Hammer and Miters and Chairs, oh my!

Hi friends!

Sorry for the long quiet. Hard to explain the explosion of —well, let's see— work, vacation, hurry, weddings, construction, destruction, summer, and lots of etc.— that has kept me away from The Campsie Project. I will tell you this—it's not been due to a lack of activity on the house.

We are just steamin' along!

In fact, the upstairs is nearing completion. And as sure as I say that, I must be completely wrong. My fear is that—like moving—construction is one of those things where you think you're almost done, and the more it seems like you are, the more you're not.

This much is true: the upstairs is quite beautiful looking.

There's refinished floors; there's Lucy's great paint choices (we won't mention The Wall That Remains Unpainted, will we?); there's finish trim; there's the bathroom! The freakin' Bathroom, already! The room that was basically a big closet? Well, it's a bathroom now. My finish trim work nearly killed me. On the one hand I love doing this sort of thing. I can't explain why. Alright—confession. I think it's just the Miter Saw that I love. Something about squeezing the trigger and chopping things.. So far, not my hand or fingers.

Back to the trim work. At first, you think 'well, this is easy. 45 degrees this way, 45 that way…no problem!' Uh-uh. I cut all the bathroom baseboard trim and as I started nailing it together and seeing how much air there was between the pieces of wood, I found myself red-lining. Partially, it must be noted, this is due to the soaring summer heat that has accompanied us upstairs. Partially, it was due to this terrible realization: I can't hammer very well. Anybody who knows me will tell you that I'm as sensitive and girly as a red-blooded straight guy comes, but know this: My manly side is shamed at my incompetency at hammering.

Lucy said she'd never seen me so mad as the night I was stomping around in a white rage over my shitty nail-driving work on the baseboards.

Here's the good news: Lucy can fix it with caulk. She says so. And she better be right. We counting on caulk for a lot.

More updates to come. There's more demolition, there's the upcoming "Mick Does Electrical" saga; Much more, too! How will it all unfold? How will it pry apart? How will it get rebuilt? Check back with The Campsie Project to find out!