Renovation time is here!

I did make it through last week without taking anyone's head off or having a sobbing marathon. On to this week - our home renovation project is finally on the official docket. The contractors are showing up tomorrow at 7 AM to get started! I am beyond thrilled. Allegedly they will even finish this week, so I can get started on the interior finish work if I wind up home without a baby next week.

Hopefully the contractors are better at framing than I am with Paint

This is like Phase 3 of our 4-Phase attic renovation.

Phase 1 was to completely refinish one third of the upstairs into a bedroom. That was completed two years ago, down to the trim. The only thing not done was the heat and the flooring (we left the old asbestos tile down).

Phase 2 was to gut the remainder of the area we wanted to finish for bedroom #2 and hallway. That was completed last year, with new wiring, ceiling and walls drywalled, leaving just one wall unfinished - the one that the new dormer window is going into this week!

Phase 3 is these windows. We are not knowledgeable enough to cut holes in our roof and frame in dormer windows.

Phase 4 will be finishing bedroom #2, the hallway, and fixing up the interior of bedroom #1 post-dormer framing (it is also getting a new window, so we'll have to do some touching up drywall and painting, and probably some flooring as well).

So when we're done we'll have FOUR bedrooms instead of the TWO we had when we bought the house. Also, T and E will each have their own room upstairs. Until Baby #3 is old enough to move up there and share with one of them.

Updates to come tomorrow (hopefully good ones!)

The project begins

This weekend, our project begins. We were going to finish the upstairs. Then we were going to finish 2/3 of the upstairs. Now, we are going to finish a room upstairs. In the back. In its current footprint.

So... mostly this is just insulating, at this point. Insulating and drywall.
Let's see how terribly wrong this can go.

Mousecapades

Some mice decided to come in out of the cold and live in our upstairs. (Our upstairs is a quasi-attic. We have a cape, so the upstairs was once and will again be living space, but right now we just threw down some insulation on the floor and have a few items stored up there... so it's acting as an attic.)

Every night, we heard the scrambling and running of little feet... and gnawing? So it was time for action.

The husband has had most of the fun with the mousecapades. He bought traps and bait, and set them. The first night, he was obsessed with them. (Traps!) Every time he heard a noise, he ran upstairs to see if he'd caught anything.

About 2am, he did. Now, he bought two of those traps that hide the dead carcass so you don't have to witness what you've done. But the husband wanted to see... and when he did, he squealed. In case you are faint of heart, I will not relay what he saw. Since this time, he has been much less enthused about the process.

Two nights ago, trap number two went off. These suckers pack quite a punch - apparently it flew several feet across the room. From downstairs, we heard a random "pop!" ... husband waited until the next day to actually go retrieve the trap.

I might feel a little sorry for the critters... but at some point in the last week, they got into my diaper bag, which I store in the stairwell to the upstairs. And they nibbled everything in the bag - a juice box, a book, diapers... and a brand new footie outfit for the small child. So they are now my archenemy. And they must die.