Heat and Death
Week four we finally got to start BUILDING things instead of ripping them out! We are prepped for tile to go in a few different places and made a lot of progress with mold remediation, plumbing, and electrical.
Week five was a little strange because I (Shelby) ended up spending the whole week in Kansas. We got a call that my grandmother was in the hospital with food poisoning. The next day we found out that there was actually a small kink in her intestine that was making her really sick. Not uncommon, but normal treatment didn’t work immediately as they’d hoped, so my dad decided to go up and see his mom, just to make sure everything was ok. He was going to drive through the night, so I decided to go with him and take turns driving. On the way there, we got a call that she was being moved into the ICU. By the time we arrived in Kansas City around 9am Friday morning, 5 days after entering the hospital, grandma was in a lot of pain and both her kidneys and her lungs were starting to fail from the backup of fluids. To make a long story very short, that evening my grandmother passed away. She had been living alone, driving, physically well, and mentally sharp until that week, so it definitely came suddenly and as a surprise. We ended up staying the rest of the week to help make arrangements for the service. Thankfully, Wes stayed in Alabama to take care of the dogs, allowing my mom and sister to fly up without worries. Wes was able to continue working on the house during our family’s emergency, and I’m glad he was still able to make some progress while I was able to grieve and spend time with my family.
Highlights
-Being able to be there when it matters most
-Removed and replaced 3 old windows
-Laundry room prepped and painted, ready for tile
-Electrical removed from downstairs
-Light fixtures and ceiling fans installed in the bedrooms
-Mold remediation crew started working downstairs!
-Hall bath plumbing replaced
-Yard getting cleared out
Notable Mishaps
-While removing one of the big picture windows, the glass shattered and went EVERYWHERE.
-We had three days in a row where the heat index was over 110 degrees. We were dying.
-On the hottest of those days, we decided to take the day “off” (getting supplies at the hardware store, picking out tile, etc, instead of actually working at the house). When we got there the next morning, we found we had caught a rat in one of the rat traps. Said rat had already begun rotting in the extreme temperatures of the prior day and the ENTIRE house reeked of rotting animal. It was a rough morning.
Goals for Next Week
-Tile laundry room floor
-Tile hall bath shower
-Install new ceiling and bathtub in master bath
-Complete mold remediation
-Install 3 new windows
