Moving Up

We didn't do a whole lot new this trip. Mostly, we worked on finishing what we had started: the outside safety railing, primarily, which we got done except for a gate at either end.

While I was at church, Gerald also got some more brick work done, so we could mount upper cabinets.

The only really new thing was upstairs.

We hadn't planned to do anything upstairs for a while, but a call to the inspector confirmed that we needed to have outlet covers on all outlets for the final, upstairs included. Our long-range plan was to have painted, four-foot wainscot and drywall, so we decided to put up plywood around the bottom to attach the wainscot to later. Meanwhile, the plywood would allow us to install outlet covers.

Gerald had found a really good deal on 4x8 sheets of plywood. Apparently it had been used to line the insides of a moving van. Some of it was pretty rough, but we were just going to install beadboard over it, so that didn't matter.

Gerald figured we needed 44 sheets of plywood. So we picked it up using our pickup and carted it all upstairs. That was quite a job.

Gerald was less than pleased to learn that the 4x8 sheets were not actually 4x8, but slightly shorter. That meant that most of them would have to be cut.

Meanwhile, I worked on outlet covers in the master bathroom. The outlet boxes were not installed at the correct alignment to allow for the 1/2-inch drywall. So all the outlets were so far recessed that installing an outlet cover was impossible. And, of course, now that the area was drywalled, the boxes couldn't be accessed. That meant installing washers until the outlets came to the right level. Even with small hands, this was a chore.