Wow...It has been many moons since I last blogged. So much stuff has been happening.
The sale of our New West house completed on May 15th with a flurry of packing, cleaning, moving, sorting, unpacking and trying to figure out where to store 'stuff'. In the process of clearing out the house, Meg took a fall and suffered 2 compression fractures in her spine. At first she thought she had broken a rib but the pain continuely became worse and elicited a trip to a clinic. Sure enough, x-rays showed the hairline fractures....nothing rest, pampering and a cessation of heavy lifting wouldn't cure.
Our manufactured home at Pioneer Park was in dire need of a makeover. We knew that some of the structure was ailing and we also knew that we both desired more room for our projects. Together we wrote out our wish list, Meg reviewed the park rules and regulations, I downloaded Google SketchUp and drew up some preliminary plans. Since Meg was in no condition for hoist rafters, she scoured Craigslist for carpenter and found one, Don, who seemed acceptable.
After a meeting or two they devised a game plan, materials began to arrive and existing structures began to topple. The wasp-infested workshop was first to go and was carted off to the landfill facility a short drive up the road. Within a few days a new 14' x 28' studio was beginning to take shape.
One of the drawbacks of living in a structure that is being renovated means that 'stuff' has to be repositioned into living space to free up soon to be destroyed areas. I suppose this phenomenon of trying to live in this rapidly diminishing space in an already rather small footprint is what creates angst, frustration, depression, frayed nerves, short tempers, exhaution et al. It's not all that much fun to live in a sardine can, especially one with tracked in sawdust, construction noise, and workers tramping into the bathroom. 
To add to the chaos, all the windows were closed to try to counter the sawdust and noise as the first heat wave to hit our area for years(?) cranked up the outside temp to the low 30's C (90's in Fahreinheit). So far we are managing to endure the initial process of this renovation. Humour, neighbourhood support and a lot of Scotch seem to help.
Because we had to remove the patio door in the kitchen, our front door is a sheet of OSB tacked to the door frame.
Yesterday I deconstructed the backdoor entrance leaving a very wobbly platform and a sawhorse step for the alternate entranceway.
As of today, the roof is up and shingled in a cedar-coloured fibreglass and asphalt product, the floor area for the new room additions and deck is constructed and some walls are being formed. The huge stacks of plywood, OSB, studs and other building materials are growing smaller...we can almost see our driveway.
...to be continued...
mobius space.
