Good-bye and good riddance.....

Good-bye and good riddance....

March 14th -- to the very day -- eight months ago -- on June 14th, a construction dumpster arrived in front of my house  http://plattparkrenovation.blogspot.com/2013/06/this-is-really-happening.html.  For the last eight months this has pretty much been the view when I stood in the front doorway of my house, or on the front porch, looking across the street.

 I lost track of how many times a full dumpster was replaced with an empty one since June 2013.

At 9:30 am I heard the sound of a very large engine idling in the street.  Shortly thereafter a broad grin appeared on my face when I saw this:

Now the view is this:

and this:

And no more this:

or this:

JUST THIS:

Tomorrow the appliance movers are scheduled to arrive between 10:45 am and 12:45 pm.  Their job is to move the washer and dryer from the basement to the main level laundry room.  They will also move the new refrigerator into the kitchen and then will haul away the old refrigerator.  

As I started preparing for the great appliance move, I remembered how difficult it was when the first guys delivered the new refrigerator.  They barely got it through the front door and then through the door between the foyer and the living room/temporary kitchen.  I know that I shouldn't have done this, but I grabbed the tape measure and I measured the width of the doorway between the dining room and the kitchen...uh oh.  The actual width of this doorway is about 1/2 inch larger than the front door, BUT the width at the baseboard trim is about 1/2 inch less than that.  It isn't at all clear to me if it will be possible to move the new refrigerator through this doorway.  

These appliance movers are wizards at figuring out the geometric angles to maneuver large objects through small openings.  

The best case scenario is that they figure out a way to move the new refrigerator via a straight shot from the living room/temporary kitchen through the dining room and the narrow opening between the dining room and the kitchen.  

The worse case scenario is that they figure out how to get it back through the front door and then they will have to carry it around the south side deck to the rear entry of the house which has a 36" doorway and a clear path through the galley style kitchen to the refrigerator's planned location.

The "worser" case scenario is that my new refrigerator is stuck in purgatory; which means it becomes a permanent fixture in my living room.


I'm sure that as I fall asleep tonight I will be thinking two things:  1) I am glad that I don't move appliances for a living, and 2) what are the odds that I will be awake at 3:00 am wondering if they will ever be able to get my new refrigerator into my new kitchen?

Painters save the day, yet again....

Painters save the day, yet again....

March 3rd -- I don't know what I would have done without the wonderful painters.  Yet again, they save the day and my sanity.

The head painter and his crew of two showed up when they said they would at 8:00 am. Awesome.  They helped me drag some construction detritus from the basement to the construction dumpster, which was scheduled for removal today (more on that later...).  Then they got into the work.

First up, the "not-so secret" passageway is no more.  You might remember that there was an original doorway between the main level bedroom and the foyer.  That original doorway now leads to a closet for the guest suite.  This photo is the view from the foyer, where you can see one layer of the dry wall that "plugged up" the passage way.

Here is the view from inside the guest suite, and you can now see into the closet.  

If you are standing in the foyer, this is what you now see.

Soon, the drywall will be taped, mudded and then texture will be applied.  After that, it will be painted and the oak floors will be refinished in the foyer.

The reason why the painters' slogan is "painters with a heart," is that the head painter, who owns the company (and asked to borrow a radio so they could listen to NPR while they worked this morning!), gave me a wonderful surprise.  The painter called upstairs to ask me to meet him in the kitchen.  When I got downstairs he said here is a surprise --  had told his crew to "clean up" meaning that the guys vacuumed the granite and papered the floors to protect them before they started on caulking the trim the carpenters put down yesterday and assorted touch ups.

As a result of the painters empathy and  their cleaning efforts, every thing looks so much better today compared to yesterday.

Starting with the master bathroom

They painted the face fronts of the chest of drawers in the master bedroom.

They cleaned up and did some touch up on the guest suite bathroom

 
 They also cleaned off the counter tops in the laundry room, because this Saturday an appliance moving company will come to move the washer and dryer from the basement upstairs to the laundry room

 The kitchen is really starting to look great, and here you can see the cleaned granite counter tops and the painted shelves in the spice rack that supports the breakfast bar.  They cleaned all the kitchen counter tops and removed the plastic that was covering the double ovens.

The painters also started to repair the drywall in the upper level sitting room that leads to the master bedroom suite.  On the other side of this wall is the bathroom I have been using (and will soon move out of once the master bathroom is cleaned).  This dry wall repair is no simple feat.  As you can see the new heating flue is between the sitting room and bathroom wall, and surrounding the flue is lath and plaster, so there is no framing to match a dry wall patch.  The solution is to cover this entire wall with new sheet rock.

With the "not-so secret" passage way closed up, it will be time for me to remove the plastic and tarp barrier that separated the original living room / temporary kitchen from the dining room and rest of the house.  Take a good look at these photos, because this barrier will be removed, especially so the new refrigerator can be moved into the kitchen on Saturday.

Here is the view of the tarp/plastic barrier from inside the original living room / temporary kitchen, with my old refrigerator, which I cannot wait to be removed!






















 The glass door for the green house was delivered today.  Here it sits on the deck awaiting the completion of the green house.  

Two other things of note happened today.  First, the painter asked if he could come into the room I've been living in because he had some dry wall patching to do before it gets painted, once I can move out of it and into the master bedroom.  The expression on his face was priceless when I explained to him that this was also the room I have been sleeping in.  Clearly, my short stature has worked to my advantage.  Oh, did I mention that the painter is over 6' tall, so there would be no way he could ever sleep in this room.

Second, remember the dumpster was supposed to be pulled today.  After 5:00 pm, the contractor sent me a text that read, "Dumpster gone?"

To which I replied, "Nope."  So, there is something to look forward to tomorrow.

I live in a world that,  for the most part, when someone says something will happen ("The dumpster will be pulled on Wednesday.  Then, the dumpster will be pulled on Thursday."), it generally happens. This is not the world of construction.  A world I soon hope to be leaving or that will be leaving me.

I never liked roller coasters, and I still don't....

I never liked roller coasters, and I still don't...

March 10 - 12 --  The last few days around here seem like one long roller coaster ride -- not really so much about thrills, but lots of ups and downs, with too many downs.

The ups included the reappearance of the finish carpenters on Monday.  Three showed up to make an "assault" on the house.

In the master bedroom the "ups" included:

• door hardware and the chest of drawers in the master bedroom, as shown below, along with the hardware on the closet doors and the hanging bar and shelves inside the closet.

However, the "downs" included:

• the carpenters complaining that the painters did not paint the drawer faces on the chest of drawers and they were installing the knobs, no matter what.  Also, they were not happy that they had to cover the newly finished floors with paper (more on that later). 

In the master bathroom, the "ups" included

•  mounting two surface mirrors in the master bathroom with a small glass shelf under each mirror (and bathroom towel bars, etc)

However, the "downs" included:

• the carpenter explaining to me (see the drawing on the newly painted  wall in this photo) that there was no way that the medicine cabinets could be recessed into the wall because: a) the framing was off and b) they would hit the newly mounted surface mirrors.  After much deliberation and discussion with the contractor, the carpenters will now custom make medicine cabinets to recess into the walls adjacent to each surface mirror

A rare "up" with no "down" in the hallway between the dining room and the kitchen leading to the laundry room and the pantry included:

• the first "decorative" touch on accent wall when entering the kitchen from the dining room and adjacent to the laundry room, and

• doors remounted and with hardware to the pantry and the pocket door to the laundry room

The roller coaster ride started up again in the gathering room...

The "ups" included:

• the fully assembled hardware for the library ladder, the hardware for the bookshelves, the mounted doors and knobs for the AV cabinet, the installed center channel speaker above the fireplace mantel for the surround sound system, and the mounting of the bracket to hold the flat panel TV

The "downs" included:

• the center channel speaker was only "30%" mounted because the speaker wire needs to be attached (which I will have to do because the remaining 70% is completed); scuffed walls, with fingerprints and nicks, that will need to be retouched; and this is most painful...the once beautiful floors are not so beautiful.  The carpenters were complaining that the painters should have stained the ladder before they re-assembled it, and so the ladder will need to be stained to match the floors.  Also, the carpenters left with about 80% of their work completed and announced that they would be back to finish up, but weren't sure when....really?

The plumbers made an appearance on Wednesday, but again, the roller coaster ride reared its  ugly head....

In the guest suite bathroom the "ups" included

• the plumbing for the claw foot tub and the sink was completed, along with the toilet and medicine cabinets (surface mounted), towel bar and TP holder.

However, the "downs" included

• the location of the p-trap for the claw foot tub (shown as I am standing in the basement looking up) is situated such that....

the door to the basement from the stairwell cannot be closed as it hits the plumbing by about 3/4 of an inch, and after much discussion between the plumber and the contractor who both tried to "brainstorm" about various solutions to move the plumbing, the only solution is to "notch" the door so that it will close....really?

• the other "down"  is that the plumbers (similar to the carpenters yesterday) left without completing the rest of their tasks, and who knows when they will return?

The 3/4 bathroom off the gathering room is just about complete with mirrored medicine cabinet (surface mounted), soap holder in the shower, TP holder, robe hook and towel bar installed, however it is a dusty mess that is awaiting a good cleaning:

Likewise, most of the hardware, closet doors, clothes bar, and shelves have been installed in the mudroom:

                                                                                                                                                                                                




But, there is saw dust, and a mess everywhere, and I don't even want to write about the floors (so much for the paper that was supposed to protect it).

To end this post on a high note, one very neat thing is that for the two main-level bathrooms, the door knob inside the bathroom is polished chrome, to match the plumbing fixtures, while the door knob that faces outside the bathroom is satin nickel -- amazing that privacy door knob fixtures can be ordered like this --- so very "matchy, matchy."

Despite a few very trying days (and I've spared you from most of the other hassles), the sun will come up tomorrow, and the painters are expected to arrive at 8:00 am to begin their attack on the dry wall issues, and the dumpster that has been sitting in the front of the house since the beginning of last June should be removed for good before the day is over.