Now back to work. This weekend we're going to try to get stuff done on the house, outside if it's nice, and inside if it's not. The goal is to finish up drywall and install the second Solatube.
In the meantime, here's what we did the last weekend of April, right before we went on our trip. That Saturday was absolutely beautiful. It was warm and sunny, and was a single day of the spring we haven't really had so far. So, we decided to work outside. A long time ago, a friend of ours and my spouse moved a lot of really nice rock that a business associate let us have for free. We put it at the end of our driveway, since that was the easy place to dump it, and told ourselves we would use it to build a retaining wall along our driveway and the address post at the end. I think you know how that turned out.
Well, we finally moved that rock and got some of our driveway back, or at least a place where we can put another planting bed. That spot gets good sun all day, so it would be a great place to grow fruits and veggies. The brown patches in the photo is where the rocks used to be. They were completely overgrown with grass, and we saw all sorts of quality creepy-crawlies during the excavation.
Our neighbor's dog would come over to play with us while we moved rocks. He's a sweet dog, and kept us distracted enough that moving the rocks wasn't too monotonous, but not SO distracting that we didn't get anything done. Plus I got some good dog-playing time in. I love dogs. Anyway, we had initially been piling the rocks by hand. After a couple of tiring hours we realized that we owned a wheelbarrow. It went a lot faster then. Better late than never, I guess.
We figure we probably moved about 2 tons of rock. Now it's under the trees where it won't bother anybody, and also won't grow grass (although moss isn't out of the question).
We took bets on how long it will be before we actually do anything with the rock. I think at least seven; my spouse thinks four. We'll see. It'll probably end up being more like 15, knowing us.
The next day we finished up installing our fireplace by putting in the outside air kit. This necessitated a trip under the house, which I refuse to do. Luckily the ol' spouse is a super trooper - here he is, as seen through the hole he cut in our floor.
Here's the vent thing that he installed under the house, which we connected to the ducting.
Here's the fireplace before and after the connection.
And the fireplace blower and outside air kit were installed and the fireplace finally complete and ready to function at its best!
After that, it was time to finish the rest of the fireplace. So, we installed drywall around the chimney pipe.
Finally we did the front drywall panel.
It's still a bit weird to not see the back of the fridge, but somehow I think we'll manage. The place is looking more and more like an actual room with each baby step. It's getting exciting!
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