Rain, Cold and a Squirrel

The trip to and from Louisiana was a success. We were able to see all the family members in a drive by type visit.


We arrived at Zelda on Monday and stayed till Thursday. Our original intention was to stay and work till Friday afternoon, but the rain, cold and a work interview for Brent, had us leave on Thursday to head back to Tennessee.


Also, the girls were off for a mini-break at UT so their last class for the week was Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday night we received a frantic call from Jennifer and Jessica as a squirrel was running around in the house. After many phone calls and screams, Brent was able to talk the girls through a process of getting the squirrel out. After about one (1) hour we had success. We laughed at the similarity of the squirrel incident to the that of the movie Christmas Vacation.

We worked long hours and hard but it does not seem to feel like we got a lot accomplished. Brent did make repairs on the outside siding, including caulking and scraping one side of the house in preparation of painting. Then the rains and cold temperature arrived Wednesday morning and stayed until we departed. Brent really wanted to get some paint on the house this week, but instead, focused his attention on the master bedroom closet floor. We also prepped the downstairs floor around the edges for the hardwood floors, painted the crown molding and baseboards before installing ,caulked around the installed crown molding and removed old paint from the staircase. We also hung a cabinet over the toilet in the downstairs bathroom. I guess we did a lot of preparatory base work for the finish product to come.

The pictures are of the flooring installed in the master bedroom closet. We decided to use a lock and snap laminate flooring which was a first for us. Brent was very hesitant at first but then decided to use the product, because in was in a closet.

The first attempt to install on Wednesday night did not look good, so early Thursday morning, Brent pulled up the floor and reinstalled with a fantastic finish. His approach on the second attempt was to install just like a real hardwood floor by staggering and making sure no seems were together. This might have been in the instructions, but Brent is a typical guy and did not read. He did leave room for expansion which will be covered by the base boards. We will install a pre-fabricated fiberglass catch pan for the laundry area and pipe the overflow outside.

We expect to have the heat turned on to the house by this Tuesday. The gas line needed to be re-routed due to the cabinets and once the pressure test is performed, we ignite the heat. We have no wireless connection at Zelda so updates of the progress will be done on a weekly basis during the weekend.