day 80

I'm in a little bit of disbelief that we're on day 80.  11.5 weeks.  2.5 months.  In some ways, it seems like forever.  Afterall, we've really been working on this project for 8 months or so.  In other ways, another 80 days does not seem like enough time to get everything done.  But, I'm totally ready to be done.  Ready to move in.  Ready to decorate.  Ready to throw a housewarming party.  Ready to be out of this drafty condo.  The only part I'm not ready for is the packing up and moving again.  Any volunteers for that task?

It's cold in Wisconsin this week.  Not "Los Angeles cold" (see clip below - it's worth a laugh, especially if you hail from a state that actually gets snow or ice), but truly cold.  I think my car said -6 yesterday morning and we were up to 16 this morning.  Anyway, the cold means two things.  1) We're lining the walls of E's current room with blankets (see above).  I have never seen/lived in/experienced such a drafty place.  Especially one that's only 23 years old.  The wind and cold air is gushing through the electrical outlets and seeping in where the floor and walls meet.  It's crazy.  2) There hasn't been any progress on the exterior of the house.



I absolutely do not blame the siding guy for not coming out this week.  My fingers turned red when I ran out to the house for a short five minutes today at lunch.  While I was not surprised to see no work going on outside, I was completely surprised to see that the insulation was done inside.  Well, stage one is done.  The walls are insulated and plastic is hung.  I assume they'll be ready to do the ceiling insulation once the drywall is up.

[kitchen corner]

[dining area ceiling]

[master bedroom corner]

[living room]

[bedroom 2]

Nothing too pretty to look at, but we are beyond excited to see progress again.  I tried to peek through the plastic on the window to see when the inspection had been done and it looked like it had just been signed off on this morning.  The crew must have been on stand-by to come complete the insulation as soon as the inspection was signed off on.  I believe, at this point, they need to start warming up the inside and will then begin drywall.  The furnace is installed and hooked up to a thermostat already so I think everything just has to be fired up.  I'm not looking forward to paying two heating bills in this weather.

In other news, it was crazy windy on Saturday (day 76) and we lost some shingles.  It hasn't been hot enough for everything to properly adhere to the tar paper, so the 40 to 60 mph winds were able to do a bit of damage to the roof.  Not exactly what you want to see when you walk up, but the Construction Manager is aware and assures us everything will be fixed.

And, we received news late last week that the tile we'd selected for our fireplace is no longer available. I'm a huge second-guesser of decisions and was actually quite confident in my fireplace tile decision.  So, the thought of having to select something else wasn't very appealing.  Luckily, the Designer seems to understand by taste pretty well at this point and I was immediately on board with his recommendation.

[tumbled Torreon by Daltile]

Next up?  Ordering cabinets.  Finding a kitchen sink faucet.  Picking a paint color for the master bath and main bath.  Picking a paint color for the kitchen.  Maybe picking up a different post light (still not in love with the one we bought).  Picking out a lamp post.  And???  Anything I'm missing?

day 76

I finally had a chance to grab some progress photos on the real camera.  I've been out to the lot a few times this week to check on things, but it's always been a quick trip at lunch.  The siding guy must think I'm nuts.

Speaking of the siding guy...  He was out working again today - by himself.  The first few days there were two workers, but all of this week there has only been the one.  It just doesn't seem efficient to me.  The good news is that he's just about done.  There is a little bit left to do on the side of the garage and then he'll have to wrap up the trim on the front of the house.  I'm anxious for the stone to go up so I can everything pulled together, but based upon the cold front coming our way, I'm guessing that's still a while out.

We also finally had the inspection on the carpentry, rough plumbing and rough electrical this past Thursday (day 74).  I have no idea what is normal, but there is a list of nine things that must be corrected before they grant approval.  The various crews are supposed to be out there making fixes this weekend so that the inspector can come back on Monday or Tuesday.  Once we get sign off, they'll begin insulating.

The HVAC was installed at some point this week as well (day 73 maybe?).  We've been told it's ready to be turned on as soon as they're done insulating so that drywall work can begin.

And, thanks to a Garden Web forum, we took a second (or one hundred and second) look at our kitchen plans and realized that the pantry door and refrigerator door would have interfered with one another as laid out.  The cabinet guy suggested adding a 15" utility cabinet to scoot the fridge down a bit, so we now have slightly altered kitchen plans.  I also had him make the switches I'd previously talked about -- getting rid of the full-height doors between the oven and cooktop and then switching to three drawers under the cooktop.  The floating shelves aren't shown within the diagrams below, but we're still planning to hang them to the right of the fridge.

 

There were several other changes people suggested, but I wasn't willing to make the trade-off for some of them (e.g. getting rid of our pantry to extend the space to the right of our sink or moving our sink to the peninsula).  I'm sure there will end up being things I want to change later, but right now I'm thrilled to have something larger than our old galley kitchen (which, despite being small, I adored - the before/after photos are worthy of a post... actually the whole house is).

[ignore that there is nothing on the wall - this wasn't long after we moved in]

My dad came up this weekend, so Hubby and I had a chance to get out for a date night tonight.  We went grocery shopping, hit Taco Bell for dinner and stopped at Pier1, JCPenney and Target.  Date nights have seriously changed in the past three years

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.

day 66

Despite it being January 9 (umm - how is it the 9th already?), it's still year-end to me.  In the world of accounting, I really don't get to celebrate the new year until early in February.  And, because I have a stack of papers to get through that's about a foot tall (no joke - I should take a photo for evidence), this  post is going to be short, sweet and to the point.  Mostly.  Sometimes I have a hard time staying focused.  I think Hubby's ADD tendencies are wearing off on me after almost 13 years.

day 62 - Granite day!!  We headed up to the warehouse first and picked out three slabs for the kitchen and drop zone.  I was proud of myself for staying on budget (though I was tempted a few times!) and really like the stone we picked out (Kashmir White).  It's a pretty common color, but the slabs we selected have a little different 'veining' that I really like.  We also headed to the fabrication center to choose our bathroom counters from their remnants.  We ended up selecting a dark brown granite for E's bathroom (Coffee Brown) and a fun cream/tan/grey granite for our bathroom (Vanilla Ice).  A certain someone in this relationship was sold as soon as he heard the name.  Boys.  We're doing a square edge for the kitchen and master bath and a beveled edge for E's bath.  The crew we worked with was great and I can't wait to meet with them again to do the actual layout.

[kitchen granite - Kashmir White]

[kitchen granite - Kashmir White]

[kitchen granite - Kashmir White]

[main bath granite - Coffee Brown]

[main bath granite - Coffee Brown]

[master bath granite - Vanilla Ice]

[master bath granite - Vanilla Ice]

[master bath granite - Vanilla Ice]

[day 62 house shot]

day 63 - down day

day 64 - The siding started going up.  Exciting!!  Hubby ran by Monday night and saw that some had been hung but he really didn't get a good look in the dark.  I can't wait until it starts staying light longer at night.  Also - our big lighting order from Build.com was delivered and our awesome drum pendant from Crate and Barrel came in.  Our condo is getting fuller and fuller by the day.

day 65 - Siding work continued.  My sister came up to visit for a couple of days and I took her out for a quick visit during 'lunch' (which really ended up being pretzels, a Diet Coke and peanut M&Ms at my desk about 2:45 - mmmmm).  It was the first time I'd seen the siding on the house and we also happened to run into the building inspector.  He'd just started taking a look at the rough plumbing and I didn't want to interrupt, so we didn't chat too long.  He seemed nice, though!  Later that night, we picked our tub up from Menards -- finally!  At first they told us it'd already been picked up, but then they were able to locate it.  Thank goodness.  The box was super flimsy and let's just say I was glad it was dark and that our new neighbors couldn't see Hubby and I trying to maneuver it from the truck to the house and down the stairs.  No broken bones and the tub is still in once piece, so I'm calling it a success - no matter how ugly the process might have been.

[main bath tub is in!]

I'm not sure what's slated for the rest of the week.  Other than I joined our subdivision's book club.  We're gathering on Friday night and I haven't read the book yet.  The good news is that I did read it a few years ago.  The bad news it that I have no idea where the book is packed and I can't remember the difference between the novel and real life events.  It could be a late few nights.  Journal entries, balance sheet reconciliations and "Loving Frank" are all calling my name!