It’s been quiet around here lately. I don’t have anything really exciting to tell you about, so I’ll show some pictures.

This is a thrilling picture of our side lawn. Notice the patch of slightly darker grass near the garden planter? That’s where our ghetto sidewalk used to be. Jen gave me the all-clear to knock it apart and pull the concrete up a few weeks ago, and we were just now able to find some sod to drop in its place. Who knew sod was hard to find? Apparently it gets delivered right before the weekend and sells out almost immediately. We bought a bunch on a cold Thursday night, and I put it in on a rainy Sunday morning, just in time for a week of cold rain to help it grow.

This is a picture of the new wiring in the shared bathroom wall. I spent a good portion of Sunday running up and down the basement stairs, elbow-deep in insulation, trying to fish wire through small holes in the floor. After a half-hour of false starts, I realized that Ma Bell had already blazed a clear trail for me, and replaced two thick Eisenhower-era cable runs with new copper. I was actually able to get two cable and two data lines run before I ran out, which means there’s 800+ feet of ethernet wire fished throughout this house.

Looking at the picture above, you’d think I would have used the handcart Dave left for me in the Big Red Truck to move the sink and radiator out of the bathroom and into the garage. That would have been the smart thing to do. I’m not so smart, so there they sit. Thanks anyway, Dave!

Behind all that heavy porcelain is the exam room, which is now finally devoid of blown fiberglas insulation, a task I was avoiding until I realized it was eventually going to get hot again, and if there’s anything worse than bagging up loose fiberglas insulation, it’s bagging insulation in 90° heat. (I’ve done it, and don’t care to ever do it again.)

I then installed a bunch of insulation in the east wall after the cable went in. Finally, I disassembled one of the beautiful jalousie windows on the front of the house to see how difficult their removal will be; after ten minutes with a flathead screwdriver, I had one ready to push out onto the front lawn. In the next few days, I’m going to order six new windows for the front of the house and get things ready for installation.