Jen and I picked up Shirl and took a trip to DE to the Sears Outlet/Scratch and Dent.  I was so disappointed by their prices.  From there we went to Sears in Prices Corner (stopping at the Olive Garden for dinner).  Sears had better prices than the outlet and when I mentioned that, the (sleazy) salesman told me that Sears is no longer associated with the scratch and dent, that they just buy their products…now I don’t necessarily believe that because you can use your Sears Credit Card at the outlet and get all the Sears perks/rewards/coupons…eh, who knows

Time to surf Labor Day Sales online…Bestbuy, HHgregg, Lowes, HomeDepot…

With Ada in town, we decided to slow the construction this week.  Some of the things we did:  Phillies game, Christmas Tree Shop in DE, Rehoboth Outlets, Cape May Lewes Ferry, swimming, Caesar’s in AC, Harry’s Savoy Grill

Not to say that we didn’t do some shopping or put any thought into the final project

At the Christmas Tree Shop, Jen picked out some pictures, with the colors that we are thinking we will go with…shopping for colors, decorations, themes…not me, I am so NOT good at this…white walls, white cabinets, neutral flooring <– me

now, shopping for garbage disposals, dishwashers, light fixtures, ceiling light fixtures, flooring <– I can do

today, we might do a lowes trip

Or should I say, the last day of gutting…all the layers. all the removing, all the clean up from that done!

The new header is installed, Scott had said, “it hasn’t fallen yet”, when we were talking about this part of the project.  Scott did this on one of the days we were out and about, so I didn’t get to help or learn much, but I can look up at it and know that it is safely holding the weight of the house where as before, it looked very shady and dangerous.  Scott does such good work!

so now, floor is leveled, header is replaced/rebuilt/extended, the stump is un-intrusive.  Now it is time to start the reconstruction.  Electricity -lights, outlets, garbage disposal and dishwasher- Insulation, vapor barrier, Drywall…after that, big stuff shopping!

Last weekend, I linked my cousin’s site, Boyle Disposal to remove all of the construction bags, panels, wood, etc, well, he flaked out on me, told me to call him on Saturday morning and he’d come over…turned off his phone…later told me that he had a “real paying job”…btw, at NO point did I ask him for anything free or even a family discount, I just wanted to give him the business.

I called Kevin Anthony Tree Service asked him if I could use one of his trucks, he dropped off the keys at my house and told me to go pick it up.  That was an interesting trip, Jen drove me down to the Upland Yard and followed me home.  I took the long way because it literally was the biggest automobile I have ever driven, got it home, backed it up to the deck and started loading it (also tossed the old picnic table in there and a few other things from behind the shed)…I planned on taking my time filling it, little here, little there, but I just kept going (taking small breaks)…I could have gotten a few more things in there if I could have thrown things over the top, but there were only a couple bags left.  Tuesday morning, Kevin and his guys picked up the truck to take it to the dump.  I would have done this step, but since this was new to me and there was a dump lift on the truck that I had never used, I didnt want to break anything…THANK YOU KEVIN!

I took yesterday off of any work in the kitchen project, mostly because I needed to dig into a project at work that I should get done before going on vacation.

Today, we picked up our house guest, Ada, Jen’s friend from Boston (jr high) at the Amtrak Station…I am always surprised at how beautiful that building is!  We plan on having lots of fun with her in the next week

Scott was here working on rebuilding the header (it was dangerously rigged by the previous contractor/owner)…unfortunately I don’t have any during pictures, but I will post at least one after picture later

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tomorrow morning, Ward is coming over to haul away everything that is construction trash!!  If I find the energy, there are a few things in the attic and basement that I want to add to the pile…

friend visiting, day trips, scott has another project for the week, all of these things probably mean very little construction over the next week, but that’s ok with me.

Maybe, just maybe, we will do some shopping over the next week…electric wire, light fixtures, flooring, cabinets, etc

I’ll keep ya up to date….

Today has been somewhat of a logistics day, as well as Coretel day (have to finish up what I didn’t get done yesterday).

called Ward Boyle of Boyle Disposal to arrange a pick-up of all of the deconstruction bags, panels, wood…waiting for Ward to get back with me on the pickup date. (hopefully on saturday morning so that I can get the remaining walls down and out)

also having RTS Landscaping come in and cut the grass (might have them cut the grass for the rest of this season).  As much as I normally enjoy cutting the grass, I would rather concentrate my efforts in the next step of the Kitchen Project.

Scott is coming by today to work on the “stump replacement”, even though we need that area so that we can go down the basement stairs from the outside, we are making it less intrusive and we’ll be able to make it look like it’s part of the cabinets!

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Worked with Scott all day today on ripping up the old floor, doing the home depot run for insulation and cutting wood for runners and screwing down the new floor!  It’s starting to feel like things are going somewhere…

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A couple minor updates to what we think will be …