Dust Yourself Off!

Well, the LevelHeaded family did a rain dance last night that would rival any contestant on Dancing With The Stars 'cause it's been raining or almost raining all day. That means that Tall Drink of Water was on the scene today with his trusty assistant, Polar Pop.

After forking over a check for $2,000 (OUCH!!) to get the wrecking ball rolling, Tall Drink and PP headed to the basement where they spent the next four hours sandblasting, jackhammering and who knows what else (they enclosed themselves in a plastic tent to keep the dust down, so I couldn't see what they were doing, just could hear the audible chaos). The end result is a 4x4' square cut into the basement floor that descends an additional eight inches into the dirt below. I immediately imagined snakes slithering from the ground into our basement, thinking they had just won an unlimited stay at a 4-star resort (well, maybe this money-trap might be luxurious, compared to their current abode of mud and muck). Tall Drink assured me no snakes will be visiting.

After seeing TD and PP's haggard faces about 75% into the job, I started wondering if 2K was turning out to be a bargain for the work involved...

I left about half-way through the job (more on that later), and at that point, the visibility in the basement was about 5 inches because of all the dust created from their work, but it was contained sub-living area. When I returned, I was taken against my will into a time machine and spit on into The Great Dust Bowl. There's like a three-inch layer of gunk on everything, including, I'm afraid, our lungs if we don't get some major airflow going.

The reason I left the house was to pick up our remodeling permit!!! You have no idea how proud this makes me -- it's like I'm a REAL general contractor, complete with a neon orange notice that I proudly taped to the inside of the glass front door. Too bad it's now illegible because of the dust magnets clinging to the plastic case like stink on cooked kale.

I had the electricians in this morning, as well -- they were also loud, but it wasn't because of any machinery. They both seemed to be hard of hearing because they kept yelling back and forth to each other, even though they were in the same room. I went back to check on them a few times to see if one of them had accidentally started working on a house three doors down, but no, they were just loud and proud. I'm not sure what that was all about, but the end result is a chandelier in LevelHead Jr's room complete with an actual light switch (the ceiling fan the previous owners had was not attached to the switch and had to be manually turned on) and bathroom wiring that will now allow for a normal wall light instead of a '70's disco ball descending from the bulkhead.

All in all, I have to admit I was happier than a hog in slop all day despite the jackhammers and yelling -- things were happening, and I was a GC with an orange permit sign for all to see. Does it get any better than this??

For your viewing pleasure, I'd like to introduce Tall Drink of Water (left) and Polar Pop.