Aside from some demolition detail work (getting rid of all the loose stuff), the main focus has been on electrical. As of this morning, the pendant light fixtures had been plumbed, switch boxes and most outlets ready and can lights were just being installed. By Saturday Steve will be under the house running some of the more hard-to-reach wiring.

We have continued to find interesting little tidbits of history. There is a 1/2 chimney that once acted as the stove exhaust. (It starts in the middle of the wall and goes out through the roof) Ther was an old MJB coffee can sitting up in the rafters that – from what we can tell – was catching a roof leak. Dad ran across an enormous old hornets nest up in the attic (picture to follow soon). We are currently working on putting together a little time capsule to close into the cubby space left between the bottom of the 1/2 chimney and the floor. If you think of anything clever that we should enclose let us know.

We are still not yet moved back into the main part of the house after the floor refinishing, but with Grammy Walston up here on baby duty, I am hoping to have the opportunity to put some things back together. I think another reason it has been so hard to get things put back away is because I really want to take this opportunity to rethink our furniture and decorating arrangement. It is the opportune time to do it, so I don’t want to rush to just put everything back the same way.

Well, the interior walls are out, the bead board has come down and the electrical schema has been written all over the walls. And all of this after only a day and a half. The dads have been busy at work with their pry-bars and hammers and are rounding the corner from demolition into plumbing the electrical for what is sure to be the most well-lit kitchen in America [3 hanging pendants, a billiards style fixture over the sink, 4-6 can lights and under-cabinet halogens for all work surfaces — and all on dimmers, to boot!].

We have found some interesting treasures along the way: the tounge-and-groove redwood bead board that originally covered every wall in the kitchen, the old school plaster and lath, the old “California Cooler” (aka modified root cellar), not to mention the realization that, top to bottom, our house is built out of redwood (not counting our douglas fir floors).

The logistics of living without a functioning kitchen are not as bad as one might think. Although it is not the most efficient of systems, we have a sink (laundry porch), food storage (laundry porch), refrigerator (garage), dishes (garage), prep counter (garage), stove top (gravel) and brand new gas grill (gravel). We dug out every paper plate and paper napkin we could find, and have determined that marinading meat in ziplocks and then grilling it provides NO dishes! Some might call this lazy — we call it clever.

More to come as the adventure unfolds…..