We had Kid 1's bedroom completed and had worked our way down the hall, toward the study (formerly, Kid 2's room) and the linen closet, but hadn't yet reached either. Kid 2 was coming home in a couple of days, for Christmas, and we needed that room to be ready for her arrival.
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| Kid 2's room, ready to be refloored. |
As yet, it was full of the tools needed for our reno work. With me still only two weeks into my post-op recovery, there was only so much that I could do. So DW found a handyman.
Handyperson?
He came over the day before I was to drive down to Toronto, retrieve Kid 2 and her cat, and drive home. We explained that we needed the study completed and, because the flooring that extended from the hallway into that room, in one direction, also extended into the linen closet, we'd also like that space done as well.
Could this person, who seemed knowledgeable and asked the right questions, said the right things, complete this project in one day?
The simple answer was yes, he could. However, he explained, his wife was expecting their third child at any moment. He was sure that as long as she didn't go into labour, he'd have the job done. We negotiated a rate and he promised to return the next day.
I left the house before 6 am. Traffic was incredibly light on the 401 and through Toronto, and I arrived at Kid 2's house at 10—a half hour ahead of schedule.
Meanwhile, DW let me know that our handyman was taking his wife to the hospital because overnight, she couldn't feel the baby move. DW told him that whatever he needed to do was fine by us. His wife and child took priority. We did have a backup plan for our kids to share Kid 1's room, which we had finished the weekend before. It was looking like Plan B was going to have to happen.
By noon, our handyman called DW to say that everything was fine, and that his wife was returning home. He'd be at our house in the afternoon to start the work. If his wife didn't go into labour sooner, they had an appointment on December 24 to induce labour. That would give him the 23rd, the next day, to complete everything that he couldn't finish on the 22nd.
When Kid 2 and I got home, our daughter made plans to visit her best friend, who was also returning home for the holidays, and she was going to spend the night there. Our handyman had completed the linen closet and had started into the study, but the rest of the work would have to wait for him to finish the project the next day.
He did very good work, except that we didn't notice until after he had gone that he had put the hardwood flooring over the vent without cutting around it. Because everything else was done so well, we chalk that up to him having his wife on his mind. DW and I found the vent and cut the flooring out to it with no trouble.
By bedtime on December 23, DW had her study back and Kid 2 had a place to sleep.
We did no work on the flooring during the holidays. We enjoyed time with our kids, our family, and friends. I also worked after Boxing Day, so we figured we'd restart the work on New Year's Day.
All that remained was the master bedroom. We hoped to get a big start on it and possibly have it finished by this coming weekend. I'm still unable to lift anything heavy until after tomorrow, according to my surgeon, so DW and Kid 1 pushed everything as close to our window as possible, which basically takes everything to where our bed starts. We'd lay the floor, starting from the doorway, as far as we could go, and then move our dresser back into position. We'd cram our bed against it and continue, hoping that there'd be enough room to continually shift furniture to give us space to work.
We'll see how it goes.
On New Year's Day, we started flooring into our bedroom. Our door is on a 45-degree angle from the outer hallway and there's a short pathway that is also angled, past our bathroom, into to bedroom proper. We were hoping to cover that and finish the flooring up to where we could return the dresser to its rightful place, but there were tricky bits around our door frame and the frame around the entrance to the bathroom, so we only got to where the hallway opens into our room before we had to call it a day.
This weekend, we expect to push through and finish our room. Lay the boards, put the quarter-round along the baseboards to fill the gaps. I'll be allowed to lift heavy items again, so we're hoping things go faster.
Stay tuned.
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