I have to run and pick up the new pedestal sink for the back bathroom, and order some extra plumbing supplies that didn’t make it in the shipping box, that and finish making and wrapping presents. Gabe keeps running around and saying, “Hey guys, what are you doing?” The crew members are very patient with him and try to explain what they’re doing, but his eyes are riveted on the tools especially when they fire up the blowtorch.

I get back to the house about noon with the new bathroom sink and bring it in for them to install. The plumbers seem to be moving along fairly quickly. I haven’t actually been near the kitchen, so I’m not sure how things are going in there. Again, I’m trying to stay out of the way. My projects are going a lot more slowly today than I had hoped. Gabe wants me to play, and it’s kind of hard to say no with those bright blue eyes blinking up at me. Eric seems to be sleeping and feeling better, so aside from trips out to the garage to get him water, he’s pretty much on his own, although trapped in the bedroom while the crew works on the hall bathroom plumbing.

I also get a call from work that I’m going to need to do some work from home that will take up a good bit of the afternoon, so my attention is elsewhere today.

The plumbers leave about 6:30 p.m. today. The electrician had left a little earlier. There are still a couple of minor leaks that need to be taken care of. Pretty much everything else is done. The paper pathways through the house are gone and it’s almost starting to look normal, save for the boxes sitting around and the kitchen, of course.

At some point today, the carpenter got here to start work on widening the doorway between the dining room and kitchen. We did this to make it more accessible and so that we could get the refrigerator in, too. He’s gotten a good portion of the drywall removed and some of the old door framing removed, too. He’ll be back tomorrow.

Thursday, Dec. 9 – Friends are coming to visit. I have to clean up a little. Everything is so dusty. It’s going to take awhile.

One of the plumbers is here to finish up with the leak and to clean the work site. He’s even running a vacuum. Yeah! I hate to vacuum. The carpenter is here working on the doorway again and I think the electrician is around her somewhere, too.

It’s time to run more errands. I have to actually mail all those Christmas cards and pick up more stamps. Two more gifts to finish making, then all I have to do is ship them off and the Christmas shopping is done. Oh, I have to wrap my husband’s birthday presents, too. His birthday is Dec. 21. I’m also throwing a bridal shower on Jan. 9, so I have to get the invitations made and mailed for that, too.

Whew! That’s enough to keep me running until Maisha and her mom get here at 2 p.m.

I get back to the house about 12:30 p.m. and do some quick cleanup and start some laundry. It’s a little loud in here with the carpenter working on the doorway and the laundry running. It’s amazing how much louder things sound when there’s nothing in a room and there’s no insulation in the walls. Oh well.

I was at least able to get Gabe down for a short nap before Mai and her mom got here. The doorbell rings and I make excuses for the mess, and we sit down to talk and exchange presents. It figures, Gabe wakes up as we start talking about presents.

About the time we get the presents exchanged and opened, I hear the carpenter yelling that there’s a big pool of water in the laundry room. I run back to take a look and there’s probably 2 inches of water in there and it’s starting to run into the kitchen. I get the washer shut down and realize that the drain hose has slipped out from the pipe and the entire tub of water has emptied onto the floor.

I get out the push-broom and as the carpenter holds open the door I sweep the water out onto the back porch. It takes awhile, but I get most of it. The carpenter helps me get the hose situated again and all is well, except for the wet sub floor in the laundry room and kitchen. At least it has time to dry. The floor won’t be installed until Jan. 3.

Friday, Dec. 11 – Gabe is off to day care and I’m back to work. The construction crew gets the house to themselves today. It sounds like all they have to do is finish up and the inspection is set for Monday. Then its repair the walls and put in the cabinets.

When we got home it looked like everything was ready for the inspector. The door was completed with a new header and new framing. There was a little work to be done on the new electrical panel, but we are good to go for the inspection.

The inspection

This is just a side note. The inspection went pretty well. There were a couple of things that had to be fixed, though, which meant we'd need to be reinspected later.

The new hot water heater was installed too close to the wall there needed to be two inches of clearance, but there was only one. That was probably the biggest problem. There were also a couple of leaks in the bathroom piping and a few electrical things to take care of. (I'm not being specific here because I wouldn't know what I was talking about.)

This put us about one more day behind schedule, since the guy putting in the drywall couldn't close up the walls until all the problems were fixed. The rest of the week went to the drywaller and repairing all of the holes in the wall. We were optimistic that we would be painting on Saturday before we left for our holiday vacation.

When Friday evening rolled around, our project manager Greg suggested that we hold off on the painting so all of the mud on the drywall could dry completely. Sigh!