Turns out the smaller room is right by the front step. As we couldn't put a window in there, Coreen went ahead and painted the walls and I put in the floor. Coreen then moved everything out of the larger room (the spare bedroom) into this one.
The larger room was looking pretty bare. The previous weekend we had dug a hole in the garden for the window installer who showed up on Thursday and cut a hole in the wall. Various network and phone cables for the computer lab can be seen hanging from the removed ceiling panel... I should really tidy that up.
The kids helped to stamp down the dirt in the hole as Coreen started adding gravel for drainage. Beautiful day to be working outside.
With the window well in place and filled with gravel, I shovelled all the dirt back in around it. The last step was to put the 4x4 runners in, level them out, and move the sidewalk tiles back into place.
Turns out I put them back exactly as they originally were: uneven and wobbly. The runners must be warped. Oh well, this sidewalk is ugly anyway and needs to be replaced with something else.
We'll get right on that, I'm sure... after we've figured out what will grow in the new strip of dirt beside the sidewalk (the grass never did well there)... and finished the basement rooms... and agreed on the new colour and finished painting the house... and replaced the back deck... and...