It seems so long ago...

The facial expression in photo #1... it kills me.

Reason to celebrate.

Dave spent last weekend and every evening this past week shimming and planing the final, most out of plumb wall, in the stairway, and hanging the drywall.

A major accomplishment.
We popped the cork on a bottle of champagne.

When you know a DJ.

Ok, I know some of you would just as soon never hear that song from the previous post again.

But I have to admit that little snippet stuck in my head and drove me crazy.

So I turned to my young friend who is a part-time DJ on a local college station. This guy seems to know everything about music. Honest. He's hard to stump. I sent him the video of Dave working and within seconds he had an answer for me. Artist, song & album.

If any of you are still reading, it's "Cameras" by Matt & Kim.

Thanks, Cool Hand Luke. Rock on.

Stream his show here. Mondays, 5 - 7 pm.

Oh. eM. Gee.

The dust.

And he's still hanging drywall, the finishing work hasn't even begun yet.

College radio and the repeated rrrnh! of the screw gun... all. day. long. [crank the volume to get just a hint of what it sounds like in our house]

Poor Dave.

An Anniversary...of sorts.

To date, it has been six months since we slept in our bed.
Any bed for that matter.

final packing day

Yes, we've had some sort of padding under us every night...

The Westy provided a cozy little bed - and bedroom - for a couple months.

When the weather turned cooler we came indoors and took up sleeping on our lumpy old futon mattress. As a friend said to me, "those are only meant to be slept on long-term by college students!"

One night, while Dave & I each flopped around like fish out of water trying to find a comfortable position before going to sleep, he described comfort on the futon as "fluid," it's different every night. 

It took about three months before Dave stopped heading upstairs to get dressed after his shower each morning. I wonder how long it will take us to re-learn that we no longer have to get dressed in the dining room...

Truth be told, it's been kind of fun.
Camping every night.
Sleeping under the Christmas tree.

Plus, how many people get to open their eyes in the morning and see something like this - before even getting out of "bed"...

Or this...

It's one helluva view.

Walls

We have walls!
Dave worked his tail off over the weekend; he got all four walls up in the new bedroom and has since finished another interior wall. I flit upstairs occasionally to visit and lean on a piece of wall board for him or fetch a tool (or cold beverage) and maybe run the shop vac. 

Dave thinks this project is taking too long. I remind him that it’s a major project. Which he is doing -for the most part- single-handedly, evenings and weekends, when work doesn’t interfere, and still performing all the other little odd jobs that life and being a do-it-yourselfer homeowner and multi-car family can throw at you unexpectedly.

Sure, we passed his self-imposed deadline – but it really doesn’t matter.

Rockin' New Year's Weekend

Dave rented a drywall lift for the weekend. Like a local at a Turkish market, he haggled with the guy at the rental store and got a sweet rate for the holiday weekend.

Chris came over both Saturday & Sunday and the three of us spent the majority of our daylight hours bonding while we hung the ceilings. We could not have done the job without him.

stuck...

There aren't many opportunities to take photos when you stand around all day with your arms in the air, pushing on 100-pound sheets of drywall. But I managed to get a few.

When Chris & I loaded a sheet of 5/8" onto the lift he said his sister is - and I quote - "bad ass." Lending muscle and righteous compliments, what a guy. A million thanks.

Dave is feeling really good about having the ceilings up. Progress!