Another Project (or two) Completed

Some time ago, the Wizard and I talked about taking out the ugly box around the kitchen light fixtures as part of our "beautify the house in order to sell it" campaign. The Wizard got a little done, but we decided it was a job for a younger person.

Today, Sports Nut had a hammer (well, a sledge-hammer) and decided to hammer in the morning.

 But before that, we had to move the kitchen into the dining room:

And have the kitchen counter inspectors in to make sure we didn't miss anything:

By lunch time, Sports Nut had made significant progress while watching NCAA basketball playoffs in the background.

Of course, there was dust everywhere:

Forensics experts would probably be happy to have a rug like that at the scene of a crime. All I can do is toss it in the washing machine and destroy the evidence.

Perserverance and sheer muscle power paid off in the end. The box around the light fixtures is gone:

Our plan is to replace the 3 light fixtures here with a central fixture that includes a fan. After the electrician gets the fan installed, we will hire someone to fix the holes in the ceiling and the hole in the wall that was left when we redid the kitchen two summers ago and moved the refrigerator's water line for the ice maker. And we will probably also have them repair some minor water damage elsewhere.

And yes, all that is in aid of leaving Dodge. So it's all good.

The demolition, naturally, left behind a bit of debris. In additional to all of these bits and pieces, there are two really long boards that formed the sides of the light box  waiting outside. They will be hauled out of reach of the small children who show up here from time to time. There was also a lot of dust, which we are still wiping off and sweeping up.

Happily for all of us, the vacuum cleaner finally came home! It can't do much about the dust on surfaces, but it's been a big help in getting the dust on the floors. I almost didn't recognize it when I picked it up from the repair shop, however. They cleaned it up as well as unclogging its pipes.

It may not be as obvious in these before (left) and after (right) pictures, but it sure was obvious to us. It sucks up the stuff on the floors again, too. Just look at Future Vet's bedroom now:

All those little lumps of black fur that were on the floor in yesterday's picture are now consolidated into one enormous black cat!