After focusing on building a wall in the backyard, generally, this has been a week of taking down walls.
Today from the dining room you can see through to the kitchen.

To show progress of one day – essentially the same shot.

The side of the doorway that has not been touched yet – sort of a before look

The side of the doorway has now been touched

And the rest of the pictures.

Through the back of the closet

Archway deconstruction

kitchen ceiling

Old wiring evidence

Tomorrow I have planned to do a bit of garbage patrol. This will mean shuffling around in the basement, trying to make a big pile into some little piles. And answer some questions about window sizes. – Exciting life.

Work, game, park at the house & take a few pictures, walk to home.
Work had meetings and some progress, but not as much as there should have been. The game was lost, but there were some interesting folks sitting next to us and Carl had a good time chatting. Got a spot on the street at the house. We had to pick up the mail, and I just wanted to peek at the progress. (They really are peeks) I also had a picture from the contractor earlier in the day. It was darn dark in the house, so the only light is from the flash.

Contractor’s picture to help determine what, if any, structural enhancements are needed here – and how the exhaust fan from above the stove can be installed

The side of the doorway that has not been touched yet – sort of a before look

Through the doorway into the kitchen

The dining-kitchen wall that will be disappearing (from the dining room side) This is lath, and you can see the back of the refrigerator through the wall

I figure posting pictures here will provide me with a way to follow what is going on.

One of my favorites from the Mother’s Day visit.

We skyped with Rey a few days ago.
The beard was still in evidence, but the sling was a no-show.
Apparently he has permission to be slingless when he is not around others that might make him move it in ways it is not ready to move. He did demonstrate his current range of motion. It was progress –  but still there is more range to re-attain.

He is now old enough to have lower car insurance rates and also be kicked off of my health insurance (as secondary).

As to the title, I was trying to think of something clever. Carl came up with 26 Skidoo.
I wanted to check it out, and was quickly corrected that “23 Skidoo” is the proper term.
And that Skidoo is not necessarily a complimentary term.
[And perhaps 25 Skidoo would have been more appropriate.]

23 Skidoo may have been coined  as follows, (From Wikipedia)

It is at a triangular site where Broadway and Fifth Avenue—the two most important streets of New York—meet at Madison Square, and because of the juxtaposition of the streets and the park across the street, there was a wind-tunnel effect here. In the early twentieth century, men would hang out on the corner here on Twenty-third Street and watch the wind blowing women’s dresses up so that they could catch a little bit of ankle. This entered into popular culture and there are hundreds of postcards and illustrations of women with their dresses blowing up in front of the Flatiron Building. And it supposedly is where the slang expression “23 skidoo” comes from because the police would come and give the voyeurs the 23 skidoo to tell them to get out of the area.^[5]

And so we end, with a little more knowledge than we started.
And I think that would make Rey happy.

Happy Birthday Rey

I wish I could show you pictures of our cute little apartment, all set up.
But I can’t. Because I don’t have any pictures. Because it is not all set up – yet.

I wish I could show you pictures of my daughter. Surprising me at dinner in Belltown at Pintxo, a tapas place.
But I can’t. Because I did not take any pictures. Maybe the one drink put me off of my game.
(Then on the other hand, we were enjoying the experience.)

kindergarten graduation hat – finally reunited with its owner. (Isn’t it great to clean out a house)

I can show you some of the progress at the house.
But not from today – because I did not have my phone with me when I picked up the mail.

Storage Unit #4

Day 1 of construction – actually de-construction

Containment Wall – with a zipper

Primary day 1 labor was removal of the cabinets.

Kitchen West Wall

Kitchen North Wall

Kitchen East Wall

Upstairs Kitchen

And the Kitchen Sink

Day 2 picture – Remember the containment wall? That is to keep the lead paint dust from contaminating everything. And the contractor would not let me walk around without booties on. I like that my contractor takes things like this seriously.

West wall – to compare with the previous day

Day 3 included removal of more plaster from the kitchen. In my peek into the containment area I could see the archway construction. That is an image I will try to keep in my mind – just because it looked cool.

Moving continues.
My day started with unpacking.

Making decisions – especially when those decisions were whether to keep something in the apartment, or move it to storage. Also waiting for the Comcast guy to show up and provide us with Internet, and a new bit for us – Cable TV.
Carl spent several hours making a few trips to the house, and doing some final laundry at the house and moving a ton of cinder blocks from inside the house to inside of a smaller house. (Pictures to follow at some point in the future.)

I did get tasked to take a trip to the house to bring back some pieces Carl had not brought back. And of course I found more as well. Some to bring home, others for storage, and a small bag for a neighbor (goes with the bass they are housing for us). In return for this storage bit, he provided a jar of margaritas.

After gathering the last load of laundry from the dryer, and unscrewing the pencil sharpener and some drawer sliders from underneath the sink, I finally returned to our new home. Still in a huge state of upheaval, a lot of the kitchen stuff has been put into cabinets. There are many boxes ready to go to storage. But the bedroom has not been set up, so it will be one more night on the “during”.

We had a date with Rey to Skype. I was late getting back from the house, but we finally connected.
And about that time we started sampling the margaritas.
They were strong, as reported by the maker’s significant other.
They were also good.

I think our conversation may have been a bit more animated than usual.
But perhaps that was just my altered perception.
They may have been as parental as always.

But – packing has essentially stopped for the evening.

I need to figure out what to set to ensure we get up in the morning, so I can get to work.
One of the interesting bits of this move is we have only one parking spot for our two cars.
The other car is at our house. Which is also where the newspaper is still being delivered.

Just a few details to figure out.

Today was a very busy day.
In some ways it was less busy than the preceding week, but really just a culmination of the last few months.

Yesterday was the real start, visiting the apartment, getting keys, plunking down the first month’s rent.

So clean and pristine.

And now WE ARE MOVED. mostly.
There are a few hangers on at the house. Like all of the freezer food, and a few other odds and ends. Like the piano.

The piano was scheduled to leave today, but the taker could not muster the truck and strong arms. (June 1 is a very busy day for trucks.)
Which brings me back to the start of our day. After breakfast that is. Off to the storage facility to get their truck. A free use for renters when you sign up. This was a 17- footer, with a 10′ 3″ clearance.

Back to the house, where a few willing participants showed up to help load and move – more stuff to the storage unit. Jim the carpooler, Mark the friend and baseball enthusiast, and Dan the neighbor joined in the fun. This was primarily big stuff, with some boxes thrown in. We were done with this exercise by 10:30, which was good because Dan’s son had a game at 11:00.

Next it was time for the big push. Essentially everything not deemed garbage was destined to leave the house.
I mentioned that we had been busy at this packing task for the last several weeks, and yet there were many things not packed. Some because we used them up to the last minute, like the computer. Others because Carl and I have a slightly different view on what being packed looks like.

One of our heavy lifters was a pusher – move everything as fast as you can. With some care. He had a pretty good eye for the tertiary game playing out in the back of the truck, so I tried to hold my need to get things packed just so in check.

Our move in window was 12-3. During that time we got to block the alley with our truck, and hold the elevator open with a key. This made the move, move. We had one person at the truck, loading down. Two on the elevator runs, and myself stationed on the 5th floor, moving things from the elevator into the apartment. We started a bit after 12, and were finished by 1:30.

Now, the things are in the apartment, but they are not situated.

The best movers we could have asked for.

And then, it was off to Carl’s baseball game.

This is a new team for Carl, the Silver Foxes. They played a team that normally dominates, and turned the tables. They played reasonably good defense, hit well and won 5-1. Carl pitched 5 innings (5-9), and got the win. He also ran the bases, scoring one of the runs. (In the past few years, he has used courtesy runners. He is much happier playing the full game.)

After the game we went to a bar for talk and food. Then it was back home to get a few more essentials (coffee and coffee pit), and head to our new domicile. Once there all we could manage was a bath/shower and finding some clean underwater.

Carl is peacefully sawing logs, while I post via my phone, since the great internet does not arrive until tommorow.

We are on the during again tonight. Comcast arrives tomorrow morning for internet and TV. And we have to make the final move from the house, so it is contractor ready.

When we got home yesterday evening, I planned to write a blog post, if you can call my posts writing.

Instead I think I had some yogurt and fruit, and then went to sleep on the couch.
Oh – there was a brief Skype session with the boy, and a mild attempt to look at the crossword puzzle.

But at 11:30 I changed sleeping venues until this morning.

We also rented Storage Unit #3 – hopefully this will do it for us.

The next big event was a, “Meet the Author,” followed by the Mariners game.

The author was Lucas Mann. His book Class A, Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere.
While attending University of Iowa, studying writing, following the Clinton LumberKings.

He indicated that he was not really more than an average baseball fan, and doesn’t consider this wholly a baseball book, but rather about the people and situations that exist with Class A baseball, and particularly in Clinton, Iowa. Clinton is a depressed small town, and the team is community owned. The players are transient, but the fans are steady. It looks to be a good read.

And, it took 13 innings, but the Mariners finally won a game.
We sat in the 2nd deck with others that had attended to book chat.
It was a nice change to watch from a different vantage. Particularly because the folks that we were with were welcoming, and generally like-minded. It was also a little league day, so there was a good energetic crowd to cheer for whatever was going on at the moment. On the field, and between innings.

Well – time to repeat yesterday’s exercise.

I am so glad I played hookey (sp?) from work today.
It was one of those decisions that happened because of other’s influences, and in the end you don’t know how you would have managed without the decision.

An evening meeting schedule earlier in the week meant that I had to reschedule a contractor/architect meeting from Wednesday until Friday. Because I was asking a favor on the day, I did not try to push the meeting to a late afternoon time so I could work most of the day. It was instead scheduled for 10 AM.

At the last minute (Thursday evening) we decided to try to move some large items to storage today.
Rented a truck.

We wanted a 12-foot truck.
Penske gave us a 16-foot truck for a 12-foot price.

When we arrived, just after their 7 AM opening, they asked who was going to drive.
I volunteered, and tried to give him my driver’s license.
Instead I gave him my ORCA card (One Ride Card for All), which allows you onto all sorts of transit systems around the area.
I pleaded no coffee, and we moved forward.

Driving a truck is just a bit different from driving our small cars.
Let’s just say I only drove over one curb. It took me several back and forths to get around the traffic circle at the end of our block (not a big traffic circle). I also trimmed a few trees in the neighborhood. (10′-6″ clearance required)

We managed to get a load of twin beds (4 of them), a table and some other items over in the morning.
The big part was rearranging what was already in the storage unit to make best use of the space.
It looks like the princess and the pea stack of bedding, with a dis-articulated universal gym on top.

Where a twin bed was.

Following the meeting we made a second run with a crib, desk, shelving, tall bookcase, papasan, exercise mat and who knows what else.

The stack now has the crib and papasan added. The desk has some items underneath.
A previously moved shelving unit now is loaded with baseballs and teetering on top is a … I am not sure how to describe this item. It is a shelving unit, but long and not too high. No legs of its own. It is now on-end on top of the shelving unit.

Let’s just say that taking apart this unit will require a ladder, and a critical eye for figuring out which piece to move first.
And you would not want to be in the unit in an earthquake.

But when the earthquake hits at our house, you will want to be near the new wall at the new south end of the kitchen. It is a skookum wall. All else may fall, but the wall will stand.

3 yds of concrete (part is now hidden underground)

Carl is now off to the Mariner’s game. Our good friend, Mark, is season-ticket holder of the day and gets to hang out (with friends) on the field during batting practice, and then maybe throw out a pitch (not sure about this). He and his family get an upgraded seat as well.

I stayed home to check work e-mails and maybe do some work.
I think I need a break before attempting anything that means anything to somebody.
I wouldn’t want to try using my ORCA card improperly again.

I think I work hard.
I know Carl has been working harder.

We have a house meeting with the contractor and architect tomorrow.
The time to move things around is winding down.

Carl has staged all of the twin beds to move out of the house tomorrow.
That is 4 twin beds.
One of which was upstairs and required a door removal and frame deconstruction.

Next we had to locate a vehicle to transport these items out of the house.
The Prius and Corolla just won’t cut the mustard. Or fit a mattress.

One of our storage facilities has a truck that it rents in 6 hour blocks.
We are working around a 10 AM meeting and a 4 PM commitment.
The morning 6 hour block was probably workable, but by the time we made up our mind, somebody else had made our mind up for us. No truckee.

Off to Penske.
Actually Home Depot – which sent me to Penske with a AAA discount thread.
I think we are going to try for the 7 AM Penske store opening, try and move a load before the 10 AM meeting, and see where we are between meeting and 4 PM.
One bonus is that Penske is a 24 hour rental, so there is a bit more breathing room.

The downside of this moving adventure is that the storage room is filling up.
The next question, after we see what we can fit into the remaining space, is how much more room do we need, and whether another storage space, pod, or tent in the backyard is our best option.

We did a little exercise to figure out what furniture could move into our apartment.
Not much.

On the house itself side, the stem wall pour is done, and most of the forms removed.

This is how much longer the kitchen will be. All in the name of structural soundness. (Can you see the hold down bolt ends? For the earthquake resistance I believe.) 

Needless to say, tomorrow will be a home work day, rather than a work-work day.
We need to fit that in somewhere too.
Maybe on Memorial Day.

Carl did some more big packing today.
Kitchen shelves are being cleared and sorted.
Some sheets folded and boxed (my contribution).

Work by others formed and poured concrete into the stem wall.

New Concrete behind the boards

Getting close to going full bore.

Came home absolutely exhausted from the other work.
I am not even trying to do much tonight.

I think going to bed early, and up in the morning to do some more may be the best decision.