Light at the end of the tunnel

After taking a few weeks off to replenish the bank account, we are back in action!

After finishing up all of the construction and laying the sheet rock, I called on my friend Lee to take care of the mudding, taping and sanding. Doing this kind of work is kinda like doing body work on a car: any one can do it, but it takes a special touch to make it look good. Lee has that touch. I don't. I'm far too impatient for that kind of stuff, so thanks Lee!

Once the mudding and taping was done, I took some time off work to give myself a couple three-day weekends in a row to really go to town and take care of all the little things that needed to get done so we could get ready for paint finally. I installed some recessed lights in the living room, re-did the window sill on the big window in the living room, added proper vents in the roof for the stove fan and bathroom fan, prepared the attic to add more blow-in insulation, did some miscellaneous repairs, did a lot of sweeping and cleaning, and just got everything ready for paint.
After several long days of crawling around in the attic, sanding walls and vacuuming, we're 100% done with construction and are ready for paint!

Here's how everything looks at the moment:

Looking from the dining room to the living room. Looking from the corner of the living room to the kitchen.
Looking into the living room from the hallway (and some of the new can lights I installed, I only put bulbs in three of them for now though).

Living room from the dining room.

Looking down the hallway from the living room to the master bedroom.

Lucy and Leroy wondering why I'm not playing with them.

The master bedroom, the entrance to the walk-in closet and the new French doors I installed (more on those later).

Making our final color decisions for paint!

Painting commences this weekend!

Operation: Where is the hot water?

It's been awhile since we've done an update on the remodel. The main reason for that is because we took a bit of a break from working on the house from about the middle of January to the middle of February. After the first part of the remodel in November and December, followed by the holidays, our wallets needed a break!

The final straw came during the second week of January when I decided to tackle the issues we'd been having with the hot water heater. When we moved into the house, we noticed that despite the fact we had an 80-gallon hot water heater, we only had enough hot water for one ten minute shower. Assuming it just needed new elements, I picked some up at Lowe's one morning and proceeded to drain the tank and go to work. Well, once I had it drained and torn apart, I look inside and see the bottom of the tank is covered in sediment, the elements are covered in mineral deposits, the dip tube is broken off and the poor old thing was just looking generally haggered. After realizing this, I said "screw it, I'm just gonna buy a new hot water tank!" So I did.

Luckily, my buddy Austin was hanging out with me that day so I had some help to drag the old hot water heater out of the house and then drag the new one in (not to mention the use of his A4 Avant to get the new one home from Lowe's). Now we have a shiny, new, energy-efficient hot water heater. All hail my manliness. And Austin's manliness too (you happy now Austin? =P).

Also, as an added bonus our electric bill dropped significantly last month. This new hot water heater will probably pay for itself in under a year!

A new addition to the family!

Say hello to Leroy Jenkins Bartley! Since Sarah and I work a lot, we decided Lucy needed a friend to keep her company during the day. After searching www.nwsource.com for almost two months, we found some people near us with a litter of Bostons. After going to "just look" at the puppies, we fell in love with Leroy and had to take him home.

Leroy, like Lucy, is a purebred Boston Terrier. For those not familiar with the breed, the Boston breed was created by crossing French and English bull dogs with a breed of terrier called the English White Terrier. If you've met Lucy, you've noticed she has a lot of the terrier genes in her with her huge bat ears, long legs and high energy levels. Leroy on the other hand got all the bulldog genes. He has shorter legs, a wide chest, an extra flat face and is built like a brick shithouse! We're pretty sure he's going to be a brute when he grows up. When we got him he was 8 weeks old and weighed 6.5 pounds. In contrast, when Lucy was 8 weeks old she only weighed around 4 pounds. Technically, Leroy is a genetic "reject" for the breed since he has an all-white head and a blue eye, but it's not we're going to be showing him or anything, he's so damn cute we don't care!

At first, Lucy was a bit jealous of the new arrival, but over the past couple weeks she has warmed up to her new little brother and is now teaching him all sorts of useful skills, such as using the dog door to go outside, how to drag muddy sticks and dog toys through the dog door, how to pee in the house next to the dog door and begging for food.

He's quite the cuddler too.