Pecking away at the list, one project at a time...

Lately I've taken a little bit of a breather from the homestead.  I've told myself from the beginning that this is kind of like a long wilderness trip or a marathon of some sort; you have to pace yourself to prevent tiring out.  With spring in the air I've spent a lot of time doing water/ice control and simply hiking around the ever-changing and thawing forest.

  

As a result, my work ethic follows the "turtle pace" rather than the hare.  Every now an then I'll crank away at a project for a complete day over the weekend.  However, for the most part I spend an hour or two a day working on the list of projects that, at this point, have kept me busy for well over a year.    Nonetheless, there is some progress to report.

Last week I installed the kitchen flooring.  We have decided to install permanant flooring only in the back third of the structure keeping in mind that one day this will be a garage space.  The flooring, however, will be a great surface for a woodshop.  Beyond the kitchen, the bathroom will have a tile floor and the rest will be covered in area rugs.

The flooring went in very easily.  I've only ever worked with oak and birch hardwood so this was a little change for me.  However, once the vapor barrier and underlayment are down you literally just snap the planks together, cut the end piece to length and carry the excess to the start the next row.  Very simple, fast and I think it looks alright!

In all, I feel great about my progress.  I'm currently working on the rough-in phase of wiring.  At this point I have all of the receptacle and switch boxes installed.  Our ceiling fixtures just arrived in the mail so they'll be installed in no time.  Beyond that I need to drill the holes for the wire, pull the wire and wire it all together.  We'll get the rough-in inspection done (hopefully without incident) and move on to drywall and insulation.

It stills seems like a realistic goal to be moving in sometime this summer!  Although the learning curve is still very steep; I'm taking my time, doing my homework, reading all the directions and pecking away at the list, one project at a time...