Quicky Update

The Commonwealth crew, today consisting of Tim and Steve, working on some interior woodwork, and some exterior woodwork.

This morning at around 7:15am, 2 painting contractors showed up. They'll be applying a base coat of primer to the walls. I'll take and post pix them tonight. The woodwork around the picture window looks spectacular.

Melissa Chernick, Commonwealth Designer Extraordinaire, came over afterwork last night, and helped us choose paint colors in the new space. We're going with bold autumnal colors. The interior of the Cove in the kitchen will, however, be a cooler, pale blue/green. It will make it stand out and make the area seem larger. The dining room is going to be a terra cotta shade. The new space will be a bright yellow accent wall, and a paler yellow on the side walls. The Curve will hi-lighted with an accent eggplant color, to bring in the color of the furniture we bought at BiF. We were concerned that the gold/yellow accent wall and the eggplant would look too much like the Redskins colors so we toned it down a few notches and it looks pretty good to gether. At least we think it will, and Melissa assures us it will.

BTW, Note to MeganK, we selected a WILD tangerine-y shade for the powder room. You'll approve.

We just hope it's doesn't look like a clownhouse...ever watch Colorsplash with David Bromstad?

Clownhouse Designer.... just sayin'.

S'all for now,

Week 10 - Weird Week Ahead

Wierdness, straight ahead...

The Commonwealth Crew were all there this morning - Alan, Steve & Tim.

We have some logistical issues that are going to throw a wrench in the cogs of M and my finely tuned routine.

According to Alan this morning, Mike-the-drywall-guy, who's also the paint contractor, will come tomorrow, on Tuesday, and apply a coat of primer to the walls. The floor guys are coming on Wednesday. On Wednesday they will install the hardwood flooring, and then sand the existing floor to prep it for staining. On Thursday, we are to meet with the flooring contractor first thing in the a.m. and we will select the colour of the stain. They will then stain and apply the first coat of poly-whatever. On Friday, they will buff the first coat, and apply a second coat of poly-whatever. During this time, we cannot walk on the floor, which is unfortunate, because we need to access a few square feet of this level to go upstairs from the den/TV Room. He said that it should be ok to walk on on Saturday morning. Also, we've heard that the poly-whatever gives off strong/possibly toxic fumes that we don't want to be near while its drying.

I've always wondered what life in a Superfund site would be like.

They will come back on Monday and buff again. THEN, the commonwealth guys will be able to start installing cabinetry. A final coat of poly-deathfumery will be be added after the woodwork has been completed.

Our pastor's wife, from now on referred in these pages as, Saint Cheryl of Shirlington, has agreed to put us up whilst we're in our homeless condition. Saint Cheryl of Shirlington is temporarily in a childless (3 of the little nippers in all) and husbandless (only one of these that we know of) condition, because Pastor Dee is taking their passle o' younguns to visit the grandparental units in Chattanooga, TN. We are deeply grateful to her.

My parents are coming up on Friday, to visit for a few days before a meeting they have scheduled in Bawl-mer, MD next week. They're wisely staying at the Marc Centre Hilton ("The Euro-spelling means extra Klassy-ness 4 U!"). We don't know what we're doing while they are here, but we always have fun when they come and this will be no exception.

Melissa Chernick, Commonwealth's Designer Extraordinaire, is coming over tonight after work, and giving us a hand picking out colours for the new space. We're at a loss right now. We've chosen several colors, for the dining room, foyer, hallway and powder room, but we aren't confident in any of the choice yet.

Stay tuned.

S'all for now

cc

Meanwhile, in the big outdoors

The Gutterman Roofing crew came, worked like maniacs, finished replaced our roof and left, all on Tuesday!!! They installed a new venting system, on the tip top of the roof, you can sort of see in the shot below. When Commonwealth re-does the siding, at the end of the project, they will install soffit vents on the eaves (our 1955 construction pre-dates those). Supposedly the cooler air is supposed to enter the soffit vents, and force the hotter air out the roof vent. Isn't that interesting.

Steve told Guttermen crew not to worry about the siding, because it was being replaced anyway. That satellite dish isn't functional, I think we should ask them to remove it. The did a great job with the new flashing next to the chimney.

Here's a wider view of the garage roof and the chimney.

This is on the front of the house at the garage, more of the nice flashing job.

Steve framed in the windows on Wednesday, while Mike-the-drywall guy was kicking up a cloud of dust inside.

Heres the finished frames on the window wall. Didn't he do an awesome job! It's all ready for the new Hardi-plank and the fireplace to be installed.

Here's the exterior of the side. He framed these windows as well as the new door. Also notice the eaves were framed in. Steve and Tim are itching to get the deck completed, so they don't have to use that flippin' ramp anymore.

In the garage/kitchen, here's our new cabinetry that came in on Tuesday. It can't be installed until the floors are in, which come next week. We understand that there will be at least 2 days that we won't be able to walk on them, which will be problematic, since we have to walk on them to go upstairs. We'll see what we have to do.

Hey, what's that on the far left!??
Why, those are the windows from the old kitchen that M said he'd donate to Habitat for Humanity! What are they doing there??? Hmmm.

They're stuck there until the cabinets are gone, but if there are any ATS folks reading these pages gently remind him of this noble pledge. ;-)

Is this a disaster area or what??? Try cooking in it every night!
S'all I got for today.

Later,

cc

Drywall Completed, CHECK!

Hey all,

Busy, busy week here! Wednesday, Mike-the-drywall-guy, finished the sanding and finishing of the drywall. It looks fantastic. There was some question as to whether it would be dry enough to finish. Mike came in on Tuesday, while M and I were talking to Alan Bennett, Commonwealth production manager, when Mike-the-drywall-guy came lumbering in bearing 2 tubs o'drywall compound. He nodded his head in frustration and said, that he wasn't going to be able to sand on Wednesday, because it wasn't going to be dry enough. Later, Alan told us that Mike-the-drywall-guy usually gets all his drama out of the way in the first 10 minutes on the job and then just deals with the situation and gets to work. A good way to handle anything, really. Mike-the-drywall-guy told Steve, our project manager on Tuesday afternoon that all looked ok the finish on Wednesday. The sunny weather and low-ish humidity was a godsend.

Steve told us that while Mike-the-drywall-guy was finishing with the sander they had 2 fans running, and that it was kicking up so much dust that it looked like the house was on fire outside!

Here's where we are on Thursday morning. Below is a pic of our new entryway. Today, Steve and Tim are working on interior woodwork, so everything will get framed in.

Here's the new dining room, old living room. Notice that they uncovered the floors. The new floors are going in next week. The old ons will be getting sanded and refinished, and the whole lot will be stained the same color.

Kitchen, looking towards the new space.

Looking from the kitchen to the new dining space.

Tim's neato-torpedo display case.

New living space with finished drywall. The curves look fantastic!

The view from the other side of the room, looking towards the kitchen.

New View out in our garden from the new space. Steve is doing the woodwork around the windows today, I can't wait to see them finished.

Looking up into the kitchen cove. We're still having lighting issues. The pantry / refridgerator side of the kitchen is too dark, so we are looking at low-profile recessed lighting. We'll need to choose things that do not extend far into the new lowered ceiling, or they will be visible above the cove...which would be really unattractive. Shrutee, Alan and Melissa will look for options.

The cabinetry arrived on Tuesday, and is all in the garage now. They will install it when the floors are in.

Everyday there's something new and it looks a bit more finished! Exciting times!

S'all for now,

CC

Roofers & Drywall & Cabinets, Oh MY!

It was a mob scene this morning on Beachway Drive.

We received a warning note last night from Steve in the Log Book (one of the Commonwealth perks, is that every day Steve updates a log book with what was done/happened during the day, and what is going to happen the next day...does your contractor do this?). It said, and I quote "Gutterman Roofing will be onsite tomorrow morning at 7am to install the roofing. They will be loud, rude and obnoxious. Unfortunately, they need access to your drive way for their truck, so if you would, please move your vehicle to the street before they arrive. Steve"

The trucks pulled up at 6:55am and soon the house was swarmed with at least 6 men, crawling on the roof, yelling at one another, yanking things and tossing them off the roof. Luckily everything is headed into a bin in the driveway, and they draped a large tarp in front of the house, to catch roof debris. It was wild.

Alan Bennett, the Commonwealth production manager, showed up at about the same time to check in. We're right on schedule and he said we can aim to have the movers schedule us to move our stuff back in around the 3rd week of July.

The Cabinets are scheduled to arrive today. I am not sure how that item is going to fit into the chaos.

At about 7:40am, Mike, the drywall guy arrived. He was younger than I thought he'd be. He was immediately expressed dismay in the dryness of the compound that he'd applied yesterday, and said that it may not be ready to finish tomorrow. Uh oh. We left him and Alan to it.

S'all for now,

cc

Max Headroom...a note to me Mum

This is for mom...who's concern about headspace in the kitchen with Susan Peirce's dropped-ceiling. I am about 6' 4", in this picture I have flipflops on that are about an inch thick. As you can see in the pic below, I have a little less than a foot of headspace between the top of my dome and the cove.
Here's how it shapes up in the middle of the Cove, which has an 8 ft. clearance. I am touching the ceiling here, but I could before anyway. Oops, I am flashing mid-riff! Zexxy, no?

Here's how it looks on the other side of the cove. Again, a little less than a foot of headspace. This will be fine for 99.999% of the human race...the rest can just duck. The cove extends 26" at its deepest into the new space. The longest point is about where the far left lighting recepticle is. That's where the first pendant will be, the larger hole above my head will be a recessed light.
So, don't worry, Mom, there's plenty or room.

S'all for now,

CC

Canoodling with the Nesco Pressure Cooker, Part 3

Markles this one is for you and Phyllis, enjoy!

Spanish Pork Chops in the pressure cooker

In a hot non-stick skillet, brown

4 pork loin chops, seasoned with salt and pepper

When they are slightly brown, appox 2 - 3 minutes per side, remove to a platter and set aside.

In the Pressure cooker, heat

3 Tbls olive oil

Add,

2 medium onions, cut in half and sliced

1 yellow bell pepper

3 cloves garlic, minced

Cook until the onions are transluscent, appox. 5 minutes. Add

1 tbls Chili Powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp ground pepper

1/4 cup plain flour

Cook for 2 minutes, until everything is well coated. Add

1 can Rotel tomatoes ( or plain diced tomatoes if you don't like spicy heat)

1 cup of water

allow to come to a boil and cook until thickened and bubbly, about 2 minutes.

Add the pork chops and cover with the thickened sauce. Put the cover on the pressure cooker, and cook on HIGH pressure for about 9 or 10 minutes.

Allow steam to vent after cooking.

Serve pork chops over rice, with the sauce. I used a brown rice, but converted rice would be fine.

Bon Appetit!

D-Day....

D in this case is 'drywall'.

This is where we were on Monday....

Steve and Tim of Commonwealth installed the batting in the roof of the new space and the outer walls.

The blue wires are for my speaker system that I am so jazzed about. The batting really changed the acoustics of this level. It was quieter, with much less outside noise coming in.

Our new back door arrived on Monday.

This is the new dining room wall. Steve and Tim installed that pink foamcore insulation between the shirring strips. This will hopefully save us $$$ in heating and air bills. The A/C guys came on Monday and removed the old duct work, and installed new ducts in the new space. They'll be back after the drywall guys are finished. And yes, Mom, they capped everything off so that drywall schmutz won't get into the new ducts. ;-)

The Drywall guys got there on Tuesday morning at about 8:30am. It was Mike, the drywall guy, and three helpers. They finished hanging everything in one day. The results are below...follow me please,

Are you ready, because it's really unbelievable....

Still with me?

Your just not going to believe what they did....

What about now?? Still there??

Ok, I'll quit toying with your expectations. Below is the drywalled kitchen cove. Steve said that they used a thinner flexible wallboard for the curved areas. Who knew?

Here's Tim's awesome display cases. M and I are going to look for lighting options for these this weekend.

Here's our new side door, fully installed. That's speaker wire hanging down. We both love that door, it's like another 'window wall'.



This is looking from the edge of the new room, into the kitchen and passageway. BTW, that new powder room is going to be small. We're a little worried that the choices we made for the fixtures will be to big for the room. C'est la Vie.

The framed in window/fireplace wall.

M and I both had the same reaction to that skwiggle of wiring hanging from the ceiling in the dining room. "WTFrack, is THAT?" There's no fixture there, and its on the side of the dining room near the entrance to the kitchen. Steve said he'd review the plans and see what its for. Perhaps we could treat it like a mobile and hang interesting objet d'arte from it. We'd have to remember to tell guests, "MIND THE ART!!!" S'all I got, bye y'all. CC

PASSED INSPECTION!!!

WOO HOO! And they installed my speakers!! Today we get closed up from the elements, insulation gets installed, and the HVAC men were there this morning to start their work. Tomorrow, the sheetrockers start rockin'!

We estimate there's another 4 weeks of interior work to go, possibly longer because we're replacing our external siding and the roof.

Le Grand Sigh of Relief.

S'all for now, y'all,

cc

Interesting stats for readership

As of June 13th, here's the readership for this blog. I've had 420 unique hits from the United States. Other folks are following from literally all over the world! The Power of the internet! Keep reading, and pipe up from time to time and let me know what you're thinking.

Current Country Totals

From 22 Apr 2009 to 13 Jun 2009

United States (US)	420
Canada (CA)	13
France (FR)	2
India (IN)	2
Germany (DE)	1
Belgium (BE)	1
United Kingdom (GB)	1
Japan (JP)	1
Philippines (PH)	1
China (CN)	1
Ukraine (UA)	1

BiF tales...or "do you have anything we can take in the backyard and hose off to clean?"

I mentioned earlier that M and I met Commonwealth Designer Extraordinaire, Melissa Chernick, BiF Furniture store in Fairfax, VA on Wednesday night to look seating selections for the new space. Bif Furniture is a store I'd never heard of, but I started seeing ads for them in the WaPo about a year ago. It's all very contemporary, but not as stark and minimal as a lot of contemporary furnishings can be.

We were there from about 5:30 to 8pm. The three of us had a blast...Melissa said at one point, "I like everything here!" Indeed. They have some cool stuff. While all good furniture is expensive, we thought and Melissa concurred that the offerings here seemed really well made and well, priced.

Melissa came armed with the plans and a ruler, to estimate how things would fit. She also had pictures of the other furniture we'd chosen, our existing rug and samples of our cabinetry and granite. Naturally, M and I had chosen things that were too big for the space no matter how Melissa re-arranged them. So! We scaled down and selected 2 arm chairs and 2 loveseats, The arm chairs will be in an aubergine color and the loveseats are in a lighter brown leather. The style is being discontinued, so we got a slight discount, but the downside is that there no picture of it on the website to show you. The loveseat pictured below most closely resembles the ones we got. It's not identical, our's is not quite as wide, and has a slight 'ess' curve (the Curves again), to each side. It's hard to explain.

They will be placed facing one another in front of the fire place. The arm chairs will be on the ends. We'll probably use our existing occasional furniture, and the Stickley rug that I posted last week. The Aubergine chairs will look really great with that rug.

On other fronts, we're starting week 9. The plumbing and electrical inspection is today. Steve, the project manager was at work this morning at his usual, 6:40am. He was refreshed from family weekend at Rehobeth Beach, DE for his daughter's wedding. He said it was a great family reunion, and that neither 911, fire, rescue, paramedics or pet psychics had to be called at any point during the weekend. In my family, that's a deemed a real sucessful get together!

S'all for now,

cc

Food Pron...continued

This is a Spanish Tortilla, it's similar to an Italian Fritata, except there's no cheese. The recipe was in this months Cooks Illustrated. I took one look at the recipe and thought it sounded like something I could easily do in the camp kitchen, on the gas grill burner.





Here's my interpretation of the recipe:

Add and beat together:

4 eggs

1/2 tsp of smoked paprika (optional)

1/2 fresh or frozen green peas

pepper and salt to taste



Set aside.



In a NON-STICK saute pan heat 4 TBLS of Olive Oil until it's hot and shimmery:



Add,

3 small or 2 medium potatoes, in a 1/4 inch dice

1/2 cup diced purple onion

1/2 of a red, yellow or orange sweet bell pepper

Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until the potatoes are slightly browned and offer no resistance when poked



Pour this mixture into the egg mixture and mix to coat all the ingrediants. Pour back into the skillet on medium low heat.



Cook until the mixture is browned on ones side and bubbly all over, about 5 minutes. CAREFULLY, invert the skillet onto a large plate, and slide the whole lot back into the skillet. Cook on the other side until it's browned, roughly another 5 minutes. Watch that it doesn't burn.



Invert onto a cutting board or the same platter you used to invert. Slice into wedges and serve. It's a great light lunch, and it's substantial enough for a dinner.

You'll notice in the pic that I served it with a blop of something. The recipe called for a garlic aoli and had an accompanying recipe. For those that aren't food geeks, an aoli is an emulsion of egg yolks, oil, an acid like vinegar or lemon juice, and spices...in George Bush's Uhhh-muri-ka we call this Mayo. I mixed 3 Tbls of Hellmanns with 1 Tbls of Dijon mustard, voila, you got yourself an aoli.

Below is an uncooked pasta sauce I made up for Sunday brunch last week. The recipe follows:

Cook 1 lb. of pasta according to the package directions. While that's happening,

Stir together and let stand:
1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 canned roasted red-pepper diced
1/2 cup of fresh or frozen peas, cooked with 1/4 cup water in the microwave for 5 minutes.
2 tblsp of diced fresh herbs (basil, oregano and thyme is what I used)
1 0r 2 cloves of garlic, mashed
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground pepper
2 tblsp of olive oil

When the pasta is done, serve the desired portion, and add the pasta sauce to the top of a mound 0f hot pasta. The sauce will be a nice balance of acid from the tomatoes, sweetness from the peas and the bite of the fresh garlic and herbs. Bon Appetit!


You do not have to have a great kitchen to have a great meal...all it takes is a little imagination. Hey, someone write that down!

S'all for now,

cc

Ready for Inspection, Sir!

Sweet Hay-suus, this was a busy week on Beachway Drive! This week was when the plumbing and electrical got finished. The interior framing is finished and waiting for drywall. The electrician, John, from Hawkins Electric, said that it was so busy and crowded in our space on Friday that he couldn't get much done. He came to the house at 8am on Saturday morning to finish the electric, we worked until after 3pm! He said it's ready for inspection.

On Monday, the inspectors are coming to inspect the building, the electric and the plumbing to determine whether the project can go on as is. If there are any 'dings' they'll have to be fixed and they will have to reschedule another inspection. It could be a stumbling block.

Join me for a tour will you?

New carpenter Tim was by himself on Thurs and Friday, and he finished the Cove, and the Curves on the outside of the kitchen in the new space and the new Dining Room. Below and to the left you can see where the new sink has been plumbed. Steve the project manager's daughter got married in Rehobeth Beach, DE, so he was out of town for Thur and Friday...hope the weather was good!
This is looking from the new space into the kitchen. The kitchen ceiling really took shape this week. The ended up having to remove it and re cut part of it, but it looks a lot better.

On Monday, they framed in the new gas fireplace and on Thursday the plumbers extended the gas line to the fireplace, and also to the new cooktop. As you can see at the top of the picture we're still open to the elements. No critters have come in, except for the occasional bug.

These are the recepticles for the light switches next to the back door. Note that the switch for the speaker on the right. I bought a sound system to pipe music from the stereo to 4 sets of speakers in the new area. I have always wanted that.

Light switches for the other side of the new space.

Recepticles on the new space wall. Our wall unit will go here with all my music. The speaker system will terminate here.

The display cases that Tim made, were wired for lighting. We didn't choose lights for these, but it will be something low key with accent lighting.

This is the ceiling of the new space, these recepticles are for track lighting on either end, and a ceiling fan in the middle.

The kitchen wall. Dead set in the middle is the new gas line for the cooktop. Our wall oven and GE Advantium oven will be on the far left, were the orange cord is. Has anyone ever used one of these that reads these pages? I'd love to hear from someone that's bought and used one.

Close up of the new sink plumbing. The copper pipe, taped with blue tape to the drain pipe, will be water from a filter-purifier that will feed the ice maker

Switches for the kitchen.

M, inspecting John, the electrician's, handiwork on Sunday morning. All switches on this wall are being moved. So as not to break the plane of the wall. We'll have to put something interesting in this space.

Dining room wall. M and I had originally asked for a builtin here, the one they came up with was really snazzy, but at roughly $8K was a budget buster. We decided to leave it out. Unfortunately, the wiring never was changed in the plans, so the schematic called for counter heighth plugs for a counter that ain't gonna be there. We'll pow-pow with Alan Bennett, from Commonwealth about this on Monday. John, the electrician, said he'd fix it after the inspection. Alan will make sure that happens.

The new hallway into the new space, has been fitted with recessed lighting.

The entry hallway, looking towards the front door, has been fitted with recessed lighting as well.

We'll, that's where we are today, fellow travellers. I'll let you all know whether we passed inspection or not, and what if anything needs fixing.

Steve told us last week, that they were nearing the end of things to do in the house, until the drywall goes up, he said they were going to move outside again , and start outdoor stuff.

S'all for now, keep fingers x-ed for tomorrow's inspection.

cc