Pascal's progress

Once again, here's a picture of the downstairs bathroom, with the lovely cast-iron clawfoot tub. The tub is original to the house, I believe. The previous owners had it re-porcelained, so it is perfectly white and smooth.

But I have been afraid to use it because the inspector pointed out that one of the floor joists beneath the bathroom had been cut through, and another had been notched.

Pascal to the rescue! He managed to get into the crawl space – no small feat, as it's quite a tight opening, about five feet off the floor of the basement – and build a sturdy framework. See that pipe? That's the gas line. If the tub had crashed through the floor, it could very well have blown up the house.
Meanwhile, the bookcases are also progressing. Here are the kitchen shelves. Notice the smaller cabinet door above the broom closet. Pascal rebuilt it with new trim and stained it to match. The ceiling molding is in now, too. There are little triangular shelves that will go in on the right to tie the shelves in to the angled wall. (You can click on the Books tag at the end of this post to see what the space looked like before.)

He's also started on the shelves in the upstairs hallway. (I forgot to take a "before" photo, whoops.) There will also be a shelf over the bathroom door, and he'll run the trim up the ceiling part of that triangle on the end so it looks like the space there is part of the shelves (which it will be).

Once the hall is done, on to the Safari Room. When all the shelves are in, he'll paint everything. Then there's the wainscoting for the guest room and retrimming some oddball woodwork in the living room.

I'm glad I'm able to get all this work done now, as he told me he's planning to move back to France in another year or so.

Mom suggested shackles.