Tortoise-Like Progression

Our remaining house projects (inside and out) are coming along slow and steady now, and after the pace of last year, that's fine by me. We live here now and that's just like a big sigh...ahhhhhh!

The outside retaining wall was completed, grass is now growing, and mulch was laid down on our northern slope.

Hopefully all this will hold our little spot of the planet in place. We're now searching for a more permanent fence and gate so that Zippy can regain his private reign over the backyard.

More coats of paint, window treatments, mirrors, shelves, hooks, furniture... you name it- we're doing it inside the house. But in our own way, which of course means finding things we can reuse as well as family labor practices.

Here are just a few of my favorite recent projects:

Jamey adds his genius design and carpentry skills to our bathroom mirror (also from the floorboards of our old house).

Sadly, Jamey had to leave before the mirror was completed and so it took a couple more weeks for Anthony to finish it.

Add in my bucket-handle-for-a-towel-holder and we're now calling this bathroom done.

My dad spent some time picking out and arranging just the right NY apple branches for us to hang our coats on.

We've learned over the past several years that the secret to living in small spaces with a lot of fun gear is organization.

Our basement project is just beginning.

The porch swing was given to us by our neighbor.

We painted it and restrung the rope. Natalie enjoys her choice of rocking devices.

Just like with anything, there's always something else that can be done, but at this time nothing feels as necessary, and so we're moving along at our new improved (slower) pace.

-J

Power Up

Ah, lights, refrigeration, hot water, internet... Welcome back!

I jokingly blame Anthony for our three days of indoor "camping". I seem to remember a previous post where he might have dared a hurricane to show up. Our new house held up well.

First big storm in the new house

Irene was windy and blustery, but overall not too damaging in our area. We did lose power Sunday afternoon, and it was finally restored this afternoon (Wednesday). The fence between our yard and our northern neighbors also fell down, but it was going to be taken down this month anyway. Since it was mostly high winds and very minimal rain here our new loam stayed in place. (We had placed straw bales strategically on the hillside, just in case.)

Temporary lack of fence between our house and the neighbors

& our some of our erosion control straw bales

The storm did delay our landscaper another week though. However, I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.

-J

The Grass Is Truly Greener on the Other Sides of the Fences

Mostly because we don't have grass yet.

I think the neighbors have also been doing extra good jobs on their lawns just to spite us. To our credit, three carloads of New York apple orchard stones did make their way out here this summer for our amateur "class up the shed" event.

Yes my dad is doing physically demanding labor the day before the big Falmouth Road Race.

He still won his age group...

Pretty nice, eh?

Yet in typical house-building fashion, our professional landscaping has been held up a while. Our landscaper, Paul, is a guy that gave us a quote in the early spring and then religiously called Anthony every Wednesday after that to see how we were doing on our decision. We finally signed on with him in early July, anticipating that he would start a week or two after. Delays and hold-ups begat more delays and hold-ups. And well, you know how delays and rabbits handle multiplication...

We began to get used to our fancy schmancy new house with the ghetto yard. I think in some way it helped ease our transition to niceness from all the shacks we're used to living in. (Plus, I think we both secretly enjoyed not mowing this summer.)

Remember this one?

Our Oregon shack and fast-growing grass (which Anthony is cutting with scissors- long story).

We used to love August when the grass would finally turn brown and die and we could have some mowing time off.

Just when we were assured that we were really good to go and the stone guy was going to come and start building our retaining wall, he (ironically?) got a kidney stone. The grading and loaming did go on without him however.

Our new dirt is much darker than the sand we've been tracking in all summer.

*Of course* that started today- there's a hurricane coming! Why would we hold off a few more days when we can spread out all this expensive dirt now just in time for Irene to toss it about? And with nothing to retain it yet. *sigh*

-J

Realizations

We haven't felt the need to blog lately because, well, the house building is pretty uneventful right now. We're mostly just getting settled and waiting for some key professional landscaping ingredients. However, inside we have realized a couple of things:

a. Despite being 20 feet wide, there's a lot of open space in the house. Or maybe it's just that we don't have very much furniture. This is proving to be a positive in Natalie's book- especially as she learns to walk with her little car back and forth and back and forth and back and forth (and back and forth). Plus we have plenty of room for a tent and tunnel in our living room- and isn't that just every child's dream? Twenty feet wide is proving to be plenty big so far.

...and back and forth

b. Our shiny new house makes the furniture we do have look ugly.

Like maybe it came from the streets of Boston on "big trash day" or the "as is" section of Ikea or something. We've been taking what we have and all the little things we saved and trying to give it all a place in our new life. We certainly don't *need* new stuff, we're living comfortably and fine with what we have. Paint can do wonders. Fabric can be reused. Hardware is available on something your husband called trash three days ago.

No, I'm not going to show you a picture of our ugly furniture.

I'm going with these cute window treatments instead.

My mother was intrigued by the challenge of creating roman shades for Natalie's room by taking apart old venetian blinds from our last house to use as parts.

c. We're too afraid to commit to hanging pictures and other things that require holes in our pretty new walls. Heck, we're too afraid to commit to buying floor mats for the front door and that certainly doesn't require holes. I think this drove my parents crazy last week during their visit. How many times did we hear, "You know, you should really put something to hang towels on in the bathroom." or "You really should get a mat for the front door." After rushing to commit and decide so much in the past year we have now slowed down considerably. Yes we know things like this can be changed, but knowing us, once we've committed $12.99 to a floor mat, it's not going to be changed until it literally falls apart. Therein lies the fear of commitment.

Note the artwork resting on the repainted shelf in the background.

Feel free to come over and vote where you think it should be hung.

-J

Tape

We've been pushing through the red tape all year, and there's still a little bit more of that to go, I'm sure (bank inspector comes Thursday), but now we're ceremoniously done with another sort of tape- the green tabs that we were using to open our cabinets and drawers.

The "before" : green tape tabs

Master of precision

Yes, we got around to installing the knobs and pulls. And while I felt that the green had added a fun hint of color, I do have to say that the doors and drawers open so much better with the real stuff.

The "after"

Island drawers sans green tape

Classy!

It's starting to be pleasant realizing we can now slow down and do things at our own when-we-get-to-it pace. Sure there's plenty to do still, but we're in. We're living here just fine the way it is. There's no dire rush anymore, and that's nice.

-J

Suitable for Framing

I hold in my hands our actual Certificate of Occupancy.

Anthony gathered the final signature on our building permit this morning. (In case you're wondering, the last one was Conservation- although they have not granted their own Certificate of Compliance yet, apparently we're good enough to live here).

We are officially official.

-J

Builder 1, Inspector 0.

Well, maybe builder -32 (up from -33), inspector 435 would be more accurate, but we'll still take the win. I'll spare you the dramatic build up...our house finally passed inspection. But, as per usual, even try #3 was not without its own drama.

With Natalie at "school" for the day, Jody and Zippy spent Monday, inspection #3 day, out of the house to accommodate a visit from the town. She returned mid-afternoon to find a cryptic note on the permit where the signature should have gone, saying only "thermostats not programmable?" Hearing of this at work from Jody, I relayed the news to John the Builder via a phone message. In truth, I also though it might be good to have fancy thermostats. We started with programmable thermostats, but they didn't work, as someone installed the wrong wires during rough in. Last week the plumbers replaced the non-working ones with old school dial thermostats. Apparently, with radiant floor heat, dials are just as good...so there you go.

10 minutes later John called back, hopping mad, and read me the appropriate line from the current edition of the Mass. State Building Codes that said programmable thermostats were required with forced-air systems, but made no mention of other heat sources. He followed up with some choice words about the inspector's level of competency. The next morning at 8am, he was at town hall to figuratively - and perhaps literally, I don't know, I wasn't there - throw the book at them.

Relaying the conversation to me later, John said that both the inspectors and the building commissioner insisted that programmable units- at least one per house they said- were required. Sliding his copy of the building code across the counter, John challenged them, "Show me where it says that." Apparently the office effectively shut down for some time, as the group of them searched the very code they are supposed to follow for something they've been requiring for years.

Finding nothing but the line John read to me over the phone, they quickly signed the permit and shuffled him onto his next stop.

So, what remains? A signature from Conservation -which could get interesting- and finalizing the loan paperwork, but occupying the structure is no longer an issue.

Stepping back for a moment, it's been surprising to me how much the events of the last few weeks have seeped into our daily lives. Yesterday I caught Jody and Natalie playing a game I now refer to as Building Inspector. They had set up little fabric block buildings on the floor (see below) and as Natalie would knock them over, Jody would call out things like "No permit for you!" or "Failed! This railing is an inch too low." or "Your bottom step is not at grade!"

Natalie playing building inspector with mom. "The roof on this one looks a little loose!"

-A

Dirt

It all comes down to dirt.

Fancy, nicely graded dirt apparently.

That's what currently stands in the way of our official occupancy permit. The temporary front step and grading that our contractor fashioned were just not of equal height and has failed the inspection twice. Both us and our contractor tried explaining that our official landscaping with our expensive conservation-required loam and even grading would be happening in a few weeks and the problem would be resolved then, so couldn't we just hold off on this one little thing until after that? Nope.

Anthony put on his landscaping hat tonight and gave it a try himself. I think it's lovely and takes the same amount of thigh muscle power from both legs to ascend to the porch, but I'm not the one signing off on it, so we'll see.

Natalie and I have been advocating for a stroller ramp instead of steps all along.

Final inspection, take 3?

- J

Six

The railings were added to the front porch last week, along with a temporary step.

We're hoping to be able to get in without having to do the front grading and landscaping right away.

That's on the docket for later in the summer.

Plywood cut, numbered and ready to cover all of our windows if a big storm should hit .

This is a requirement.

Anthony grumbled a bit about giving up this much space for these.

The house was inspected on Tuesday and six things were found to need additional attention. They were things like the height of a railing, an issue with the dryer vent, the thermostats not working, insulation plans that were needed, and the level of grading leading tothe front step. (I know that's only five- I can't remember the last one off the top of my head.)

So six things between us and an occupancy permit.

Add to that our growing punch list of little things we would like to have happen before we move in.

We have deliberately been staying away during working hours so that we aren't in anybody's way. It would all be fine if we would see some solid steady action during the day. I'm sure then all the "to-do's" could be "dones", but the action has been limited and sporadic.

One of my evening tasks this week- painting.

On another note- we are in need of an Energy Star refrigerator- if anyone has one they're not using. We would be happy to trade it for our non-energy-star-but-clean-and-works-fine fridge!

-J

Anxiously Awaiting The End

We are currently living out of suitcases as we await the final inspection for our occupancy permit. It was supposed to happen today, but upon stopping by this afternoon it didn't look like it had been done. Shocking.

Even once we can officially occupy our dwelling there are still a lot of little things to finish up. We may stay with our suitcases a little bit longer so as to give people room to work without the benefit of Zippy supervising.

Our current schedule is to let the workers have the house during daytime working hours. We then appear like little elves and do what we can each evening. Natalie gets to go to bed in her own room and then when we're tired enough we pick her up and head to sleep at the house of a friend who, conveniently, is exploring Italy this summer.

"Living" in two places in the same town means that stuff is constantly being transferred back and forth. What this means for you as blog readers is that tonight there will be no pictures because the cord for the camera is back at our house. Next time...

-J

Homeless, again

Once again, we have found ourselves pseudo-homeless. This seems to happen to us a lot when planning to move. The timing just never quite lines up exactly. Of course, this time we get to be "between homes" with a very active 11 month-old and an over-anxious dog. In the past, it always worked out...eventually, so I have faith that this one will too.

This time we had to be out of our rental by the end of June, so throughout the week, before and after work each day, we incrementally moved all of our belongings into the bedrooms of our own house - the parts the were fully complete. July 1st rolled around and our house was not finished and livable, so we headed to New York to visit the fam for a while and hopefully give the workers a bit more time to pull it all together.

The risky part about this is that without us there checking up on daily progress (ahem, micromanaging... and yes, we feel it helps), things just might not happen. Or, of course, they might happen, but in a not-the-way-we-intended way.

So what has happened and what remains? The stair guy has been working at pace that Anthony politely describes as 'quite un-feverish' for the past few weeks to complete was has become (according to the stair guy) a very unique set of steps. This has resulted in piles of debris, saws, tools, compressors, cords, and cups that have covered the entire main floor.

The large amount of tools, saws, etc. required to complete the stair trim.

The side entryway was also done. Of course, in typical construction fashion the decking material we used on the front porch four months ago is now no longer made and was not to be found anywhere so we had to settle for a slightly different product (sigh).

The new side/mudroom entry deck.

The rest of the electrical work was finished. The faucets and tub/shower trim were all connected, and the earlier water leak resolved without much issue.

The glitch that did occur was that the wrong bath/shower trim was still installed, despite our efforts back in March to correct our trim order from an earlier mistake! We're beginning to wonder if they're just trying to wear us down. While I realize this is a minor issue in the grand scheme of things, as we'd been here before with the builder, it made it all the more frustrating to have to ask once again to have the mistake fixed.

Towards the end of the week, the stair guy(s) finally wrapped up their work and cleaned up their mess, leaving a nice clean set of stairs and clear floor. It was great to see the 'almost' finished product.

The stairs to the basement, finally!

View of the stairs and kitchen from the living-room area.

We realized our refrigerator is pretty small. Plenty of room to grow...

Natalie enjoying the clean, clear main floor for the first time.

So, now we're ready for the floor guy to come back and finish up the connecting areas. All the doorknobs are in the house ready to be installed. Some trim work needs to be finished and a few things, like some uneven dry wall work in the upstairs bathroom, need to be fixed.

The big hold-up however seems to be that the plumber cannot get the boiler to work. The current plan is to have the company rep. come out on Wednesday to take a look at it. Hopefully then we can check that off.

The boiler, mixing valve, and indirect water heater complex, currently at rest as the boiler will not start. Who really needs hot water?

-J

The Good, the Bad, and the Crapper

Evidence of the plumber's work on Friday

A trip to the house on Friday revealed water in the toilets. Pretty exciting, I know. However, Friday night also revealed water coming through the kitchen ceiling (bathtub above). Not so joyous. We marked the spot and it doesn't seem to be spreading, so we hope it's not anything serious. I did stop packing things in the nearby cabinets in case they have to come down to fix the issue.

Stairs to basement- shelf along back wall finished

Other evidence of work showed that Rob and co. also worked on the stairs, balusters, railings, and the trim around the stairs, and John sealed part of the floor during the day. John was also over Saturday morning setting the footings for the side entryway. Plenty of happenings, but I kept feeling like it was all things that should've been happening last week, or perhaps Thursday at the very least.

No more worries about falling off the upstairs landing

side entry footings

I have to say, my master carpenter, Anthony, has been doing stellar work in the middle of the night. He cut a beautiful hole for our new sink and secured all the counter tops. I think he likes the fact that the new sink has such right angles- easier to cut the top for it!

Kitchen sink in and ready for the plumber

We've also started moving things over as much as possible. As I previously mentioned, we have to move out of our rental by the end of the month. We may not be ready, but at least our stuff can live in the new house in the rooms that are done (like the upstairs bedrooms).

Anthony and Kevin moving our stuff.

Kevin is a major trooper to help us move out in December and then back in again now.

He even brought his own beer this time.

After moving the washer/dryer out in December, Anthony and Kevin decided it was pretty heavy and called in a third helper, Dave.

It's a little extra work on both ends with this move because we have to be careful to keep our stuff at the new house out of the way of any workers, we have to restore the rental house to its exact previous glory, and we have to keep out a set of items for us to live off of wherever we end up until we can really move in. Fortunately this will be our final move!

Kevin has his own dolly.

I think that pretty much pegs you to help people move.

We're very grateful for this.

-J

The Kitchen Sink is Our Fat Lady

I think with house building it can't be over until the kitchen sink is in and plumbed, and ours is sure toying with us enough! Let's recap yesterday (Thursday 6/23):

This is where we left off two days ago.

The stairs are stained and ready for their railings and balusters.

Again the day started promising enough with a truck in the driveway. Rob, our contractor's "guy", was supposedly in the house doing his work on the stairs. Then *poof* he was gone by 9:30, although he did leave all the lights on. (Apparently he didn't have my parents growing up-always asking who pays the electric bills and reminding him to turn the lights off.)

So nothing happened for a while and then he came back an hour or so later, turned off the lights and left again. We later found out that he was taking himself to the ER because he hurt his ribs.

Since the house was empty I spent part of the day moving kitchen wares over to our new cabinets so that I could reset the rental kitchen to the way it was. That's the hard part about renting this "summer house". It came furnished and we had moved all of "their stuff" out of the way to use "our stuff". Resetting it involves studying the pictures I took when we moved in and trying to return it to its original state.

The DPW guys came back in the early afternoon and told me they'd pave their patch of torn up sidewalk/driveway near the street today or tomorrow. That would just leave another little patch that we would be responsible for repaving. I shared some brownies with them.

Anthony had some phone conversations and discovered that the kitchen sink and faucet had indeed not been ordered by anyone and that the upstairs bathroom faucet had been ordered with the wrong finish. Yes, we have tried to let other people take on tasks and do their own jobs, but really it comes down to if we want it our way we should just do it. Sooooo off I went to pick up the kitchen sink and faucet.

This picture was taken today (Friday 6/24/11).

Our new classy driveway.We are thankful for the whole thing being patched.

Yes, there are workers at our right now, including a plumber! Rob is also back to work.

Lots of activity over there, so although this post may be dismal, we can sill be hopeful.

We returned home to the entire hole in the driveway repaved and some pinkish floor stain around the edge of the utility room on the basement floor. It wasn't supposed to be pink. It was supposed to be tannish-gray. Also, concrete floor stain is nothing like wood stain apparently. It went on more like paint. It was not what we had intended at all. So we back-pedaled and went back to the idea of just sealing it and calling it done. Anyone need two cans of concrete floor stain?

Note the stain around the edge of the utility room. Even Natalie looks bewildered.

We spent the evening both moving things over and prepping the sinks and counter holes for the plumber. The first sink (a round one for the basement bathroom) went together so nice and easy. (That's why we were doomed...)

Round sink for downstairs bathroom/laundry area

Our just-purchased kitchen sink of course couldn't be simple. It was going to be really big in the space. Do-able? Probably. Ideal? Of course not. So we decided that a tomorrow morning run to Lowe's (they open at 6!) was in the works to try to find a more suitable fit, while still holding onto our criteria of me being able to hide dishes in a deep sink.

So with exactly one week before we have to move out of our rental house, I feel great strides were not made yesterday. Perhaps I should head to the basement of the rental house and see if I can find our tent so we'll have somewhere to live.

-J

Water Valve Wednesday

Somehow I knew in the back of my mind that ending the previous blog post with "full speed ahead" would just make us come to a screeching halt. You know, the kind where you're frowning at a huge hole saying to yourself, "I thought I was done staring at holes on this property" and wondering if it would make more sense to just go get what's left of your money, toss it in the hole, cover it up with dirt and call it all done. I don't think that would help get us any closer to actually getting into the house though.

The day started off promising enough. The stairs had been stained yesterday and there were floor people milling about this morning, although they weren't here long and I'm not really sure what they did. Then the Department of Public Works (DPW) came by to switch out the water valve, and that's where things got more complicated.

A full driveway first thing in the morning always holds such promise.

Apparently, a lazy predecessor neglected to follow the rules and bring their line the entire length under the driveway as everyone previously assumed. (Huh- more corners cut in the previous shack- imagine that!) Options were discussed, sympathies expressed, but really the only choice in doing it right was to call back our faithful excavator, George, to dig up more of the paved driveway to find where the other guys left off and correctly tie into that, so that the entire run would be the proper one inch plastic pipe.

At one point there were no fewer than 9 of us staring at the hole: the DPW guys, George's guy Mike, myself, John the contractor, and a couple of neighbors.

Fortunately George was just around the corner and was over within the hour with his cute red "digger".

George in the hole. John and 2 DPW guys look on. The blue is the new 1 inch pipe we're supposed to have (and thought we had), as opposed to the copper 3/4 inch one that's hidden under part of the driveway.

As our contractor, John, said today, "Nothing's ever easy." Not when you want it to be anyway.

Apparently the DPW guys will be back on Friday to pave their section over the sidewalk. I'm not quite sure what that means for the other section. To think, we had originally debated about moving the driveway, but changed our minds because it was fine and in good shape.

So that's that. It's switched. We've now got what the town considers a proper water line and a more-current-than-1940 valve, so we're ready to go. If there is a plumber at our house tomorrow, I will be very happy.

-J

Will Work for Lobstah

Too busy to blog these days, but at least that means that things are getting done. The stairs are being formed before our very eyes, and so far they look great. We're still in the town's work order queue to switch out our water valve, but we hear Wednesday could be our lucky day. The concrete basement floor staining and sealing is still a bit of a question mark, but we're hopeful that will be resolved this week as well. We're thinking Sandlot Gray for a color, but more importantly we're hoping it'll happen quickly.

Stairs being formed- note the picture printed out and taped up as a guide.

There are some tall places to paint in our house. Good thing Anthony is tall.

We brought in our personal labor force again this week. My parents arrived on Tuesday and the only times I've seen them put down their paintbrushes so far were to help me with school tasks (grading papers and packing up my classroom) and for Natalie's baptism and our Father's Day dinner. Anthony and the two of them have been working non-stop painting the walls, trim and interior doors.

My mom finishing painting the kitchen.

My dad: painting doors is back-breaking work.

The paint decision has been a bit scary, which it shouldn't be since it's probably the easiest thing in our house that we can change. I've been collecting and staring at paint chips for months now, and finally had to commit. Of course, just when you've made a decision someone (like the paint store guy, Ken) has to step in and tell you their dissenting opinion, like that your yellow is too bright. So far I'm really happy with most of the colors. However, I did end up back at the paint store on Saturday to let Ken know that he was right about my yellow and could he please help me lighten it? (He tried his best.) All in all though the paint is making the place feel more put-together.

Natalie in her first-try yellow room.

Anthony's family came in on Friday and his dad joined in the fun on Saturday while Mali, Jeanie, Natalie and I drove up to Ikea to pick up the final piece of countertop, which Anthony and my dad then cut and placed on Sunday.

Anthony's dad filling in nail holes. For the record I did offer him knee pads.

Full speed ahead!

-J