Life in Dirt Land!!!

Sorry for the terrible delay in posting. Looks like this blog thing is not really for me, but I am doing my best. The work in the kitchen continues on an almost-daily basis, though visually it is getting harder to see progress. Here's a few of the things we've done lately...

1. Finished removing all debris from the room. So far we are at 4,000lbs of building materials brought to the transfer station, which means we've muscled down roughly a ton of junk a piece from the third floor walk-up **flexes**
2. Removed non-critical electrical (done by B, I don't mess with electricity after my dubious success in "electrical engineering for mechanical engineers" class). As per the norm in this house, ghetto work before hand resulted in many single outlets each having their own breaker. These have been removed, all new electrical materials have been purchased and a diagram has been made of future outlets/switches. 
3. Removed base-board heat from along the wall that has been removed. The little experiment was quite the funny one. Basically we had to turn the AC in the front room where the thermostat is located to cool the room to a reasonable temp. With the center section of the pipe removed and the hot water shut off, B then went to the basement. We communicated via cell phone as he turned the water back on. I then ran to the front room and cranked the heat on the thermostat. Still on the phone, I ran back to the kitchen with a bucket and waited to see which end the hot water would start gushing from. Once I got water upstairs, B was able to shut off the main supply again, and now we know which way the water is moving through the heating system. Naturally the supply side is not near the existing walls (that would be way too easy) so we'll have to cap that and have the plumber put a new supply line in when he arrives Friday.
4. Stuck new drain pipes from our unit to the basement. Our new laundry closet will require more drainage, and though we couldn't really see down the scary dark shaft next to the fireplace, this turned out to be a fairly painless task. Thank goodness, as busting through a wall in either of the two units below us was NOT part of the plan. Hopefully this should speed some of the plumbing work this weekend. 
5. Extended the gas line to new stove location. Again, I did not participate in this task (are you sensing a trend re: tasks that require real skillz?). After some out-of-the-box thinking, B was able to extend the existing line behind the "kitchen chimney" (not to be confused with the fireplace chimney or the front room chimney), to minimize the space we will lose from that wall. Viola! He is so fancy and impressive :-) 

I'm sure there has been plenty of other action while I've been off gallivanting at dance and what-not, but this gives you a quick glimpse of how many projects are required before you can even start the big stuff!