Work Begins at Average Jane’s House

Yesterday the construction crew arrived promptly at 8:00 a.m. and immediately began tearing up carpet, removing paneling and taking out the old closet doors. They also took out an old, disused gas heater that straddled the wall between the guest room and the kitchen.

I was concerned about how they would be able to repair the wall on the kitchen side, but it turned out that the kitchen wainscoting is actually the same as the guest room paneling (or close enough, anyway). The previous owners must have gotten a heck of a deal on paneling. Here they're about halfway through covering up the hole:

Fortunately, I have extra slate tile and leftover paint.

I called my husband yesterday afternoon once I knew he was up to ask him how the work was going. He had absolutely nothing to report. He was completely incurious about the whole process, whereas if I had been home, I'd have spend the entire day shadowing the work crew and being underfoot like a cat to watch what they were doing. Sometimes I don't know him at all. (And I'm sure the work crew doesn't know how lucky they are that I have to work all day instead of being home to pester them.)

So here's how the room looks now from the same angle I showed you yesterday:


Admittedly not very exciting, but it's fun to see any progress, I think.

As expected, there was no sheetrock beneath the paneling; it was merely attached to the studs. Unlike much of the house, there was some insulation in the walls, so the fact that the room is difficult to heat and cool must have some other cause.

I was pleased to see that they'd been able to remove the dividing wall between the sides of the closet. That'll make for a much more satisfactory pantry.


You can tell from the doorway area in the previous photo and the next one that this was once an exterior wall. Like most of the additions to the house, the workmanship in this room was a little shaky to begin with, so I'm looking forward to having some of the more glaring flaws remedied, at least cosmetically.


By the end of the day today, I imagine they'll have the all sheetrock hung and mudded, and any flaws in the subflooring remedied. It's all very exciting!