How do they do it????

So ...... parts of my mornings, when I am spinning or knitting or embroidering, include binge watching HGTV shows Fixer Upper and Property Brothers on Netflix.


And I have to admit, I get discouraged.

I mean ... really????  You can totally re-do this house in 3 weeks or 4 weeks..... and have very few issues??????

Now ... I know there are many people working on those projects.  And they never show the bad stuff.  Well, not the really bad stuff that they can't fix in 15 minutes.

So ...... if you too, are addicted to DIY shows .... I am here to give you a reality fix.  This should be entitled ... So why did they do this????

This past weekend's project in the kitchen was to finish the wiring on the east wall.  The boxes needed to be moved.  Two outlets needed to be changed out to GFI's outlets and four pushbutton switches installed.

Honey had removed the cabinets earlier in the week and discovered plywood covering part of the wall. On Saturday, he removed the plywood to discover this ......

Plaster missing.

And although all this area is covered by cabinets ... we decided to repair it.  So off to the big box store that we hate .... and we walked the entire length of the store to buy a small sheet of plaster board.

THEN Honey tore into the wall ......

Evidently, there had been repairs before.   There is a line across the wall.  Upper part is drywall.  Lower part is plaster.  The nails on the lath are different.  The lath "patched" into place.  And the plaster is different from the rest of the wall and is the consistency of concrete.

 

OK ..... it is concrete.

So the plaster came off ....

The lath came off .....

And another surprise!!!  No insulation under the plaster!  Behind the drywall .... yes.  Behind the plaster .... no!!!

 

Back to the big box store we hate to return small sheet of plaster board and buy a whole sheet of plaster board.  That Honey had to trim off 1/4" to fit.   (If you have ever cut drywall etc .... you know, it is those tiny measurements that really are a pain to do.

And we found out what was done with the leftover concrete......

Dumped between two studs.   :(

This might have been a two frowny face moment.

So that is cleaned out .... the wall is insulated ... and drywall is put into place.

And I am cussing Joanna and Chip Gaines for getting everything done in three weeks.

This weekend, hopefully, the electrical will be done.  Once that is done, the walls can get painted, the floor can go down and some of the chaos will go away.  That also means the sink will go away..... but the cabinets are scheduled to be shipped next week.  So hopefully, we are putting things back together by the first of March.

In the mean time ..... rejoice with me on the beauty of my light fixture.

This is the light fixture that was in my parent's dining room in 1961.  I cried when they tried to throw it away.  So they stored it in the basement for a few years and tried to throw it away again ..... and I cried.  

And I hauled it around for years in the trunk of my car until I had the perfect house for it.  

Honey put it over the stove for me 16 -17 years ago.  But finally, I spent the time to polish it up. 

It won't look like this for long.  It is un-lacquered brass and it will naturally tarnish but for the moment, I can delight in its pretty glow of polished brass.  

OK ....  one more photo ...........

That is worth two smiley faces!!!  :)  :)