A Bad Day Was Overdue...

A Bad Day Was Overdue....

February 23 and 24 --  Things have been going fairly well on the construction front so that it was really only a matter of time -- a bad day was long overdue.

The electricians are very hardworking and stayed from 9 to 4 on Saturday.  On Sunday, I cleaned up and thought again about how in construction there is also destruction.  The beautifully painted walls were now marred with fingerprints, new holes that would need to be repaired and repainted.  The once cleanly swept floors were again littered with drywall dust, strips of discarded wire and plastic wire insulation, packaging material that the light fixtures were once shipped in, and other detritus.  Even though the electricians did do a cursory clean up before they left, it was still a bummer to see more mess and the need for more wall repair and paint.

It was also nice to see the light fixtures that I selected actually installed and to see my new house in literally a new light.

Here is a wall sconce that is opposite the linen closet in the hallway of the master bedroom suite.

Here are the light fixtures above the vanity in the master bathroom.  Mirror and medicine cabinets, along with towel bars and other accessories will be installed soon.

Throughout my experience living within the construction zone, I was pretty good at remembering a fair amount of detail, in addition to having taken lots and lots of photos, of which only a small number have been posted on this blog.  I was positive that there was a canister installed over the kitchen sink that had been covered by drywall.  I let the contractor know this, as well as the architect, but both told me that was impossible because the lath and plaster construction would not hold a canister and that I had mistaken an "electrical whip" for a canister.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a photo.  So, I ordered a third mini-blue pendant to hang over the kitchen sink.  The electrician cut into the drywall and put his hand into the hole to pull out the electrical whip.  As he did, he called my name and told me that I was correct and that there was indeed a recessed light canister in the ceiling.  Too late, I had already ordered, paid for, and received the blue mini-pendant light, but at least I was vindicated.  

I scoured through the photos I took of the framing, plumbing and wires within the studs and framing before the sheet rock encased the walls to see where outlet boxes, whips, recessed cans, pipes, plumbing vents and other things were that had been covered up by dry wall. The electricians would frequently knock on my home office door and say, please look for a photo of "X" because I think there might be a ________ (fill-in the blank) "speaker wire," "an outlet box," or "electrical whip" that I can't find."  Sure enough, I would scour my collection of photos, find what they were trying to locate, and print out the photo.  The photo helped them to poke fewer holes into the drywall to find the hidden item.

The ceiling of the gathering room now has recessed canister lights, a ceiling fan, low-voltage "wall washer" lights and ceiling-mounted speakers for the surround sound system.

These photos show how the "wall washer" light fixture will "bathe" the wall with light, although I will need to spend some time adjust the wall washer trim to "aim" the light.

The "wall washer" fixture in front of the fireplace has a "pinhole" trim so that it won't "wash" the future flat panel TV that will be mounted there.

The 3/4 bath off the gathering room has lights above the sink that nicely shows off the edamame green wall color, although these photos are distorting the color.

The under cabinet lights have been installed in the kitchen.

The flush-mounted ceiling lights are in the kitchen.

A bronze wall sconce has been installed near the skylight at the top of the staircase leading to the upper level.  Between the skylight and this new fixture, I am amazed by how dark this area was before.

The outlet and trim for the AV cords has been mounted for the future TV.

The AV case has its trim with various cables and audio plugs.

Early Sunday morning it occurred to me that the wires for the TV included a co-axial cable, typically used to connect to an antennae, cable service or a satellite.  I have often vowed that I will be the last person on earth to have either cable or satellite service as long as such entities refuse to offer "pay as you go" subscriptions.  I rarely find anything to watch, despite the 500 available channels, many of which are in languages I don't speak or include so-called reality shows which are a kin to watching a train wreck, which I won't watch.

I digress.  The main point is that a co-axial cable connected to the TV and going through the wall to the AV cabinet is really not going to help me.  So, on Monday I asked the electricians if it was possible to thread more cables through the hole in the wall that would exit to the AV cabinet.  I downloaded the manual of the new "smart" flat panel, high tech TV I bought to try to determine which connectors and cables I would need and if it would be possible to thread them through the wall to the AV cabinet before the trim was set and the wall closed.

To make a long blog post even longer, I had to dash out to a computer supply store to buy the appropriate cables in long lengths for the electricians to thread through the wall while the wall was still open.  Here you can see additional cables, including an ethernet cable (to connect the smart TV to the home computer network), an HDMI cable and an optical audio cable that will both be connected to a digital AV receiver.
.  

The plumber started to install the Toto toilets, here is the first one in the 3/4 bathroom:

Then things started to turn south....electrical circuits started to fail, there were wiring problems, and the electricians determined that they would need to expand the electrical board and circuits for the house.  Off they went to the electrical supply house and began to install an additional panel with circuits.  They were still working after dark, and by 7:00 pm, after an 11-hour-day on the job, they needed to call it a day, but only a few circuits were working in the house.  

Fortunately, the circuit that powered the refrigerator was working, but when they left it wasn't clear whether there would be heat in the house overnight.  At the same time, there were additional problems...a trim piece for one of the plumbing fixtures was missing; the lock sets I ordered were delivered, but they all needed to be re-keyed to the same key and I needed to find someone to do that, and well, I could go on, but I won't.  



I kept thinking that tomorrow will be another day.

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.