Saturday is our main work day on the farm. There’s only so much we can do in the evenings when we come home from our day jobs, so we tend to put in a full day when we have the opportunity.

We’re focused right now on the basement and have finally started the process of putting it back together. The exterior walls in the main room and office have new studs. The electrician has fixed all of the wiring. The bathroom has been gutted.

This past Saturday, we got rid of all of the equipment that was part of the old water system for the house and the indoor pool. Of course, it was all full of water (even the pool filter, which we were told hadn’t been used in at least two years) and extremely heavy. We drained as much of the water as we could before hauling them up the stairs.

My Dad starting the siphon to drain the water from the old pool filter. And yes, I had the pleasure of restarting the siphon three more times myself, after it became clogged with the sand that was inside the filter. I’ll spare you the description of what the water tasted like.

The other clean-up we did was finally getting rid of our pile of scrap metal, thanks to a metal drive organized by a local Rotary club.

Old window wells, hinges, nails, wires, an old reel lawn mower, pipes, racks, shelves that we’ve gathered from around the property have been piling up beside our fire pit.

Back in the basement we made good progress on the bathroom. I pulled down the old studs on the exterior wall to get it ready for new framing, and Matt broke up the floor for the shower drain and the toilet (the new walls will be thicker than the old ones, so the toilet has to be repositioned by just a few inches).

Smashing concrete with a sledgehammer is not a fun job. I’m so glad I didn’t have to do it.

It was another productive Saturday. I feel like we’ve finally turned the corner on the basement reno from demo into reconstruction.

What did you do with your weekend? Anyone else have a regular Saturday project?