I did it, I finished the library.  I am currently doing the happy dance even if you cannot see it.  I am way, way ahead of schedule.  The plan was to have it done, but I don’t think Annmarie thought it was going to happen (I didn’t really either, but I kept telling her it was “the plan”.  My plans don’t always (never) go as planned so she was surprised).  The light took forever to hang.  Lots of parts and they have to go in a certain order.  It is not too bad when you have lots of chain to hang the light from, but the ceiling is low so I only used one link.  It makes for a tight fit.  The instructions say to use two people.  The only one I did that with is the landing light, but that thing weighs in around 50# and is three feet across and three feet tall.  Far more than one person can hold and do 16 feet in the air.
I wiped down the closet doors and lubricated the door rollers.  I even put in new door guides.  Because the carpet is missing now and they had shortened the doors I had to put in a shim to hold the door guides at the right height.  Once the hardwood floor is in place I won’t need that any more.  I put the end piece of pegboard in today and got it all primed and painted.

I even bug bombed under the house and in the attic today.  Sprout (Brussel Griffin dog) and I had to hang out in the car this morning.  We went to the hardware store to get bolts to install the light (it doesn’t come with hanging bolts, big surprise there) and then we went to Pendleton to Sherwin Williams to get paint cards for Sarah.  She wants to paint her room.  Her initial color choices were purple and silver with a room size dragon on the wall.  We nixed that.  Second choice was silver and black.  I got her some color cards so she can make her third and fourth choice.  We are thinking about a black divider between a high and low color, but we want her to paint a piece of trim black and we can nail it in place.  No trying to cover over black at a later date.
Annmarie has decided I need to install the dining room light now that I appear to have some extra time before Thanksgiving.  I had to make a custom holder and shim out the ceiling for the living room light.  I told her I was actually going to have to take apart the living room light just to see how I did it.  It has been some time and it is working good, so I want to duplicate that effort.  I may have time this week.  No promises, but I will try.  Not sure what I am going to do if all the lights are installed (I still have to install the lights in the upstairs hallway and make the stair lights work).
Sarah took some pictures of the Sunset today.  She is getting very good at taking pictures.

Sunset from our front porch, Sarah took this photograph.

Sarah and I  finished the painting today.  It turned out very nice.  I even had time to wire the outlets and light switch.  Of course the last outlet I wired is where the main power comes in to the room.  Now there was no reason for the power to be on so of course I did not check the breaker.  When I went to shorten the wires with my high dollar expensive cross cut pliers I melted them!  As I am hollering and swearing about that moron that flipped the breaker on (me months ago) Sarah hollers back that I am that moron (teenagers are always so helpful).  That is the second $35 pair of cross cut pliers I have melted.  Now the good news is I keep getting the ones with insulated handles so other than the shower of sparks there was no personal injury on my part.  I tried to install the light, but I need to go to the hardware store and buy some special bolts.  So tomorrow I will hang the light and install the last section of pegboard.  Then I can clean the whole room up and it will be all ready for company.  I will even move our slat bed into the room.  I am done much sooner than I expected.

I did it.  The library is all primed and ready for paint.

library before priming

Library closet before priming

Annmarie helped me finish priming after dinner.  I am always amazed at how long the prep takes.  After cleaning out the room, scraping the excess mud off the floor and vacuuming the hole room I got to wash the walls with bleach water.  Then I taped down a plastic cover over the floor. The room is almost 10 x 20 feet in size.  Finally, I get to paint.  I used my favorite primer Kilz 2 (latex based).  I love this stuff it covers everything!!

You can see the roll of plastic on the floor before I spread it out and taped it down on the edges.  I will paint the room tomorrow and then wire the outlets and light on Monday.  It is going to be done by Thanksgiving!!  We are going to make Sarah help paint tomorrow.  She wants to repaint her room so she gets to help on the Library.   I told her if she does her room she is going to to it herself.  She can paint one room at a time.

Here it is after the primer.  Starting to look good.  The nice thing is the room is twice as bright now.  I didn’t even get any paint in my hair.  That was a first.

I am really happy.  Unfortunately, I have to paint the upstairs hallway one more time.  So the next project after Thanksgiving is more painting. The utility deep sink is the project for Thanksgiving weekend.  Doug is going to help me.  I have a beginning picture that everyone can appreciate.

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Here it is, the new utility sink stand!!!  I finally found Lumber Liquidators.  They had some oak flooring that got returned so I got it for 58 cent square foot.  A great price.  So we have lots to work with over 60 square feet.  Annmarie wants a sink we can wash eggs in that is not the kitchen sink!

I should have worn a mask…

I did it, I finished the sheet rock today.  I just finished the texturing.  I made quite the mess while texturing the ceiling, the mud kept dropping on the floor and splattering all over.  I have the electric heater going to help the drying process.  I still have 9 feet of wallpaper left to remove.   I really don’t want to get to that…  But on Friday I will have to take it off so I can prime the entire room.  I did have to give up on the space under the stairs.  I figure it will take me two to three days just to finish that little area.  I am running out of time, only 15 days until company arrives.  So I am going to concentrate all my energy on completing the library.  My goal is to wire the whole room on Monday.
I had to collect eggs today as the child was sick.  Those quail eggs are very very had to see!  They are on a sawdust floor and just blend right in.  I am looking forward to having some more wooden eggs for the chicken nests.  They keep laying outside the boxes.  I still want to get another 2 dozen pullets (female babies) in January.  But before I can do that I need to make my quail enclosure.  More projects.
I heard from my mother last week that there is a Lumber Liquidators in the Tricities.  So on Saturday morning I drug myself out of bed before work and went looking.  Now I didn’t actually know where the store was located just a rough region of Kennewick.  I spent 90 minutes driving around looking for it.  Never did find it. I did buy a new Bonsai plant from some guys selling them out of a van on the street corner.  So I plan on going to work early tomorrow so I can stop at Lumber Liquidators!!  I want to price some flooring and lumber.  I will take more pictures of the library before I paint.

Well, I spent six hours sanding and mudding in the library.  I remembered to wear a dust mask today.  I didn’t want to blow my nose and get sheetrock mud out.  Totally nasty.  I have half the room done.  I patched in the missing ceiling in the closet and put the first coat of mud on it.  I will finish taking off the wallpaper on Monday and texture on Tuesday!!  I will be priming and painting in one week!!  I only have 19 days to go.  I need to go buy a prime rib and some rock salt for Thanksgiving dinner.  I even started working on the entrance to the library under the stairs.  I might be able to have that done also!!  I want to have it all done so Doom and I can concentrate on the laundry room.
I even found time to go out and add a chicken door to the outside chicken yard fence.  The sheep keep going in during the day and drinking all the water and knocking over the water containers.  They eat all the grass down also.  So I added a chicken sized door in the human door so we can just open the chicken door during the day.

Those chickens are living it up.  I have a little trash to pickup obviously.  You can see the blue heated dog waterer on the rock.  I am getting ready for Winter.  There is a plug in on the outside of the coop under the chicken ramp so I can plug in the waterer.  My new chicken door has a lock we can just turn when the door closes.   I added a picture of the new quail at the bottom of the page.  They are still getting used to their new surroundings and did not lay any eggs today.  I suspect it will take a few days for them to relax and settle in.

quail in their new temporary home, until the new pen is made.