My hands are craving some softer work

Good morning, and happy Saturday again. I have had the last week off from work to do a much needed bathroom remodel project. My skills in that area are limited, so I was the assistant on the project, and much of the big work was done by our very talented contractor friend. As with any remodel project, it started with demo/removal of all the old stuff in the bathroom that was getting replaced. That part was my job, and at the beginning of this week, I began tearing up the layer upon layer of floor put down by previous owners to expose the original subfloor. Demo is probably the hardest part of any remodel project, but it felt really good to get it done.

The next few days there was little for me to do as our friend put down the new tile floor. I spent a lot of that time working on getting this site up and running, and then republishing some of the old content from my old blog. Just an FYI, there will be a lot more of that in the future, so if you’re subscribed, you may want to change your settings for notification of new content if getting an email for every new blog post is getting to be too much. I believe there’s a weekly summary/digest setting.

Before our contractor friend arrived yesterday morning, I cleaned the excess grout off the new bathroom floor and got our workspace in the garage cleaned up so we could begin getting everything put back together. At first, it didn’t seem like we would have enough time, and might have to resume on Monday, which would mean taking another day off from work, but by late afternoon, it all came together. He left around 5 pm and came back around 7 pm with another mutual friend for a celebratory dinner. During that time, Michael and I had the bathroom put back together with all of the decor and accessories. That will all come down again as we still need to paint once we decide on a color for the walls above the wainscoting. We have it narrowed down to 12 possibilities.

Like I said, this was a much needed remodel. It is also the ONLY bathroom in the house, so that made it all the more challenging as there were several days (Tuesday afternoon through Friday afternoon) where we didn’t have an actual toilet in the house. We did have a portable camp potty that a dear friend let us borrow. I have to return that today, and order her a package of the bag liners to replace the ones we used.

I have had enough of crowbars, scrapers, hammers, saws to last me for a long long time. All the old floor and wall paneling, as well as the lot sink and old toilet, have been brought to the dump. Now that all that work is done, my hands need something soft to work with. So this morning I am resuming work on a gift for one of my nieces and her husband, who welcomed their first child into the world a little over a month ago.

This hoodie, made with Lion Brand ‘Scarfie’ that I got on my trip to NYC in February, will be a bit big for him now, but should fit him when the weather gets cold again. I have one more sleeve after this one is finished, then the hood, and I am planning to take out the seed stitch at the bottom of the body of the sweater and add a bit more length.

That it for today. I’m off to do a little knitting in what remains of my quiet time here before the rest of the house wakes up. Have a great weekend!