Walled In

I don't know what it is about putting up the walls, but now I feel like there's no turning back. Not that I wanted to before, but now it seems like a permanent structure that's not going anywhere. It may be because the walls enclose the entire structure now and we can't just walk through the frame any way we want to. The problem is, the walls are just a blank stretch of plain, raw wood and it looks so different from the rest of the house. Yes, I realize that it's waiting for stucco and paint on the outside, and plaster on the inside, but my first reaction this afternoon was shock - it doesn't look right. I'm not sure how else to explain it.

This side of shows the three windows in the master bedroom and  reading "nook"

 Actually, it reminds me of a Simpsons episode from years ago. (Note to readers: I have the ability to reference a Simpsons episode that is relevant to almost any situation any time. Call it a special talent.) In the episode, Lisa got a haircut. Part of the way through the cut, her hair looked like a disaster (and that's saying something for the Simpson family). She looked in the mirror and gasped in horror. The stylist told her not to look yet, wait for the final product. Sure enough, when the haircut was complete, she looked at herself and realized she was beautiful. So I'm crossing my fingers that that's what's going on right now with the addition. We're in the middle of the haircut and it's not what I had in mind at all, but I need to take a breath, trust Tom, and wait to look at the end product.

Standing in the bedroom, looking towards the bathroom (with an as-yet unfinished wall)

On a different topic, the plumbing woes continued today. Darryl and Tom are at an impasse with the plumbing company, who insist that pipe can be level instead of going downhill. Yesterday they told Darryl to call the building inspector out and if he approved the job then it was done and we would need to pay the rest of their bill. So out he came this morning, and when he looked at the job and looked at the permit (the one that the plumbing company pulled) he told everyone that they pulled the wrong permit and he wasn't even going to look at the job. Sigh.

Meanwhile, we're still waiting for the DWP to send someone to move the power line and the main box. Until that happens, the electrician we hired can't do his job, and Tom can't insulate the walls, which means the plasterer is still waiting to do his job. So this is why people say construction jobs always go longer. It has nothing to do with our contractor at all, it's all about the timeline of people who don't know us at all don't care about our remodel project. I suppose we can't take it personally. For some people, it's just a job, nothing more. For us, it's our home, it's our family, it's our lives. No big deal.