Reno Day Four

Ahhh. day four. I awoke on day four with a seriously sore back and very tight and painful leg muscles. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping and I was dragging myself out of bed for a morning at the office. It was a lovely day. Did I mention how hot it was? The second I moved from my spot on the bed in front of the fan, I knew it was going to be a loooong day. After a morning of work, we left the office at noon and I promptly fell asleep in the car. It was loverly. After a brief stop at a flooring store, we were at my parents house where there were Churrasco of St. Clair leftovers to eat. Yum. After lunch, Dad and I made a stop at No Frills to buy many many water bottles and we were off to the house! Tio and Sam were already hard at work tackling the kitchen floor and cleaning up the plaster rubble. Man, was it dusty. I picked up my trusty hammer and got back to work pulling the many nails out of the floors. This time, I tried Ellis' technique of working on my knees to save my back - I was a little more careful about it than he was and managed not to kneel on any nails. Speaking of Ellis, he will no longer be helping us with the house as he was finally managed to secure gainful employment. He will be selling...ahem...intimate items on Queen Steeet.

The best part of the day was getting to use a power saw! I cut through the wooden beams that were in the wall between the spare room and the bathroom. We didn't get any action shots because Sam was busy standing by to make sure I didn't break anything, but here's a shot of me posing with my power tool in the backyard:























And here's a shot of the closet in the hall. I ripped off all of the laths (sp?) a.k.a. wooden slats that are nailed between the beams to make a wall. It was pretty fun and very satisfying. The plaster dust was gross - but I powered through.























Turns out, that gross two layer kitchen floor was REALLY stuck on. Dad had to really go at it to get the floor up. Here's the satisfying after shot:



















The bin was gone after day one so the rest of the rubble ended up getting piled in the backyard. Tio was very helpful - carrying out bucket after bucket of rubble and broken wood.























So all in all, things are going well. Progress is being made. Not much else can happen until the roof is done - that should be going on this weekend. It's an overwhelming job but it's pretty awesome. I can't wait to see the place start to take shape as floors and walls go in.

Unfortunately, our move may be hitting a snag. Roncesvalles is undergoing some serious renovations too. New streetcar tracks, digging up the roads and all new watermains. Yikes. The construction has closed the southbound lane and the block just south of us is now only one lane northbound. If they move up and make our block one lane we will be screwed as we won't be able to park a truck outside for all of our stuff. Ian and I have vowed to start the purging and packing process ASAP so that we can move a little bit at a time in the evenings. We can store a lot of our stuff in the basement at the new house.