Day 49 – The Worst Of It
The last three days and really six if I’m counting have the the hardest ones I have had in as long as I can remember. I actually had a mental break down today. But more about that later…
On Friday, the basement floor was poured, along with the sewer trench in the basement and the seven piles for the deck and roof support. Although it started a bit late, it went fairly well. I ran my ass off. The My Rona delivery guy came around 9:45 right after I pulled the tarp off of the floor with 50 bags of insulation and some more construction materials. Peter is one of the nicest guys I have ever met and has also made it to the top of my best friends list. Rarely do you come across someone who is so willing to help out and be friendly. Together we rolled bales of insulation into the garage chatting all the while. He even gave me a Rona pencil before he left. While we loaded up the garage, Jason arrived with the concrete pump truck, the concrete truck arrived and we all waited for the finishers to come. Finally, about 30 minutes late everyone got to work and away they poured. Unbeknownst to me, I ended up being responsible for getting the rebar to put in the piles once they were poured. Luckily, Jason, who lives 2 blocks away had some so R’s dad and I went off for that. It was a crazy and busy morning…I don’t even remember the afternoon. I’m pretty sure my grand parents came for a tour, I know that because I have garden veggies in my fridge!
After Friday’s excitement during the day, we ended up not getting the trench started and just took a bit of a break in preparation for the weekend ahead. On Saturday morning, we began digging the 40 foot trench for the power line. The electrician wanted the trench to be 3 feet deep, we dug it to 24 or so inches through super hard packed clay (have I mentioned how much I love clay?). It was some of the hardest physical work that I have done in memory. Two of our amazing friends came to help out and it still took 6 hours, four pizzas and a case of beer. K & M worked so hard and we were so thankful for their help. There is no way that we could have done all of that with out them.
Today we finished the demolition. It was awful, messy and exhausting work. My parents came to help along with K and later in the day my brother came, left and came back again! My dad took care of the crazy security blind on the arched window and all of the rest of the siding…did I mention that it was super hot out again today as it has been all week? And then he tore down the ceiling in the eating area. Mom and I took care of the drywall in the eating area and demoed our closets. R & K took on the nasty and awful spare room. The eating area was built about 15 years ago and had regular drywall, fiberglass insulation and vapor barrier…the spare room had 60 year old plaster and drywall walls, paper barriers and wood chip insulation. It was the most horrible job imaginable. It was only slightly worse than the clean up of that shit. After everyone else had gone home and it was just R and I shoveling out that room, I started to hit the wall. It felt insurmountable. We went outside to move the garbage out to the junk area around the garage and I finally lost it. After a few minutes I was back to work and then proceeded to step on a nail. We took a short break, needless to say perhaps.
K made us an amazing dinner before we met M back at home to finish the clean up. I am exhausted as I know that everyone else that helped us out today must be too. I cannot even begin to explain how thankful we are to have such amazing friends and family. I guarantee that I would have lost it WAY before today if not had not been for all of the help and support of all of these people.
Mom said that today would be the worst day and that it would get better from here. She is right, tomorrow the building begins and I couldn’t be happier. I have lived the last 7 weeks (more really) for the week that is to come. This week, my vision grows walls!!!