Blather

Yesterday my big son and I went to the Stockton house. For a couple of weeks, we'd been working at ripping up the ruined floors. The breezeway, glued wood strips over leveling concrete and the hallway, glued Pergo over concrete, took a long time because where the wood was rotted, we had to scrape the glue off and where the wood wasn't rotted, it was hard to peel the glue off. And because the termite guys said to leave the materials in the house so the termites would get killed instead of merely annoyed, walking around meant stepping over (or tripping over) ripped-up boards.

But that's over- we loaded all the debris into my truck. Then we loaded the old rug from the upper bedroom, including the closet. Then the pad. Then the linoleum from the dining area. Then the linoleum from the laundry room. Then the ruined bath vanity. Then the ruined plywood counter in the front patio. Then we took a walk around the lot, looking for the odd piece of trash- a bit wood here, a paper cup there, and even the old tire.

An easy ride to the Material Transfer Station and $18 later, my truck was empty. When we went back, the place smelled better and looked infinitely better. Are we 5% done? 10% done? I don't know. But we made a big dent in getting the place fixed up. Next trip out, we'll try to get the lower bath's sink installed and the lower bath's toilet fixed so we can have two bathrooms.

I'll begin putting paper on the hardwood floors, tape plastic over the fireplace, doors and windows, and shoot the first coat of primer onto the gloss black walls in the upper living room. I'm not sure who thought a gloss black living room was a good idea, but it's sure not my vision of a living room.

Yep, we still have a lot to do. But yesterday we made a very noticeable difference. A good Wednesday, indeed.