It sometimes seems as though things have reached a near-standstill for me in the work I’m trying to get finished, while other times it seems to be flying.

That may have more to do with the real nature of the tasks that I’m doing than it does with my perception of time. Last weekend, a crew from a local oil company came over and removed an old oil barrel from behind the house. They pumped out about 77 gallons of fuel oil and hauled the rusty tank away, as well as helping me move my other oil tank from the back of the house to the corner that the unwanted tank had earlier occupied.

The new location was better suited for the tank; however, I still need to run the supply line back there. That back corner is still awaiting siding—the last of the walls to need attention, but it hasn’t been much of a priority with all the other things with which I’ve ended up getting involved.

I spent this past weekend finishing up my daughters’ bedroom, covering the walls with Sheetrock and replacing the second of two windows. I also decided to re-insulate the room, since some of the insulation looked a little worse for wear. I also had to replace a water heater in the process.

You might wonder how I got from siding to windows to drywall and then to a water heater. Then again, you might already know if you’ve tried some of this stuff yourself.

It really is a logical thing if you have all the details, but it’s a perfect example of how any job around the house can turn into the beast that consumed a whole summer. On top of all the other things I had going on, this was nearly more than I thought I might be able to bear. But, as usual, I was incorrect.

There were several old windows in my daughter’s room that needed to be replaced, but doing so required that two be removed, one new one installed and one other old one be replaced.

Nothing ever goes just like I want, but the windows installed fairly simply and the siding on the back of the house has been done for some time. However, removing the windows left blank places in the walls and a peek inside the paneling showed me that there were some places that weren’t insulated at all.

After removing the interior paneling, I took out some of the old insulation and replaced it with some new stuff that I had been saving for another purpose. No matter, there’s always plenty more where that came from.

After that, I also had to replace some of the framing and re-do some of the corners, which were built in such a way that one side of the drywall wouldn’t have had anything to which it could be attached.

After that, I replaced the electrical boxes with new ones that were attached to the stud wall. Somewhere in here, I had decided to remove the old bedroom closet, which was too small for growing girls. Clothes usually end up filling up the closet rod, all the drawers in the room, the shelf above the closet rod, several boxes in the closet floor and even under the bed. And that’s not counting what’s in the hamper or on the floor at any given moment.

The water heater was located inside that closet, in what I always had considered to be an illogical place. As I took the closet down, I noticed that the water heater had been leaking slightly. That means it has to be replaced. That’s not a big problem, with the exception of the fact that someone has to pay for the new water heater. That someone, in this case, is me. With water trickling into the floor (for who knows how long), I decided to go ahead and turn off the power after getting a quick shower and then turned off the water, drained it with a hose, and carried it out of the house. Well, I sort of carried it and drug it at the same time. Afterwards, I capped off the plumbing connections and made new ones in the laundry room, which is the place where I thought the heater should have been to start with. After that, I made a temporary crossover for the hot and cold pipes in the laundry room so that the dishwasher and washing machine would still work properly, albeit with cold water instead of hot. I then installed the last window that I will be putting in the house, the one in the back of the bedroom. It had been framed for a while, but I hadn’t gotten around to setting it in place. With that behind me, I started the drywall. I had that pretty much finished by Saturday afternoon.

After hanging all the Sheetrock, it then had to be coated with mud before calling it a day. ‘Mud’ is actually drywall joint compound, which is applied to the cracks between the boards to seal them. It takes two or three coats of mud and then some sanding before the work is done.

On Sunday evening, I put the second coat of mud on the walls and pretty much got everything ready for sanding. My goal is to get it all back up and running this coming weekend, which wouldn’t be nearly as uncomfortable if it weren’t for the cold showers.

While the shower still works, the water is understandably uncomfortable, especially the last few mornings after I removed the heater—the temperatures were in the 50s and so was the tap water. So, with some boiling water and some cold, I had to make my own shower Monday morning using a roasting pan and a cup. It wasn’t perfect, but it sure beat going to work smelly. Just ask anyone who works with me.

Now I have the closet left to rebuild, but I wanted to wait until the floor dries out there, at least mostly. There’s always plenty of work left to do, but as these jobs drag on, I tend to get more and more tired of them. It never fails. When I start tearing one thing apart, the opportunity to fix another presents itself. Sometimes I take it and wish I hadn’t, other times I don’t and wish I had. In this case, I’ve been trying to stick to the necessities, which have proven to adequate to overwhelm me.

After finishing the bedroom, I have about a weekend’s worth of siding left to do, not including the soffit, before I can stamp that job ‘finished.’ After that, I might take a break for a few weeks so I can get some recreation in before I wake up one morning and realize that summer is over with and it’s time to start cutting firewood.
 

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