Sunday, September 25, 2011

retrofitting ins and outs

As we move from project to project on this house and the farm I find myself going through a few different cycles. I am excited, pumped, working hard, overworked, tired, burnt out, I need a break, ok I'm ready to go again, maybe I'm kind of excited about this, yeah makin' progress, maybe I am kind of pumped . . .

Sometimes I can't help but think it might be better to just start with something new, instead of trying to improve the existing. Jaques Fresco got me thinking about that, but we have what we have, and that is where we should start. I also really enjoy being creative with "junk". This is my present philosophy. Theme of the year: Be here now.

I have been refraining from sharing progress pictures and notes lately because people have been been freaking out about some of the progress pictures if I do not immediately post something that is more acceptably refined. This is not everyone. Some friends want to visit, but will stay at a nearby hotel. No offense to those who have done this, I understand each person has their own comfort requirements, I really just appreciated your visit. Usually, once I explain that things are better than one progress picture can show (it is just a piece of what is going on around here). There is so much going on here that I do not have time to post about everything, nor do I feel this is necessary. I am one of those stubbornly independent people who feels she doesn't really have to explain herself to anyone. Although I appreciate having understanding between two people I create my own judgments of myself and what I'm working on according to my goals.
Seeing the value of chaos, mistakes, and learning from these, I am considering posting a little more about what we are doing again. Truly the purpose of this blog was to share our experiences and what we are learning here.

Ranting done I think I will start posting more . . .

We gutted the bathroom this weekend. When I hadn't found a bathtub on craigslist or the Restore after keeping an eye out for a few weeks I had almost given up. Saturday morning Jerome started the gutting when I got on the computer one last time . . .and found our bathtub for free! The bonus was that when we got there we saw two large plastic water tanks that the man is willing to sell at a great price. My plans for cisterns and gray water storage are closer to happening now.

We found some mold in the drywall in the bathroom so we are taking everything out. This includes the bathtub and cabinets. I don't want to take any chances. Mold likes the drywall and wood. It was also in some of the caulk on the tub. It has been really pretty easy to get out of the cement block, so I see this as no problem. We got it out of the kitchen completely after taking the cabinets out, washing the block and painting it with a water-sealing paint. I don't want to re-use the bathtub inside just in case. We are planning on burying the old one outside in the garden for gray water storage or a small kid's pond or, the sky's the limit . . .

I better get back to work on the bathroom now. Scraping paint, ripping out cabinets, washing walls . . .

I think I might even post some pictures later ;)

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