OK, actual progress to report!
No, wise guys, you did not accidentally open the wrong build thread, although you might want to make a note of this on the calendar because it will be a looooong time before you are likely to read the word "progress" here again.
Realizing that I was going nowhere fast using my curent tactics (i.e. staring at the walls and wishing forlornly), I resolved to take action, because I read something somewhere that said nothing happens without action.
Of course, I was
also taught not to believe everything I read, which kind of had me confused, but after trying the whole
not-believing-everything-I-read bit and getting nowhere, I decided I might as well just give the
believe anything bit a try. Worst case scenario I can always sue someone for misleading me.
First order of business was to get the crap out of the way so we could finally see exactly what we were dealing with! We had too much crap in the basement when we started this project back in the early seventeenth century, and that expanded exponentially when the kid I used to have came home from the service and took up residence in the construction zone, which he once knew as his bedroom. For perspective, here's a pre-weekend view of the once and future construction zone, which had started to regress back to it's original state of a bedroom. (Decoration by Peppie Le Pew!)
So I rented a storage pod thing for the driveway to absorb said crap and sundry related stuff so we could get jiggy with it. That thing is bigger than it looks - 8' x 8' x 16'.
Here's a view of the pod from inside the garage.
Second order of business was to recruit both skilled and unskilled labor. My builder buddy Chris came through for me again (I think his wife needed a break) in the starring role as the skilled labor and only one in the general vacinity with half a clue, while joining me in the supporting unskilled role was my son and a couple of his young friends, who did a marvelous job of coming through in the clutch, just before Chris arrived, and moved all the stuff from one half of the basement up and into the storage pod.
(This is where a lesser man would shaelessly and publicly give his son well deserved grief about being too hung over to do this moving work a day earlier as he had promised his old man, but I'm far too big for that sort of thing.)
The Three Amigos trying to get a round peg into a square hole.
And - shockingly!! - succeeding!
Obligatory young buck victory dances:
The one with his best, um ... face forward is, I am obliged to admit, my son. I think he must get his warped sense of humor from his mother.
I will just point out that the hideous couch is my son's, not ours, and despite it's state of disrepair he fights my constant suggestions to chop it up and feed it to the termites.
OK, back to some actual building!
Next order of business was for my buddy Chris to "help" me (
cough cough, do everything, cough!!) finish the framing that had now langushed for the past couple of months. Those with great memories (and pathetically boring lives) will recall that a few weeks back I had managed to focus all my "talents" over the course of a weekend to frame an 8 foot section of wall, but other than that the framing had come to a standstill.
I was like a proud father showing off my handiwork to Chris. So you can imagine my pride when Chris took one look at what I had done and announced: "dude, the first thing we gotta do is fix this wall here."
Here he is with his Sawzall fixing my masterpiece wall.
With that bit of humiliation out of the way, we kicked into high gear and, even with my frequent cutting mistakes (
Dude, 23" is not quite the same as 33", but nice try!) by the end of the day, had finished almost all the framing, including the walls between the laundry room and the bedroom.
Here is a view of the area near the start of the day.
Making progress ...
Cans going in. Another advantage of being 6' 5", like Big Foot, is who needs stuff to stand on?
In the home stretch. View from the bedroom looking towards the laundry room.
And reversing orientation, from the laundry room looking back towards the bedroom.
And finally from the laundry room looking out through the door towards the stairway and the future HT room.
But other than
that, it was a pretty quiet weekend ...
