Why cats don't like remodeling

Don again. OK...this is a little out of date, but here is a picture of Simon (the cat) being somewhat perturbed about the attic insulating part of our remodel that, from his point of view, is invading HIS space.

Going, going, gone...

Don here...reporting on the demise of our venerable but quite ugly old cast-iron bath tub. After we decided to replace rather than refinish the old tub, we pondered options for getting the old tub out of the bathroom, and decided to use the 'brute force' approach--a big sledge hammer and wearing lots of safety gear. By the way, there are lots of YouTube videos of tubs being broken up. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Visible Progress

So much we do is not visible, such as research, planning, and shopping. But this week we have made some progress that can be seen. We have removed everything in the upstairs bathroom down to the studs and the rough floor. Only our old cast iron bathtub is left. Don has outfitting himself with ear, eye and face protection in order to go after that with a sledge hammer.

The Journey

In terms of our remodel, we have decided that it is about the journey, and not the destination. Well, okay it is the destination too. But since we are doing much of the work ourselves, it had better be about the journey, because will we be walking down this path for a long, long time. And so far we have been enjoying the journey. It keeps us thinking and learning a lot; about color, about the geometry of ceramic tiles, about materials properties. Don has learned how to work one-handed lying on his stomach in a very tight place (when he hooked up the bathroom ventilation fan in a tight spot under the roof). Okay, okay, maybe that wasn’t quite so much fun. But, it is nice to know we can still do it!