That's One Small Step For Man....

Wednesday, May 7th. Still waiting for the gas company to schedule moving the line, our contractor realizes we should change course, not start with the foundation for the addition, and decides to get things moving with some of the interior work. This is the date which will live in infamy. Well, one of them, anyway.

I arrange to go into work late today, so I can meet with the contractor, plumber and HVAC people, in order to go over what we want and exactly where we want it (I'll say it - I'm a little detail-oriented, although some might say 'compulsive'... potato, potahto). The HVAC guy arrives and tells me they'll start installing the new unit for the second zone in the attic in a few minutes. This would be good news indeed, if we'd had any notice and had the chance to empty out the attic of all the stuff that's in their way. Not going into the office at all today, I guess, as the HVAC team and I do a bucket brigade and bring everything down and into the garage - we'll find room somehow. The new zone has to be up and running before they can disconnect the old unit which, of course, is on the side of the house where the new room will be built. But what isn't?

Once the attic is all cleared out, the crew begins installing the new vents and returns in the bedroom and bathroom ceilings. First, one of the guys in the attic steps on a recessed light in a bedroom ceiling, knocking it and a good deal of sheetrock out of where they ought to be. Next, while drilling a hole down from the attic into our bedroom wall for the new thermostat wire, the drill slips and takes a chunk out of the adjoining bathroom wall. Not the bathroom we're gutting, by the way. Oh well, we were thinking of painting it anyway. Then, attempting to install the thermostat in our room they damage the hand-painted wall which cannot be repaired. Fortunately, I find a fairly large thermostat at Home Depot that covers the damaged area, but this is just the first day - who knew we'd hired Lucy and Ethel?

Within the next few days, both bathrooms are completely demolished (the ones which were supposed to be), the new water heater is installed, the HVAC unit moves along swimmingly and more piping spreads out like food dye in water along the basement ceiling and throughout the newly-exposed walls. Switches and pipes begin to appear in the oddest of places, but any time we ask why something has to go in a particular spot we're told "That's code." "The building code requires this," or "we can't put it there, that's not code." All we hear is "code." I start to think that what this really is code for is "we don't give a rat's ass where you want it." The dust throughout the house is getting thick enough to write a novel in. But, my feeling about housecleaning at this point is as long as can still find the dog then the house is habitable.