Alchemy, or How I turned fifty cents into thousands of dollars

And I’ll share my secret with you!  Just send me fifty cents…

No, seriously, it’s more complicated than that.  First, you arrange to have a cracked washer in your dishwasher supply line.   Then, while you’re contemplating how to deal with the insurance claim and allowance, you visit your neighbors’ house.  You know, the ones who are just finishing up a renovation?  Next thing you know, you’re tearing down walls,  ripping up floors, removing doors (this is, of course the Royal We.  The contractor is actually in charge of supplying the manpower.   And, it is fervently hoped, the experience and know-how with regards to load-bearing and not-load-bearing walls and the removal of what we hope is the latter.) and living in two rooms on the second floor with two dogs and your grown son.  (Sounds kind of Iron-Curtain-ish, don’t you think?)

Before the Storm

Cleaned out. You should see the garage.

Demolition almost finished

Nearing the Top of the Construction Curve

Daylight washes through the main floor all day now, and sadly,without the French doors  it will be impossible to keep the dogs out of the living room.  (Wallace had already registered his displeasure at some real or imagined insult by chewing the hell out of the mullions on the French doors.  Not so sorry to see them go as all that…)   The post at the bottom of the stairs has to stay, since we are rather attached to the idea of having the second floor stay upstairs.  Next is drywall repair, ceiling stripping and refinishing, painting (mostly the same colours, maybe a few shades lighter in the hallway and up the stairwell) and then site-finished hardwood.  The hardwood guy is going to clad the post in wood to match the floor, and put mouldings and fancy-schmancy doo-dads on it to make it a design feature. Kind of like we put the post there on purpose.  Oh, wait.  We did. I especially like the cutout on the far side of the stairwell.  We’ll be able to  sit at our kitchen table and see all the way across the street to my best friend’s house to see who’s coming and going.  (She was oh-so-excited to hear that.)  Once the main floor is done, the construction moves upstairs to my pet project.  I’ll spare you the details now, except to say that it involves a dressing room from an extra bedroom, and a big honkin’ soaker tub in my bathroom.  And a chandelier.

True story:  My husband actually suggested that we should tile the kitchen backsplash, since the tile setter is going to be here anyways.  I didn’t even think my husband knew what a backsplash was.  Off to the tile store goes I, and straight to the $70.00 per square foot stainless steel mosaic tiles.   So I’m thinking maybe ceramic tiles.

It’s way more fun to do this renovation stuff with Mike taking an interest in the details.  (As long as he doesn’t get in the way of my Grand Vision.)

One downside to all of this construction is that my knitting supplies have been disbursed all over the house.  I was barely able to reach my straight knitting needles amongst the china cabinet contents downstairs to grab a pair of 4.5’s to take to knitting camp this weekend, and for the life of me I can’t remember where I’ve stashed all my dpn’s.  I was able to lay my hands on some worsted  to take to “Knitting for Speed and Efficiency” on Saturday, so as soon as I find the dpn hiding place I’m ready to go to camp.   In case you thought the Yarn Harlot only frequented larger centres, you should check out Muenster, Saskatchewan.   I believe the Harlot will  fly as far as Saskatoon, and then will either drive or hitchhike out to the Saskatchewan Stitches Conference.   Wait- I just checked the schedule for STC  (our provincial bus system that goes where Greyhound darest not) and they do slow down at Muenster, so she could even take the bus if she was so inclined.  (I guess so could I, but I choose to go in the comfort of my own wheels.)   I look forward to a fun weekend, although since the whole conference is in St. Peter’s Abbey (including sleeping and eating),  I’m sure it will be a quiet weekend, full of reflection, creativity and peacefulness.

Or maybe not.