They say the night is always darkest just before the dawn...

So, not to be too whiney, but Hun and I are about ready to drop dead from exhaustion. She's already worked two 20 hour days twice this week, and it's only Wednesday morning. I've done close to the same, working on the house.

Accordingly, there will be no grand narrative, just some pictures and if you are lucky, captions. Enjoy.

The new stairs down to the basement. This picture is facing north.

The fireplace is to your right. The old french doors/new front door is at about 10 o'clock.

They are open on top for now, but there will be a new staircase on top of them, serving the second floor.

The stairs are sort of a horseshoe, with two steps down to a landing, then a left turn and a longer flight to another landing, then another left turn and one more step to the basement floor.

This is taken from the landing. The box framed near the floor hides some HVAC ducts, as well as the water main. There will be a built in bookcase on top of the box, which is why the drywall is left rough.



To the left, you can barely see the door to the mechanicals closet.

This is the hallway, with the bath on the left, the bedrooms on the right and the laundry/mudroom ahead. I didn't paint the lower walls, as there will be white wainscoting along the walls.

Where the walls meet the ceiling, I had a little problem. I didn't get all the dust off the walls before I sprayed my primer, so when I finished painting and removed my tape, the paint came with it. Guess I'll be installing crown molding...



Here's the (future) bath. July is nearly gone and August is looking busy, so I should be able to work on it in September. For now it's storing insulation, drywall and plumbing supplies.

You can just see the edge of the framing for the upper staircase landing.







Looking back down the hall from the laundry room. You can see the hardwood floors getting underway.
















Progress as of Monday night...















Hun's office/temporary master bedroom. I've been focused on getting this bedroom into service, so the other bedroom still needs to be painted and it needs floors as well.























As soon as the bedrooms are in service, I'll get the central air conditioning set up, which shouldn't be a terrible job. This fall will be spent getting the basement bathroom done and putting in some finishes like cabinets in the laundry and several built in bookcases.

In other news, we picked up our first new car on Saturday. We got a dark blue Acura TL. As much as we loved the Audi it was a maintenance nightmare. We once again have a nice car to drive, but this time it's under warranty and it's a Honda, so I don't have to think about it.

We also booked a trip to Hawaii for late August. It was a challenge to get mileage seats on such short notice, but we got it done. Hun and I have to fly separate flights, but hey, a free vacation is a free vacation, right? We'll both be asleep most of the time anyway.

I think Hawaii is the goal line we are working towards. Until then, the dishes will continue to pile up, we will continue to eat 60% of our meals out, the dog will continue to act out his feelings of neglect, and we'll just keep on keeping on.

Anyway, don't cry for us, Argentina. We asked for all this. A home-remodeler is kind of like a soldier. You have the right to complain, but then you have to shut up and go do your job.

Joel