Cold Sores

I had a cold.  And my hips were oddly, painfully sore.  It made bending difficult, along with going up and down stairs, or really everything.  We figured out the culprit:

It always comes back to that mailbox.  That pounding action was too much for my hips; I need to ease into this line of work.  I can't be mad, those neon green handles make everything better.  Except for my hips.

It's okay, we have internet!  And TV!  And NCSI!  

And a really cool rotary phone that we swiped from parents for testing purposes.  Or forever. 

The stairs are going down.  Thanks Google for instructions on how to remove newel posts.  They were very tricky indeed, especially if you want to save them for reuse.

But wait, there's more!  

Our work takes many angles and many positions.

And now there's less.  The OSB subloor is strangely incomplete.  Thanks for your fine craftsmanship and pride in your work.

The view is creepy from the basement.

We cut up the rest of the particleboard!  Look at those perfectly straight lines!

This closet was a bit ridiculous for removing staples so that the saw can do its thing unhindered.   Then he didn't even go in there with the saw!  

We finished the gutter work.  Hurray!  Just in time for Christmas and Santa?  I'm not sure how that's related, something about not wanting Santa to see our junky gutters?

The previous owners were supposedly master gardeners, but everything is growing out of control and making it difficult to actually reach the house, so we cut it down!

We're super strong.  I lifted these trunks with my bare hands!  Inside two layers of gloves... 

I'm thinking that gutter is no longer draining the water away from the house...  We trimmed that sucker!

There was an odd pile of dirt in the middle of that grass.  I wonder what it means.

In case you didn't know, downspouts only come in 10' sections.  This is the only hack saw we have.  It was short and slow.  Sometimes it is the size that matters.

The mismatched gutter colors really brings out Milly's beauty.

We had to use some elbow grease.  Har har har.

And some real Michigan ingenuity to level these gutters.  It'll have to do until spring/summer.

Speaking of ingenuity, some driveway markers were inserted into the ground!  We were so smart that we placed half of them into the ground with our body weight before we grabbed a tool to hammer them down.  The tool we grabbed was that hack saw from the gutters.  Super smart.

We're really tired.  That garbage is just going to have to clear itself.  Do it!  Do it now!

Task: Gutters and Floor
Monday: REST DAY
Tuesday: 7.5 hours waiting around for AT&T, moulding removal, staple removal
Wednesday: REST DAY.  Felt like I was dying
Thursday: 3 hours cutting the particleboard and removing the built-in with carpet underneath
Friday: 3 hours banisters and newel posts removal, finished cutting the particleboard
Saturday: 4 hours of gutters, along with a smidge of destruction of Mother Nature
Sunday: 3.5 hours removing the particleboard from the first floor.  Huzzah!
Total Hours: 21 hours
Total To Date: 52.5 hours