AVR Weekly News ~ 613th Edition

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by 
Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. 
~ Recap the past week ~ 
~ Show what's upcoming ~ 
~ Share news ~ 
~ Display book hauls ~

• Sunday ~ Meme ~ AVR Weekly News ~ 612th Edition
• Tuesday ~ Tour Spotlight ~ The Tortured Kingdom by Bryan Asher
• Friday ~ Meme ~ Friday Featured Spotlight ~ BBNYA2024 Winner Blog Tour ~ Clues to You

 

• Thursday ~ Tour Spotlight ~ Reenactments by Tony Iezzi, Ph.D & Melanie P. Duckworth Ph.D.
• Sunday ~ Meme ~ AVR Weekly News ~ 614th Edition

Hello and Happy Sunday!

On the Home Front

Sunday ~ Spent all day packing up. Organized the laundry room to be a temporary kitchen. Sort of. The fridge will need to be in the livingroom along with all the other foodstuffs. Was up until 12:30am. You don't realize how much stuff you have until you need to pack it all up. 

Monday ~  Up at 5:30am to take Kyle to work. Came home and continued packing up but was still not done by the time the crew got here around 9am. They helped box up the rest of the kitchen stuff, moved the fridge to the livingroom, and got to work with demolition - cupboards, island & attached table, breakfast bar, and fireplace. All gone now. There is stuff everywhere. The pod is full, there's stuff under the new additions, and boxes out on my front porch. There's so much stuff in my bedroom and bathroom I can barely walk in there. Anna's room is also nearly jam packed. And she has the cats locked in her room now until the work is done. So that means a litterbox and their water & food. Thank goodness her room is twice the size now. I set up the laundry room yesterday so I would have a place for my electric kettle and do the dishes. I reused one of my shelves I had in the kitchen that held all the pet food to hold our tea, mugs, sugar, and some other stuff. I always like it when I can repurpose something. With the litterboxes gone I'm using the homemade stand for them to house our plates, silverware, and cups. Once I have a functioning kitchen sink, I think they will start on the laundry room. Possibly in 2 weeks? I'll have to ask. I sent Anna to Wallyworld to get a covered litterbox for her room since Sugarcube has a habit of peeing over the side. She picked up a few more boxes, too so I can sort the stuff that just got tossed into boxes and laundry baskets. Kyle was majorly surprised to come home to a gutted middle of the house.

Bye bye fireplace.

Support post stays, but half-wall and post in the background has to go.

Bye bye bottleneck at the door.

Tuesday ~ Plumbers and electricians here today. Plumber didn't need a lot of time to upgrade the plumbing under the sink and for the water line to the fridge. Electricians were here ALL day and will be back tomorrow. We went over exactly what and where for switches, outlets, and lights. The contractor asked me if I wanted to keep the phone jack that used to be on the breakfast bar. I said, "What's that ancient tech?" lmao I haven't had a landline in like a decade. So, it got shitcanned. I do have a plug in the office and bedroom because you can still call 911 if you have a phone. The contractor (Bryant's son Hunter - who went to school with my kids and was in Trip's grade) and their guys (Andrew and Larry) framed the pantry, tidied the former fireplace wall, and started working on the hall closet. I'm having it enlarged and it's taking a bit away from the spare room's closet. A room that's not really supposed to have a closet because the land perked for a 3 bedroom and we have 4. And since a closet indicates a bedroom that's a no-no to inspectors. Anyway, we figured a work around (again since we did that the first time when the house was set here lol). Since that will be Trip's room we gave him smaller shelves and will either just leave them open of put some 2 or 3 small doors to close it up. Have you ever seen between the studs storage with doors added? Kinda like that only we're using the former closet so the shelves are deeper and recess to the right a bit. He'll have plenty of room. Then I had them do an actual between the studs storage for Trip's Funko Pops, so we're not taking up floor space in that small room with shelving. Even though the interior studs for this house are not a true 2x4 and are 2x3 instead. Cheap ass builders. Anyway, I think it will look nice. While work was going on Anna, Trip, and I went to get groceries. Stopped at the pet store for food, Five Below looking for a few things to make organization better, BJ's, Food Lion, and Dollar General.

Wednesday ~  HVAC came to move some vents which didn't take long since they stayed on the trunk line and didn't have to run any new ductwork. Electricians came back to finish up. Andrew and Larry discovered a squeaky panel on the floor and tried to fix it. We think the weight of the former island and table kept it quiet all these years. We believe that the new island and bench seat will do the same because no matter what they tried it still squeaked occasionally. lol Anna said it just gives it character. I'm fine with it. They worked some more on the hall closet and soon-to-be Trip's room. I worked on tidying my bedroom and bathroom. I had to pull stuff away from my closet door so I could stuff what I could in there then stack the rest in front of the door. I sure hope I don't need anything in there for the next few weeks. At least I can navigate my room and bathroom now.

Before

After

New larger pantry is framed out.

New lights, switches, outlets are installed.

Plumbing updated.

Vents are moved. The kitchen will have one in the toe kick of my island.

Cabinets laid out on floor and walls.

Support post has to stay.

New lights.

Vent in middle of the room moved to former fireplace wall.

Former fireplace.

Now just a plain wall.

Thursday ~ Andrew and Larry were back to do some odds and ends then went to get drywall for next week. I sorted through the boxes on the front porch and repacked. I took Eevee's litterbox out of my garden tub in the bathroom and stacked the boxes in it. I wanted them off the porch and out of the humidity, so that's done. 

Friday ~ Plumbing and electrical inspections passed. Yay! Trip did the weed eating and I did the mowing. Larry and Andrew built me a frame around the heat pump pad outside. Every time it rained hard the dirt around it would erode, so I asked them to do that. They filled in most of it with the rocks we picked up around the yard. I'll top it off with some nicer gravel when I have a chance. Showered and left a bit early to pick up Kyle so I could drop some stuff off at the Hospice Thrift Store. Leftovers and fend for yourself for dinner. I was so tired I was nodding off at 7pm, but went to bed at 9.

Saturday ~ Up at 8:00. Nice to sleep in. Fed the furries, walked the dogs, ate some yogurt then took the e-waste to the e-waste place in Greensboro. Picked up Biscuitville for everyone on the way home. Anna and Trip went to Oliver's soccer game and I cleaned my bathroom. Changed the sheets on my bed, vacuumed my bedroom and office then set the Dyson for flat surfaces and vacuumed the demo'd areas. Yes, yes I actually did that. lmao The dogs have been running through there and I wanted to try to keep it as clean as possible. There is brown paper down, but not all over, only for our walkways. Did some laundry, washed the dishes, and Kyle grilled hamburgers and Italian sausages for dinner.

Today I plan on sleeping in until 8. I don't like to go much longer than that so the dogs can go out. Then the laundry room needs swept and mopped. I need to figure out whose turn it is to clean the kids' bathroom. And the litterboxes need dumped and cleaned. After that I want to tidy the livingroom a bit. There's stuff all willy nilly and it needs to be a bit more efficient.

A Month With No Kitchen ~ Renovations started 9/15. We have a grill, toaster oven, microwave, and a plethora of take out options.

Monday ~ Domino's

Tuesday ~ Leftover Domino's

Wednesday ~ Culver's

Thursday ~ Dairy Queen

Friday ~ Leftovers and fend for yourself if you didn't have leftovers to eat

Saturday ~ Kyle grilled burgers and Italian sausages. Anna and I had baked beans, too.

Sunday ~ Probably leftovers from yesterday

Construction News ~ Raul is coming to do his portion of Phase II. Not sure if he'll start with scraping the popcorn ceilings or do the drywalling. When all that is done, he'll also do the painting. The casement window should be done this week, and maybe Andy will have the cabinets ready to set. Although that means Raul will have to work around them. We'll see how it goes. Andy is going to paint the doors and drawer fronts in his shop and Raul will paint the cabinets once they are set. Which reminds me, I still have to select pulls.

Touching Nature: Why is it hot and humid again? Gross.

Book News:  Nothing to report here. I am so fucking far behind on everything. 

Don't Touch That Dial!:  Working on finishing Angel season 2.

At the Flicks: Nope. Though the kids saw the Demon Slayer movie last Sunday.

Cyberspace Playground: Wordle, Word Lots, Crossword Jam, Solitaire, jigsaw puzzles, the Finch app - is anyone wants to be friends just let me know.

Randomness:   

Carol's Nuggets of Wisdom: 

That's it for me. AVR News Update signing off. May all your books enthrall you.

Chirp

2 Freebies and a purchase

Post-Apocalyptic Joe 

The Witching Place

Infinity