IN RETROSPECT

Lately we have been busy setteling up accounts. One of the first trades we actually farmed out was sheet rock or in other words drywall. For some reason I thought it may be easier to hire out the work. It would take me a long time to do it ourselves , especially with me doing all of the lifting, taping, mudding, sanding etc. besides holding a full time job. So we hired two locals hoping to keep the work in our community adding to our sustainable efforts by supporting our local economy. Sometimes the best laid plans are just that!

These guys started out witout clear intententions except to make some money. They quoted a fair price and set some expectations regarding quality. They ended up making little because it was all about their expectations without having a clear plan in place and without understanding the skills they actually shared. An example is that one of them was good at finishining work and the other was only capable. Lucky for them the work turned out well because that was their saving grace. I can only say that we were glad that we had a firm a quotation and were not dependent on an hourly rate. It is difficult around here to get trades to give a firm bid. Now we understand why.

White Knight

Whew. . .the painting is almost finished and it is bright, white and finally almost "finished" looking in the house. Sensei wears a white painting "suit" and a white hat and with the paint drips he is truly a white knight!! (Aside from his Herculean efforts to manage the house while beginning a new semester and working at the college from 7 am to 7 pm all last week, he is always a brave warrior on the house front!!)

MLK day off and time to finish the rest of the priming. Last check on drywall this week (we hope) and it's on to floors and trim.

Insulation does work

The insulation is amazing!! It keeps the house at 55-60 degrees even in cold weather. We have pictures (I know, promises, promises.) and will post them, honest, some day. We're almost finished with the drywall (a long, involved dusty process) and we'll be able to reclaim the house to tweak small items while we recover a little financially.
The mechanical system was working brilliantly for the 3 days we had it on before the heavy sanding started. Since it's supposed to be single digits here (as bizarre as the 13"+ snowstorm before Christmas), we might turn it on this week and deal with the dust later. Yikes. . .
Sensei will provide more details about our fabulous mechanicals soon along with pictures.
Stay tuned.