Castle Progress

I love having Joe, Rita-Marie, Joe B, and their pets stay with me, and they need to not be here any longer than is absolutely necessary. Both parts of the sentence are true. We are all playing nice and getting along pretty darn well. We've figured out ways to not step on each other's toes, and no one steals anyone else's cookies. Still, I don't think I'm just projecting when I say they are tired of essentially living out of suitcases and that they miss having their stuff around.

On a project this big, it's easy for me to get lost in the enormity of what has not yet been done and get overwhelmed, but when I take a step back, we've made tremendous progress.

When Ted was working on the plumbing, he started a string of messages - as he finished work each day, he'd take a photo of what he'd done that day and text it to us with a simple caption: Progress.

Enough photos, enough days, and the plumbing rough-in is now complete. Progress.

The electrical work is essentially complete. Progress.

The roofers came back almost two weeks ago, and are moving rapidly ahead. Their work is beautiful, and they fixed the leak above the third floor stairwell before it rained again, which means my hard work at plaster repair was not done in vain. Progress.

My attempt to learn to repair plaster without cheating and filling most of the hole with Sheetrock has been a success! *pats self on back* (see above photos) Progress.

Joe has finished building out the new shower for the bathroom. Progress.

We've finished hauling debris out of the house and garage. Since there's no more water coming in, we've been able to clean out the rotten stuff and treat what's left to get rid of the remaining mold. (turns out the magic answer to getting rid of mold you can get to is to spray it with two solutions: first, use borax water. After it dries, respray with straight vinegar. It takes a few days for the vinegar odor to dissipate, but when it's gone, so is are the active mold spores!) Progress.

I have been spending more time over there; I work every day I can. It doesn't feel like I get much done each day, but it turns out that showing up is over half the battle. By taking baby steps each day, progress automagically happens. Who knew?

We're still hoping they'll be moved in before the heating season starts. It's been a project and a half, but one day it's going to be a show place again. She's been neglected for a long time - it feels good to be part of the team working to restore to her former stately beauty.