Living in a Construction Site

There are much worse things than having a water pipe burst in the house. But that's been enough to disrupt things for this household.

We've been in the rebuilding stage for a while here. And, since my desk and computer are in the north room, just off the kitchen, I have a sort of front-row seat.

As I wrote in another blog, earlier today:

"It's quiet at the moment, but pretty soon this area will be suffused with the rhythms of a staple gun, the shrill sonority of a rotary saw, anon hammerings and scrapings.

"Tranquil it ain't."
(Apathetic Lemming of the North (October 8, 2010))

I took some photos on Wednesday, while the floor was mostly taken apart in three (or four, depending on how you count them) rooms:


Tearing the floors up uncovered a few things that needed fixing. (October 6, 2010)

I'm not going to say that having an indoor water feature in the house was a good thing - but taking up flooring, and what the flooring was sitting on, showed a few spots that needed attention - and made it possible to get the fixing done.


Here's the floor at the foot of the stairs going from the ground to the second floor: or, rather, the floor joists and old subfloor. (October 6, 2010)

If you look closely, the gaps between the old subfloor planks aren't very dark. There's a reason for that. You're looking straight down into the basement, where a light's on.


I'm going to miss being able to see into the basement from the first floor. But not much. (October 6, 2010)

There's smooth flooring in the rooms that needed work now, for the first time in - quite a while. There's going to be a finished surface that goes over that - but I'm glad not to be walking on rough planks and the occasional screw or nail any more.

Just to keep things interesting: as of - early today, I think it was - the refrigerator is in the north room, behind me and to my left as I sit at the desk. It's plugged in, so our food supply is okay. The stove? It's somewhere else. And not plugged in.

I'm going to be glad when the various repair/reconstruction jobs are over.

For the season.

There's quite a lot of work that needs to be done on the east wall of the house - but happily that can wait until spring.

One more thing: My wife and #3 daughter have been off with the Soo Bahk Do class, down in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St. Paul to non-Minnesotans). Some sort of test. I expect them back in an hour or so.