But sometimes you have to take a break! Moving house, plus the critters, into yet another work-in-progress has been pretty overwhelming. Thank god this one’s closer to done in many ways than the past two projects… But here we are! And with a smattering of snapshots from the summer months…
Lemons! Finally! On my Meyer tree I’ve been moving around for the past seven years or so.
Gotta remember to refuel… With backyard egg tacos and homegrown heirlooms…
And with bonfires, brews, good friends and good dogs…
Of course, I’m biased about the best dog…
Gah! Goofball. Love. Him.
With birthdays and freshly bottled homemade maple sap beer (an amber and a stout, brewed at the end of the sap run this spring)… Can’t wait to try it… Another week perhaps?
Sportsball! My first game at Soldier Field. Football, of course… but thankfully, the one with more attractive players and fewer domestic abuse scandals. The good guys won, and the fella got another scarf for his collection, which I teased him about at around 2 pm. This being late July. In Chicago. I took it back at dinner, when the temperature plummeted about twenty degrees while we were all sitting at an outdoor table at the Thai place, when said suddenly sensible scarf kept the Brazilian girl in a tank top from freezing to death. Touche.
Drinks with the guys at soon-to-be shuttered Club Foot… and a very furrowed brow (which of these Star Wars figurines should I try to get him for Christmas?). God, I hope my face doesn’t stick that way. At least not for another thirty three years.
And at Punch House before Green Porno, the Isabella Rossalini lecture on animal sexuality, which was almost as racy as the roasted olives that we had with these cocktails. Rahrrr.
And Magritte at the Art Institute! Or just these statues downstairs from the show. That one in the middle is particularly handsome. And so life-like! Wait… that’s just PT. Har. Har. Har.
Ok, that was fun. Now mask up and get back to work, stormtrooper. Time for rehab… don’t say no, no, no…
Layers of history… And a lot of filth. These are scraps of floor and papers found under other layers of floor in the big bedroom. Might use these color combos in this room- I have pillows in both colors- though it’s hard to do red and green without it looking like Christmas.
But the filth part gets better every day. The east half of the kitchen is defunkified, primed, and now painted… the linoleum is in rough shape, and I’m debating ripping it up and rolling out some floor paint until a better option can happen, or just scrubbing it (again) and rolling with what’s there. Either way, it’s better than the kitchen floor at the cabin was. So… progress. The gross greasy cabinets are gone, as is the depressing black (!) ceiling.
And the window is patched up with plexi instead of DRYWALL and plastic wrap. Seriously, that’s how it was. Wish I had a before shot. Trust me, it’s better. This sink and counter are getting replaced with a commercial stainless one… it’s a supper club must.
Hallway after taking down the paneling and acoustical tile drop ceiling…
It’s primed, and partially painted white, which is progress. The top layer of vinyl flooring is gone, along with most of the filth. And under that linoleum is oak, but the lino can stay until this paint job is done… no need to tear up a built in dropcloth, and it’s way less ugly than what was on top.
And dining/living room… Nowhere near done, but still a warm and friendly work in progress.
Meanwhile, upstairs, I’m pretending the back two rooms don’t exist while I make slow and steady master bedroom progress… Till this is done I’m camping out in the middle bedroom (which is worse, in some ways- another window in need of replacing, or rather, half-missing, and some residual ratty ghetto-funk smell wafting from the back two rooms, but not currently under construction. It’s next. But it’s primed, the closet is painted, there’s plastic over the window, and there’s an area rug down, so it works for now). I’ve also been gratefully spending a lot of time at the fella’s place, who is spoiling me rotten with cable and laundry service, bagel breakfasts, and hot showers (yes, the house has hot water, but the tub has issues. To-do list… Soo long…). And yes, I realize I have a different definition of “spoiled” than most folks. As far as I’m concerned, someone encouraging me to sleep in, then having coffee, juice, and a tomato and cream cheese sandwich ready for me might as well be a day at King Spa. Life is simply good. Even if we fight about doing the dishes. The problem? He won’t let me do them. No, you can’t have his number. And yes, I do them anyway, whenever he’s not looking.
I’m not usually a big fan of most wall texture treatments, but in this case, it’s the only option other than drywalling over the whole thing… and a lot more fun than carrying drywall up stairs. Also, buckets of mud are much easier to transport by bike than sheets of drywall.
The walls under the paneling in what was a windowless child’s bedroom painted bright blue and red (it was dreadful) are in rough shape. I knocked down the wall (well, some friends helped) that was added probably in the last fifty years to carve this space into two smaller rooms and took down the drop ceiling in the back half. Need to frame over this now unnecessary second door, and am applying a thick coat of buttercream to the walls to even everything out and blend over the imperfections. Or actually, lightweight drywall compound, but it feels like icing a cake. A really ugly cake, that had roaches (both kinds) and rats and empty drug baggies everywhere when we started, and a million other filthy things… but will be clean and cozy and the good kind of funky when it’s all done. Magic! Oh, and a whole lot of work. Whee!
And this beauty showed up yesterday…
To replace this…
Whoa! I have the best landlords/friends/neighbors a girl could ask for. Thanks, it’s going to be gorgeous!
Meanwhile, downstairs is downright… inhabitable. At least Zeus thinks so (he’s under the blanket in the giant chair here. Chair and rug will be heading upstairs to my bedroom most likely, but for now it’s nice to have one spot to snuggle into and pretend it’s all done). Not supper-club ready yet, but getting closer. I can’t wait to cook for you all again, and have a full-on housewarming. The lukewarming/post-birthday whiskey-coffee-waffle brunch was a good start. Once the stove is in though, we’ll fully break in the Alewyfe Inn. I’ll keep you posted. Alright, back to work!