Fast forward two weeks ...

The wife and I came back from vacation last Friday. Coming back home has been a downer - house is completely destroyed; missing the family; surrounded by bumpkins; sleep deprivation; jet lag; work; cabinet guy fucking up ...

It was a pleasant surprise yesterday evening to find a package in the mail. The package was from TC5 (no relation to TC3 of Quiksand and Rival Schools fame), who I hired as a research assistant at Duke. We have remained in contact since then, we typically quarrel about music, the Velvet Underground, Decemberists and Oasis. The package contained a piece of art she commissioned of us - the wife, Lex and me. The picture is quite appropriate and typical of the going-ons in our household (i.e., chasing and wresting Lex with noogies and headlocks). In the picture Jen appears to be a citizen of the planet Kamino while I look beefy, like Henry Rollings my neck is the same size as my head. This is a gift we will treasure. I have even picked a location in the house for this piece, right at the top of the staircase underneath the new Artemides eye ball light. Alas this will have to wait until the renovations are completed. Now onto house renovations ...

Since we left on our trip, Steven and his crew have been very busy. All the demolition, framing, plumbing and electrical is completed. Drywall is being completed this week. We are awaiting for the new staircase and cabinets to arrive. In the meantime, they have completely dissembled the old staircase. Nothing is supporting the staircase except for a 2x4 and gravity. It is amazing how vectors can work to your advantage every now and then. They usually work against me, especially during surfing and skateboarding. They removed the handrail and shifted it over to repair the drywall. The dog is nervous about this new staircase set-up. The pantry underneath the stairs has also been completed. We discovered a built in vacuum system in there that we had removed. I plan to use the pantry as a bedroom for the kids sort of like Harry Potter.

Here is a photo of the lower staircase.

The kitchen ceiling was torn out and pushed up 4 inches. The plumbing and electrical were redone completely. The previous contractors, Chad and his dad were careless. Just today Luis had to fix a pipe with nail shot through it. The surrounding dry wall was damaged from the moisture leakage. Chad, that dumb fuck, was not careful when he installed the crown molding in the ceiling. I am surprised the place did not burn down when Chad added eight 60 Volt lights to the 320 Volt transformer. Other things done but not pictured were pushing the dining room wall 4 inches, removing all the crown molding, re-applying dry wall and plaster, removing all molding and applying returns instead and destroying the Pony wall.