Day Forty Six

With the backsplash being all set now, I see no reason not to clean (can't decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing).  It has been nearly 10 weeks since I've had full reign of my house, and I'm anxious to get it back.

But man, there is a ton of dust.  I've dusted everything on the first floor and I think I'll need to do it again.  There's dust in places that I didn't think were affected by the construction.

Since I've been cleaning and unpacking, I'm also purging things we no longer need.  I was so busy cleaning last night that I lost track of time, and forgot to post.  Oops!  Sorry.

Here's the latest, post-clean up, mid Halloween decorating photos:

Here's the bathroom, all completed.  The husband hung the mirror today.

I've spent a number of hours trying to figure out what was missing in this room.  The shower curtain hides the tile that I don't love, plus all of the stuff we store in the shower.  Plus it was on clearance.  Woohoo!

Dining room with all the holiday paraphernalia.  I love the new table in this room.  I like it better when it's not covered in stuff, but hey, baby steps.

We still haven't heard about the missing door.  It's missing, not invisible.  I checked.  Sometimes, I stand in the kitchen and stare at the backsplash.

I've had these photos sitting under a chair in the living room, waiting to be mounted on the wall.  Yesterday was when they were finally put up.  And now they're covered in spiderwebs.

This is, by far, my favorite decoration.  It's relevant too, since the husband and I are going to dress as pirates this year.  Not the box in the background?  That's just a portion of the purged and unpacked.

Even the dogs in the holiday spirit.  She's not helping clean, but she looks darn cute!

...back to cleaning...

The Kitchen is Done--ish

Forty four days of stress have culminated into the best day ever.  My kitchen is done.  Well, sort of.

The tile guy was here today doing the backsplash.  Our contractor uses the same guy for all his jobs, and it was a little bit of a delay since business is good.  He also happens to be the same guy that did the floor, so he gets to put the finishing touches on a project that he was at the beginning of.

This is what I walked into when I got home:

The tiles was totally done.  I wasn't expecting it to be completed today.  While I was standing in the kitchen, mouthing "oh my gosh" repeatedly and trying to process the space, I got a text from the tile guy telling me that hw was all done.  I thanked him and continued my shocked chanting.  Once I regained my composure, I texted a photo to the husband, because I couldn't wait until he got home to let him see it.  Then I decided that I really needed to put some stuff on the counter.

I have been waiting over a year to put my cranberry colored kitchen mixer in that corner.  Not just forty four days, an entire year.  It looks so good!

Here's a photo of the corner.  Look at the detail.  This guy is an artist.  

When we ordered the cabinets, I worried a little about white being too "trendy".  The "hampton" kitchen is the style that we've adopted for this project, but in the long term, I was worried that I had fallen into a fad, and in a few years, I would hate it.  But between telling myself that I'm not just being trendy and putting my own spin on the style, I think the design is going to last the long haul (considering the stress that I have put myself and the husband through, I don't want to do this again anytime soon).  We went with the herringbone pattern to use the trendy tile in a classic way.  I like the 3x6 inch tiles, but I'm not the biggest fan of the subway look.  This gives the kitchen a retro feel.  The gray grout contrasts nicely, breaking up the white.  I love it.

Now, I say "done-ish" because you'll note the door that missing in one of the above photos.  There was a ding in it, so I left a sticky-note asking for it to be touched up.  Either they use paint that turned the whole door invisible, or they took the door to replace it.

There is a ridiculous amount of trim that I need to paint.  That's part of the job in my mind.  I'm missing the shelves to one of my pantry cabinets.  Once that's all set, then I'll will consider this job all done.  But wow.

Would ya look at that?  Just look at it.

Day Forty Three

I came home to a pleasant surprise.  I didn't realize that any work was going to be done today, but look!

The chair rail has been updated.  The contractor took out the old chair, patched, and put in new.  I imagine, with as old is the house is, it was impossible to match.  It looks great.

The same thing happened with the crown molding.  Though that matches.  I think it looks amazing.

Since all of the major work is now done, we made the executive decision to take up the rest of the ram board and clean.  This also meant that we could assemble our dining furniture and set up that room.

Dining room furniture from the kitchen.  Love it!

Here's the shot from the doorway.  Note the paint stuff in the back.  I will be touching up the walls and painting trim this weekend.

Day Forty Two

It wasn't a work day at the house.  We're waiting on the backsplash.  Once that's done, there's really only a couple of cosmetic things--chair rail and crown patches, that forgotten base trim, some shelves, and a knob.  No big deal.

Tonight's dinner was chicken alfredo--the husband rocks a pretty awesome alfredo sauce; it's better than most restaurants.  I may have been multitasking, so I didn't get during shots. But it's a secret recipe, so I can't go giving that away!

Also, it was a reason for garlic bread.  Mmm...

I also have an event on Friday, so I whipped up some cupcakes.

These are by far the best looking cupcakes that I've ever baked.  I contribute this to the oven.  I love the new range!

Day Forty One

More finish work was done today. The contractor that's been doing our work was here to finish the baseboard trim.  The chair and crown needs some work still, but I'll take what I get at this point.

Here's the bathroom:  

The pantry is all trimmed out too.

I did notice a little oversight in the trim work.  It's going on the list I'm compiling for the head contractor. I'm going to paint trim this weekend; and I'll hide the missing part with the bathroom door until he finishes it.  Quick fix, for now.

Oops...

The husband has been tinkering with the furnace.  For some reason, we can only heat part of the house at a time. Big Plumba D showed him what to do yesterday, so that's what he's been working on in between errands. What a pain in the butt.

Day Forty

**Warning:  Though I've been pretty good about keeping a positive spin on most of my posts, today's gets a little snarky.  Just a heads up!**

The furnace is finally fixed.  FINALLY!  Twenty days after it started leaking from a fitting.  I've been nagging the contractor for nineteen of those twenty and nothing came of it.  

I don't know if you're familiar with the climate of upstate New York, but this time of the year it starts to get cold.  Like ice on my windsheild cold (like this morning).  So not having heat has not made me happy.  Yesterday was a full long-sleeve and sweatshirt, long pants, and socks kind of day outside and inside of my house, if you catch my drift. 

We had heard something about the guys being here today, including the head contractor, so we decided to give them the benefit of the (incredibly large) doubt, and see if it got taken care of today.  It didn't.  

I called the contractor, ranted a little, and he said that he'd take care of it.  I asked specifically "when".   He called me back within minutes, telling me someone would be there in an hour.  I called the husband to tell him and found out that he made his own calls.  I called back the contractor and cancelled his guy.  

We have a plumber in the circle of friends and family.  Let's call him Big Plumba D (not his real name, yet).  Big Plumba D was here before the contractors guy could have gotten here, saw the problem, replaced a gasket, and went on his way.  Ten minutes, tops.  He is our hero.    

The husband had made this decision because he didn't want someone over compensating for something small.  I can't blame him; every part of this project has spiraled out of control.  The last thing we needed was another non-familiar person coming in and blowing the job out of proportion.  His fear was that our contractor's plumber would start cutting out pieces and putting in new ones.  It was a gasket.  It's totally fixed now thanks to Big Plumba D.  And it didn't turn into a huge mess or huge dollar signs.  

I froze my toes for a gasket.  I've waiting twenty days for a ten minute fix.  I'm having a very difficult time not feeling a little irritated.  But, really, a gasket?  

That "T" that hooks into the spigot, that's the joined

Day Thirty Nine--Bonus Post!

It's Saturday and the contractor was here doing some more finish work.  I find this very exciting.

I've been waiting for the trim to be done before I paint it.  I only want to get the paint out once.  Knock out all of the trim. It's so close!

Here's the trim in the kitchen:

There's some trim in the bathroom too!

The contractor also installed the electric heater in the pantry.  This is an upgrade from what we had.  There was an old, inefficient version.  The thermostat is on the heater, which is more convenient than the old thermostat that was missing a knob.

There was a mishap with the top step on the basement stairs when the dishwasher or vanity was put down there.  We're not exactly sure what happened, but it was broken in half.  It's all fixed now!

Day Thirty Eight

Actual progress.  Holy Toledo.  I was wondering how long until that happened again.  I mean, it had been over a week since anything substantial had been done.

Patched thermostat hole and filled in gaps between the wall and the pantry cabinets.

I don't blame the guys doing to work for the delays. I don't think it is within their control. Some parts have been a waiting game.  Something else needs to happen before the next part of the job could be done. I get that. But now it's a bunch of little jobs that (I think) could be banged out by one or two guys in a day.

This morning, I got a text from the contractor that's been doing most of our work.  It was a photo of the toilet in its proper place.  I was so excited.

Guest bath toilet.  Woot!

Since there was a toilet in the bathroom now, there needed to be a toilet paper holder.

The husband installed this.  Did I mention that he's handy?

And since we had the tools out, we (the husband) installed the towel hook too.

Here's the hook, complete with seasonal hand towel.   I've been waiting weeks to hang it up!

The contractor also trimmed out the pantry.  It looks awesome.

Pantry window trim.  It doesn't match the rest of our house, but it's really nice. See the crown at the top right?

Doorway to the kitchen.  The dog took the chance to get on the blog.  She loves the spotlight.

Here's the right side of the pantry.  Complete with both doors!  He was busy today!

The husband also spoke to the contractor today, and he mentioned that he's going to be by tomorrow to do some more finish work.  Here's hoping I have more to blog about tomorrow.

Day Thirty Seven

We have some new additions to the dining room.  The guy was here later than anticipated today to put in the toilet downstairs, but he needed another part and couldn't actually install it.  He said he'd be back tomorrow.  A second toilet is really a convenience that I haven't been worried about it (surprisingly, we haven't missed it that bad); it's not my main concern.

The rumor is that the head contractor is coming back with the guy that has been doing most of our work on Monday.  That's the skinny.  Now whether or not it's true is up for debate.  I'm hoping to get more info tomorrow.  I'm really hoping for the furnace to get fixed, but at this point, who knows?

Since there wasn't too much to share work-wise today, I've got some photos of our fantastic spaghetti dinner.  I love the husbands garlic bread.

The meat and sauce on the amazing range.

I love having my own workspace in the kitchen.  So much so I made a huge mess with the garlic!

The husband has perfected garlic bread.  Here's part of the magic.

Here's the final product.  It smelled better than it looks--and tasted fantastic.  (We are firm believers that garlic bread is a spaghetti conveyance, which is why you see a ton of garlic bread on that plate.)

Day Thirty Six

Third non-working day at my house this week.  Though I did get a text from the contractor today.  He was mystified by the husbands handy-work on the dishwasher from last week; I'm going with impressed, really.  It was pretty fantastic.  This opened the conversation up to "what's going on in my house".   The tentative plan (key word: tentative) is to be here tomorrow "afternoonish".  I'm hoping for the downstairs bathroom to get a toilet.  Finger's crossed.  I may have bribed him with some cookies.

My anxiety about the furnace is starting to get a little worse.  The weather this week isn't so bad (read that as "hot"), but next week is looking cold.  The bucket keeps filling up and we keep emptying it; it hasn't been repaired yet.

There wasn't much done construction-wise at the house, but I tidied up and made dinner.  We had chicken yakisoba.

Pre-prepped.  A lot of the work for this meal is front-ended.  I have to chop up everything.  I tried to do this as I went along once.  It didn't end well.  

This is a photo of ramen.  This is the best part of the dish.  Cheap, college-student ramen.

Just fry up the chicken with some ginger, add the veggies, the sauce and noodles.  Voila--dinner.

Here are the bribe cookies...

Bonus photo:  Kitty was being cute and hiding in the space.  I think she was happy because she had a good fill of chicken scraps.  But then again, she may have been waiting to ambush the dog.

Day Thirty Five

Another non-working day at the house.  There's a list of little things a mile long that needs to be finished, but for the most part, it's functional, so I'll keep the whining to a minimum.  (Of course, the husband has to deal with that--for better and for worse, right?)

Yesterday afternoon, we made a trip to the a local farmstand.  We picked up some mums for the front porch.  My pots had started looking a little ragged since the weather has turned.  This is much prettier.

Here's a pot from the front porch.  The lawn bag is full of the stuff that we cut down in the yard.

We also hoed out the dead plants from the front yard...

It looks so empty now, but it was looking pretty ragged.

Day Thirty Four--Columbus Day Weekend

It's early afternoon and the guys haven't been here; I'm assuming that it's a nonworking day at my house.  But just because the guys aren't here, doesn't mean nothing is getting done.  It's been a busy weekend!

Last week, we deep cleaned the bedroom, so it was all set to sleep in, but it was far from being done.  Yesterday, we took a step towards finishing it up by priming and painting the walls.

Finished with the walls.  All that's left in this room is the trim.

Since this didn't take terribly long to prime and paint, we were able to make something of our "first" big meal in the kitchen.  I had been jonsing rotisserie chicken on our grill and the husband made it happen.  While it cooked, we were able to finally open, unpack and wash our dinnerware.  This was given to us last year as a bridal-shower gift--I refused to unpack them and repack them for the kitchen move.  I had actually forgotten when they looked like.

Fun fact:  all of our place-settings fit in the dishwasher.

I also made an apple pie.  The first of the season.  It's so nice to have a space to actually prep more than one thing at a time.

Here's dinner:  

MmM...

Today has been busy too.  The husband took today off to help me paint the dining room.  The construction had taken a toll on the blue and it was starting to look dull.  So the dining room go its own facelift.

The view into the dining room from the kitchen.  The color is called "silver drop".  

We need to paint the trim, but that's a project for another day.  There's a lot of trim to paint, and it's not all even up yet.