It's Done!

... the drywall, that is. All of the walls are covered and patched. I think that the wires sticking out of the walls are for the under-cabinet lighting. Alan and his team are making great time. Keep in mind that just 4 business days ago these walls were all open.


Now for the really messy work... sanding! This is really the only part of the process I've been dreading. We had the mudroom gutted and repaired last year. The amount of dust created from sanding the drywall in that small area was unbelievable. It made its way through most of the house. The one saving grace this time around is that the central AC is on now (the mudroom repairs were in the late fall last year; no AC). It does a pretty good job of filtering the air. So while downstairs has gotten pretty dusty through this project, I think that most of the dust that would drift or be tracked up stairs is getting drawn in to the interior air intake vent that filters and recirculates air through the system.

In earlier pictures you saw the duct work for the stove's ventilation system. This is the vent that has been installed on the outside wall. I missed that yesterday.












Finally, a surprise for the next person that renovates the kitchen. Enclosed in the walls is a time capsule. I placed it there this morning in an area that hadn't been drywalled yet. It is a small plastic case similar to the one pictured on the right. I enclosed a letter to the "new owners", a brief bio of myself - nothing too telling, just where I grew up, where I worked, age, my love of gadgets (the iPod got a mention in the letter), blah, blah, blah. I also made reference to where I was on 9/11/2001 as that has probably been the single biggest event to occur in my lifetime that I can remember. (I was alive during the race riots of the 60's and Dr. King's assassination, but of course I don't have personal memories of those events... I was 2). I included the first section of this past Sunday's newspaper (folded as small as I could get it; luckily it wasn't too thick), a pocket watch, a few coins, pictures of the dogs and, of course, pictures of what the kitchen looked like before I began this project. Maybe when I'm 80 years old I'll get a phone call from a young family that is in the midst of a renovation project who stumble across the time capsule!