Crunch Time Continues

It's officially September....less than 30 days left in the apartment!

AAGGHH! Is my first thought. There is so much to do, and time is running out! Yes, we are already past our mid-August deadline (which I almost expected), but the true hard stop is September 30th, the last day of our lease. We have been working steadily over the last few weeks and the results have been surprising and rewarding.

**Side note: For anyone who reads the posts right in their email, you probably could not see the video provided in the last post. To watch the video, you will have to actually go to the blog site. Not sure why it won't show in emails- sorry!**

Last Wednesday my brother and I worked hard to finish the flooring. We were able to complete everything but the two small areas that need to be fixed. Thursday and Friday were much needed days off- and we headed to the Cape for a family gathering last weekend. We also got some crappy news in the midst of last week. The lumber order was delayed yet again. I'm not sure on the details or if there was a drop in communication between store and supplier, but according to the latest information, we would not see our lumber until this coming Friday or later. YEAH RIGHT! We decided to cancel the order and just make do with 8 footers which are a stock item. 

It was frustrating news for sure, but it wasn't as bad. We have been so dynamic with our efforts that we were certainly not sitting around waiting for the wood to come in- that would have really stunk. But now that we have finished one project after another, it is getting to that point, and we needed to make a game-time decision. 

On Monday, we were anxious to get right into working. We set out for the store with the largest stock of boards (of course the farthest away too). We didn't know what we would find and had our fingers crossed that there would be enough for our job.  We did the math, figured the rough number we would need and loaded up the cart. We came close to cleaning them out, but we got enough!

The sky had been opening up all weekend long and Monday didn't look much better. We took a gamble and decided not to get a tarp to cover the wood. We made it to the site without any rain and got our materials under cover in time. We both had visions of slapping up those two walls before the day was over. HA! We were basing this estimate off how quickly the end walls went up, mind you. The end walls were just under 8 feet wide...so naturally the 8 foot boards went up neatly, quickly, and easily. We also had, maybe one window and one outlet to work around on those walls. So yeah, it was excessively easier.

These long walls are not so speedy. Since the boards do not go the full length, we had to stagger them, a lot like the ceiling, just to make sure that each board ends on a stud. This requires a lot more measuring and cuts. We also had the intricate cuts around the rafters, and the wheel wells to deal with. Couple that with the intermittent down pours and the fact that Dan had to get the measurement from me, go make the cuts in the carport, walk back to the house, and check that it fits.  We had one or two mishaps on the measurements. Sometimes walking that extra 20 yards can wipe a number right out of your mind. And just to frost the cake, Dan's saw died (caught on fire) when we had about 3 rows left. We were undeterred. We tracked down another saw in the neighborhood and continued. Although we did not meet our goal, we did finish one wall on Monday. We were definitely dragging by the last row or two of boards, but we stuck it out, just to have one done. It looks lovely!!

The seam right in front of the 'green door' will be hidden behind a book case.
We cheated whenever we could to make things easier and quicker! ;)

Tonight, we plan to head over and either fix up the last pieces of flooring or start on the front wall of the house (which is going to take a while- lots of windows and the door to work around) or possibly both!

Couchless!

Now that's just one side of the time crunch. The other is getting ready to move all of our things....and for me, that means getting rid of most things. I have been steadily putting up random items on Craigslist. I have grown to really enjoy 'listing', there's just a great little buzz from selling your junk to someone else who thinks it's just as awesome as you once did. Not only am I cutting down on the amount of crap I own, I'm getting some cash for it! You never know how long an item will take to sell, so I decided that it's smart to start now, since September 30th is not far away. Well, that plan can have some ups and downs, haha. Just three minutes after listing the futon, I had made arrangements with a lady to come purchase it that night. At first, Dan and I were like, "WOOHOO! The biggest item is gone!" ...then we were like, "Shit....where do we sit?" 

Hahaha. But, hey, that's a small problem! We pulled out some folding chairs and we are back in business. Not like we will be doing much "sitting around" over the next three weeks anyways. ;)

At this point I have sold quite the random assortment of things on Craigslist:
Girly Kit- full of nail polish, hair stuff, make-up etc
Gym kit- exercise ball, weights, resistance band
Arts/Crafts kit- small plastic dresser full of random art supplies
Futon
Large Plant

And I've pulled in a cool $210 from it all. We are pretty pumped considering I would have just donated or thrown out what I didn't have room for on moving day. 

Thanks for reading!
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