Momma needs a new hammer!

Jeff and I spent some time salvaging the lumber from our old roof. It is great quality, old growth true 2x4s (which means it really measures two inches by four inches, not one-and-a-half by three-and-a-half). We don't have a specific plan for it, but we hated to see it thrown away. But it meant we had to knock the boards apart and pull out some pretty hearty nails. That is when I lost my head!

My hammerhead, that is. Jeff always called this my "lady hammer", as it's a rather lightweight, slim handled hammer. It was sometimes too slight for the job, but it usually performed household tasks well. Now I guess I'll be on the hunt for a new model.

In addition to losing my head, I lost a foot as well. Not a limb, of course. But it almost feels that way. We discovered this morning that our new addition is one foot too short! That's a full twelve inches! For those who have ever constructed or remodeled anything, you'll know how significant this is, especially in a small-to-medium sized room. In our case, it dramatically affects our floor plan. We'll be talking to the contractor and the framers tomorrow, but I have a feeling that what's done is done.

Famously Fast Framers

Our bathroom has begun! The framers arrived Thursday and started cutting, pounding, and building. They were creating the flooring system of beams and joists that would carry the walls and roof, so they just worked in the existing attic.

Imagine my surprise when I went out mid-afternoon to check on the chickens and looked up to see a tidy rectangle cut out of my old roof! I had no idea they were that fast. By the end of that first day, they had the exterior walls framed and standing like a railing for giants around a look-out deck.

Thursday morning:

Thursday evening:

 
Today is only the second day, but they're telling me they'll have the roof, shingles, siding, windows, and trim in. It's only four hours until sunset (and there is a small chance of rain tomorrow), so as long as it's reasonably dried in, we should be good.

Now I'm starting to panic about plumbing fixtures, lighting, tile, etc. I thought I had weeks to make decisions, but they may start asking me for rough-in info in a matter of days!

Oh, and on top of that, I'm still in the middle of refinishing the downstairs floors. Here is the before:

And after sanding:

I have since managed to get two coats of finish on the floors, but now I'm stuck. I really need uninterrupted time to work on them, but with the contractor and tradesmen coming and going and needing answers and decisions, I can't really dedicate the hours to it. And there is a lot of dust in the air; not something I want with wet, tacky flooring exposed.

So in the meantime, living room and dining room furniture is spread all over the house and porch, construction debris litters the yard, and, oh, I forgot to mention, we had a wiring incident in the midst of yesterday's "deconstruction" and our overhead lights are all out. Thankfully we have lamps. Which makes the clutter around the house less noticeable. I think that's a good thing.

The Best Of...

Here are just a few highlights of our trip to Israel and Jordan. I've realized we are sometimes rather indiscriminate about taking pictures, and also that context is key. Otherwise, half of the major landmarks and historical locations in the Middle East just look like brownish rocks!

On the Mount of Olives

At Caesarea

Really, this sign was on a stall in the marketplace in Jerusalem! We have no idea what they were selling.

I'll give you one guess where this was taken!

Find the slideshow with titles and descriptions here. I promise, it's not overly long and I tried to make it not too boring!

We're Back!

We had a wonderful trip to Israel and Jordan. All things considered, it was a very smooth, enjoyable, and educational trip. I have lots of photos to sort and label, but I'll try to get some posts up soon. In the meantime, I'm washing, drying, ironing, folding, hanging, mowing, weeding, and just plain getting back in the swing of things.

Life did not stop while we were gone. Our young chickens started laying and we came home to several egg cartons full of "hen fruit". Our closing date for the delayed refinance is only a few days away (taking advantage of 3% interest, hurray)!, the electrician is coming tomorrow to start detangling the mess that is our upstairs wiring, the floor sanding guy will arrive next Monday (whether we have the furniture out or not!), and the bathroom contractors will start demolition in less than a week and a half away. I'd like a pause button on life some days, but it just keeps roaring ahead!