Dust

Everywhere. The type and thickness varies, but it's everywhere. Food is
gritty, and anything that doesn't come out of a sealed container tastes
like chalk. I tried to keep it at bay, but I've been overwhelmed.
In 3 weeks I've gutted most of the ground floor, tearing out the carpet,
floor tile, baseboards and trim, a couple support walls, chunks of ceiling,
and most of a kitchen. All that's left is a short piece of counter with the
sink in it, and enough space left over to hold a microwave and a toaster.
Cut a hole in the basement floor and dug down deep enough to be able to mix
15 bags of cement for a footing. Built and installed a ceiling beam out of
2x8's that spans over half the width of the house, reinforced the floor
joists on 2 floors, and installed a total of 5 jackposts on 2 different
floors to hold it all up. All the plumbing for the upstairs had to be
rerouted, as well as most of the heating ducts. Cyr and I spent 3 days
rewiring half the house, and the new location for the kitchen ( I moved it
to the other side of the house) has been roughed in with enough outlets and
lighting to make Tim Taylor proud. There's even going to be lights inside
some of the cupboards. Scraped and sanded all the stucco off the ceiling,
built a false wall to hold all the wiring and to make it easier to mount
some of the cupboards. Installed the venting for the new range hood that's
powerful enough to suck a frypan up off the stove and required an exhaust
pipe the same size as the main plenum coming off my furnace. The whole space
has been turned into one large room, with one column that holds up the
second floor which contains a chase with some of the plumbing and heating
and will be incorporated into the corner of the new kitchen counter. I've
gone through a ridiculous amount of lumber, 12 sheets of drywall, miles of
wire, and more pizza than I've seen in several years. (My friends don't work
for free) Everything is prepped and ready for Sylvain to come in and start
putting on mud on Friday night, which will lead to a whole new tide of dust.
I should be painting on Monday, and putting up the coffered ceiling by the
end of the week. There's a complete custom kitchen on order, and a bunch of
sparkling new appliances sitting in crates in the garage. And I've screwed.
Floors, walls, ceilings, electrical boxes, the list is endless. I've picked
out the new flooring (hardwood), and will have to glue and screw another
layer of plywood down to carry it. A bunch of neighbors have wanted to try
this, but common sense has prevented them.
It's going well, and I should be done for spring. If I don't choke to death
on the dust.

This sure is a lot more fun than my real job.
Larry