using our noodles

so, we're getting closer to being done, and that's a good thing, because we've got potential tenants coming tomorrow and thursday to look at the flat.

now, it's mostly stuff that's on the outside of the house. like, oh, the back porch roof:



yup, last thunderstorm we found out this thing leaked something awful...so marc's been up on the roof, taking it apart before fixing it again, hopefully before the next thunderstorm.

additional challenge of the day--

when we were on our way to pick up an enormously heavy steel door for the back porch, we stopped in at the car rental place to switch the contract from a weekly one to a monthly one. to our surprise, we had to actually return the car! as it turns out, they'd sold it! (the trouble with car rental places that also sell their cars, apparently...). anyway, we were chagrined because the cute little pontiac vibe we'd been driving was extremely useful in that it had a roof rack and hatchback for hauling loads of stuff.
they were apologetic, and gave us a free upgrade to a PT cruiser, which is fine, except it has ... no roof rack. and we were on our way to get very heavy doors.
so... we used our noodles.
pool noodles.
you can barely see them, but they're under all that stuff on the roof. they worked perfectly to protect the car and allow us to bring home the doors, metal flashing and porch railings that we needed to transport.
this probably voids our car rental agreement, but, well... what happens in detroit, stays in detroit, right?



and when the hatchback isn't as big, well, the stuff has to fit somewhere, right? those shiny things next to magritte are giant rolls of aluminum-coated bubble wrap insulation, which we're going to use in the crawl space. if you look carefully in the previous picture, you'll see lots more in the somewhat smaller hatchback. hmpf.



stuff we've done but haven't taken pictures of:

- bedrooms all but finished, including refinished floors, paint, trim and air sealing in windows
- installed toilet, sink and cabinets in the bathroom
- installed dishwasher, sink and cabinets in the kitchen (stove arrives today!)
- air sealed all the windows in the downstairs flat
- cleaned out the nasty front closet, fixed the walls and painted
- cleaned out the nasty back porch, fixed the walls (painting happens today)
- installed overhead light fixtures in the kitchen and dining room
- replaced all the heat registers and switch plates

and probably other stuff i can't remember... every day is blurring into the next. i'm going to be really glad when we're done this...
only three more days to go!

yikes.