Nearly Next To Almost Fin...

So, Grandpa Munster was here for the last two days, and he worked like the fiend he is (sometimes the un-dead can really surprize you). Apparently, Tucker was just a helper for that day. Anyway, Grandpa Munster actually rallied on Thursday and Friday, and got an astounding amount of stuff completed.

Alan, Commonwealth Project Coordinator, was there both days. Steve got married on Friday, so Commonwealth deemed to give him the day off...mighty nice, eh? The big deal on Thursday and Friday was getting our residency permit approved by a Fairfax County inspector. Alan said on Friday that he'd only failed one Residency inspection in the last 2 years, and he was dismayed that on Thursday morning, who should darken our doorstep, but the county inspector that had failed him. In these pages he will forever be known as, Inspector Crankypants. On Thursday, according to Alan, Inspector Crankypants arrived and saw Grandpa Munster working on a wall switch, shot a look of horror, mixed with a soupcon of disgust in Alan's general direction, and said "This house is, most assuredly, NOT ready for inspection! I'll be back tomorrow, don't waste my time again!" Or words to that effect. Then, Alan was all like, "Whatever!" ...or words to that effect. Seriously, Alan said that t Inspector Crankypants could have passed the house on the other 5 things that he had to look for, but he was not in the mood.

Anyhoo, On Thursday, Grandpa Munster finished all the major wiring all the way to the junction box in the den. On Friday all he had to do was fininshing work, and installing a few dimmer switches.

I spoke with my Mom this morning and if I don't post these pictures soon, she's going to catch the first flight from Dothan to DC to check it out herself.


This is how the new kitchen looks with all the lights on. Notice that the middle pendant light is dark. The innards don't work, which is ashame, because it's the prettiest one. Alan ordered an new set of innards for it, hopefully they'll be here next week.




The pantry/Refridgerator wall. The appliance garage to the right of the 'fridge is unfinished, but the light in it works. Alan installed all my speakers, theres one on the cove at the top right. The thing to the right of the sink is our Bosch dishwasher. It is still unusable because it's not secured to the counter top. Monday is when they are saying all these odds and ends will be done.

This is looking at the kitchen from the New Space. The cove lighting looks really cool here. One thing we didn't catch was that the rope lighting came in two different colors, there was a blue-ish cooler light for the Kitchen cove and a yellow-ish warmer cove for the Dining Room and New Space coves.

Powder Room mirror with the new lighting installed. Very nice!

Hmm. blurry. New sink all shiny and clean!

Eurocrappiertm . They haven't installed our hardware in here yet. so there's no TP holder or towel rack. What would you do with the space over the Eurocrappiertm?

Dining room with new fixture, spots and cove lit up. We just love this fixture. It's a long glass bowl, with 3 lights, and Grandpa Munster installed dimmers on all these lights on Friday, so it can be adjusted.

Wall ovens and Cooktop. Lots of light for the new workspace. Sweet.

Here's the kitchen cove all lit up. I took these pictures on a 'no-flash' museum setting, and I don't think this Nikon Coolpix is much good for interior shots like this. They mostly comeout blurry like this. Piffle.

Kitchen pendants over bar area. They are just gorgeous.

Gas Fireplace on window wall. The slate surround has been backordered, no ETA yet.

Here's the lit up hallway where the powderroom is. The message center still is incomplete, and the small puck lights in Tim's display nooks are on back-order. Now follow me outside...

The deck was completed on Wednesday. The painters are nearly done with the trim. The trim is a light caramel color, I don't remember the name, but probably something like, Mocha Mist.

Here's the back of the addition with the trim completed and the exhaust for the gas fireplace there. The only thing left on the outside is grading and the guttering.

There going to put a low retaining wall on the right there where the dirt line is.

Out side the front door, here's our new outdoor light fixture. Neat, no? We thought it straddle the line between traditional and minimalism and futuristic. It's lit here but you can't see it because of the flash. We got matching ones for the deck, and the space between the garage doors. And yes, we will definitely 'brasso' the numbers on the house.

We got a lot to do this weekend. A major excursion to Bed, Bath & Beyond is in order. We're going to start moving somethings into the new kitchen.

Our move day is now next Friday. Alan sent us an email (!) this morning (!!!) saying that they'll be completely done with the interiors on Tuesday, and the exterior on Wednesday.

Hope so!

S'all for now.

cc