{"id":530,"date":"2017-06-18T14:26:53","date_gmt":"2017-06-18T14:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/?p=530"},"modified":"2017-06-18T23:21:49","modified_gmt":"2017-06-18T23:21:49","slug":"day-11-the-horror-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/archives\/530","title":{"rendered":"Day 11: The Horror Continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, I filled you in on the tumultuous start to my kitchen reno (you can read about it here<\/strong><\/a>). My kitchen now has no walls, no ceiling, no flooring, no cabinets, no insulation, no wiring and no plumbing. In case you\u2019re<\/em> planning on doing something this foolish, here are a few things you should know:<\/p>\n

*Knob and tube is alive and (un)well.<\/strong> Knob and tube wiring was used in the early 1900s. It was a nifty invention for folks who wanted indoor lighting and didn\u2019t mind if their walls occasionally burst into flames. Think knob and tube is no longer used? Don\u2019t be naive. It\u2019s still buried in the walls of a multitude of old homes\u2014and when an electrician has to rip it all out and rewire an entire house, well, it\u2019s time to sell off your cutest kid, because this is going to get pricey.<\/p>\n

*Sometimes insulation doesn\u2019t\u2026insulate.<\/strong> The construction workers have demolished three rooms\u2014the kitchen, powder room and laundry room. Oddly, they only found insulation behind the walls of the laundry room\u2014a space so numbingly cold that it\u2019s been doubling as a second refrigerator in the winter.<\/p>\n

*Cats are jerks.<\/strong> I mentioned how the first few days of sledgehammering turned my cats into stress-farting fiends. Now they\u2019ve changed tactics\u2014they sneak into the basement as soon as the construction crew arrives, gorge themselves on cat food and then run upstairs and barf in as many rooms as possible. I\u2019m living in Puke-a-Palooza.<\/p>\n

*Mirrors are overrated.<\/strong> I have no idea what I look like each morning, because there\u2019s no hydro to my bathroom (thanks to the ripped-out knob and tube). I\u2019m not saying this is a bad<\/em> thing\u2014I\u2019m actually happier when I don\u2019t have to look at myself in the morning\u2014but if you\u2019re hung up about good grooming, practice putting on mascara while staring at a wall before letting contractors into your home.<\/p>\n

*The right dinner fixes everything.<\/strong> I\u2019ve discovered the secret to staying happy when it sounds like rabid beavers are attacking your house and a thick layer of dust is coating everything you own. Here\u2019s what to do: Toss a slab of meat into a slow cooker and let it simmer all day. Once the construction crew leaves, pile that meat into a rollup, cover it with enough cheese to make your neighbor\u2019s arteries thicken and serve it with a glass of wine the size of a goldfish bowl. Feeling better? I thought so.<\/p>\n

This should be an interesting week. The construction crew will be installing an enormous steel beam to stop the upstairs floors from drooping down into the kitchen (turns out 200-year-old wooden beams do<\/em> eventually sag). The goal is to get the beam in place without cracking every plaster wall upstairs. I\u2019ll keep you posted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, I filled you in on the tumultuous start to my kitchen reno (you can read about it here). My kitchen now has no walls, no ceiling, no flooring, no cabinets, no insulation, no wiring and no plumbing. In case you\u2019re planning on doing something this foolish, here are a few things you should […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funny-bits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":532,"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions\/532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}