GYPROC!

I think the most exciting phase, besides perhaps painting (which of course would signal the end of the renovations) is happening right now: Gyproc! Finally, we can both see the end in sight. It's been a long haul, and this latest step is perhaps the most instantly gratifying. One sheet of Gyproc covers 32 square feet! That's 32 square feet of CLEAN to this girl. YEEHAW!

For the detail-oriented among you, we're using 5/8" Firecode Gyproc.

After some reflection and thought, Eric decided it would be prudent to shim the ceiling in the guest room level:

It took quite a while to level out the ceiling, and personally, I thought it would be a waste of time, since not one corner of our house seems to be at a 90 degree angle anyhow, but once the first sheet of Gyproc was up, the extra effort was worth it:

Straight as an arrow, baby! So Eric is busy with this latest step, keeping fingers crossed the room will be ready for May 15th when his parents arrive for a visit. (There's nothing like a tight deadline to light the proverbial fire under your ass).

We were at the hardware store yesterday (something that has become a daily occurrence), and I threw a few paint samples in my bag on the way out for good measure. My imagination is on overdrive. I have also been fondling bed throws and pillows with a renewed vigour during my outings to home decor stores, because keeping one's eyes on the prize is what it's all about for me. My creative visualization (read: day-dreaming!) has kept me alive these past few months, considering the mess upstairs. If a couple of paint chips and fabric samples keep me sane, so be it, no harm done.

Probably the hardest thing about the renovations over the past year (besides the dust) has been the lack of closet space. Let's face facts: Half of our house went missing when we started the Knotty Pine Purge, and along with it, we lost 3 closets during the gutting of the upstairs. That's three closets of stuff that needed to be purged, given away, done without, and pared down and stored while we work and live around the mess. Renovations of this magnitude are really not for the faint of heart. Believe me when I say that I mull over the purchase of pretty much every single item twice before making a decision. Do I really need this, or do I want it? Where will I put it? Nature abhors a vacuum and empty closet space...

We already have the furniture that will go in the guest room, save for the IKEA Pax closets that will line one wall for desperately-needed storage space. The bedroom furniture came from IKEA years ago and is still going strong. Its classic design and neutral colour will last a very long time, and I have yet to tire from it. It also comes from an era where IKEA made high-quality furniture in eastern Europe, with a focus on combining quality at a moderate cost, rather than bottom-line cost-savings-made-in-China-basic-minimum $%^& that fills the marketplace today. IKEA remains one of my favorite stores, and I could probably live happily in one of them, but the decline in the quality of their goods has disappointed me in the past few years.

We're at the point where, at the end of the day, we're hunkered down beside the wood stove, Eric reading and me knitting, and one of us says, "hey, let's go check out the GYPROC!", causing us to race each other up the stairs two at a time, and wedge our way into the guest room, ooh-ing and ahh-ing as we admire the clean, straight surface.

The figurative end is near!