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October 09, 2006
Monday, September 4
Reaching back over the fog of more than a month, I strive to remember Monday, September 4. We awoke to find a near-finished barn, but a dusty, cluttered near-finished barn still full of tools and dropcloths and with trim in serious need of painting.
The first order of business was to clean the place up. And, lucky for us, two of Bob and Seiko's friends, Yarwen and her husband (whose name, though pronounced "shoe", we don't know how to spell) were visiting for the weekend and, inspired by our project, were eager to pitch in and help us clean. The extra hands were much appreciated as we removed the clutter and began to mop.
And mop.
I could include many more pictures of people mopping, but really, would you want to see them? The fact is, the floor refused to be clean. I suppose the air was full of dust and other fine debris, and by the time one round of mopping was complete, a fresh layer had fallen. We kept at it, and eventually gave up.
But not before mugging in triumphant pose. (Iggy, who insisted on being in the photo, contributed nothing to the cleanup efforts.)
Robbi and I decided to get all "American Gothic." Not sure why. We were delirious by this point.
And here is the finished product, after the mopping madness concluded. Thank you so much to Yarwen and her husband for their generous hard work. Without them we would still be chasing dust bunnies to this day.
For the sake of contrast, let's remember back to the beginnings of our venture. Here is the same shot from the same place six months prior; witness 35 years of human debris:
After a few weekends of cleaning, sorting, dumping, etc.
After the cleaning, on the brink of construction:
At the end of the mad weekend of insulation:
Post drywall, pre-painting:
Painting done. Floors yet to go:
Floors done. Framing, and bookshelf remain:
One again, the work complete:
Deep breath. Contented sigh.
Once the place was mostly clean, Robbi and I took out the paint cans and began the touch up work. The trim needed serious attention as did certain parts of the ceiling and walls where we had banged them moving things about in the course of construction. There was an exciting moment when I knocked over the utility light only to stop it from crashing into the floor with a supririsingly deft (nearly ninja-like) move with my right leg. Robbi was astounded and admitted that she valued me just a bit more in the aftermath.
We have no pictures of touch-up painting. And really, would you want to see them?
Eventually we finished. We looked around in the darkness with a sense of accomplishment. And a countervailing feeling of dread.
Now we had to move.
Posted by bogenamp at October 9, 2006 03:49 PM
Comments
astounding. gorgeous. congrats.
jen
Posted by: jen at October 11, 2006 10:26 PM