Herculean feats of strength

We finally had a weekend without rain! It was a miracle! It was also very hot, because the DC summer had some catching up to do, apparently. Yay, summer.

There was a lot that happened this weekend: fun, impressive, and exhausting!

Saturday morning was spent finishing the lights in the kitchen with success, and an opportunity to show off how much more of the lattice board has gone up, and isn't that just lovely??? Just needs  a little trim added at the seams.

And we borrowed the drywall lift from the 2nd closest Home Depot again to start getting a ceiling up in the back bedroom that had flooded during the monsoon. Remember this room?

Only 2 full sheets would fit based on the size of the room and location of the beams, so it it plenty amusing to haul out, rent this very heavy machine, set it up, screw in the 2 sheets, dismantle heavy machine, and haul it back to Home Depot.

Then there were some new not super tacky lights in the entryway that went up, and switches that were finished and secured behind faceplates again.

Here is a sample of the previous rather tacky chandeliers that also got in the way while carrying ladders. The old lights were definitely peak late 80s style. DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT!

Morris took a little time off to play some soccer to help maintain some sanity, I did some more mopping, and hopped over to a neighbor's barbecue for her nephew who is graduating from middle school to high school. 

I returned from the barbecue to find a surprise for everyone: the guy came by to clean out the HVAC ducts. I was surprised, the guy was surprised we were there (general contractor had indicated we probably wouldn't be there over the weekend for some unfathomable reason), and the dog was adorably confused. (She does everything adorably.) Once he finished enough that Suki could just hang out by herself in the master bedroom, we ran out to get some supplies, and we only bought absolute necessities.

How anyone can possibly believe that we are mature enough to own a home occasionally astounds me.

We got some great laughs on the parking lot. We were also laughing like maniacs. It isn't every day that you see 2 dinosaurs driving a car.

Just a T Rex mowing the lawn, as you do.

We may have had way too much fun with this. We may still be having way too much fun with it.

While I went back to Arlington on Sunday (and managed to trap myself outside with the dog when I dropped my car and house keys down a storm drain, fun story!) Morris naturally kept working his behind off.

I got some great updates reported back, including the new bar counter. We discovered that the island top wasn't quiiiiiiiiiite wide enough to cover both cabinet pieces back to back, so we decided to move one to the living room to act as our super classy bar. Like the counters, this has that chocolatey Peruvian maple, a center piece of purple heart, and between them some bright orange padauk (also known as vermillion!) to make it pop. Not yet finished, but it is gonna be gorgeous!

Morris also got started on the living room walls, a nice calm neutral to balance the bright kitchen across the way. I will get the joy of painting the top strip at some point soon. And yes, that is Battleship Gray, for the Navy man.

Then I got a text with this image.

He managed to get the island counter he made onto the appliance dolly. For reference, we estimate that this beauty weighs in the neighborhood of about 400 pounds. Yes, you read that correctly. Fortunately, Morris has experience as a competitive weightlifter which came in super handy.

My instinctive reaction was "are you kidding me? That thing is going to kill you??!?!?!?!" Clearly he didn't manage to die at the hands of his creation, otherwise I probably wouldn't be posting this, but you looked nervous and I wanted to make sure you didn't worry.

Of course, that wasn't the whole deal. There was the small matter of a staircase between the countertop and its eventual home in the kitchen. 

I still don't entirely understand how he managed it, but with lots of cursing and lots of grunting, he managed to actually get it up to the kitchen and (perhaps even more unbelievably) from the dolly onto the cabinet. Now for the reveal.

It needs one final coat that will be poured in place, but it is basically done.

There eventually will be some string lights underneath so that it GLOOOOOOOWS! It looks like some serious witchcraft or lava, depending on your preferences.

But yeah, basically the big stuff (except for some final counters around the stove) is done, so we are planning to start moving our stuff in shortly. Phase 1 is nearing completion!