Several of my posts have dealt with the challenges we’ve encountered trying to get the water turned on, getting Digger Guy out to replace the septic system, or getting power to the house.  As frustrating as these have been, I’ve tried to treat this as my job; trying to get the house into a livable state so our time in the fifth wheel is kept to a minimum. That means spending at least part of nearly every day down there working on one project or another.  I’ve had to take time out now and then to go into town to wash clothes, pick up lumber and supplies, go to the bank, and eat a real meal occasionally, but there are definitely some changes taking place.

Along those lines, several people have asked to see progress photos, and I guess that makes sense, but so much of my time has been spent tearing out drywall, mouse-infested insulation, trim, and a little bit of framing, and making trip after trip down to the dump to haul away all of the debris, that it doesn’t feel like I have a lot of changes to show for my efforts.  The office, for example, is now stripped down to bare studs and ceiling joists.  It’s de-moused, and after four cans of expandable foam, I think most of the pathways in have been sealed off.  With a little luck, the mouse hotel is now closed.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the kitchen, too.  I hadn’t planned to work in there today.  I had planned to work on the gate and fence at the bottom of the driveway.  We need to be able to lock the gate and restrict traffic up the hill, especially while we’re gone.  I don’t want anymore random visitors, dumping or thefts.  I put the two main gate posts in the other day and the concrete is set now, so I decided I’d devote today to digging the other six holes and setting the rest of the posts.  Unfortunately, it started raining again as I was finishing the first of the remaining post holes.  This may not seem terribly important.  After all, I’ve spent 30 or so years in Washington where rain is rarely a reason to stop working or change plans.  But, here’s the thing:  the ground here has a lot of rocks in it and the rain here brings lots of lightning.  How do these two things relate to one another, you ask?  That’s the very question I was pondering as I leaned on my 5′ iron breaker bar trying to catch my breath and decide how to spend the rest of my day.  It was then that I realized that hanging on to a big, heavy lightning rod might not be a great idea.  So, I worked on the kitchen today.

The kitchen had an L-shaped counter with lower cabinets, a small, oddly shaped pantry, and an 8’x 4′ island with a range and small prep sink.

Once I got the island out, we were left with the plumbing and range down-draft motor in the middle of the kitchen.

I had to cut out a portion of the floor to access the copper pipes, wiring, and pvc pipes that served as both drain and vent.

The copper pipes are now capped off, and the pvc has been tied together to eliminate the upright pipes.  The pantry to the right of the photo has been re-framed to enlarge it a bit, and a new piece of plywood in the floor and the kitchen is now a nice, clean new slate.  We’ll have the new window, appliances, and cabinets in a couple of weeks, so we’ll be able to start putting everything back together and give us a working kitchen real soon.

So, there it is…..  some progress.