I felt so good, like anything was possible

I am definitely running down a dream. Martin finally gave in. Since Sunday, I have been engrossed in the demolition and reconstruction of our living room. Martin made me promise that we would pay the costs off with our income tax return, find someone to help, and get it done quickly. Because of the dimensions of our living room, we are doing 13 feet at a time. Two of the walls are 13 feet, the other two are 26 feet.

In 2 hours on Sunday night, we were able to get one of the 13-foot walls torn back to the studs. Since then, we have gotten the window on the wall torn out and a new one in with new framing (I did that today), a moisture barrier which I had to staple up last night leaving my dominant wrist in severe pain all day today. Tonight, Martin helped me get the insulation up (the biggest reason we are doing this). The only things left to do on that first wall is to finish running the new electric in the attic and put up new sheet rock. After the sheet rock is up, I can move to the next 13-foot section. After that section is done, I will go back and tape and plaster. Hopefully, I will be able to get up in the morning and get back up in the attic to finish the electric. I wanted to do it tonight, but it got dark, and the flash light was messing up. If I can get that done, I get to start on the sheet rock work. Not too bad if you ask me. Most of Monday was spent shopping for supplies, so that was time not spent on the job. So as of right now, I spent 2 solid days (including shopping time) on 13 feet, for the most part by myself since Martin has to work.

Did I mention that I am 7-1/2 months pregnant doing all of this???

All that really means is that I have to give up all the heavy lifting stuff. So, I called my dad to have him come over and help Martin get the sheet rock out of the back of his truck, and I won't be able to install the rest of the windows by myself like I did today. I have a friend who has volunteered to help me on Thursday since she is off work that day, and this weekend, I will have all day Sunday to work with Martin helping. If I have something he can do, then I may have him work on something while we are doing cheerleading at football games on Saturday. Of course, just between us, he has difficulty understanding me when I give him instructions on construction matters. I had hoped that he would be the one (as he does not have the baby growing in his gut) to climb up in the attic (which you have to go over a lower roof and through a small hole to get in it), and redo the wiring, but when I was trying to explain what we would have to do, he got that look...you know that look...the one that says "I have no clue what you just said and there isn't a way to explain it that I will understand."

Anyway, when I bought this house 5 years ago, my plan was to redo all the rooms. So far, in those 5 years, the only rooms that have been redone are the bathroom and our bedroom. The bathroom was in the worst shape, so that was first. Our bedroom was done next because I was pregnant with Marty, and there were spots in there where mold was growing on the sheet rock. Marty was born in March so we only had a few weeks really that was cold at all. With this poor baby due in November, I just couldn't stand the idea of being locked away in our room (the only insulated room) all winter long. Most of the wire in this house is still cloth wire which desperately needs to be replaced. There is no insulation that I haven't put in. The kids' room really, really needs to be torn out and redone, but until their room stays clean and managable, I can't even get in there, much less pull everything out. So, I figure when we get our taxes back in 2010, their room will get the special treatment it so desperately needs.

On top of all this work, I have a cold...a very nasty cold that is causing a horrible pain on my belly everytime I cough. At least Martin was nice and rubbed my back and feet. Of course, then we insulated the wall, so my back was right back to hurting. Oh well...

I guess that is enough for this week...that really is all that is going on with my life. I'm not even spending that much time online lately since I am working so hard on the room.

Oh yeah...my job finally came through. I have to attend a class on Friday and after that I will be able to do what amounts to pretty much my old job from 2 years ago (with a different title and supervisor) from home. One of the guys who I got to see again on Monday told me that he was soooo happy I was coming back. I told him he was going to make me cry.

Anyway, I guess that really is enough for now.

10/15 UPDATE: Wall #1 is complete as far as drywall. We are going to get all of the interiors of the exterior walls sealed and drywalled first before we go back to tape and plaster. After all the walls are done, then, of course, we will paint the entire room. We hit Home Depot today and bought everything we need to get long wall done, so if I work quickly tomorrow (and my friend comes to help), Martin is hoping to insulate and hang the drywall tomorrow night. So this really is moving quite along. It took about a month to completely do our bedroom, and it is half the size of the living room and had much less electric or windows. Well, I need to clean up from the drywall cutting so we can start tearing out the next wall with a clean room to mess up.