Sorry, no pictures in this entry... yet. Maybe I'll add some later. I turned another year older a couple days ago. I actually do feel a bit older, my body isn't quite as young and it is letting me know in small ways here and there. Kristen was in town for Spring Break, and we did a lot of just hanging out. It was just nice having her here.

The bathroom work is really coming along, thanks to my hiring Brian to come in and help. I'm still working with him, but having someone on the payroll really speeds the process up... a lot. With all good projects comes scope creep. In this project, it has by far been electrical work that has the driver of the creep. It continued tonight, really starting last night. There's one line running from the bathroom to the "game room". That line powered a few overhead lights and one outlet. So I went in last night and traced the wires, pulled off the lights (that I don't like anyway), and in the process realized the part of the ceiling in that room that was lowered, it really didn't need to be and we could rip out the framing and attach drywall back up where it belongs. I cut out a hole to stick my head up and verified that yes, that is indeed going to be possible.

Now some background... this room was added on to the house, so this lowered ceiling basically looks like an overhang - at least, that's what I thought before. The house was sort-of C shaped, and this room sat in between the open parts and turned it into a square, so all of the room's walls are concrete block (the three walls that used to be exterior walls to the house, and the new exterior wall). On top of those walls are furring strips, and on top of that is drywall, and on top of that is that cheap 80's style wood paneling. Now for the lowered ceiling part, there is the wood frame, drywall, and paneling. So step one, removing the paneling. The side I had started on (and cut the hole in the drywall) made this look like it was going to be very simple. Too simple. "Why didn't they do this in the first place?" simple. And then we got to the other side of the room - in front of the room's doorway, and that's when we discovered the mold. Lots of mold. It's covering about a 6' by 3' area, with a tiny bit scattered about from there. We stopped at that point, and covered all the entry's to the rest of the house from that room. The next step is going to be pulling off the paneling, dousing the drywall with bleach water, letting it dry, and then ripping it out - all the while crossing our fingers that the mold didn't spread too far. Yes, I have pictures. I'll post them when I have some free time... ha, maybe this weekend... or next.