Saturday:
(Maddie here yet again, I see a trend….)
Pog got too much sleep, and woke up WAY too early with excess energy (unlike the guys who spent all evening at Home Depot the night before loading many supplies in the middle of a huge thunderstorm). Gregg spent the night at the condo trying to catch up on some quiet work and planning, and trying to recover from a back injury.
In the morning, the delivery of lumber arrived – lots and lots of trips up to the third floor with plywood, 2x4’s, sheet rock, etc. What a fun way to start the morning! Umm, all of those dings were already in the hallway walls before we got there, right?
So Gregg started in on the plumbing in the bathroom (his least favorite part of construction, but we still need pipes...) while Pog and Maddie started to tackle some demo in the living room (Vic joined in later, after single handedly cutting a hole in the kitchen ceiling to prepare for the upcoming skylight installation). We tore off one more wall to expose brick underneath – fortunately, under the many layers of drywall, old wallpaper, plaster and lath, it was in pretty good shape. A big cleanup afterwards, but great progress.
As we sat down to lunch, the appliance delivery people arrived, and fortunately it was THEIR job to bring them to the third floor. They were amazing. One guy carried the dishwasher up the stairs all by himself! Needless to say, we were glad it wasn’t us. So a new fridge, stove and dishwasher now sit in the kitchen ready for the reconstruction.
After finishing up the wall demo, we started cleaning up the brick by scrubbing it with a wire brush. Gregg continued on the plumbing, and got the torch out (along with the fire extinguisher just in case…). At this point we were all really exhausted, so we decided to call it a day. Tomorrow we should be able to get the bathtub installed and start drywalling the bathroom. Back to the rental apartment – you know, the one with running water? Oh, have we not mentioned that the water has been turned off at the condo since last weekend??? We don’t want to get into the details – some of us are "roughing it", while others walk the two blocks to a nearby café to use the facilities. (We’ll let you guess who’s who….) Potstickers and veggie burgers for dinner, with ibuprofen chasers for most of us to avoid the inevitable pain tomorrow. Poor Vic and Gregg headed off to Home Depot YET again for more supplies. They know us by name there now.

Looking back on Thursday and Friday:
Gregg had a bit of a back injury on Thursday, so we tried to slow down a bit. Friday started out with hunting for some plumbing parts, some grocery shopping (at Margaret’s favorite store – Trader Joe’s!), etc. More IKEA assembly by Pog, and generally getting things organized and ready for the big weekend ahead.

To Sum it Up:
This is our 2nd weekend together, and we only have one more weekend to go – we’ve impressed ourselves with how much we accomplished (and thank you, Erin, for appreciating the Sullivan skills above and beyond pie-eating, though that will always be our strength!). But it’s also very nerve-wracking to realize how little time we have overall, and hoping that it all gets done in time. Once the plumbing and framing is completed, we’ll start to see the kitchen and bathroom going back together with tile, cabinets, etc. Check back for more exciting adventures from the crew!