Cantilever schmantilever, kitty-proofing, and moving (aka "muscle-building")

Some sad news, my lovely Macbook Pro died a couple weeks ago, and so I've been sans "artsy-fartsy" computer and left with Peter's medically-inclined school computer to work with.  Couple with the fact that our new house doesn't have internet (trying to find the best deal, any ideas?), I haven't been doing much blogging.  But today that changes!  Peter's computer will just have to do for now!

I'm going to take a little break from packing and moving (yes, it's finally that time where the new house is no longer just our pet project, but our actual home where we eat and sleep since last week!), to share the latest in Remington!  We've been busy bees, and with our lease ending on Sept. 1, it's been quite the race to the finish line.   

First off, we wanted to have the second floor extension situation taken care of before we started moving anything into that room.  I'm not sure if you remember from earlier posts and photos, but the second floor extension was cantilevered, but poorly (and in 1920--it's amazing how much wood can rot in 90 years.), and we feared that it had been falling and thus resting on the weird mud-shed thing that is now absent from the back of the house.  Well, we can fear no longer!  We had our lovely neighbor Jun (a carpenter), take care of that issue.  After some more excavating into the building, it became clear that while the rotten beams were still present, new supports had been put up into the cantilever.  So, not so scary already, but Jun thought it would be a good idea to take the rotten beams out, add more supports, and then put up two large posts to brace up the cantilevered part.  All of the other houses in the neighborhood has had this done, as they obviously all tend to sag.  So, it's all brand new! He did an amazing job, and was supper efficient.  It still has to be painted (on the to-do list for this week), but we feel so much safer now.  I no longer have to tip toe into the cantilevered part and hope I don't plunge to my death.

It's amazing how much better it looks now.  And secure!

Jun even replaced the insulation (the original stuff had been turned into a rat's nest, and was covered in rat--well...you know what.  It was everywhere.), so we'll be toasty this winter. 

An amazing thing that Jun did before he started working on the house, was organize our trash pile.  I just had to add this, because we were thoroughly impressed.  It is still a playground for our little neighborhood rat friends (we hear them squeaking and scratching around in it at night), so we'll be taking care of that soon as well--before we get a citation for breeding rats!

Jun is excellent at trash-tetris.

I've also been a little stressed about finding places in the house for my adored houseplants to go.  As some of you know, Kitty, our kitty, LOVES to eat houseplants, so it's always a battle with her.  But after some thought and planning, I think I came up with an attractive and functional way to have houseplants and also a houseplant-loving kitty:  a window shelf!  All sawed, stained, installed by moi.  The hideous curtains left by the previous owners--gone!  Replaced by the lighter, prettier curtain from our previous apartment (hand-hemmed by myself as well).

Kitty-proof plant shelf! 

Wide enough for two rows of pots. 

The side view.  This angle provides less glare, and you can see that the shelves are blue! 

 Those are the major projects (aside from the actual moving of boxes--a giant project in of itself) thus far.  I'll be posting more as things come up.  In the meantime, I've included a few more photos from around the house, just to prove that we're actually living in it.

Kitchen table.  Though it's been used mostly as a place for tools to sit and paint cans to hang out. 

Kitchen window. 

The little plant outside!  It's climbing our railing!  SO CUTE!!

 

The bed, confidently positioned in the cantilevered part of the room. 

I like the way my piano looks against the exposed brick.  It's fun to practice in there, too.