Quarantine Projects

So what has everyone been up to for the last four months? Anything new or interesting going on in the world? Part of the reason for my lack of activity on the blog was that I couldn’t use my right arm for the last two months (slows down my typing speed!). Other than that little snafu,¹ we’ve all been safe and sound so far – hope you all are reasonably safe and sane!

The other contributing factor to my lack of blogging is that we haven’t actually done anything on the house itself since we repaired that little septic pipe at the start of the quarantine, and some very labor intensive gardening and vine clearing that Bridgette and I managed get done (which may be a later post).

Instead we have been busy acquiring a bunch of materials we need (or, someday might need or want) for upcoming renovations.

So what’s the easiest way to do this?

Obviously, to buy the contents of an entire abandoned warehouse and promise to empty the whole damn thing out — two days before NY and surrounding states shut down for the pandemic. Two days before it became impossible to rope in our family and friends for help, or to hire any extra arms, legs, hands, or tentacles to get this thing done.

Long story short – Elliot and I are absurd people and do absurd things,² and Sergiu and Bridgette are constantly paying the price.

But as of yesterday, the warehouse is empty and we are the proud parents of more building supplies, lumber, industrial shelving, carpentry equipment, hundred-year-old safes, and showroom doors, windows, and kitchens (and etc) than we could ever actually use (or store at the house³).

Highlights relevant for our own use⁴ include:

• Showroom/model Kitchens
  Complete (and incredibly well-made and expensive) kitchens from the showroom – we’ll mix and match or pick the best one(s) for our kitchen renovation⁵
  
• Pillars
  Super random (and entirely thanks to me for having vision!), but we also got the exact-right-number of exact-right-size pillars for when we fix up (or completely rebuild) the front porch!
  
  It was entirely my vision (and I had to fight everyone on it!), but it was Sergiu’s skills at dismantling things without ruining them that actually got all twelve pillars out safely.
  Each of the twelve pillars is rated at 1k lbs, they are perfect for our porch!!
• Library
  A complete home library set, made of cherry and maple, masterfully put together (and carefully taken apart for transport by the only one of us actually proficient with a crowbar)
  
• Super awesome kitchen sink!
  
  I think both kids could bathe in this sink at the same time. It’s amazing.
• Stair ladders!!!
  One large, one small, and both so much fun and versatile in their utility!
  
• Our picnic table!
  One of the first things that made it back to Wassaic, and probably (so far) the most-used!
  
• Countless other useful things…
  Windows, doors, paint, so much lumber, planters, liquid countertop, trellises, cantilever racks, wiring, plumbing supplies, etc.
  Many very useful things for our house. And so many more things.

So roughly four months later, we are done. We learned a lot, didn’t manage to harvest nearly as much of the stuff that we wanted to or could have, but c’est la vie. Live and learn. The next random warehouse we buy, we’ll be way more prepared and way more efficient.⁶

¹ Bear fight. You should see the other guy.
² Unfortunately for our respective partners, our ridiculousness is not simply added to each others when we are together, but instead becomes somehow more absurd than the sum of our absurds.
³ Thank goodness for Dads and Grandads… and their outbuildings just begging to be filled with stuff!
⁴ Safe! The amazing hundred year old enormous safe that we are going to use for catching road runners!

⁵ Vote for your favorite kitchen in the comments! We can’t decide/agree, so external input is appreciated!
⁶ We like saying things like this around Sergiu and Bridgette, who instantly turn very violent and exasperated with us.