Chaos. A dust-covered, disorganized, messy chaos. In a short 48-hours, that is what my house has become.

HandyMan and BestMan alternated between running the debris piles to the bin and hacking away at the cabinetry and plaster. And I was sweeper-upper/beer-fetcher/nail-popper-outer.

Lucky for us (okay - lucky for me!), no creepy-crawlies were unearthed. We did find a long-abandoned mouse-house beneath the kitchen sink though. Shredded newspaper, peanut shells, and chicken bones had helped make a happy haven for little Mickey. 

Some knob and tube wiring was the only other surprise. Everything else went just as expected. And in eight hours, the dust had settled, and we reached our goal...cabinets out, plaster down, ceiling off, and beers drank.



HandyMan and I continued on the next day, tearing up the subfloor. Three layers of linoleum and plywood later, we were able to do some investigation into the cause of the sag. Seems the floors had sagged before because we found some patched-in floorboards. HandyMan's cousin K the carpenter will come have a look next weekend and help us figure out how to fix it. Early thoughts are 5/8" plywood and some self-levelling cement may do the trick.



So this is where we're at. This shell will start to take shape as HandyMan and K do the framing next weekend, the electrician works his magic, and the drywaller gives me back some semblance of a room back. 

HandyMan and I even had a few bits of energy left to rake out all the leaves that had been hidden beneath the snow, and enjoy an impromptu picnic in the back of our new CRV. It was good to get out of the house, away from the dust, even for a while. Welcome Spring. Your timing is perfect.