Friday after work, Liz and I headed out to Michigan to visit the Denler family and to stay at the Christiana lake house over Easter weekend. We’ve visited before, and it’s always an incredibly relaxing time just resting and catching up with family.
Liz and I worked on the basement a bit after work. We joined Bob (who had been at our place since midday), and were tackling smaller odds and ends as he began work on the stairs.
Bob came by Sunday morning, and spent a very full and long day with us at the house. Before his arrival, Liz and I were moving a few of the power tools back downstairs (because this is how we live now, moving things back and forth in our house).
After another busy day at work, the last thing I really wanted to do was “house night.” But it was on the calendar, and I trudged my way downstairs where Liz was busy measuring things up.
I started off the meal with a martini and a dozen oysters. Had a second martini with my steak, and it was quite delicious.
Liz and I met up with Julie and Bob this morning, in Valparaiso. We had an early brunch planned for 9AM, and after that… we were back at their house for the day.
By the time we finished, we had hit our goal of four rows. Anything more, I think, would have been too taxing… as Liz and I were both moving slower and slower towards the end. So at least now, we have a solid sense of how much work we can reasonably get done in one “session,” whether that’s a week night or weekend day.
So far, I’ve been doing the cutting and Liz has been handling the main areas with a roller. We’re planning on two coats, given how much paint the joists soak up – so the work is steady, but slow going. The crazy thing to keep in mind is that we’ve already painted these joists… but the paint just gets soaked up by the wood.
Today for our house day, Liz and I continued working in the basement. We had a few big tasks on the docket: patch up the cleanout with cement, repair some of the brick along the baement walls, and start to bring back a few items we moved out when we cleared the basement, in December.
On Friday, the Craftsman 41″ 8-Drawer Rolling Cabinet we ordered came in. It’s been sitting in our entryway for a few days, but we got around to moving it to the basement late Sunday evening.
As part of a birthday gift for Bob, Liz signed the four of us up for some cocktail classes, held at Koval Distillery. After meeting up after work for a quick dinner at Lady Gregory’s, we headed over for our class at Koval.
After letting the basement epoxy dry and cure for several days, Liz and I finally went back downstairs today to take a look.
We went back and forth a bit – with Liz putting down the mixture, letting it sit for about 5 minutes, then scrubbing the areas. After that, she rinsed the area with the powerwasher as I helped clean up everything with our shop vac (a tool I’ve grown to really love, these last few weeks).
Liz, suited up and ready to work with some concreteready repair. We’re working with this stuff because it sets very quickly, and can have epoxy applied to it in a short amount of time (versus a multi-day curing time for regular concrete).
I woke up at one point in the night, when Liz gave me a slice of cheesecake. Which I ate, and then promptly went back to sleep. Woke up again shortly after midnight, when someone in the neighborhood set off some firecrackers. Kissed Liz. Then fell asleep again.