Happy Solstice! and heading toward the light!

Since last posting the flood has been fixed.  I love walking into Home Depot, they know my name!

Makes feel wanted :)  

After the new threshold was installed and mortared into place, I had a chance to do a bit of re-grading on the walk way.  This was not in my plans but hey it's December and I am outside!  I used a 2 part epoxy where door jam and threshold meet the road.  I said apologies to the giant wolf spider living under the jam and relocated her to the garden.  Her remains of past dinners and children swept away!  I'm praying she can't find her way back to the house, she could carry a chicken away! 

Happy the water will be running away from the house now.  The bricks had heaved with the changing weather.  

Don't touch my floor...... I am not moving and this could get ugly.

Well it got ugly and just getting him up two steps and settled was half a day.  When he figured out he could park himself in front of the fridge, stove and table; amends were made. 

Flooring moved in, dug out the knee pads and coffee and thought I would start right up.  

But then I looked at the trim around the doorway........ nuts!  I think this is the last piece of wood in this house I have not touched.  It was the old exterior door jam and it looked a bit over my head but then every project in this house has been over my head.  I YouTubed it and ripped the jam off with my trusty crow bar.  I'm pretty good at demo work but the fixing always takes double the time.

Back to patching.  I am the drywall queen.  It takes three good days of coating, drying and sanding to get it right and it was finally time to tackle all three gapping holes.  

New trim looks much better! 

Finally, yesterday morning I hit the floor!  The first two rows took me 9 hours!!!!  

Wade, the "expert" at Lumber Liquidators and I are now BFF's.  He talked me off the ledge several times and I stuck with it.  But I don't think I will ever attempt an engineered, floating, locking, vinyl floor again.  Whatever happened to peel and stick?   I spent so much time on my knees over three days I think I made my pilgrimage to Home Depot and back....... on my knees.  After three rows it went much better.   Then I hit the back wall.  Because the 1/2" sheet rock was already up and I needed to leave a 1/4" space between tile and wall for expansion, I enlisted my trusty crow bar again.  After many skinned knuckles, begging, please click together and then just cursing, it's finished.  

And the one thing I did not want to do was paint the base boards...... they were yanked and painted, now in the studio drying.  Also shoe moulding...... it just never ends.  But I am sooooo close! 

For our first day of winter we are getting hammered.  Started slow but through the day it has built with ferocity.  The winds are gale force and by morning we are supposed to have 10".  

Welcome Winter!