Saturday, February 25, 2006
Dogsitting Lola
We took care of our friends' dog, Lola, for a couple of days this week. She's a great dog, but this one-year-old pit bull/labrador mix is awfully different than our ten-year-old spaniel. 
Annie did get used to having Lola around, but she is NOT ued to having a dog with so much energy around. Lola's front feet are both several inches off the ground. (Notice how dusty everything is? That's from the continuing kitchen production. Rachel's decided to stop trying to clean it up every day and is just waiting for one big clean-up at the end.) 
Annie feels worn out and replaced. She's not even sleeping in her bed, which is right next to her. More "progress" on the kitchen
Ben finally decided that patching the plaster just doesn't work, so he decided to tear the plaster out and drywall the sucker. 
Even after we taped off the doors to the kitchen, the front hallway got seriously dusted. (Along with most everything else in the house.) 
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Darth Benjamin
He's about to start messing with the paint in the kitchen, which is almost certainly filled with lead. more kitchen pics
Ben keeps talking about "progress." Today he tore out some drywall, moved the refrigerator and stove to the dining room and completely dismantled the counter and lower cabinets. Progress? Maybe. You be the judge from the next few pictures. 
Remember those two pictures from the same spot, showing before and after? This picture is again from the same position, after the stove, refrigerator and counter has been removed. Thursday, February 16, 2006
the living room
de-wallpapered, painted, and just about done.also, check out the beautiful Valentine's bouquet on the coffee table.
what we learned from the home improvement book: hanging ceiling fans is hard.what Ben learned from doing it himself last night: hanging ceiling fans with an 80-year-old electrical system is really, really hard. Isn't it beautiful, though?
ps. you can see the one thing we have left to do in here -- put the molding back up around the ceiling. Other than that, the living room is DONE.
Roxie meets the neighbors
Roxie hasn't seen another cat since she was a kitten. From the look of things, she'd like to keep it that way. 
Sunday, February 12, 2006
kitchen demolition
Ben's got a four day weekend at the end of this week and this is Rachel's last week before she starts work, so we decided now's a good time to take on the kitchen, (even though the living room is still torn to pieces). The first three pictures are the kitchen as we found it; the later pictures are what we got done this evening. 
this is a shot taken from the same place as the previous picture. big change 
Ben keeps swearing that we're making progress, but Rachel's not sure she's convinced. 