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

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

Who's Choreographing this Dance Anyway?

I was on the T last year when it was stopped for quite a while underground. I kept thinking I should've just gotten off at the last stop and walked a little farther (you gotta love hindsight- the only time I can claim perfect vision). The frustrating part was that I was in the front car and I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I couldn't do anything about the delay to help us get moving and on our way. Such are our feelings about our house right now. There are little things that are happening, but then there are things that we want to happen that aren't. We just need to get all our ducks in a row.

We'll start with the bright side for a run-down of the latest...

The view came into greater focus when the plastic came off the windows and the screens were put on.

Master Bedroom

The plumber has been in hooking up a jumble of pipes in the basement. I think Anthony's glad his part of the plumbing is over.

Stair parts are finally in and scheduled for the middle of this week. We've been told that part will go quickly, but we were told that about the trim which took FOR EV ER.

We've spent our time doing what we can to get things done. My favorite Anthony-project was crafting a stand for our vessel sink and faucet for the "Kamp bathroom". (Yes, if you give us things for our house we will name a room after you too.) I absolutely love how it turned out. The top is actually the old floorboards from the basement of the house we tore down.

View of mudroom entrance and "Kamp bathroom" with homemade vanity.

Our GE (plug for Jason) range and microwave arrived for the kitchen and Anthony is finishing the cabinet trim and toe kicks and getting things ready so that they can be installed. Apparently this will involve changing the plug on the microwave so it can go into Massachusetts' fancy outlets.

There is still one piece of missing temporary countertop. Remember about two weeks ago when I said the missing piece would be in stock in a week? Yeah, that didn't happen, and like a comedy show we have been running ourselves mad trying to figure out a temporary solution for our temporary top. We were set to go check out a craigslist option tomorrow when Ikea called and CONFIRMED (whatever that means) that it would definitely be in by next weekend. So we're taking our chances and waiting it out again. Which holds up the sink/faucet... But that's okay because it's already held up by the water issue.

Ahh, the water issue. The town won't let us have water until they change a valve. Apparently we're in the "queue" for this. I wonder when that will happen. Therefore we have toilets both in our dining room and our shed waiting to be installed as well.

Dining room with toilet parts and stair parts

It's okay, we can't really put the one in the shed in yet since the basement floor has not been etched or sealed yet anyway. That's why the vanity and washer/dryer for that bathroom are still in the rental house.

I'd be lying if I said we weren't getting anxious.

-J

Anthony the Scandinavian Carpenter

Cost-saving measures require that we acquire new personas. Ikea requires that we find some freetime in the middle of the night for a few weeks and can understand diagrams with little quizzical cartoon guys.

Anthony has been putting cabinets together whenever he has a "bit" of time since we picked them up flatpacked back in April. Last weekend we also started to install them so that they'll be in place before the floor goes in. There was some initial worry about making sure we were certain where the studs and a pipe were hidden, but the purchase of a stud finder confirmed our measurements and we were set to drill into our new walls and start hanging.

Cabinet One (note the daylight)

Two

Three

Four... right side uppers all hung (while the rest of the world sleeps)

Of course, even with all the planning and measuring and wall moving, Anthony discovered that the architect had not accounted for picky little things like the width of the window trim, or at least the window trim that the builder had put on, and so we had to rethink how we were going to handle our new odd-sized space on the left side of the window. I think we've figured out a new plan that should work. We shall see as the installation continues...

-J

Shim the Trim, Paint the Shelf

The past week or so, John's workers have been busy finishing up the trim around the window, doors, and closets. Painters have been appearing randomly to prime the trim that is done, and returning again later to prime others. I think it is safe to say that we are starting to get close to the end...of what seems like the long, twisty path to completion. It's been interesting to see each of our decisions come to fruition.

Basement trim completed. We love the shelves that resulted from our thick walls.

Along the way we have turned to various people for advice. Sometimes it just happens to be an innocent friend/family member/acquaintance/random person on the street who was unfortunate to offer us a polite, "hey, how's your house coming along?" and sometimes it's people we actively seek out in the middle of decision-making panic attacks. I guess we figure that if we follow their advice and don't like it we can blame someone besides ourselves. However, in other cases we have to give credit where credit is due.

Windows at the top of the stairwell

Jamey got the window trim phone call late one night. He has art degrees and Urban Outfitters cred so we figured he knew what he was doing. His design input was to look at white like the matte of a framed picture. Now that the white (which is way cheaper) trim is in we can really see what he means. Especially when that "picture" is of the pond or the trees. Bright, clean, pretty...

Living room windows

There are other parts of the house that have turned out surprisingly nice, especially those that we didn't really think about ahead of time. Along the edges of the thick basement walls, we let the sash of the window extend and create a shelf. For many of these items, it's been a struggle to get our builder to find the joy in doing something creative and unique, so when we end up with something like this it's extra exciting.

Checking out the view from the room in the basement

In addition to the trim, the carpenter has been busy installing shelves and rods in the closets and pantry. We had to peer into the crystal ball of our future lives and try to figure out what belongings we were going to put where and what the arrangement of shelves and rods should be. We won't really know how we did on that until we move back in.

Upstairs linen closet with shelves

I guess if it doesn't all fit we can always store our extra stuff in my parents' barn or my in-laws' basement (just trying to see who's reading all the way to the end...).

-J

Resolved

In a flurry we were able to metaphorically nail down our floor. It's going to float, of course, so by that I mean we picked it out, half-paid for it, and arranged for it to be delivered and installed.

After the Great Floor Fiasco of last week we re-explored a couple more of our options until they either fell apart or panned out. In the end there was one business in town left standing when we told them our budget and our wishes. Now our only wonder is if we had told them a lower budget, would they have met us at that price-point as well?

The important thing is that we got the floor we want at a price we're comfortable with (as comfortable as two cheapskates can be...) and in the timeline we need.

Meanwhile, kitchen cabinets are beginning to take shape in the living room of our rental house, the trim and doors are being hung over at our new house, and our minds have moved on to trying to figure out what we want the stair railings and balusters to look like (or how to get them to look the way we want and still meet code).

A busy place

- J

Gas, Trim & the Great Floor Fiasco

I have to be honest. It's May and I'm starting to really feel the timeline slipping away. I think I'm nervous about it because of a few slightly major decisions that are still left in the "to do" column. One of these is the real floor that will go over the radiant panels . To our credit, we've been attempting to figure this out for months, but have been dancing in a "two steps forward- three steps back" kind of routine. Flooring people have either been decidedly unhelpful, unknowledgeable or just plain full of misinformation. For example, we thought we were close to choosing a certain floor this week. All along the representative had assured us it was okay to float over radiant. Today we learned that the company says that it's not. And so we start again.

As far as things that are getting done, we picked up the bathroom and mudroom tile and ordered two of our toilets on Saturday. Anthony also completed the rest of the radiant floor panel lay-out over the weekend.

Anthony's weekend project: Grand Central Station

The indoor trim is being installed and is really classing up the place.

This trimmed-out window currently has a view of the porta-potty.

Our gas line was also put in on Tuesday.

Things are happening, but figuring out that floor piece would really move everything along and make me feel like it would be possible to finish before the summer.

- J