A snail's pace to the end...

A Snail's Pace to the End...

June 5th to 7th --  Little by little the few remaining things are getting done, but if things were going any slower, I'm sure we would be moving backwards!






The storage shelf for the master bathroom was constructed off site, delivered, and installed.  The installation was very tricky as this shelf is mounted on a wall with special framing because it is where the pocket door for the room with the toilet is located.  The shelf had to be mounted above the header for the pocket door because that was the only place where there where studs that could be used for mounting the shelf.  The shelf is perfect for holding TP, toothpaste, soap, etc., but as the finish carpenter told me, no chin ups!

The backflow valve for the irrigation system, and the valve boxes are located in the greenhouse.  The irrigation system ties into plumbing that comes out from the house,  and there is also a hose bib connected to this plumbing set up.  Unfortunately, the hose bib had some leaks, which I only discovered this week.  I had to wait until that leak was repaired until I could install the floor of the greenhouse.  

The general idea for the green house floor was to lay down a pond liner that I could staple to the wooden base of the greenhouse to make it as weather-proof as possible.  But, it was also  necessary to make sure that the irrigation system valve box and plumbing could be accessible.  Initially I was going to cut out the pond liner for the plumbing and valve boxes, but I decided against that because it would involve a level of precision that I wasn't sure I could provide as this was a DIY.  Instead I stapled the pond liner to the wood footer on the south wall and to about 2/3 of the east and west walls of the green house.  Then I put a piece of thin wooden  trim that was about 2" wide along the north wall of the greenhouse, about 6" off the ground that I would clip the pond liner to so that it could be unclipped and pulled back to reveal the valve boxes and plumbing, when needed.  

These photos show the pond liner stapled to part of the east wall, the south wall, and the "clip" system on the north wall.

After the pond liner was secure, I brought in bags of pea gravel to hold the liner in place.  

I brought in about 2.5 cubic feet of pea gravel to provide a sufficient cover over the pond liner.

I installed the rest of the shelving on the north and south side of the greenhouse.  Next I will begin moving in some trays and pots, potting soil, gardening tools, and oh yeah, I will begin to try to grow some stuff!

At the end of the day, the contractor had made arrangements for the last pile of construction debris to finally be removed -- only about a week after he told me he would haul it away.

Now you see it, and .....

now you don't!!!!!

In the mean time, the garden is thriving.  

Some of the corn seedlings have emerged.

More kale has sprouted....

Some beans are beginning to peek through, and 

the acorn squash has made an appearance...

The painter and I thought that all the touch ups were done, but I discovered a small problem.  The touch ups in the claw foot tub bathroom was supposed to be a "flat" finish to match the sheen of the paint on the walls.  The paint, however, has a satin finish.  It looks like the paint company made an error.  The painter will need to repaint the entire room, which will take 3 hours.  He will let me know when he can put that on his schedule.

Besides this repainting, the contractor needs to clear the basement floor drain and we will go through a final budget reconciliation.  And then, that should be all, folks! 

Resolved: The Refrigerator Debacle....

Resolved:  The Refrigerator Debacle....

June 3rd -- Long story short....due to an error made by the framers (a wall was about 5" off) and the an error by the kitchen designer (he focused on the width of the refrigerator cabinet and not the depth), the original refrigerator that I had selected, a 23 cubic foot capacity top freezer model, did not fit in the refrigerator cabinet.  As shown in these photos, the refrigerator box was well beyond the refrigerator cabinet, sticking out into the kitchen.  Also, the architect had moved the doorway between the dining room and the kitchen so that when sitting in the dining room, there would be a clear view through the kitchen and not of the refrigerator. 

Given the framing and kitchen design errors, there were only two outcomes:  a) keep the refrigerator as is; or b) buy a new refrigerator that had to be "counter depth."  Other possibilities, such as rebuilding the refrigerator cabinet, were not tenable.

So the saga began.  There are fewer counter depth models made and they tend to be much smaller in terms of capacity.  Moreover, counter depth models are only made in a "side by side" model or a "French door" model, neither of which was really my preference.  To add further insult to injury, the counter depth model was going to cost well over twice as much as what I paid for the top freezer model.  I had already moved the old refrigerator into the basement, and did not want to be the owner of three refrigerators.

The bottom line is that my architect worked with both the kitchen design company and my contractor to strike an agreement whereby I would be reimbursed for the cost of the top freezer refrigerator and its delivery and installation charges but I would have to make up the difference to buy a new refrigerator. The contractor would remove the trim in the refrigerator cabinet and would haul away the ill-fitting refrigerator.

I began my research for a replacement refrigerator with the constraint of searching for a model by its dimensions:  no more than 36 inches wide, 72" tall and 25" deep (refrigerator box, not including handles).  Searching for a refrigerator by its dimensions, instead of function and reliability, is not ideal, but there are websites that permit one to search for refrigerators by dimensions....go figure.  I am not the only person who has ever been in this situation.

Refrigerators are ridiculous these days.  During my search I even came across a model with an Internet connection and monitor in the door -- seriously, who needs to surf the Internet while grabbing milk out of the fridge?

After even more twists and turns about how I could possibly get the best deal, thanks to my architect for trying to help out, I finally settled on a model which was delivered today.  

Of course, today was the hottest day of the year so far with the temps hitting 92 degrees.  Great weather for moving a refrigerator.  The best way to get the refrigerator into the house was to take it through the garage and the rear-entry door, which I insisted be changed to a 36" door during construction, which was a great idea.  The delivery guys were awesome.

In this photo you can see how the new refrigerator now sits in the refrigerator cabinet the way it should, with only the door sides being visible and not the refrigerator box sticking out.

Here is the new French door style refrigerator.  It has some interesting features, such as an alarm if the door is left open.  It also has an air filter as well as a water filter --- who knew?  I hope alarms aren't going to go off when it is time to replace these filters.

Counter depth model refrigerators, by definition, have less capacity, but this one was well designed and was not that much smaller than the initial refrigerator that I had selected.  I will just have to remember to reach down for ice instead of up.

Tomorrow the painters return for what I am hoping will be the last of the exterior and interior paint touch ups.

After that, the contractor will need to haul away the last of the construction debris and then remove the clog in the drain in the basement floor (which is clogged with construction debris)....the hope is that by the end of this week, I will have reclaimed my house and the renovation will be completed!

Just a tad longer...

Just a tad longer....

June 1st --  The painter sent an e-mail today asking if he could come on Wednesday instead of tomorrow.  He needs a rig to finish painting the gutters and the exterior touch ups and will have that rig and an additional crew member on Wednesday.  So, the interior and exterior painting will be done on Wednesday, instead of Monday.  However, the new refrigerator will arrive on Tuesday as planned.

The finish carpenter arrived a bit after 8:00am this morning and was ready to roll.  Me, too, but as I've always said, spring comes at the wrong time of the year for me when I am the busiest. There are just too many outside things that need to get done, so today was another day without moving things from the garage into the house.  Well, except one thing from the garage...my fountain...was moved out and onto the deck.

The deck is really taking shape, especially since I was able to get my fountain hung exactly where I had envisioned it.  And, after being in storage in the garage for about a year and a half, I was delighted when I filled it up, set up the pump, plugged it in and yeah...there you go.

Once the exterior painting is done, I have some solar-powered strings of light that I will run on the pergola.

The shelving standards on both the north and south walls of the greenhouse are set.  I will need to buy a few more shelves and brackets, but the basics are good to go.  The experiment will be to paint a bunch of one-gallon plastic milk jugs black, fill them with water, and place them on the shelves next to the brick wall of the house so that it can serve as a tombe wall to capture the heat during the day and hold that heat to warm the green house overnight.

The "everbearing" variety of raspberries (an early spring crop and a late fall crop) are really taking off with flowers.  The honey bees from a local hive visit and at times the entire raspberry patch is buzzing with activity.  I'm in awe of how the raspberries have survived construction, along with other things in the yard.

The finish carpenter connected the old gas cooktop in the basement for the future microbrewing center, and he did a great job.

 He even added a shut off valve so that I can turn the gas line off when not in use.  

The last item on the official punch list was to install a piece of flashing by the rear-entry door, which is shown below.

The finish carpenter is building a shelf unit for me to put in the master bathroom so I can store things that won't fit in the med cabinets, such as rolls of toilet paper and bottles of shampoo.  He will build it off site this week and plans to return to install it on either Tuesday or Wednesday evening.  He is really great at what he does and I will ask him for an estimate to install a whole house fan.

In the meantime, I put some fertilizer on the lawn last week and the heavy rains really greened up the lawn.  Today I brought out the weed whacker and trimmed the lawn and then mowed it.   I also dug up a part of the bed that was overgrown by grass and I used the grass that I dug out to patch a particularly bad spot where the excavator really tore up the lawn.  I can't get to the bag of grass seed in the garage yet, so I figured that I had to dig up the overgrown grass anyway, so I dug it up so that I could try to "patch" the bare lawn.  If it doesn't take, I will reseed it this fall.  I will need to add additional soil and amend the flower bed with peat moss and then I have some perennials to plant this week.

Here is my "patched" lawn.

The front yard is really coming back and I'm thrilled by how much has survived, such as my bearded iris in bloom.

The front perennial bed looks great, especially with the drip irrigation system.  I have a few more plants to add this week.

There are more bearded iris by the front porch and the day lilies look like they might start blooming next week.

The pink landscape roses used to run along the entire south side of the house, but now only a small patch remains near the front fence because of the construction of the deck and greenhouse.  The remaining landscape roses are thriving and about to go into full bloom mode.

 Despite the small set back with the painter, it looks like the house might really be done this coming week in terms of the work with the contractor.   Of course, when I will get everything back inside the house from the garage is another story.