Let there be light, sort of......

Let there be light, sort of....

February 21st -- The electricians arrived bright and early this morning before 8:00, in their armored truck and with an employee that they recently hired.  With the boom in building here, they have been working like crazy and are trying to build their business.  They have made a lot of progress from our first meeting when it was just the two of them with a panel van that barely started.

Here is a shot of their armored truck, which they told me weighs 35,000 pounds -- that is one seriously heavy truck:

The architect and contractor showed up at 10:00 and it was a fun meeting to check in on the progress.  Living among what I used to call the ruins sometimes makes it difficult to realize just how far this project has come.  It was fun to get a sense of the project from the leaders of my dream team, and because we are getting close, the mood was jovial.  

Later in the day when I returned home, I could see the progress made to install light fixtures, set the electrical boxes -- switches and outlets -- and prep the install for the ceiling fans and the in-ceiling speakers.  They made great progress:

The first sequence of photos shows the carriage lanterns exterior to the house, with the two that frame the door from the dining room to the deck; another one mounted on the east end of the mudroom that will be opposite the door to the greenhouse

There is another carriage lantern at the rear-entry door.

And here is the fixture that is outside the door to the covered deck off the master bedroom.

Not all of the lights that were installed today actually work, but at least there are some working lights in the house now!!!!

Here are the two mini-pendant lights over the little breakfast bar in the kitchen.

Here is a view of the mini-pendant lights and the ceiling fan as I am standing in the gathering room.  The ceiling fan has a remote control and will mostly be used to circulate warm air from the fireplace and to keep the room cool in the summer.

There are outlets and switches in the kitchen, as well as almost all of the under-cabinet lights, but they are not yet working:

The electricians just started to work on the in-ceiling speakers, and used the template to cut the installation hole for one of the speakers, as shown here:

Here is a shot of the lights over the vanity in the 3/4 bathroom off the gathering room.

There are two semi-flush mount light fixtures in the ceiling of the kitchen along with the under-cabinet mounted light fixtures.  Another blue mini-pendant light will hang over the sink, in front of the window, but that hasn't been installed yet.

The same style semi-flush mounted light fixture was installed in the guest suite bedroom and that one works!

The canister lights in the master bedroom have been installed, along with the trims, and those are also working.  They will also locate the speaker wires buried underneath the sheet rock on the south side of the ceiling and soon install the speakers.

The canister lights in the hallway outside the master bedroom have also been installed and are working.  These throw a really nice light into the closets.

At 4:00 pm the electricians had decided that they had a productive day and told me that they will be back tomorrow -- Saturday, but will arrive at 9:00 am, instead of 8:00 am.  That works for me.

They are hoping to have the rest of the interior light fixtures installed and most of the switches and outlets.  They will also need to wire the green house with two new circuits and put in some new outlets in the older parts of the house that I am living in.  They will also install the four in-ceiling speakers in the gathering room and the two in-ceiling speakers in the master bedroom. It isn't clear when the kitchen appliances will be wired and when they are whether I'll be able to use them yet.  It will be a weird transition to remember how to use kitchen appliances other than the microwave in my temporary kitchen!

After the contractor and architect left, the head of the framing company stopped by to see if the windows for the greenhouse had been delivered -- not yet.  The full light door for the greenhouse was ordered today, so if the weather continues to be good and these materials arrive, they should be able to work on the greenhouse next week.

I have been working on the bathroom fixtures -- towel bars, TP holders -- which is a challenge since the plumbing fixtures wont' be installed until the middle or end of next week.  As the contractor mentioned, the plumbers have taken on a lot of work and it has been a challenge to get them back to do the finish work.

I'm looking forward to seeing how much more of the house will have electricity and lights by the end of tomorrow's work day.

Lights, Colors, and Fire....

Lights, Colors, and Fire....

February 19th and 20th --  In the morning light the paint colors in the bathrooms are winners. 

The edamame color is very cheeful and calming.  These photos do not truly represent the color since the light from the flash makes the color look different, but here we go...

Just about everyone I told about the graphite color for the guest suite bath has looked at me like I've lost my mind.  That might be true, but this color in the guest bathroom really looks amazing in person, and these photos really don't do any justice to the contrast. 

                      

As I was standing in the gathering room going over a list of issues with my contractor he very casually opened one of the kitchen drawers and pulled out a box.  He opened the box and all of a sudden this:

 

became this:

Yes, we have fire.  Not only in the gathering room, but also in the master bedroom:

The painters have been busy doing some additional patch work and now the skylight in the stairwell to the upper level is looking like it will soon be ready for paint.

The contractor gave me a list of door hardware to select.  I now know that an entry lockset is for exterior doors, a passage lockset is for interior doors, such as closets, and privacy locksets are for bathroom doors.  The locksets have been ordered and they will be installed next week when the finish carpenters return.

The guy who sets the tile showed up this morning, although this was a day before he was scheduled, so it was a surprise, but a nice surprise. The pot filler pipe was moved and the cabinet holding the range top was adjusted, so finally the white subway tile could be set as the back splash, as shown here:

This means that all the tile is now completed in the kitchen -- yay!  The only tile that remains is for the floor of the second bathroom on the upper level.


On Monday, a small mountain of boxes, containing all the ordered light fixtures was delivered and my job was to place the boxed light fixtures  in the appropriate room in its approximate location.  As an example, this photo shows where I placed the under-cabinet lights in their boxes along the north side of the galley kitchen.

 The boxes on the counter top here include two semi-flush-mount ceiling lights and the blue mini-pendant that will hang over the sink.

The electrician was supposed to set up a time to meet me this morning, and when that didn't happen I let the contractor know.  Shortly after my call to the contractor, my phone rang and it was the electrician who very sheepishly called to apologize for forgetting our appointment.  No worries as he was on the way over.  We walked through the house where I had strategically placed all the light fixture boxes.  He explained that his partner was home sick for the day and that both of them would return first thing tomorrow morning to get started on hanging the light fixtures. We also discussed the electrical requirements for the greenhouse and he will put additional outlets and two separate circuits in there so that when I need to run the soil heating coils and the portable heater or the ventilation fan, I won't blow a fuse.

But, the best part of my day with the electrician came right before he was about to leave.  We were standing outside discussing the placement of the outlets on the deck.  I looked at the street and asked him where his van was.  A huge smile broke out across his face and he turned his gaze across the street.  I followed his gaze to see an unmarked, all white armored truck.  I looked back at him with a look of disbelief and he was now nodding with an even bigger smile on his face.  Really, I said?  Yep, he replied.

The former electrician's van was always breaking down and it had been broken into by vandals.  He told me that the former "Brinks" truck used to transport money had been impounded by the FBI because it was being used for money laundry runs in the south.  It was impounded, auctioned off, and somehow now the prized possession of my electrician.  I said something stupid like, "Wow, now you are literally bullet-proof" and he nodded, before asking me if I would like to take a ride around the block.  I called "Shot gun" and he said "literally!"   I have never ridden in an armored truck before and now I can scratch that one off my bucket list.  It was really amazing.  The doors are incredibly heavy.  There are all sorts of latches, some to secure the doors, but others open and close little ports that are made for inserting the barrel of a gun to ward off approaching attackers.  The passengers sit very high off the ground in these chairs that have springs as the ride is pretty rough.  There are two 100-gallon gas tanks to hold diesel fuel, and the engine is basically one that would be found in a semi.  It gets about 10 miles to the gallon.  There is such a feeling of invincibility while sitting in the front seat that it felt like we could just roll over and crush the vehicles in our way.  With the large storage space behind the cab, the electricians had started to build shelving and a portable work bench and generator.  It will really be an amazing work vehicle, and as my electrician said as he dropped me off at the end of our little spin, the large sides of the armored truck are just perfect to serve as a rolling advertising sign for his company!

The rest of the day I spent researching bathroom fixtures, such as TP holders, towel bars, robe hooks and the like.  It seems like there is almost no end to the decisions that need to made, even though everyday the construction zone is looking more and more like my new home and less and less like, well, a construction zone.

Shower doors and painted walls.....

Shower doors and painted walls....

February 18th -- There is so much going on in the house these days, yet it seems as if the closer we get to the light at the end of the tunnel, the more things remain to be done.  I told the contractor today that my biggest fear is that this project will linger on and on and that I really need a "drop dead" date when the project will be done and the one-year warranty will begin.  As much as I have become very fond of several of the subcontractors -- and I miss them when they finish their work and stop appearing at my house -- I am very much looking forward to the day when I "take back my house."

Today two very wonderful guys came to install the shower doors.  They were fascinating to watch and a very engaging pair.  As you can see, I selected a patterned glass for the master bathroom shower called "bubble glass" that is smooth glass on the interior and the exterior has a translucent bubble pattern. The hinge system was interesting as the door swings 180 degrees inside and outside of the actual shower.   I selected this glass because I thought that clear glass would be a pain to keep clean and the bubble pattern really looks like drops of water.  The installers told me that they really love installing the bubble glass doors and they shared some of the "whacky" things they have seen in their work.  First, they told me that about 85% of the doors they install are clear glass, which they think customers later regret because of the lack of privacy/modesty and the water marks that build-up on the glass that are difficult to keep clean.  Second, they told me some funny stories about their work to install glass doors in a local swanky five-star hotel (Four Seasons) that also has very expensive condo units.  They told me that one condo owner wanted a clear glass enclosure around the toilet -- yes, the actual toilet.  Their speculations about what that customer wanted to see or have others see when the toilet was being used could have been a routine at a local comedy club.

Here are two photos of the shower door in the master bathroom.  After the clear silicone caulk sets in two days, the blue tape will come off.

Next, they moved to the 3/4 bath off the gathering room to install the sliding glass shower door.

For this type of shower door, the bubble glass was not available, so I went with the next best choice which is called "rain drops."  Again, it is a textured glass that is smooth on the interior side and has a texture on the exterior side of the door that is a pattern that looks like rain drops on a window.  The sliding doors include a polished chrome knob handle on both sides of one half of the door and a towel rack on the other side.

The "On the rocks" shade of gray paint shows a nice contrast to the white gloss trim.  Here is the fireplace in the gathering room with the white trim, platinum slate tile and the newly painted walls.

When I was admiring the work of the painters, the head painter looked at the fireplace and said to me, "You know, it looks very.....stately."

 Below is a peek at the mud room with the painted built-ins and the gray walls.  I'm really pleased that this shade of gray looks more warm than most shades of gray and at the same time gives off a sense of calm.

I loved the "lupine" blue accent walls in the master bedroom and bath so much, that the painter suggested using it as an accent wall in the kitchen adjacent to the dining room.  This was a good idea with so much of the white ceiling and cabinets -- the accent gives a much needed "pop" of color.

The contrast between the blue and white looked so good, that we painted the "alcove" that contains the original kitchen hutch and leads to the pantry and laundry room the same blue, as shown in these photos.

The blue accent wall also looks good with the thin brick back splash in the kitchen.

 The walls of the laundry room are painted the  "on the rocks" gray to provide a nice contrast to the white cabinets, the Nordic black antiqued granite counter tops and the white washer and dryer that will eventually be moved up from the basement.

This photo shows how the "on the rocks" gray also looks good against the white cabinets, granite counter top and back splash in the kitchen.

 This next shot is somewhat inspired by looming nostalgia -- I am standing in the guest suite, looking at the open door to the closet.  The "hole" in the closet wall will be closed up tomorrow.  I am going to miss that "short cut" to the front door.  Soon I will "unseal" the tarp that is hung between the "temporary kitchen/living room" and the dining room, as I have been promised that the rest of the sub-contractors who will work on the house -- namely the plumbers and the electricians -- will not raise as much dust as I have been living through.

 

In addition to the painted walls, the painters put a very nice coat of paint on the headboard that the finish carpenters gave me as my first house warming gift!  

Without a doubt, selecting the paint colors was the most challenging and agonizing process out of all the decisions that I have had to make in the course of this house project.  At this point I am really enjoying the colors that I selected.  The head painter has been incredibly helpful.  I think he has given me the confidence to go a bit "out of the box" to select the colors for the two bathrooms on the main level.  

He has yet to give me bad advice, so this evening I put a sample of the "graphite" color he suggested for the guest suite bathroom.  This room has a white chair rail and white bead board, white ceiling, a black granite counter top, polished chrome plumbing fixtures with white porcelain handles, white claw foot tub and the white hex tile floor with random black hex tiles.  Since there is also a big window in this bathroom, he thought that the graphite color would be a fun and dramatic contrast to all the white in the room.  He also said that the graphite color looks great when the light hits it.  The following photos were taken in the dark, and I can't wait for tomorrow's daylight to see what this looks like and to make my final decision.

I asked the head painter to suggest a color for the 3/4 bathroom off the gathering room, but he has been so busy trying to finish up that he had yet to suggest anything.  When I went to the paint store to pick up the sample of the graphite color, I decided to go a bit rogue and I picked up a color swatch of "Edamame"  -- an interesting darker shade of  green.  My thought was to show this to the painter and get his input. This bathroom has a lot of white subway tile, the white hex floor tile with random black hex tiles, white vanity, white ceiling, black granite counter top, and polished chrome plumbing fixtures.  The black and white are so neutral that the head painter has encouraged me to have some "fun" with color in this bath.  The walls outside this bath are painted "on the rocks" gray, which is a nice complement. 

 Interestingly enough, before I had a chance to run this color by him, he called me and said he was thinking of a green for the 3/4 bathroom.  I asked him to take a look at "Edamame" and he said it was exactly what he had in mind.  He picked up a sample and here is what it looks like.

Again, these photos were taken in the dark, so I'll have to wait for the morning light to get a better sense of whether this color will work.

Tomorrow is the last day for dry wall patching and painting on the new construction areas, except for the final touch ups.  A longer planning meeting is scheduled with the contractor for tomorrow morning and we will create a schedule for installing the light fixtures and plumbing trim fixtures.