day 74

Two things.

1 - Work is kicking my derriere this week.  Scratch that, this month.

2 - Progress has slowed down, which makes me sad.  The siding has been going up for almost two weeks now.  It warmed up just enough for the ground to become a huge, muddy mess.  And, then, we got just enough freezing rain to make everything a slippery ice rink.  The joys of Wisconsin in January! 

I dropped donuts off last Friday morning (day 68) to try to motivate the crew a bit.  I think it would have worked, had they shown up.  Instead, the box was a soggy mess that got tossed in the dumpster that night.  Thinking about it now, maybe I should have left it on the stoop until they showed up again?  I suppose that completely contradicts the nice gesture, though.  Instead, we made the trek to DD again on Monday and dropped off a fresh box.  Nothing says 'thanks for freezing your rumps off in below freezing weather to hang my siding while I sit in a semi-warm office with my space heater' better than sugary, chocolatey goodness, right?

 The siding crew did show up on Saturday (day 69) to hang our shake.  I love it.

And the carpenter showed up on Sunday (day 70) for the last time to get our front porch posts put in.  I was seriously impressed with this guy.  Besides being easy to talk to and super helpful, his construction "uniform" always cracked me up.  I don't think I've ever seen a carpenter work in sweats.

They finished hanging the siding on the side of the house Tuesday (day 72) and today they wrapped up the front (day 74).  I'm pretty sure the only thing left is the side of the house with the garage.  I'm also not completely sure if the soffit under the front porch is finished. 

We've been waiting on an inspection all week (and part of last week, too).  Once it's done, I think they'll start hanging insulation.

In other news - I finally broke down and purchased the oval pivot mirrors from Restoration Hardware that I've been coveting.  They arrived in the mail today and I'm in love.  If anyone else has been eying them, they're still on sale.

[Vintage Oval Pivot Mirror from Restoration Hardware]

Our local-ish Restoration Hardware brick and mortar store is going out of business, so we hit them up on Saturday hoping to find some good deals.  Everything was 50% off, but most things had already been picked over.  I did manage to pick up some towel hooks for our master bathroom, though.

[Gilmore Hook from Restoration Hardware]

We also hit up our local Restoration Hardware outlet to see if they happened to have any mirrors in stock before we ordered.  I debated over one but it didn't have the exact finials I loved and it was a little more dented than I would have preferred.  We ultimately passed on it but did end up falling in love with a bed.

[Chesterfield Upholstered Sleigh Bed from Restoration Hardware]

Isn't it gorgeous?  The one at the outlet was a king and missing a connector for the cross boards.  When combining multiple markdowns, it was down to about $800 (from $2700).  The connector seemed easy enough to fix and it took everything I had to do the responsible thing and walk away.

In other news, there was an appraisal on the condo we're renting today and we've been told they have an offer.  The bank hasn't accepted it yet, but we're crossing our fingers, toes, arms and legs that it's a drawn out process.  I'm quite confused by the need for the appraisal at this point, though, and I'm hoping it's not a sign that our landlord is holding back information.  I'd really hate to have to move again since our house completion date has been pushed out to the end of March.  It's always something.