, we moved the bathtub down next to the house, so he can begin stripping and refinishing it; you may recall it's an old cast-iron clawfoot tub with peeling paint on the outside, and stained -- but, importantly, un-cracked -- porcelain on the inside.
I was not in top form this weekend, having spent part of last week throwing up in various locations enroute to the outhouse, after acquiring a nasty stomach bug. That was a bit of fun, and naturally, since we've been living in the trailer, I don't have most of my usual herb and remedy collection, due to lack of space. Not that I had enough presence of mind to come up with anything under the circumstances anyway.
DH finally drove to town and bought me some Pepto Bismol, something we never have on hand, and which appears to be manufactured from Elmer's glue stained bright pink. Also, its "minty-fresh!" flavor is just as revolting as you'd expect mint-flavored pink glue to be. However, since it allowed me to stop throwing up and actually keep tea or water in my stomach, I have some newly-acquired affection for it. With that accomplished, I was able to care about being alive enough to make a berberbine infusion to mix with fresh ginger juice, to help finish killing off the bug. DH was fortunate enough to fight off the worst of it after a mild tussle, although he had rather unhappy insides for a couple of days.
Eventually, if reluctantly, my stomach agreed to let me start eating again as well. So that was nice, and I was able to spend the weekend assisting DH in "heat-welding" our polypropylene water pipes together, to complete the connections from the well to the well shed where lives the pressure tank, and even do some light digging out of the trench where the pipes needed to go. Fortunately, it wasn't demanding work. I moved like a sloth and was annoyingly absent-minded, but no matter, the work got done. We're one step closer to actually having running water.
DH has been installing light fixtures throughout the house whenever he has a moment, along with all but one of the baseboard heaters, all of which are now operational, and so the house is delightfully warm. We have to buy one more, but are delaying in hopes of finding it second-hand.
He installed the smoke detectors and the bathroom fan, and we spent one hair-raising day installing the ceiling fan that hangs above the stairwell. No one fell off the ladder and died, so yay, but it's not an experience we want to repeat. The ceiling fan, however, is great, and does a terrific job of evening out the temperature in the house and creating air flow.
We also did some more painting in the house, which led to a truly annoying discovery that the paint does not match itself if applied on different days. Which means there's an entire wall, encompassing the living room downstairs and the library upstairs, that now has to be repainted, next time someone finds some extra time and energy for the job. Two steps forward, one step -- dammit! Well, at least most of the steps have been forward.
The remaining to-do list is intimidating: Finish the bathroom floor, install the sink and toilet; re-finish and install the bathtub; install flooring, apply finish to the flooring, install stairs (the ones in place are made of two-by-fours), and the bannister; make or buy and install a front door, complete the electrical wiring from the well to the pressure tank, finish hanging pipes under the house, test the water system and finish hooking it up -- and several things I'm no doubt forgetting -- but I swear, we can see light at the end of this long tunnel. Someday -- maybe even someday soon -- we will live in a house with Indoor Plumbing!! I'ma throw up right inside the house, if I've a mind to.
Never lose sight of the dream.
