Been workin'.

So ... long time since the last update. The remodel became that kind of project since the last post in April, as did everything else — Anna getting married, classes wrapping up, Sarah graduating, etc.

And we've been working on the house pretty much every day. I won't bother recapping the play-by-play for the past two months — too much to cover there. In terms of the past few weeks, however, we've had the electrician finish off our lighting, painted the kitchen and living room, finished installing the cabinets, had the concrete countertop poured, and demoed and mostly rebuilt the guest bathroom (a little side project).

We're getting close. This week we'll move to the exterior for a little work, the countertop will be sealed and done, the bathroom will be finished in the next two days, and this weekend new wood flooring will be installed throughout. Then it's appliances and — done.

It has to be.

Jason

Indoor/outdoor.

The pace has been slow but busy for the past few weeks. Trying to fit our square new construction into the off-square structure that exists, updating and improving sketchy work from the past, and adding French doors where a window was planned have pushed things like drywall and painting back. But, we successfully installed our new back door and in the next few days we'll patch a few holes in the roof and put in our new windows — then it's a week off for Anna's wedding.

We've been working on the yard as well ... because the kitchen remodel just didn't give us enough to occupy our time. We cut down some birch trees from the front yard and replaced them with an English oak. They had been topped and mishandled by people who'd cared for them in the past and were not salvageable. We also built a new staircase between the upper and lower levels of the back yard in preparation for next year's landscaping project.

And we finally fixed the pool filter so we can clean the pool in preparation for all the pool parties people have been telling us we will be having this summer.

Jason

Raise the roof.

Yesterday we built a pair of temporary walls to hold the ceiling joists — and the ceiling — up while we demoed the lone load-bearing wall to come down in the remodel work. Part of reworking the kitchen involves opening up the original entryway so that the kitchen, dining, and living spaces will be more integrated and seamless.

A lot of progress has been made in the past week, despite me being damn sick with some cold from some damn student for the first few days. Demoing dusty, heavy drywall for eight hours with a head cold is suck work. But we finally finished demo — for good. We've said that several times but keep running up against parts that need to go. In addition to the last of the demo we rebuilt about 25 percent of the sub-flooring and the threshold for the back door, all of which had been reduced to spongy nothingness by decades of termites and rot. We also had an electrician out to wire up some can lights, switches, outlets, and run some new circuits.

We ended today on a high note, situating a new beam up into the attic to replace the original low-hanging load-bearing structure, then strapped all the sliced joists to it. After removing the temporary walls, nothing caved in — likely because when dad modifies something, typically strength and sturdiness increase by several orders of magnitude. That's the Williams way. That's just how we roll.

Next up — prepping for the drywall install March 30.

Jason

A legacy of destruction.

Dramatic, but those damn termites got off a parting shot before we tented the house: At least 25 percent of the sub flooring in the kitchen had to be torn out because the termites had eaten it paper thin. Yesterday was supposed to be all about plumbing, but tearing out the flooring to see how much and how bad took time, making for a long day.

But, we got the plumbing in, too — without any leaks.

Now we have to rebuild the floor today so the electrician has something to stand on when he comes Wednesday.

Jason

Kitchen demo. Check.

The kitchen is gone. Last Saturday while Sarah was in Vegas for Anna's bachelorette party, my dad, Mark, Sarah's uncle Scott, and I demoed the old kitchen. As has been the case with all work at the house, we found all kinds of sketchy modifications that had been made since the place was built in 1956.

The masks came on after we discovered a skeletal rat corpse and nest under the cabinets. Otherwise, there were few surprises. We took about 4,000 pounds of cabinetry, drywall, and framing to the dump today.

Now I guess we're committed to building the new kitchen. Next up — adjusting the load-bearing wall.

Jason

Blog neglect.

We've been neglecting the blog for the past month — for good, but usual, reasons (getting settled into the new semester) and some novel ones (readjusting after the month-long honeymoon, planning for the Spring Remodel).

We returned home from New Zealand with more than 3,000 pictures between us. I've gone through my half, and we've shone some of those around, posted some on Facebook. I've also embeded the more than 800 keepers from my pictures in a slideshow below if anyone is that interested. Sarah still hasn't gotten a chance to sift through hers; she'll have some excellent shots.

The Spring Remodel officially kicked off today with the installation of a tankless water heater in the garage, where we'll be moving the washer and dryer this coming weekend after a bit more plumbing gets finished up. Then the kitchen will be preped for demo, and there will be no turning back (actually, there's already no turning back).

Jason

28 days later.

Waitomo Caves, NZ. Today we toured beautiful inland valleys with rolling green hills that peaked like mohawks. Sheep had worn tracks along them like terraces. Our last roadtrip took us from volcanic highlands back down to the west coast that we have spent many of our days traveling along. Yesterday we hiked the Tongariro Crossing, a 19 kilometer day tramp around the base of an active volcano.

Last night while compiling a last few postcards we tried to sum up the last four weeks by recounting our adventures or trying to name our favorite moments. We stopped when the count ran too high to write home about.

Huddled in a tiny computer room and waiting out a sudden downpour, we are looking forward to heading home to see family and friends.

Jason & Sarah