poplar road

Ben was one of the first to see the house after we bought it (he and Chris helped us move in), so he could fully appreciate the transformations of the past 10 months. I was happy to finally meet his new girlfriend Adrienne, and look forward to having another gal to hang out with on the next wheeling trip. We gave the usual tour, and after dinner (and blueberry pie which they bought at a roadside stand in Enderby) we took a walk in lightly falling rain to feed the llamas and goats. I guess that energized us because we stayed up talking well past midnight.

They had a camper so we didn't have to worry about the guest bed being in the middle of the living room. We just had to leave a lot of lights on so our guests didn't wander into the unfinished bathroom, or fall trying to get downstairs to the only working toilet in the middle of the night. (It's a bit disconcerting to open the stairwell door and see the hole in the wall - this is where our 5' x 3' ensuite shower is going.) Ben and Adrienne slept in Wednesday morning, but we were up early, discussing our reno plans and preparing for our shopping marathon. After a liesurely breakfast Richard and Ben loaded our cracked shower and too wide bedroom and bathroom doors into the truck. We couldn't believe it was after 2pm when we all got going, Ben and Adrienne towards home, and Richard and I to Kamloops.

The returns took a couple of hours, and then dinner, and then back to HD to get 42 more 2x4s, 3 sheets of plywood for the subfloor in our master bathroom, a replacement bedroom door and pocket door, a maple cabinet, mirror, and gallon of paint for the main bathroom, a heating pad and thermostat for under the ensuite tile, lights for both showers, screws, foam, and a free sample of maple-look laminate flooring which we may use for the bedroom, office, and living room/dining room. We spent a long time talking to the flooring guy. And then Richard had to go by the office so we were right next to the grocery store anyways… so it was almost ten by the time we got home. Exhausted.

Today, Thursday, the pressure was on to get the plumbing done so we'd have a working shower finally. After a break from it yesterday, Richard was feeling confident that we'd have the main bathroom paint-ready by Saturday, but as we should know by now, everything takes longer than expected. He's been to the local hardware store twice (which charges about 40% more for the same parts as the plumbing store in town), up into the attic (in a haz-mat-like polyester suit that's supposed to protect him from the drifts of blown-in insulation he has to crawl through, only it doesn't fit him), and up and down the stairs struggling with the plumbing all day. Two parts (which we luckily had doubles of) didn't make it through the trial and error of setting up the shower head and bar, but he figured it out and I was able to have a shower tonight. It's gorgeous. Still no water pressure, unfortunately, so that will have to get looked at eventually, but the new white acrylic tub and adjustable height shower head are wonderful. (The old seafoam blue tub, now lying in the back yard, is going to make a nice water feature in the garden one of these days.)

Tomorrow morning we have one more quick shopping trip to make, to get or at least order a counter top for the bathroom cabinet, and find lights for our closets. And maybe a few other things, but we still have so much to do just to get plumbing and electrical working again. A working upstairs toilet would be nice, and what a nice fixture it is, too. At least, unlike the tub, the plumbing is all there from the old sink and toilet so (cross your fingers) there are no problems getting that done and moving on to framing the closets, et cetera. I'm loathe to leave on Saturday when there is still so much work to be done! But the shower was the big thing, thank goodness that works. (I just wish Richard had had enough energy left after finishing it to have a shower before he crawled into bed at midnight.) Well, time for bed, if I can just shut off the interior designer that has taken over my brain....