My carpenter finished paneling the first of two closets that had damage from ice dams. The one he finished (about a day and-a-half) is a downstairs coat closet and was in the WORST shape....a few holes in the walls, evidence of mice infiltration, plumbing and heat ducts going through it, and just generally really banged up.

I picked out some nice paneling sheets, much nicer and lighter than that hideous dark brown stuff you saw in rec rooms in the 70s.

The only thing i'm not crazy about is that i told him to go ahead and panel the ceiling, only because there is a piece of plumbing that extends down from above the closet ceiling and so after repairing a leak, the plumber quickly created a botched box around it and it looked terrible. I wanted the ceiling to be flush and level with no box, so the only way to do that was to lower the ceiling by an inch or so. I guess the carpenter could have sheet rocked a new ceiling and then taped it, but that would require multiple coatings and return visits and more $ so i told him to just cover it with paneling. It does look a little funny, but it's just a closet. I can live with it. Labor and materials for just that one closet cost me $365, which is quite reasonable.

He also created a false wall to hide hot and cold water pipes for a washer/dryer that i guess used to be in this closet. he used removable screws so that if a future homeowner wanted to put the washer/dryer here, they could easily access the plumbing behind the panel.

He'll start a smaller closet in the upstairs spare bedroom on Thursday and hopefully finish on Saturday.

This guy was really hurting financially this winter. He doesn't really advertise. I'd like him to give me a price for doing wood paneling beneath the chair rails on the two front-facing walls of my living and dining rooms. Just one wall in each room, as an accent, and maybe paneling on the 2 sides of my staircase, a small space. I'd like to cover up the walls becus they have bumps in them around where bigger older windows were replaced and the subsequent taping around the larger opening was poorly done. There's also old wallpaper that I painted over without knowing about the wallpaper, and it's a real mess when you try to take it off. (No one used wallpaper primer like I do.) Plus I love the look of wood paneling. perhaps an expensive solution to the wall issue, but I just want to see how much it would be. It's just the lower part of 2 walls, how much could it be? He he.

I hate the distraction of having him working there, and banging on the walls and stuff but at least i'm able to work at home. The cats get scared too and don't move all day. Don't like workmen in the house when i'm not here.

I'm also going to "bundle" a bunch of little jobs he can do and give me a single price on. He's so reasonably priced, I really should do it.

Tomorrow is my job interview with the accounting firm. I'll be glad when that's behind me.

Thursday I work at home and Friday I'm headed to New Haven. I should get my first paycheck from this job then!/!!!

I passed a former co-worker/writer's resume onto my boss at the new job and was thinking how nice it would be to work with someone I'm familiar with, although it would really just be that one day a week I have to go into the office. Given where she lives, she'd pass right by me; we could carpool in and save some gas!