I realized as I was about to write this that last night and tonight I have started writing after midnight so the date of the posts is technically wrong. Not a big deal but in the interest of Truth in Advertising . . .

K & I returned to our day gigs so we didn’t do any renovating today. And much of what the guys did doesn’t make for a good photo opp: third coat of mud on the sheet rock, more rock in the downstairs bathroom, etc.

The only real visual change was the installation of a couple low-end kitchen cabinets. Since we didn’t plan to demo the kitchen, we didn’t budget to install a kitchen. But given the fact that we did rip out the old kitchen, we have to recreate some level of functionality.

A trick we learned at The Marigny St. house is that while countertops are expensive, doors are cheap. And once installed as counter tops, doors look and function remarkably well. Many people who shared meals with us at Marigny St. were surprised to learn that our counters were actually doors.

So we decided to finish off our low-end cabinets with a low-end door. So low-end, in fact, that this particular door was salvaged from our neighbor’s house. I wonder if they will recognize the door they threw out when they come for dinner?

K & I spent the lion’s share of our evening back at Marigny St. cleaning and touching up the paint. Everything should be ready for the new tenants by Saturday — probably earlier but given that we still don’t have a shower here it is nice to have access to our old one. What? Your shower isn’t 2.2 miles from your house?

After painting at Marigny street, I wanted to try out the new music room here. Certainly not 100% but even jammed full of boxes and sans AC it felt right.

I think we are going to be ok.

Not much happened on the renovation today. Carpenters are on hold until the shoring company comes to level the house — scheduled for next Wednesday. And the electricians appear to be off on another job.

K & I decided to invite a few folks over for a beer in honor of Saint Arnold’s Day. Any excuse to sit on the porch and drink a beer. The evening was going swimmingly until Stanley (our slightly crazy dog) decided to engage in a stand-off with an equally crazy cat under the house. At first I thought Stanley had trapped the cat and attempted — while crawling under the house in the dark — to provide cover for the cat to escape. Then I determined that the cat was holding Stanley hostage and attempted to toss various pieces of detritus at the cat to distract him so Stanley could make his escape. Turns out Stanley and the Cat were two crazy souls who had found each other and neither had any interest in escaping. They were locked in some weird under-the-house cage match and were determined to take each other down. K later referred to them as Sid and Nancy — which I think is the best description.

Finally, with the help of Rob, Ben, and Susan, we were able to coax Stanley away from the cat and out from under the house — where he proceeded to act as if nothing had happened.

While not much happened today, it appears that tomorrow could be a big day for the old house.

First off, I realize that I have a category for posts called ‘kitchen sink’ — but this post is literally about the kitchen sink. In this case, the demolition of the wall surrounding the kitchen sink.

Yes, this past weekend contained Independence Day. And while this is traditionally a time of relaxing around a grill with a cold beer in one’s hand, K and I decided that we would work on the renovation. Actually, that isn’t quite true. We decided that we would work a bit and then relax a bit — perhaps take a day off and go float in a river on the North Shore — but we started working and we never quite got around to the relaxing on the river part of the plan.

For those of you who read the title of this post and are thinking, “Mouse shit by the pound?  Get to the point,” I will keep you guessing no longer: This is not a rhetorical flourish. Just a statement of fact.

One of our tasks for the weekend was to prepare the kitchen walls for painting. If you have read earlier posts on the renovation, you know that I have been fighting with the kitchen floor for several weeks to remove the old sticky tile, luan sub-flooring, and tar paper.  (Side Note: I discovered this week that if you need to remove stubborn tar paper from an old wood floor, soak the tar paper with a 1:3 solution of vinegar and water. I wasn’t sure why this was working until I mentioned it to my friend Rob who pointed out that Vinegar is a mild acid –  so that is probably what is loosening the bond of the tar paper to the floor. However, I don’t believe I have mentioned that the walls were in pretty bad shape from the removal of the cabinets and suffered from the same general coating of yuckiness as the cabinets themselves. So we determined that the best solution was to rip out the sheet rock, install new rock, and float the walls.

When we began ripping out the old sheet rock, we discovered the treasure trove of mouse shit and dead cockroaches pictured above. I had a similar discovery in the last house I renovated but still, it is pretty nasty to see up close and personal — the pictures don’t seem to capture the revulsion you feel at thinking, “what if I hadn’t opened that wall and had just moved in here. I’d be eating my wheaties  right next to that and not know it.” Yuck.

The other discovery we made was more fun: some old wallpaper on the plaster that was covered up by sheet rock at some point.

In the end, we did get the old sheet rock down and the walls opened up and cleared of debris.

Before hanging the new sheet rock, I decided to leave a note on the old plaster wall for the next renovators of the house.

After that we installed the new sheet rock! This was the first additive thing we have done to the house. Everything up to this point has been removal or demolition. It felt great to take that first small step of rebuilding.

It started with a voicemail from K. Someone broke in to the new house. Tools are missing. So is the antique china cabinet.

I suspect Buddha is testing my attachment to material objects. Loosing the tools sucks but they are just metal and plastic to me. However, ever since my first step inside this house I have been drawn to this piece. I just loved its beauty and the craftsmanship it took to make it.

Our neighbor actually saw the guys taking it. However, since we have contractors going in and out he talked with them briefly and they said we were getting rid of this or something and he went back inside; can’t blame him for that. All we know is that it was two black males in a white SUV — Tahoe or Explorer or something — which was new, shiny, and had chrome rims. Not much to go on. I think the good news is that judging from the appearance of some other pieces of furniture they planned to take more. But I suspect that once they knew someone had seen them they just bolted. So while our neighbor didn’t prevent them from taking this piece, he probably did save us from loosing a few more things.

I try to focus on the fact that it is just stuff. And that k and I are both safe. And that no one put a gun in our faces. Nevertheless, all day I have been agitated, sad, pissed off, and generally unpleasant to be around.

NOPD came out and took a report. Very nice officer. One of the best I have encountered here and that is nice. Then again, the fact that he estimated that a detective would be on the case in 5 to 7 DAYS doesn’t inspire much confidence in that route. I guess if I were down and out and needed some cash and someone said, “it’s illegal . . . but you’ll have a 5 to 7 day head start before the cops come after you” — I might take those odds.

At least the sun is going down. Tomorrow will be another day.

Today the house began to feel like a construction site. The carpenters began their work of refurbishing the windows, checking for leaks, replacing rotten sills, and installing new sash chains. The highlight was the opening of the tilt windows in the entry hall that appear not to have been opened in years. Most of the windows in the house are in remarkably good shape and have remained operable. These windows, however, had been painted shut. Seeing them open brought new light and air into the front of the house.

The electricians have also been at work replacing the old knob and tube wiring with newer and safer wires. We opted to maintain the original placement of the outlets in the baseboards. Moving them up the wall could entail destroying the original plaster walls or, at best, some costly plaster work.  At the same time, we would end up with giant rectangular holes in the original baseboards which then would have to be removed and repaired — I was able to hack repair this baseboard damage in our existing house but the results leave something to be desired.

This evening, I began the demolition of the upstairs bathroom. It was a reunion of sorts – I set up my work lights which have been banished to the attic of our existing house ever since I finished the major renovation work in 2005. We went through a lot together – those lights and me. I can still remember how cool I felt buying them. Thinking: “I’m the kind of guy who needs work lights.”

Firing them up again tonight I recaptured a bit of that old feeling. Then I got down on my hands and knees and put my face closer to decades old bathroom funk than you ever really want to be. And then I recaptured a bit of that other old feeling: ‘Jesus, I should have paid someone to do this.”

But the beer at the end sure tastes good!