Paws Awhile on Fernandina Beach - The Demolition Continues

Lucy and I got up early so we would be ready when the contractor (AKA Handyman Herb) arrived. I covered the sofa with sheets and moved what furniture we could out of the living area because I assumed he would be doing sheetrock work first.

When Herb arrived, he said he had a helper coming to pull up the carpeting so we would need to move all of the furniture out.  While we waited for the helper, Herb started working on getting rid of the unwanted wall.  He had to move all of the electricity from that wall. Some of it, he would terminate in a box in the ceiling and some, he would pull across the ceiling to the other wall, depending on what we needed.

Herb made me feel useful - he let me switch the circuit breakers to help him determine which circuit controlled which wires.

He was able to remove the entire wall, being careful to cut around the phone cable.  Coastal Telecom is coming tomorrow to move it for me so it will be out of the way.

 

Once the helper-bee (John) arrived, we moved the remaining furniture into the master bedroom.  The sofa was too big to fit through the door, so Herb cut one of the legs off.  He assures me he can drill a hole & put a peg in to put it back on.  I'm not even sure we're going to keep the sofa so I'm not worried about it.

We had to get everything into the bedroom and still leave it usable since Lucy and I are planning to stay here tonight. My friend Joyce taught me the term "Lego Packer" and it describes me perfectly.  I am pretty good at assessing the space and making a plan to fit everything together.

While Helper-Bee John worked on pulling up the carpet, Handyman Herb and I continued to identify circuits. We found one "gotcha" with regard to the microwave. It was on a circuit with several of the outlets in the living room. Herb said this was a no-no because the microwave would pull too much electricity so he will pull new wires and put the microwave on a separate circuit.

We found another bit of bad news once the carpet was up. Most of the floor was fiberboard.  This is a big no-no at the beach.  There is just too much moisture. It needs to be replaced with plywood.

Herb had to leave after lunch due to an emergency call from one of his other customers, but he left the John to finish removing the fiberboard and remove the sheetrock from the refrigerator space.

Now we are ready to expand the refrigerator space, which means reducing the closet space, but, as I said before, we are at the beach.  Who needs clothes? Say goodbye to about 3 inches of the right end of this closet.

Just as I was finishing the blog, I heard Helper-Bee John say, "That's not good." I rushed out to see what was wrong. He had parked his truck under the balcony and had been throwing the fiberboard in the back over the side of the balcony. One of the pieces had broken the back window of his truck.

I felt so bad for him. He didn't seem to want sympathy so I decided to make a run to Lowes to get a gift card for Handyman Herb to use to buy the plywood and other supplies. While I was there, Herb called and asked me to pick up some wire. When I got back, John was gone and Herb was back. He's finishing up some of the wiring now.

I'm getting very excited now that things are finally starting to happen! Lucy and I are flying home tomorrow afternoon so I can get my teeth cleaned and my hair cut.  I'm coming back on Thursday but I'm not sure about Lucy.  She doesn't seem to like all of the noise.

I think that's it for today. My phone says it got up to 82 degrees today!!! It was a beautiful day on the beach. Too bad we didn't get to spend much time lounging around.