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I've neglected the blog. Clearly.

I'm feeling pretty excited right now. I've been off the bike with few exceptions since the end of September. We've undertaken some home improvement. And now that it's late November, there's finally been a big shot of improvement.

The ground floor has suffered from neglect since we moved in. We never really used the space down there. I think it's safe to say that now we'll be using it quite a lot.

Starting in early October, we started planning for an overhaul of the house, starting at the bottom and work our way up. Susan figured out the general plan and set me to it. We weren't sure how much we could do or how much time it would take. Even costs were questionable, as they always are when you've never done something like this.

So far, we've pulled carpet, pulled drywall, demo'd some stuff, moved plumbing and electrical and removed trim. That was how things started. We added a half bath with a pocket door, expanded the laundry area, built a closet for my gear, enclosed some

cords in the wall, painted, installed heated floors, tiled and grouted. The last slab of work is installing a sink/cabinet next to the dryer, trim and some touch-up paint.

It's been great. A high school buddy of mine actually knows how to do this stuff so he's been teaching me a lot. He's a busy guy and I'm about 4 to 1 on his hours. Taking on the heated floors was cool. He's never done it so I had to walk him through the install. It's really the cherry on the whole project. The heated floor will allow us to avoid using the HVAC system in the winter along with our fireplace.

The first pic is the view from the back room looking into the hallway/laundry area. The grout is

still well but it's light grey. I finished the grout today and laid those last tiles way under that stairway.

The second pic is my payoff. New 7.1 surround. HDMI passthrough switching with up-convert for non-HDMI input(Wii).

Of course, the other payoff is that now I get to start on the kitchen. Cabinets, tile floor, tile backsplash, more heated floor, some electrical (which means more drywall, mudding, sanding and painting) and to find a good place to vent that damnable dishwasher! Drives me nuts. Yes, like my favorite pirate joke.

The last picture is the view from the doorway into the back room.

I've missed a lot of riding this fall but the few rides I've had have been great - dawn patrol with the local boys. I've spent many evenings and every weekend (save for DCCX work and rain garden planting). And Susan has been cranking upstairs with kids, organization and food. She's been cooking like crazy in preparation for the kitchen remodel. It's hard to overstate how much Susan has pulled through to allow me to spend so much time on the project. I work, food shows up, I eat and get right back to work. Susan does all the work that we used to share.

And the kids have been great. When they haven't been great, they've been tough. A week out of school is a lot of work, for sure.

So, we'll see everyone soon (two more months?) when we have the post-remodel party. We have to wait a month to crank on the heated floors anyway... That's gonna be awesome. Yes, we'll be sleeping down there...