Wow. I can’t believe with a title like that, you actually wanted to read this. Really, though, it isn’t as bad as it sounds. I am going to fill you in on just one of the bizarre things we say around here.

Making progress = making progresso (a pathetic attempt to make it sound like Spanish) = making soup.

Totally makes sense, right?  Well last week and over the weekend we weren’t writing blog posts, because we were very busy being laywers and making soup.  The Boy was gone for a majority of last week, and when The Boy is away, The Girl will play … in mud. But not this kind of mud (for once):

This kind:

I despise this kind of mud, but I am not allowed to complain. The Boy wanted to hire out the drywall work. I put the kibosh on spending the money when we know how to do it, we just hate it and are not particularly good at it. That is no reason not to do something, right?! (Don’t tell Keanu Reeves I said that, though. Being terrible at acting IS a reason not to do it, and I haven’t seen him in anything lately, so let’s not encourage him. And don’t get me started about his “band.”)

I got a very minor amount of taping and mudding done during the week, between working full time, deadlines, and being a single doggy mommy to the wild animal we allowed into our home (and our hearts … awwwww). So on Saturday morning, when The Boy went back into the office for yet more work (that is one hard working man!) I tackled a little more mudding.

It may not look like much, and it is only the first coat out of three (or four? ugh), but that is definitely soup.

We planned to celebrate our anniversary on Sunday, since The Boy was gone on the actual day last week. “Sunday Funday” was to involve sleeping in, going out to breakfast, and having a fun-filled work-free day. In reality, Sunday Funday turned into demo, a trip to Home Depot, more demo, and some quality time in the attic. We did go to a movie in the late afternoon and relax in the evening, which was nice. I love how we spent our anniversary “fun day” – very much our style, and I would have actually been surprised if we had not worked on the bathroom. Is that love? Perhaps.

The good news is that demo is 100% complete, the drop ceiling is GONE, and we are ready to hang the rest of the drywall so that I can mud, sand, curse, sand, sand, curse, curse, mud, sand, and finish the drywall. We went into the attic to suck out all of the insulation above the drop ceiling, and saved it in trashbags to put back in once the ceiling is done. Picture one of us on a ladder and the other holding Snuffalufagus (the huge shop vac) over their head. Yet again, I wish The Dog had opposable thumbs to capture that fabulous picture, but apparently she is never going to do anything productive around the house. We have learned to love her anyways.

Insulation is fairly cheap, so we really did not save it for monetary purposes. If you have ever torn down a ceiling (or climbed through an attic) and had fiberglass insulation all over you, you will understand that we did this for our own convenience and comfort. The fact that it saves a little money is just a fun extra benefit.

The bathroom already feels so much larger with 8 foot ceilings, as opposed to the previous 6.5 foot ceilings. It baffles me why anyone would ever choose to lower the ceiling – and in only one room of the house, no less.  But then again, I didn’t understand the bulkheads in the kitchen (that were not hiding ductwork, etc.), or the vomit-colored tile and accessories in the bathroom, so the builders of the 1970’s will remain a mystery to me. Just like Keanu Reeves’ career.

Whew, The Boy and I are so relieved to have the breaker box moved out of the way. Now we can move on to really fun things, like drywall and lighting. After doing the entire guest bathroom renovation, we vowed to never do drywall by ourselves again. I guess my memory for how horrific tasks are is very short, because I’ve decided to do the drywall. Again. What is that saying about insanity? Oh well, I’m sure it isn’t applicable.

I’d like to refresh your recollection (how’d that lawyerly term sneak in there?!) about the layout and why the breaker box move was needed. This was our old layout, with a closet and bathroom off the hallway (you can click on the pictures to enlarge):

The breaker box was formerly located in the bedroom closet shown above, exactly where we need to break on through to the other side. Here is the new layout, and the breaker box is now immediately on your left when you walk in the master closet (did I say “WALK IN”? Why yes I did!):

As soon as the breaker box was gone, I got to work tearing out the rest of the framing that had to go.

He just had to zoom out and show my crazy outfit, didn’t he?

After the framing was down, I got to work measuring, cutting, and hanging drywall.

Behind the love seat is the official drywall cutting area, apparently. Oh, and don’t mind that side table – that is a project for a friend.

Once the drywall was up, the closet was really starting to take shape. I hope these pictures make sense. If not, refer to the above layout. If it still doesn’t make sense, just stop on by and I’ll show you in person. (I’m only slightly kidding.)

From the bedroom looking in.

From the closet looking out.

Close up looking into new closet.

Close up of new breaker box.

I bought four pot lights for the closet. I’d love to have one big central light, but the access to the attic is in the middle of the ceiling in the closet, so I have to work around it. The Boy decided we needed light in there while we work, so he hooked up one of the recessed lights, which is temporarily just dangling from the attic access, but will eventually be installed correctly.

This is how a real man installs a light.

Proof that The Boy owns shirts with sleeves!

So much left to do, but I am pretty impressed by the progress we made in one weekend, mostly thanks to the efforts of our neighbor, Brad. Next up? Well, I’m not sure. But I’ll let you know when we figure it out.

BBMD – Breaker Box Moving Day.

It’s been on the “family calendar” for two weeks, which means it’s for real.  BBMD.  Staring at me every time this fat kid opened the fridge (and trust me, I have been known to open the fridge from time to time).

“This job is too hard for you, The Boy,” BBMD would taunt me.  “You can’t be moving the breaker box around all willy-nilly, The Boy.  That’s a job for a REAL man.”

“YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT BBMD!”

Well, as it turns out, BBMD knew what it was talking about.  Fortunately, our neighbor is a real man, so we never had to find out whether or not I would have survived moving the breaker box on my own.  The Girl and I came up with a plan, which involved re-routing the conduit in the attic, cutting a portion out of the horizontal run, cutting a piece out of the vertical part, thus moving the breaker box up about a foot, and re-connecting all the wires.  The first step, however, would be to pull the meter outside the house to cut all power to the home.

That was the plan.  It sounded good in my head.  The Girl gave it a thumbs up, but The Girl and I have no idea what we’re doing.  Our neighbors Brad and Kristine are GREAT neighbors, and  Brad is a professional electrician.  I’m sure you can all see where this is going.  Seriously – no joke – the plan was to ask him to come over to see what we were working with (electrically speaking) and just get his opinion on our “plan.”  ADMITTEDLY, I felt like there was a chance that he might OFFER to help, but we didn’t want him to feel obligated.

Cut to noon the next day (BBMD, as it were).  Brad shows up with a wheeled tool box full of the stuff he uses every day to do EXACTLY what we were planning on doing.

Brad, a/k/a BEST NEIGHBOR EVER.

He nonchalantly pulled the meter while I stood a few feet back.

He then spent the next three hours ripping wires out of the breaker box, sawing the breaker box free, climbing in the attic, and basically just impressing the heck outta The Girl and me.

Playing the role of The Girl during electrical work – “Expert Tool Handler” – not as dirty as it sounds!

I dutifully handed him whatever he asked for, and The Girl made sure to keep our waters full, and also picked up a case of Corona as a “thank you” for all his help.

3.5 hours later – BBMD complete.

The newly moved breaker box looks amazing.  It’s clean.  It’s organized.  It’s functional. And let’s be honest: if I had tried to tackle this myself, I would have started at 8am on Saturday, hopefully finished by Sunday night, have forced myself to add a junction box in the attic (which Brad managed to avoid needing), made myself bleed my own blood, and possibly taken a trip to the hospital.  It was really impressive watching someone who really knew what the heck he was doing, PLUS it was a great learning experience. Next time I’ll try to tackle it myself.  (Let’s hope there is no “next time.”)

We also want to thank Kristine for lending us Brad for the afternoon. We hope to be able to return the friendly neighbor vibe when they start working on their patio.

So, BBMD was not the boss of me.  I mean, technically we didn’t actually fight, but I’m still here, and the breaker box is moved, so I’m counting this as a win.  YEAH!