The Big Clean Up

Yesterday we finished most of the demolition that we'll be doing in the old house. John's people will do bigger jobs like taking down the LR ceiling, tearing down the enclosed side porch, taking out the tile walls and fixtures in the upstairs bathroom, tearing out the old kitchen, removing walls and making openings in walls for new doorways.

Keith pulled out all the electrical wires in the LR wall scheduled for demolition, except for one switch that operates the ceiling light. It's connected to breaker 19, and can be quickly taken out at the last minute. He mounted the thermostat on a makeshift portable stand to get the wire out of the wall and allow it to operate, yet be moved out of the way until the heater is shut down.

As we hauled the wood out to the barn with the skid loader to await the arrival of dumpster #4, Mother raked up all the wallpaper in the whole house. The rake was actually her idea, which we sort of laughed at initially, but we must give credit where it is due--it was ingenious. It was very efficient, and it gave her something to do. She's always asking how she can help, but most of the work is too strenuous for her. This made her feel really useful, which she was, and helped her feel more invested in the whole project. We ended up with 7 garbage bags full of wallpaper!

After all that, there was enough sunlight left on the first day of standard time for some fun. Keith took Mother for an inspection tour of the farm on the four-wheeler. Altogether, we worked about 8 hours each day this weekend, and much was accomplished.