unfinished business

Just when you thought it was safe, I went and turned everything upside-down and started myself another project. Or two. Or three.

Originally a kitchenette, ...correction, a gross-kitchenette, I thought to myself "why leave good enough alone?" And, went and made it into a library. Well, making. Making it into a library. First, we extended the floor into the room, making it one one continuous flow. However, funny enough, when the quarter-round was popped off, behold! Mold! You see, when someone removes the plumbing underneath the utility sink, water tends to flood. All over. Yeah. So, we removed the bottom strip of damaged drywall. And the old tile back-splash. And the drywall behind the back-splash.

See there? That awesome floor and the gaping hole?? Yup, pretty amazing, ain't it? Oh, and this was before I got the old washer out of the utility room (for some reason, it's advisable to make the hall opening .04" wider than the washer and/or dryer... you know, for easy removal and new utility installation.) Good news! New(ish) washer & dryer are installed and no longer in the library!

So, once the tile-covering-drywall was removed, and, Surprise! Moldy insulation. Why? Because someone thought it was a good idea to put plain insulation, without any barrier, against the concrete cinder blocks to the outside world. So...

And you know where that stuff goes? It goes here:


Which gives you:


Now, what may not be perfectly obvious, due to the magic of photography and perspective, is that these studs are not equally spaced. In fact, they are nowhere NEAR being standard. This made hanging drywall interesting. Which brings us to this:


The dust is still settling after a bit of clean-up, but the room is almost ready for priming & paint. A teeny bit more spackel and sanding to go and then, voila! ....well, and then molding. And a new window. And a cabinet door for the crawl-space. THEN, 'voila!'


Meanwhile, I got a small little transformation going on.

Ta-da! Staining the fish tank stand "Antique Pine". I did the top lip first, so that I could move the tank around as I worked; stain 1/2 and allow to dry, then shift and finish the other 1/2. I hope to make some serious progress on it this weekend.


And as if that isn't enough hulla-baloo? Take a gander at this:


Mmmhmm. You know what that means... I MAY have a WORKING shower! Sometime!! Madness, I know. The plumbing has been fixed/replaced, and now it's ready to replace the tile.

So, in case you aren't keeping track, that's: 1) almost-done library, 2) in-the-works tank stand refacing, 3) the beginning of the bathroom remodel, and 4) all the other half-finished projects [::cough::garden bench::cough::]. Good thing, too- was getting way too comfortable here.