Back to work on the Kitchen: Reno Days 4-7

My title is a little misleading, because while I call it "Days 4-7", almost a month lapsed between Days 3 and 4.  HomoDommi arrived back at the house, somewhat suddenly, last Thursday evening.  He'll be here until this Thursday (3 days from now) and probably will be back next week.  So things are starting to happen. Just, none of them are particularly visible.

One day was lost when we essentially shopped, without finding what we were looking for (doors and windows).  Two days were spent on electricity -- improving switches for the basement lights, and ditching a visible cable carrying power to a sconce over the stairs.  This only tangentially relates to the kitchen -- the visible wiring is now hidden, and the switches now make more sense. You turn on the lights for the stairs when standing in the kitchen, and you turn on the lights in the basement as you enter the basement. (I kept my weight down over the last 4 years by having to cross the basement and run up a storey just to turn the lights in my room on or off. Now that I don't live there anymore, I will have to run downstairs if I forgot to turn them off.)

(The photo above, by the way, is a view formerly not available -- there used to be wall and cabinets in the way.  But I'm standing right in front of where the sink will be installed, so this is kind of the view through the interior window.  We'll have to do something to make the view a little more interesting, though.)

The Texan and I could do nothing during the electrical work. It is a one-man job, and the power was off to the basement, so laundry and similar weekend chores were off-limits. Luckily, we had braggable 60° weather and sun, so we did the first round of spring cleaning on the lawn, mowing and picking up leaves from our spring-shedding oak tree.  The daffodils have been in bloom for over a week now.

Today, we took on the plumbing -- that is, the water pipes that extend across the ceiling of the kitchen to deliver hot and cold to the bathroom upstairs.  They had been hidden in the dropped ceiling area, and need to be moved up. Here, you see the state of the kitchen for much of today -- that is, a pipe (or two or three) hanging down from where it's attached to the joist, dripping steadily into a bucket. We have turned the water off to the second floor, but the shut-off valve won't fully shut-off.

The job, sadly, isn't done yet, as it nears bedtime and HomoDommi is out on a pre-arranged evening with friends.  We hit a tricky area -- that same corner that has too much plumbing and ducting.  The little 1/2" pipes (all plastic, which makes for much easier amending) were just a wee bit too stiff to fit in-between all that other stuff.  But after a fourth or fifth visit to the local hardware store, and a further in-depth chat with Kevin there, we've switched piping for this last section, to some relatively much more flexible stuff that will be able to weave around the other pipes and ducts.  

I doubt that (despite promises and protestations as he ran out late to his appointment) we'll have running water in the bathroom upstairs tonight.  But tomorrow it really should go quickly.