It's all over but the shouting. And the door.

[darkemeralds]

Hoo-whee, I'm tired. And boy do my hands hurt.

The interior portion of the mudroom is pretty well done. The concrete is set, the walls and floor and window trim are painted, the floor paint is drying, the tools are mostly put away, the sheet of plywood acting as a back door is screwed back up to the frame, and I'm calling it a weekend well spent.

There are three or four punchlist items I still need to do, and then it's just a matter of waiting for my new door.

And then? The back garden. But not till my hands stop hurting.



Remember this?


Now it looks like this, including the concrete wot I poured:

Comments

[lamentables]

Wow. Impressed.

[darkemeralds]

I may have overdone it a bit pushing to get finished yesterday. I was just so tired of it not being done! Now I'm all hurty. :(

[lamentables]

*sends transatlantic back rub*

[darkemeralds]

Thanks! I'm looking at my knuckles in the backlight from my laptop screen and realizing how swollen my fingers are.

from Karen

[(Anonymous)]

That looks really great! What an accomplishment!

You inspired me to do a ton of chores yesterday. :)

Re: from Karen

[darkemeralds]

I'm always glad to be an inspiration, but I just hope your hands don't hurt as much as mine do today!

[executrix]

Congratulations on a job well done!

[darkemeralds]

Thanks. When my sister injured herself at work a few weeks ago and wound up in Emergency, they wanted to give her pain meds, but she refused them on the grounds of addiction problems, so they told her to take four ibuprofen along with two tylenol.

I tried that last night. It diminished the pain pretty well, but it knocked me out completely. I can barely move this morning! But in a pleasant, dopey sort of way.

[kis]

Wow. That's something to be proud of. Take a bow!

It's amazing the toll DIY takes on the hands these days, isn't it? Whoda thunk with all the typing we do that we'd have puny hand muscles?

[darkemeralds]

It's the puny hand joints. Also, I fell--wrenched things catching myself. I'm all owie today.

[kis]

Ack! I'm sorry to hear that. Time for TBOR?

[darkemeralds]

It is SO time for the tub. Now, if I could just lift the package of Epsom salts with my poor hands to dump it in there.

I exaggerate. Slightly.

[branchandroot]

*applauds* That's really nice.

[darkemeralds]

Thanks! Now I never want to step out there, and just let it stay all clean and pristine and freshly painted.

Shame I have to actually USE it.

[executrix]

The Torah was made for Man, not Man for the Torah.

Think of all the money you saved by not hiring some bumbler to do 1/10 as good a job as you did! Some of it can go toward a massage and a manicure and paraffin treatment.

[darkemeralds]

Ooh, paraffin treatment! That sounds so soothing.

[rainkatt]

Wow.

[darkemeralds]

Heh. Yeah. Normally this is the kind of thing you bother with when you want to sell the place. I'm kind of pleased to have it nice for my own continued use.

[rainkatt]

As a non-homeowner, I've always been confused about that whole wait-to-fix-it-only-to-sell-it thing. I would think it would be nice to actually enjoy all that hard work yourself, so congratulations for now being able to use such a lovely space, even if it will just get dirty. :-)

[darkemeralds]

It seems like a conspiracy between realtors and contractors to me: people spend tens of thousands of dollars on "curb appeal" and other fix-ups deemed necessary to sell the place, only to go move into another house where someone else has done the same so that they can sell it.

Since I expect to be in this house the rest of my life, more or less, the only measure of whether the expenditure and effort are "worth it" is my own enjoyment. I've had more than one realtor and contractor tell me that the location and size of the house make remodeling "not worth it" but I say screw that.

[rainkatt]

That makes sense to me. "Worth it" should be in the eyes of the human who is using the space.

I always figure most of the cosmetic stuff done to sell a house will get trashed by the new owners, anyway, but I'm happy in my one-bedroom apt., so I may be missing some crucial concept.

[swwerth]

Looks really good!

[darkemeralds]

Salut, toi! J'ai dû lire ton profil afin de te reconnaître.