Renovation Blovations

Holiday Letter for 2010...

2010-12-23T14:03:00.000-08:00

News of 2010

Greetings, Y’all!

Hope this finds you and yours ending your year in happiness and good health, and living in open defiance of the burdens and troubles of these times.

2010 was a year of big events in our immediate and extended family. In January, we celebrated our 15th anniversary and Clark’s 48th birthday. In February, we went to New York City with our travel friends Maurice Cottingham and David Schairer, and celebrated the 5th anniversary of our friendship with a group of amazing women (Mary Beth, Patty, Marlene, Rosemary and Kathi) who we first encountered, by chance, at a Broadway show in 2005, and who, as luck would have it, also live in the DC area. This ‘merged’ group of like-hearted souls, which we dubbed “The New York 9,” spent a long reunion weekend of shows, museum-ing and lots of good food and wine! In May, Clark’s brother, Jason (aka “Dr. Goose”), received his PhD in botany from the University of Mississippi. On the same day, and several hundred miles away, his niece, Kristian, received her bachelor’s degree in business at the University of Alabama. We feted both at a major cookout at Clark’s brother Keith’s house in Bessemer, AL. In July, Mike hit the big 5-0. We celebrated the event with Maurice and David at VOLT, the restaurant of “Top Chef” finalist Brian Voltaggio in Frederick, MD. It was a meal to remember! In September, Clark, Keith and Jason hosted a golden anniversary party for their parents, Bill and Christine Chesser, at the Bright Star restaurant in Bessemer, a place where Bill and Chris had dated back in the late 1950’s (and still looking much the same, according to them). Nearly 30 close friends and family members came to share stories and celebrate this milestone anniversary. Our Thanksgiving was huge, with the two of us, plus Clark’s parents, Mike’s mom, Ann, his sister, Katie, brother-in-law, Bryan, and nieces Jenny and Amanda, along with Maurice, David and David’s mom, Mary Anna. It was a 2-turkey event! Our Christmas will be comparatively quiet. Mike’s mom is visiting, and we’ll spend time with Katie, Bryan and the girls, and with as many friends as we can squeeze in.

Our travels this year were all domestic and mostly close to home. Our graduation trip to Mississippi and Alabama included several days in Memphis, TN, where we made the required pilgrimages to Graceland and Beale Street, visited the ducks at the Peabody Hotel, had some outstanding Memphis BBQ, and toured a marvelous and little-known museum dedicated to the artists of the STAX record label (which included Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes and the Staple Singers, among others). We traveled to Colonial Williamsburg and other historic sites in Virginia’s tidewater area with Maurice and David in May, and Mike took Katie and Ann on a trip to St. Michael’s, MD, and the eastern shore of the Chesapeake as an early celebration of Ann’s birthday in August. Day hikes in the mountains of Virginia with our friends Tim Thornburg and Steve Conrad were a highlight of the early fall.

Our vegetable garden largely flourished this year, thanks in part to our phenomenally wet winter, featuring back-to-back 2 ft. snowfalls that were locally dubbed “The Snow-pocalypse”. We had good harvests of peas in the spring, and tomatoes, peppers, okra and sweet potatoes in the late summer. Clark also won a victory over our tomato-thieving squirrels by enclosing the tomato bed in a 9’x9’ cage, which we called “the tomato room.” Once we plugged a few ‘holes’ in the superstructure—and soaked the rodents with a garden hose—they gave up.

Mike finished his third year leading a software analysis team on a defense contract with ATS Corporation, and was instrumental in writing the proposal that won them a new 4-year contract in September. Mike also completed a training course for obtaining a Project Management Professional Certification, which he’ll take the exam for in early 2011. Clark’s job as a telecom engineer at Booz Allen Hamilton continues to be challenging and rewarding. He managed two major projects from start to finish and got kudos for each. He took three courses during 2010 to prepare for the Cisco Certified Networking Associate (CCNA) Certification exam, which he also hopes to take in 2011. We continue to be active in our church, Clarendon Presbyterian, with whom we have been able to participate in projects to feed the homeless and to help feed and house the working poor. In September, Clark joined a 100+ member a cappella singing group, The Alexandria Harmonizers. He had his first concert in December, and hopes to go to a singing competition with them next year. So we already have lots to look forward to!

We wish you, our dear friends and family, a happy, peaceful and healthy 2011!

It happened

in 2009

Some of you were concerned when you did not receive our 2009 holiday letter. Actually, we didn’t send one. The reason we didn’t may be summed up in three words: MAJOR… HOME… RENOVATION. Eight years after our realtor first recommended it, we had the layout of the main level of the house reworked, added a new living room at the back, moved the dining room to the front, created a new kitchen between the two that is open, larger and more utilitarian, and created an entry hall and a new powder room. The design-build firm that we hired was amazing, finishing on time and on budget, so we could not have asked for a better experience. Despite that good fortune, we were still without a kitchen from April 20 – August 7. Clark cooked our meals in the garage and we grilled (a lot!), Mike did the dishes in the utility sink in the laundry room, and we ate on a tiny patio table set up in our den. It was quite an adventure, but so worth it! It inspired us to work on other rooms with our own labor. We installed a “floating” bamboo floor in our den and repainted. It has completely transformed the room. Fortunately, the year was not completely consumed by construction projects. We spent an amazing week in Ireland a month before the construction started, and shortly after we moved into our “new” space, we had a long visit with our friends Craig Cowden and Kurt Laidlaw at their beautiful home in Tacoma, Washington. While there, we ate like kings (they are fabulous cooks) and visited the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Kubota Gardens, Pike Place Market and the Space Needle in Seattle, Mt. Rainier National Park and Hood River, Oregon, from where we hiked to about a half-dozen spectacular waterfalls along the Columbia River Gorge. And those were the highlights of our 2009!

Christmas on Beachway

2009-12-21T08:57:00.000-08:00

Hey Campers, long time no post. I decided it was time to show you our new house all dolled up for xmas. Below you can see the fireplace with our odd metal creche. M's Mom gave us the 3 wise men two years ago, and we found Mary, Joseph and the Angel at Pier 1 this year. M got the red grasses and the vases from Marshalls. It looks great in the daytime.

Below is our tree, not a great picture, but not a great camera either. We decided to put it next to the door to the deck, and it works fairly well there.

This is the dining room, over exposed but you get the idea. In the center is a wire ornament tree that I found to display our White House ornament collection, M and I have one for every year we've been together, so we have 15 total. This tree will hold 40 ornaments, so we'll have to split up after that. Oh well.

Here's the kitchet space, we don't have any wall space in the kitchen by design...every square inch is used! We hung those bows on the door pulls to make things more festive.

Heres' the kitchen from the dining room. I have been pleasantly surprised at how spacious the kitchen feels. It's got plenty of room for everything!

Here's one of th display nooks, with a creche we found in Old Town Alexandria a few years ago. We will need to look for things to display in these nooks that are more in scale with the space.

This is down stairs in the den, we fixed up the mantel downstairs with shiny things.

Here's the wider view. M and I got that small artificial tree years ago to display the White House ornaments, but they got 'lost' on the tree. We're just using it for a little sparkle down there now, and it works pretty well!

Anyway. There you have it!

Merry Christmas EVERYONE!

S'all for now

cc

Stay Tuned for the BIG REVEAL!

2009-11-16T08:18:00.000-08:00

M and I are just past the 3 month mark of the end of the project (which was officially the end of August, when the punchlist was completed). I took before pictures and will show before and after pictures in the next few days.

Since the project has ended, we've installed a bamboo floor in and painted the walls in our media room, hung pictures, and Friday (Nov 20th) we're having wooden blinds added to all front facing windows in the front of our house. We are deeply grateful to my parents, who are giving us an extremely generous gift to help us pay for the blinds. THANK YOU. The blinds will make the house much more cohesive from the outside, with all front facing windows having the same window treatment (a design pet-peeve I inherited from my Mom). Our windows have been a mish-mash of sheers, mini-blinds and (ugh) vertical blinds since we moved in 8 + years ago...it's a matter of $$$ and focus. ;-)

Stay tuned!

cc

A busy, frustrating, exhilarating, exhausting weekend

2009-10-11T16:45:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I attempted to finish the quarter-round moulding on the bamboo flooring we installed a few weekends back. M's task was to refinish the unfinished mantle piece that had been on our fireplace since we moved in. We decided to stain it a cherry stain like the cabinetry upstairs, and give it a polyurethane coating. We had a brainstorm about the credenza piece that we had in our entry way, a display case with sliding glass doors. It's a piece that my mom bought for me at an estate sale about 23 years ago, there used to be 2 of them, and Mom gave me one and my brother the other one. Mine survived, but my brothers' kids broke the glass in his, and then it was destoyed in a freak flood that happened in their townhouse. We were looking for a replacement for it and couldn't find anything we liked, so we decided to try to update this piece. Do you remember this?

M spent a lot of the day sanding it, and we have a plan to make it integrate with our new foyer. Stay tuned.

Here's the scary rickety legs we removed from the piece.

Here's the Mantle piece that M stained...looks good doesn't it! We polyurethaned it on Sunday, and can put it back up tomorrow.

Anyway. My job was to finish the moulding. I made my first trip to Home Depot at 10am, and I bought an electric nail gun, and some brads for it. Long painful story shorter, the nail gun didn't work. I threw a total of about 8.5 hissy fits and a truly awesome tantrum that M was concerned would summon the police. The carbonized bamboo quarter-round was so hard that nails would not penetrate it. So I tried to pre-drill holes in it with a 1/16" drill bit, and the eff-ing bit eff-ing broke! (Queue tantrum, minus sirens) M was calm (only one of us is allowed to phreek-out at any time), he called Lumber Liquidators, and explained the predicament, they said someone would call us back shortly....and they actually DID! The young man said that the last few batches of this product had been extremely hard, and they were using an epoxy to apply the quarter round. I thanked him....Hung up...then Cursed them for not letting us know that when we bought the hateful stuff!

My second trip to Home Depot was at about 2pm. I returned the nail gun, and bought epoxy and liquid Nails. I must have looked scary. No one would approach to help or see how I was doing.

The liquid nails did the trick. I first miter cut all the pieces to fit, then enlisted M to help me glue everything in place. Here's the pics from Sunday morning. It work pretty well actually.

Here's next to the fireplace, this was one of 3 places in the room where it sort of gapped away from the brick. I'll try using a sturdier drill bit and hold it in place with a wood screw.

Here's the other corner of the room. On Sunday, I hid those speaker wires, so they're not on the floor anymore.

So here's the exhilarating bit....Our furniture arrived!!! The guys delivered it from BiF at about 6pm on Saturday. I'd honestly forgotten what it looked like since we ordered it in MAY! But, the delivery made our room look like the Furniture Barn:

COME ON DOWN Y'ALL, WE GOT VALUE, VALUE, VALUE. THIS SUNDAY ONLY WE GOT HALF SMOKES ON THE BARBEQUE AND SAVINGS FOR U! BRING GRAMMA, BRING THE KIDS...HECK BRING THE DAWG, TOO!! CAUSE, FOLKS, YOU DON'T WANNA MISS THESE SAVINGS!

See what I mean?

Here's some detail...2 love seats in a tan leather..it's hard to tell in the picture, but the arms have a slight curve to them.

And 2 arm chairs, of the same style in a ruby leather. Its not this red, when you see it in person.

After some manuvering (big ass captains chair upstairs, ugh, disassembling the table we cannot sell), here's what we have.

'Scuse the mess on the coffee table, we're still working an maintaining order. Here's the other side. The dark brown/black chair in the corner, will have to find a new home. It's not staying there, but its where it is now.

Now, the other 2 chairs went to the den. We'd originally thought they'd be upstairs in the new space, but they work better in the media room. You can see the sekhsi curve on the chairs here.

When we get the couch cushions re-covered in something else (Mom...be thinking of options), it will all work together much better. Doesn't that "Ruby Red" on the walls work well with the new chairs?

So thats' what we did this weekend.

THOUGHTS?

S'all for now.

A Fireplace Painted, a Media Room Reborn

2009-09-29T06:07:00.000-07:00

Last week, we bought paint at the Benjamin Moore place over in McLean. Our colors we chose for the den are the Ruby Dusk (henceforce, referred to as RD) color we used as a 'pop' color in the New Space, and 2 colors that are really close together on the Ben Moore Palette one called Twisted Oak Path (henceforce, referred to as TOP), which we used in the foyer and hallway, and the other called Marble Canyon (henceforth, referred to as MC), which we used in the Dining room cove space and the wall of the peninsula in the Kitchen. Our vision (after much deliberation) was to paint the wood paneled walls MC in a flat latex, the wall behind the sofa and on the wall where the TV nook is RD also in a flat latex, finally on the blah brick fireplace, we would us a satin semi-gloss finish of the TOP color. Now, I am really not a fan of painted brick, especially when it's interesting brick, but our fireplace was placed in the corner of the room, so it's not a focal point and never can be, and while we use it occasionally, its a highly inefficient gas fireplace that we will have to replace eventually, and it's really hard to light...so it's practically unused.

We spent all day on Saturday painting, M focussed on the fireplace because it had to be primed first, and I started on the walls. We finished up at about 5pm and went to a neighborhood party. It was a Miami themed party replete with Cuban food and a Latin jazz combo! They even played my favorite "Girl from Ipanema"!

I bailed on church on Sunday, thinking that Providence would forgive me because I had a goal in mind...even though I was working on a Sabbath. I was able to finish the walls and apply a first coat to the fireplace before noon when M got home. After lunch (a squash and pepper fritata with the last squashes and peppers from the garden this year :-( [sniff] ), M went to work on a second coat on the fireplace and I spot painted and started putting the speakers and the room back together. One caveat that I didn't discover until I was about half way done with the fireplace, the guy a Ben Moore's mixed up the paint can tops, and he put the TOP lid on the MC, and the MC lid on the TOP can. So our fireplace is actually MC and the wood paneled walls are TOP, the colors are so close that it's not a huge deal, certainly not enough to redo it.

Follow me downstairs and I'll show you:

This is heading down to the den from the hallway. Monday night I covered the speaker wires in an ivory colored wire-concealer that blends fairly well with the TOP, so the wires are sort of hidden now. I have pics of that below.

That's the stairwell down into the den, and part of the RD wall.

This was taken Monday night after I'd put the speaker wire in a concealer, no dangling wires, however when I removed the tape that I'd been holding up the speaker wire with it pulled the paint off the white trim, so I'll need to do some touch up on the trim. You can tell how close these colors are here. The MC is a fraction darker than the TOP, the only bummer to me is that I really wanted the brick in a semi-gloss instead of a flat paint. Oh well. The mantel came off really easily, it was held on by that bevelled strip you see below. M wants to stain it and polyurethane it.

Here's the wall behind the sofa in the RD color. I really like this color, it's bold and warm. The windows are currently covered by dirty, dated vertical blinds. Our next BIG chore is to order wooden blinds and get rid of these hideous things. Eventually, we need to do something with this couch, but it's ok for now. M cleaned it really well after the construction was done. We want to replace the cushion and pillow fabric with something less "southwest-y".

That box below in the corner is our electrical junction box. I wanted it to be the RD color so it wouldn't draw as much attention to itself. I am going to hide the wires on the other side of the room tonight.

Finally, heres our TV in its nook. The room is still not 100% put together, of course. As I said the wires are going to be concealed tonight. We still need to install the quarter round to finish the floors (there goes another Saturday!). But we feel like we're over the hump now, that the painting is done downstairs.

We'll that's all for now. Have a great week eer-one!

S'all for now,

Finished Fireplace

2009-09-16T03:59:00.000-07:00

Alan stopped by yesterday and finished the Slate fireplace surround. He installed a tile topper that I'll tru to show in the next picture.

That's not a great shot but you can kind of get the schmoo.

He added a final coat of a finishing compound, that gave the whole thing a unified sheen. It's lovely.

Thoughts?

Crouching Ardvaark, Hidden Wombat

2009-09-14T17:44:00.000-07:00

Hey folks. I know it's been awhile. We've been on vacation, and I am finishing up a course at our local community college...time is precious. So I won't waste your time either.

We received the bamboo flooring from Lumber Liquidators the weekend before Labour Day, and we journeyed all the way out to Chantilly to get it..packed a lunch and everything! It's really close in color to the red oak floors we have.

M was absolutely convinced that we could do it ourselves, and I sort of believed him. We lacked mitre saw and a table saw, and the know-how and what not, but that wasn't going to stop us from trying. Actually we'd bought the mitre saw for the base of the wall unit so we had one of those, the table saw was purchased last Friday night on a desperate foray to Home Depot...another Ryobi product...only $114, and I still have all my digits, so it must be ok.

Saturday it took us all day long to get the area prepped and ready to go for the install. I had to dissasemble all the A/V stuff down there and keep it safe until we were done. M and I had to clean, and move all the furniture and boxes out of there except the sectional, which would have been a screaming horror to move.

After we actually started we did have to make one final trip to Home Depot to buy a $12 rubber mallet, which we forgot we needed until we'd started...at 4pm on Saturday.

Below is the lovely green and black laminate flooring which is probably the original 1955 floor finish. Yecch. The previous home owner had covered it with a carpet remnant and it was passably ok to look at if you didn't look closely.

The blue stuff is called Quiet Step, its' made from 'recycled materials' (prolly old Pampers and used Kleenex!), it's about a 1/3 of an inch thick and a bitch to unroll and cut (a working box cutter would have helped but we didn't want to make another trip to Home Depot).

Here's the first box of planks, the rubber mallet really made things cruise.

I think this is around box 4. We were really getting the hang of it.

The area behind the pantry/closet area were tricky. It all ended up looking ok, and it's behind a door, no one will look too closely.

Around box 6 or 7 we had to move the first part of the sectional to the other side.

This was about box 8 or so. It was 8:30pm. We broke for dinner, and had two tough steaks and a baked potato each. All that chewing revived us.

After dinner we had to move the other sectional to the done side of the room. Our friend Bobby and Marti Brom (along with son Carson and friend, Colonel Tim) dropped by and offered Apple Crisp and lots of encouraging words.

Nearly done here, it was about 10pm, at this point.

Cutting to Chase. We finished at midnight. M was concerned that the saws were making too much noise, and we were pretty much toast. All that lifting, crouching, sawing, hammering, etc, had this 47 year old carcass a'hurtin.

This bit won't show, because it will be behind the TV, but it still looks good!

Cut to Sunday afternoon. We get it all back together, mostly. M used a co-workers' shop vac and went over every inch of the couch. I put our A/V system back together, and [sniff] put our 46" Samsung LCD HGTV back in it's rightful place. The rug is a family piece that is on loan to us for the last few years from M's brother in law, I have always liked it, but I think it goes down here fairly well.

The next BIG project is painting, we're going to bring some of the colors upstairs, downstairs, and try to jazz it up in here.

Thoughts?

S'all for now.

cc

The Slate is partially installed

2009-09-03T02:38:00.000-07:00

Alan brought Duke the tile guy from outer darkness Virginia, over to do the slate surround yesterday. It isn't finished but you can tell that it's coming together. It's different than I pictured it but we like it.

I didn't picture the slate as being 1 inch thick slabs. It was the one thing we didn't see a drawing of before hand. Its still unfinished, but there will be another piece at the top. Currently theres a brace up there to keep the pieces together.

You like?

Thoughts?

We're headed to Seattle to visit our buds Kurt and Craiggers. We'll be back on Tuesday.

Chat laters, taters.

The Burro Has Landed.

2009-08-31T17:02:00.000-07:00

Yep. We haz slate.

M and I had an alarm system installed on Friday. Nothing at all against any of the folks we had working here...with the possible exception of Grampa Munster, but we think he was harmless, just creepy. We just felt more comfortable going with a more secure option.

Today, M calls me and said, " I don't have Alan's number and we need to tell him about the alarm system!!" We'd forgotten about telling him about it! I called his cell and he said he was sitting outside the house waiting for the slate and for our window to be delivered. He actually didnt need to go into the house, thank Providence, but if he did it may have been a mess.

I don't know if I have mentioned the window before. The window on the side of the house facing out to the deck was delieverd and installed and they determined that it wasn't tempered glass, which is 'code'. So they'd sent the wrong thing. The correct window was shipped and arrive right before we moved back in, but one of the panes was cracked, so Alan sent it back. So, now we have a complete window. WooHoo!

I hope he's going to be able to fix the fireplace before we leave!

Stay tuned,

CC

2 down, 1 to go...

2009-08-27T05:27:00.000-07:00

I have no idea what this .gif file means but it somehow spoke to me.

We have a working dishwasher now. Alan B was able to stop the leak, we re-christened it last night without incident. Whew. That's a relief.

The innards for the middle pendant over the breakfast bar arrived, and Alan installed them, so now all 3 pendants light up when you flip the switch. We practically wept with gladness.

Sometimes, it's the little things.

There are several minor things left on the punchlist, but the biggie is the slate surround for the gas fireplace. Which is still not done. No word yet on when the burro will arrive with the slate. The poor thing was last seen in outer-darkness Kentucky, laden down and plodding along.

Stay tuned.

S'all for now,

Coming Together...but don't look too close

2009-08-23T16:26:00.000-07:00

Hey, ok, so the saw horses are gone and the boxes are mostly dealt with, but we've still got a ways to go. No art on the walls yet, but hopefully soon.

Below is our new Stickly dining table that arrived on Tuesday, much to our surprize. We didn't expect it until October. We purchased 2 arm chairs for either end and it came with 2 extenders. So, no more squeezing 6 or so guests around a table meant for 4. We didn't get the side chairs yet, they will be another expenditure down the road, in the meantime we'll make do with other chairs. Currently we're using the chairs that came with the round maple table, that co-incidentally, we are selling on Craigslist and Ebay...for the low, low price of $499! But wait there's more!! Not only do you get the solid maple table with 4 matching chairs, but you'll also receive all of our round linens AND our vinyl table pad! Channeling the late Billy Mays...so sorry. Seriously it's a nice table and if you know anyone that needs a nice table for 4 let them know about these listings.

M and I took Friday off, to do more stuff around the house. Friday afternoon, we made trips to the outer-darkness of Chantilly to visit Lumber Liquidators. I wanted to do business with them because they are supporters of NPR, as are we, and they offer an assortment of sustainable wood flooring like bamboo and cork. We're in the market for flooring for the den...you'll see it below...horrorshow that it is. We went to their showroom out in Chantilly, and ordered from an animated salesman ("Everyday is Friday at Lumber Liquidators!" he exclaimed...he exclaimed everything), a 240 sq.ft. of a medium brown carbonized bamboo click-flooring, we believe we can install this our selves...stay tuned.

I mention this because while we were out on Friday, M wanted to swing down to Crystal City to the Danker that we bought the dining room table and 2 chairs from, which has been going out of business for nearly a year, and look for a rug for the dining room. He shocked the 'H' out of me by buying this rug! He even haggled the rug seller down $200! It's got all of our colors, and we're very pleased with it.

Moving on, Alan completed the message centre last week. Here it is closed up.

Here it is opened up. We have our ugly rechargers, phones and building access badges here. The little drawers are excellent for scissors, small tools, etc.

Here's the front door with the floor all cleaned up.

Alan also finished Tim's display nooks with these tiny puck lights. They're perfect for displaying glassware, and I am so glad that Melissa Chernick, Designer Extraordinaire of Commonwealth, insisted that we go with a bold color in the backs of these nooks. The objet de arte in the nooks are not permanent, but only so we can have something there for the time being.

Kitchen is looking a little more lived in. The dishwasher has a leak in it that occurred after Alan came back to reattached it to the granite counter top, Steve came out on Friday morning, but couldn't find it. It's probably an easy fix, but a Dishwasher repair person will have to fix it.

Here's the behemoth music storage units, partially put together with albums and stuff. M wanted me to leave a couple of those holes empty in each cabinet, so we'd have a space for knick-knackery. This is un-finished, but it's coming togther. The slate is STILL not here, for the fireplace, Alan says it's supposed to be in this week. I cannot imagine what the hold up could be. Also, the middle pendant at the breakfast bar isn't working, and the innards are on order. Those 2 things are the most irksome, because they make the space look 'under construction' still.

Here's the breakfast bar. About 3 weeks ago, we bought these chairs on a whim! We were going to go out and look for bar chairs for this space, and on our FIRST stop at Pier 1, we found these cool and comfortable chairs...on CLEARANCE!! That never happens. We liked how they played off the curves in our space with the oval holes on the backs. We almost went with 2 chairs, but I am really glad we bought the 3rd one. They were only a little over $100 each.

Now for the horrorshow...this is what they don't show you in the Divine Design-type shows. The OTHER ROOMS. Here's our den. As soon as the construction was done, we tore out the carpeting in this room, as it was absolutely filthy, with dust. The room is still a sty, but there's hope on the horizon with the bamboo flooring we ordered on Friday. We believe we can do it our selves, and it's going to look really nice.

urgh. We are going to have the cushions on the couch recovered, btw, but not until we get the floor in. I haven't got my 46" Samsung lcd tv back in either, it's still upstairs in it's box.

Ew, we need to dust that lamp.

So there we have it on August 23rd. Hope y'all had a great weekend. We certainly did. Saturday we had our first guests for dinner. Sunday we went for a morning kayak on the lake, and had an upclose encounter with a juvenile beaver, he didnt see M until he'd almost swum into M's kayak, and he did a quick reverse manuever that only beavers and Michael Phelps can manage. We attended a production on "Dirty Blonde" at Signature Theater, with our theater pals, Bugs, Raj, Maurice and David, and had dinner at Carlyse in Shirlington. Dirty Blonde is a lot of fun if you are in the DC area, I'd highly recommend it. It's based on the life of Mae West.

S'all for now.

The weekend project...

2009-08-16T17:27:00.000-07:00

OK, so we love this unit because it stores a ton of my old vinyl and has cd storage galore (remember my music problem?). When we moved back in, the movers wouldn't put the units back on their plinths (those base thingys) because they were afraid it would destroy them. They were right. When we got them back up, on that Friday we moved in, M was so disturbed by the state of the plinths that he was up most of the night worrying about them. He thought they were so rickety that if on side gave way, the weight of the unit would cause it to collapse into a heap of splinters. I actually slept ok that night, but as you will see below, it was not in great shape.

So, here's the base, where it sits on the plinth. You can see it sort of separating, and the triangular part tilting slightly downward. M was concern about adding any more weight to it, and the more I looked at it the worse it looked to me too.

So when we took apart completely this is what we found. It's amazing that this splindly thing held all that weight to begin with, 8 drawers of cds, each drawer can hold about 45 cds. Each of the square nooks can hold about 40 to 50 albums, and those weigh a ton.

When we moved last in 2001, there was some damage to the plinth, and I had to tape it to hold it together, this was on the back of the unit, and it shared support with the adjoining plinth so I wasn't overly concerned about it's integrity.

This was on the other side of the same plinth, and it is really wobbly. This is why, the base bowed out a bit on the side. Scary. This thing was being held together by spit and whispered prayers...probably a couple of desperate novenas, well...whats the patron saint of scary wall units? He/She was probably Swedish, and was martyred by a fallen cd collection.

I should have taken more pix of this during construction. M and I bought a compound mitre saw with the birthday gift certificate that his Mum sent him for Home Depot...THANKS ANN!! I purchased some 2x4's and M found a snazzy decorative moulding, and we decided to make our own base for this unit.

I got the hang of the saw pretty quick, I fastened all the peices together with M's help with 3 inch deck screws. Next we used 3 cans of primer, and 3 cans of semi-gloss black spray paint to coat every thing well.

Here's M sanding away before the first coat of primer went on. I didn't know how expensive spray paint was, the 6 cans cost roughly $25. They didn't seem to go very far at all.

We allowed all the new bases to dry in the garage on Saturday. After church, and a nice lunch on Sunday (fresh tomatos with garlic and basil served over angel hair pasta). We got to work. We took all the CD Drawers out, they are held in by 4 screws, and are rather heavy.

Next we assembled and lined up the unit on the new base. We also put 8 of those 'Magic Glider' thingies on the bottom of the new bases, in case we need to, God forbid, move it again.

Next we assembled the side units on it. These, literally, snap in place, this part took no time at all. Then we nailed our new decorative baseboard in place. It's really lined up nicely, I LUVZZ MAH SAW!

Then we put those heavy drawer back in, and reattached them to the drawer assemblies.

We finished around 5:30pm on Sunday afternoon. Both of us were BEAT! But we had a great sense of accomplishment and were envisioning all sorts of other projects we could tackle!

Not counting the saw, which was a relatively affortable Ryobi model, only $115, the wood cost about $25, and paint was around $25, the screws were about $3, and the nails $2, the slider thingyies were $16 for 16 sliders, so we're out about $70 - $75 give or take. Oh, and the weekend, too.

All in all, not a bad price to pay for peace of mind.

S'all for now.

Boxes boxes everywhere

2009-08-16T17:24:00.000-07:00

This is where we stand on August 16th, 2009. We've been back in our house for about a week and change, and we still have a ton o' crap to unpack. Below is the entry way/foyer. as you can see it's still full of boxes. Many of these things were either knick-knackery from the old living room that we can't unpack yet or things for the den/media room that is all tored up at the moment.

The next phase is assemilating all the stuff from our house into the new space. We did a really good job in the kitchen, but the rest of the areas are problematic, as you will see.

Here's M in our new Kitchen putting things away in one of our many new spacious drawers. I love that none of my appliances show as they're all in the 2 appliance garages.

Here's the 2nd stack o' stuff. Much of it is records that will go in the media storage units, more on them in a bit. There's a side table in front ot the window with boxes on it, that was down in the den, but we're going to redo the floor down there, so it will remain upstairs for now. The fireplace is STILL unfinished, the slate is on backorder and is supposed to be here this week, but Alan wasn't for certain on the actual date of it's arrival. You'd think it could have been mined, finished and transported by burrow by now! It's going to be lovely whenever it gets finished, however.

Here's those IKEA Media units (KUBIST if you are an IKEA fetish-ist), the new speakers and audio distrobution system (Aton is the brand name, and no, I'd never heard of them either) terminates behind the stereo shelf. One of the speaker sets was working intermittantly due to a wiring issue, but Alan fixed them and we've been enjoying them daily. I haven't even hooked up the Bose speakers yet! It's great being able to hear 'All Things Considered' or 'Prarie Home Companion' while cooking dinner. I will camoflage the wiring behind the stereo equipment when we get a bit farther along.

Here's the temporary dining room. Temporary, because we learned last week that our new table will be delivered on Tuesday. We're going to put the table on Craigslist. We're sad to see it go, a lot of good times have been had around that table, as well as a lot of great food! If your interested, it's made of hard-rock Vermont maple, and M is selling the table, the 4 chairs and all of our round tablecloths for $495 o.b.o. It'll hit Craigslist tonight.

Man, we have so much to do.

See the next post about what we did this weekend.

Meet the Commonwealth Builder's Team

2009-08-13T17:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, yes...we're moved in. I have been too overwhelmed to post anything, but I am cooking in the new kitchen daily and L-U-V it. We love the New Space and have admired it for nearly a week. We aren't done. There's still boxes about and such. The IKEA Wall unit (KUBIST, if you are an IKEA historian, it's in the early posts on this blog, go look) has had it's last move. The base plinths are compromised and M is concerned that if we load it down with my major tonnage of vinyl-age it will give way and there will be much rending of clothing and gnashing of teeth.

So, we're making a new base this coming weekend. The plan is to build it on Saturday, paint it, let it dry, rebuild the storage units and load them up. Stay tuned.

In the mean time, I thought it would be a great opportunity to meet the Commonwealth crew. These guys are amazing, and honestly if you live in the DC area and are thinking of remodeling, give Commonwealth a shout. They are the real deal.

Meet Dave! Dave worked on our project in the very early part, but was rotated to another project just after the footers were poured. Dave was always upbeat and positive and always had a smile on his face. He's a carpenter and he lives up past Point Of Rocks, and, Gals, don't get any wild ideas in your head cuz he's a married man. If you'll remember when they were doing the footers we were having record amounts of rain, and I joked with Dave that I didn't recognise him unless he was covered in mud. Dave, we really appreciated your hard work and dedication.

Meet Tim! Tim was hired recently by Commonwealth recently, after he was laid off by a competitor, their loss, Our gain. Tim is also a carpenter and does extraordinary precision work. He did our display nooks, and the deck that he's standing on, among other things.

Meet Steve, the project manager. Steve deserves a special place in heaven for having to deal with Grandpa Munster, on a daily basis during the last days of the project. Steve was ALWAYS there at 6:40am every morning, and when he walked thru the door, I was usually reading the Washington Post at our table, I knew it was time I headed up stairs...now that he's not here every day, I've been cronically late to work! Steve is a remarkable man, and I will truly miss seeing him every morning. He insisted on the picture in front of the dumpster, BTW, because he'd spent so much time hauling stuff to it. I however, insisted on...

A better picture of he and the Tim-ster on the deck they built. This is a great picture.

Finally, Here's Commonwealthe Designer Extraordinaire, Melissa Chernick, and the Production Manager, Alan Bennett. They both came over on Tuesday afternoon to go over the 'Punch List'. The Punch List is the stuff what still needs doing. Melissa pointed something out to Alan that we didn't notice...Alan may not be doing anymore Punch List inspections with Melissa. They are both amazingly talented people, who love their jobs and it shows.

We'll that's it for now. I'll post more snaps when the house is a bit more together.

S'all for now!

CC

Move-In Day Looms....

2009-08-05T06:36:00.000-07:00

Friday's the big day.

The interior is mostly done, with only a couple odds-n-ends. Message center is almost done, Alan's still working on the drawers. Appliance garage is complete. Bosch dishwasher installed and we think, functioning...we havn't run a load yet. Alan finished the wall controls for the speaker volume in each room, he needs only to terminate it to the stereo inputs, which I saw he was going to work on today.

They guys that are installing our guttering come-back today and finish them. It's a good thing too, there are storms in the forcast for tonight, though it's beautiful right now. It rained most of the day on Sunday, and without guttering it became a real mess outside.

The Commonwealth guys, Steve, Alan and Dave (who's back this week for the first time since May), are also working on a retaining wall in the back, the lumber for it was delievered this morning.

Stay tuned.

1st Meal in New Kitchen

2009-08-01T07:53:00.000-07:00

Because how better to christen a new kitchen than with a greasy morning fry up?

You got your bacon, you fried eggs over-medium, hash browns and garden fresh 'maters.

Not bad. It's nice having all those burners, I had 4 of them going and the new hood worked really well. Previously, when I cooked bacon you could smell it for days afterward. Now only our neighbors will know!

S'all for now,

Nearly Next To Almost Fin...

2009-07-31T17:02:00.000-07:00

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.

Today, Worksite Dramz & then lots of work!

2009-07-29T17:28:00.000-07:00

First of all welcome to our new Foyer!

Now the dirt. Yesterday, I caught the schmoo that Alan from Commonwealth was less than pleased about all the griping and moaning that Grandpa Munster from Hawkins Electric had been doing. I said to him that he sure did complain a lot, and Alan said, "There's no place for that here". I said, "Not in front of a customer?" Alan said," Not in front of anyone, if he's that unhappy with what he does he needs to find something else to do." Well said, that. So, today, Grandpa Munster was here at 6:40am sitting in his truck, and looking sullen. At 7:05am a very chipper man appeared, maybe late 30's extremely thin in a Jared Leto kinda way, and as I came downstairs he said, "HEY, My name's Tucker!", and I said, "Hey, My name's Clark!". He's got a real sense of humor, and I do not believe that he feeds on human blood, which is really a plus in my book.

Anyhoo, follow me and I'll show you wha'happen.

Tucker wired up the hood, and the under cabinet lighting today, it really works. Very nice.

Here it is with the under cab lighting on.

The Commonwealth guys added the surround to the fireplace today, it's a nickle plated hearth. The fireplace will be black slate.

Commonwealth changed the track lighting to be a parentheses instead of diagonal lines. Grandpa Munster had installed them as un-parallel lines and they were driving me crazy in their asymmetry. Alan and Steve fixed this one yesterday, the other one will be fixed tomorrow. Also, Melissa Chernick, Designer Extraordinaire at Commonwealth, had left explicit instructions that we DIDN'T WANT THE LIGHT ASSEMBLY IN THE CEILING FAN, but Grandpa Munster didn't read the instructions apparently. Tucker will fix it.

Here's the kitchen vista without a lot of the schmutz that was on the counters in the previous pic.

Glory Be! Real registers! The Argent guys installed the rest of their bit today with registers and filters.

Dining room register.

The finished Deck

The finished stairwell to the deck, as I mentioned previously, the deck is so painstakingly put-together that it could withstand an F5 tornado...direct hit...in fact, it would remain standing and the house would be splinters.

Wait, oh no, it's poor Ruby, the scullery maid. Everyone say hello.

We revealled today that we'd moved the moving date to August 7th. There is no way that we could do all the cleaning we will need to do before stuff has to be moved back into this space. Even if the occupancy inspection happens on Friday and it passes, they would have to dodge movers finishing up the last minute things. Not good. Better that they do what they need to do and then we move in.

S'all for now,

Just wow.

2009-07-27T17:12:00.000-07:00

Finally some major progress. This is the message centre. It's still only half finished, but you can tell what it's going to be.

This is the fixture we chose for the dining room, I know I didn't show you a picture of this. But, honest to Hay-sus, there's got to be some mystery in the this process, doesn't there? They will have to lower this. I think it's raised so that it doesn't get in the way during the rest of this process.

The plumber finished the sink in the Powder Room on Friday before the power was cut. Nice, no?

Grandpa Munster was super busy today, all that virgin blood over the weekend did him a world of good! He finished the lighting in the Powder Room, these are the lights, the cylindrical fixtures are in the nook outside, I'll post a pic of them later.

Here's the EuroCrappierTM. Steve obviously found the toilet seat. Dang, I meant to toss that piece of paper.

Here's the window wall, with the gas fireplace insert installed. The hearth is still to come. It's art deco.

Check these out. Grandpa Munster installed the track lighting on Thursday, and the fan today. The track lighting was supposed to be parallel, but you can see in the vantage here, that it's not. Also the fan wasn't supposed to have the light installed. Not a big thing, but it's just another reason that I WISH that John was back to do the finishing work, because Grandpa Munster doesn't have the passion for detail that John had. It just means more stuff on the 'punch list'Ok. These are the pendant lights that I posted a pic of a while ago from the catalog jpeg. OMGosh, I love Love LOVE these. They so remind me of the trip M and I took to Italy in 1998, and the side trip we took to the island of Murano, where we saw all that amazing glassware. Thank you Melissa. When we took them out of the box we thought they were too big. But now I think they're perfect.

Here's how they'll look from the side.

Extreme closeup. They have all our colors in them. I can't wait to see them with light shining in them.

Grandpa Munster wired all the appliances today. The Bosch is on the far right there. It's really irritated that it still doesn't have it's cover, which we got to match the cabinetry, but it's European, so that's to be expected.
Here's the Jenn-Air Refridgerator. No extra charge for the fingerprints!

So, not that I am a label whore, but I gots a GE Monogram electric convection oven, and on top there, a GE Advantium oven. Le Sigh! Hey, some folks get off on cars, some are gadget phreeks, I am an appliance geek.

The only diff in this shot is that the plugs are finished.

Tim's almost finished with the deck. When finished it will be able to withstand an F5 tornado, and a 7.0 richter scale earthquake...simultaneously.

Here's the wide view. The trim color is not quite as dark as we thought it would be, it's a light caramel. Very light. See? I like it, M's taking a while to warm to it. He thinks it's too light.
Here's a snap of the new deck. Wait whats' that in the window? Down there?? Who ever could it be?

Why it's the scullery maid, M! Hello, there M! Poor wretched creature!

S'all for this evening.

First utter darkness, THEN, A glimmer at the end of the tunnel, mayhap?

2009-07-27T05:30:00.001-07:00

Right, as far as the utter darkness bit.

On Friday, Virginia Dominion Power had to come by to remove and reattach out our powerlines to the house. They come in on a trim board on the garage side of the house, the siding guys had to replace the wooden trim board with the new vinyl board. Here's how it went according to Steve.

At 9:30am VA DOM Power arrived in their cherry picker truck. Steve said they removed the power from the house at about 9:45 - 10am, (Steve ran a power cord from our 'fridge in the camp kitchen to our neighbors', The Infelds, outdoor socket, with their permission of course, thank Providence that they were home....or we would have had a major mess on our hands). At that point the siders attached the new trim to the house and their bit was done. VA DOM Power then told Steve that they had to run new wire from the street to the house. Steve said it wasn't necessary, but whatever. So they ran new wire, then they said that they couldn't reattach the house to the Power Grid at the street, because they didn't 'do that'. They said that the 1:30pm crew would have to do it. At this point all the trades guys left, what's the use of being there if they didn't have power for their tools? Luckily the Plumbers were able to finish before the power went out, so the sink works, the Powder Room works, and the 2 gas lines (fireplace and cooktop) are extended an operational. Grandpa Munster, from Hawkins' Electric, was able to do a little finishing of plugs and switches and hang the brace for the light fixture in the dining room. Then he left to terrorize the countryside. That left poor Steve, to spend the day calling VA DOM Power to check on status of the dispatch. Steve had told me that he needed to leave early, by no later than 3pm because he had some errands he needed to run (Steve is getting married this Friday, and prep stuff to do).

At around 2pm, Steve said that he noticed a VA DOM Power van with cherry-picker cruising up and down Beachway Drive. He said he counted at least 3 drive-by's. Finally the guy stopped, surveyed the job, and told Steve he couldn't do anything and he'd pass the ticket to the 3pm crew. Steve was livid.

M and I were able to get off work a bit early, and we got home around 4:15pm. Steve filled us in on the events of the day. We'd planned on a quiet evening of pizza and a Netflix. Alas it was not to be.

We puttered around until about 6pm, and then our stomachs started to growl. We tried to get Steve to agree to let us go pick up something but he wouldn't let us, said he already had something to tide him over in his truck (probably an energy bar or something). M and I went to the Dogfish Head Restaurant, and had delicious but wholely unhealthy meal of burgers and beer. But what a way to go!

Steve called me on my cell and said that VA DOM Power had arrived at about 7:45pm and were just finishing up. He was on his way finally...6:45am t0 8:05pm is a long ass day.

I think these guys were playing Friday afternoon union tricks, especially the guy that cruised by at 2pm and couldn't be bothered to do anything. Thank goodness we didn't have any bad weather on Friday, or I am sure we would have been at the END of the line for power restoration.

This is why the Right fears a Single-Payer National Healthcare system. Just sayin'.

Anyhoo. The whole Commonwealth team was there this morning. As well as Hawkin's Electrics Grandpa Munster, freshly rejuvenated from a weekend of feasting upon the blood of virgins, carping at poor beleaguered Steve about this or that or the other.

The GE Monogram wall oven appears to be too large to fit into the wall oven cabinet. Steve assured me as I left that it would 'just' fit. I'll trust him.

Well that's all I got today. Hope everyone has a great week.

Inside - New stuff!

2009-07-23T17:27:00.001-07:00

Here's the completed display nooks with the contrast color (Fruity Punch!). The we're going with small 'puck' lights to illuminate the nooks.

Here's the gas fireplace, out of it's box. The art deco-ish surround, is still packed up.

Powder Room. Here's the mirrow. This was the first time I had ever seen it, it's been in a box in the garage for nearly 2 months. The area behind it was painted bright white, to give a 3-D illusion, with the gold metal circles on the frame.

Here's the base of the washstand. The basin is being installed by the plumber today.

Here's our EUROCRAPPER tm . Is it not the cutest toilet you have ever seen? You can't see it, but there's 2 buttons on the top; one for pee and one for poo.

Grandpa Munster, from Hawkins Electric installed the track lighting in the new space. We think it may need to be adjusted, because they aren't properly lined up. Steve said its an easy fix.

Steve said it was really crowded in the house yesterday with plumbers, electricians (our favorite, John, came by to do a brain-dump on Grandpa Munster in the morning), and Dale the Tile Guy from Outer Darkness Virginia.

Next week is going to be interesting!

S'all for now!

cc

Outside - Who's House is THIS?

2009-07-23T17:23:00.001-07:00

The siding guys have been at it much of this week. They come back today to finish. They still have a piece of siding on the side of the house where the electric comes in from the street. Dominion Virginia Power is coming to assist.

Here's the completed siding on the addition. The siding is Hardi Plank, a mixture of concrete and fibreglass that is supposed to last forever. The trim is a paintable vinyl, the painters are coming today to start the trim painting. It's a light caramel color, I don't remember the name.

This was taken on Tuesday I think, before they'd added siding to this part of the house. Tim is still working on the deck. The planking is in place except for a strip next to the door to the new space...where it counts, so we still have to do a long jump into the back door.

detail shot. That satellite dish belonged to the previous owner, and we'd never taken it down. This is the home office window. The siding was in really bad shape on this side of the house.

Here's the completed back of the addition. On the right, there's our new air compressor for the Lennox A/C system.

Here's the back of the new space. Steve was installing the gas fireplace, and discovered that he was missing a part. He found out yesterday that he won't need it for this installation. Whew!

Here's the front of the house with the new siding.

Detail shot. This poor little dogwood tree has been really thrashed, what with the roofers, siders, and now the painters. I hope it's not too stressed.

Here's Tim's work in progress. The bones of the deck are wood, but the planking is that Trex composite material, that's made out of recycled Pampers or whatever. The main deck is that tan color, the trim will be the brown.

Deck Detail.

Here's what it looked like Wednesday evening, when they'd finished siding everything.

There we are.

Thats how the outside is shaping up. Next I'll post an update of the inside.

Backsplash - It is complete.

2009-07-23T17:18:00.000-07:00

Dale, the tile guy from Outer Darkness Virginia, finished the backsplash today, and it is a stunner.

On Monday, the Commonwealth crew punched a hole in the outer wall for the GE Monogram hood. It was a mess, and poor Tim may have PTSD from the ordeal. When Dale, the tile guy from Outer Darkness Virginia, left on Tuesday this was the result.

He'd also laid everything out on the other counter so that he could easily assemble it the next day.

When we got home on Wednesday this was the result below. Still needed to be grouted but is was mostly done. Steve said that Dale, the tile guy from Outer Darkness Virginia, is a true artisan.

Here's a detail shot. He took many of the glass tile off their adhesive backing because he wasn't happy with how the colors were lining up.

Tonight, M and I had a late work day. Both of us didn't finish up until around 6pm. When we finally got home we were greeted with a finished tile backsplash.

Here's the detail shot. The glass tiles have all those autumnal shades of color we chose. We selected this with Melissa in January, I had forgotten what it looked like.

Here's the upper portion. The Drywall compound is still wet.
This at least done. Le sigh.

S'all for tonight. I am toast.

Are the Jonas Bros in concert here or what?

2009-07-23T05:32:00.001-07:00

It was another Mobscene this morning on Beachway Drive.

Sorry no pix, 'cause...nuttin's finished. Dale the tile-guy from Outer-Darkness Virginia, is almost finished with the backsplash he needs only to grout now. He usually arrives around 8am.

All three Commonwealth guys were there this morning, Alan, Steve and Tim. Alan said that our schedule is dependent on Hawkins Electric finishing things so they can do their finishing work.

Hawkins Electric, Electical Savant, John, is apparently on a commercial job. So in his stead, Hawkins sent an older gent that appears to be from central casting, sub-category "Scary Old White Dudes". You know, the ones that run the gas stations that the hapless teenagers stumble upon in the slasher-genre movies, usually found lurking in dark corners only to be illuminated by flashes of lightning? Yep, thats him. He's got sun-damaged tattoos, chain-smokes and was wearing a "Chucky" (queue ominous strings) T-Shirt. I kid not. Steve said "He's a cantankerous old, ....er...., guy, but he'll do a good job for us." Steve has not led us astray, I'll believe him. JOHN! COME BACK! SAVE US FROM THE SCARY OLD WHITE DUDE!

As we were leaving the guys from the plumbing contractor arrived. They will be finishing the plumbing in the Powder room, hooking up the sink, and attaching the gas line to the cooktop.

Tim is still working on the deck. It should be the sturdiest deck in all of Christendom when he's done.

Lot's going on, so little time left before the 31st. Here's the deal. M and I have scheduled the movers for the 31st, that date is not set in stone and can be moved, we may in fact move it to the following week, just to give ourselves some wiggle room. The date that isn't moveable is the 12th of August. This is the date that we MUST close on or be required to started the loan process all over again. All work must be completed before the 12th, including the punch list. The Punch List is the this of things we want them to fix after they've finished. When they finish, we have 48-hours to compile this list and submit it to them. This items on this list must be completed before the 12th.

fingers-xed.

S'all for now,

ANTICIPATION

2009-07-22T06:07:00.000-07:00

Kelvin and Alan gave a booklet in our pre-construction meeting with them back in April on the range of emotions experienced by people going thru a home-renovation project. They warned us that towards the end we'd feel the "We Love You, But Get The #^*% Out Of My House" emotions.

We're so there.

I do love these guys and this company, but we are both so ready for this project to end. I am tired of the mess, the lack of privacy, and cooking in my garage.

We've schedule the movers for the 31st, and asked Alan to let us know immediately if they aren't going to make that date. We don't want to have to pay another month of rental on the storage unit, so if the interior is not inspected and ready to move into, our stuff will go into the gargage...which means we'll end up having to move it back in.

In the last 2 weeks, although things happen everyday and a lot has happened...it still looks no where near completion inside.

This week, the siders came and have nearly completed the outside of the house, and it looks fabulous, they'll be back on Friday to finish the side of the house where the utility wires are attached, Virginia Dominion Power have be there to do that.

John, Electrical Savant from Hawkins Electric, will be back on Friday to begin finishing the electric.

Dale, the Tile Guy from Outer-Darkness Virginia (he lives near Woodstock, VA off of Interstate 81!!!), was here yesterday and today to do the backsplash...I can't wait to post pics of it.

The painters have finished for the time being, except for touch up.

Tim will probably finish or nearly finish the deck, they were waiting on the siders to finish their work back there so they could proceed.

THINGS ARE HAPPENING, just not fast enough when you are in the anticipatory "We Love You, But Get The &^*% Out Of My House" mood.

I'll post pix tonight.

S'all for now.

Sweatin' to the Moldies

2009-07-17T06:21:00.000-07:00

So last night we get home and the A/C had been off all day, it had gotten up to about 94 degrees yesterday, and was 91 when we arrived at 6:15pm. Inside the thermometer said it was 87 degrees inside. We closed all the windows and turned on the A/C. I went about my duties, we had leftover chili last night with rice. I was out sweltering in my camp kitchen, I watered the garden, etc. We had dinner and at about 8pm or there abouts we noticed that the air coming from the registers wasn't cool, and the temp was only down to 85 degrees after the unit being on for nearly 2 hours. Quel Horror! (queue the 'Psycho' theme)

I trudged out to the compressor and discovered it had a tarp covering it that the siders had placed over it to keep debris from falling into it whilst they did their jobs. I removed it. The inside fan in the Laundry room was churning up a storm but the compressor wasn't kicking on. GRR.

M found a number for Proficient Plumbing in our handbook that had been given to us by Kelvin Peirce and Alan Bennett way back in the beginning of things. M called the number and left a lengthy message. We waited for about 20 minutes without a callback, and then I called Steve.

Steve was horrified too, but it was because they didn't use Proficient on our job but a firm called Argent HVAC!!! Steve called the Argent 24 - hour helpline and a man called me about 10 minutes later (it was around 9:15pm at this point, the outside temp was still in the 80's). The Argent dude said that they'd have someone come out and take a look...

TOMORROW MORNING BY 8AM! (queue theme from "Vertigo")

What are you going to do?

We ran every fan in the house and the window fan drawing in outside air on HIGH. It was like a wind tunnel.

Oddly, after I calmed down, I drifted right off. I actually feel fairly rested.

I was reminiscing with M this morning. I didn't live in a house with A/C until I was 6 years old. I remember my room in the house in Fairfield, AL that I lived in until I was 5. When it was warm my Mom opened all the windows and set up all the window fans. The only thing I remember is that the kitchen was hot as hades, but I don't remember having trouble sleeping.

We're so spoiled.

Anyway, a man we will henceforth refer to as Saint Juan of Argent arrived at about 7:15am (not 8am as the guy had said last night) this morning, and found the trouble immediately. He said that the cover that the siding guys had put over the compressor had tripped a pressure switch in the unit so it wouldn't overheat, it's not easy to get to either, you have to remove a panel on the back of the compressor and open another door and press a button inside...I never would have found it. He reset it and was on his blessed way to spread his cooling grace.

All is fine now....

Alan and Kelvin...Update your &%*$-ing literature.

S'all for now.

Are U Ready for Dis?

2009-07-16T17:07:00.000-07:00

First, Les Couleurs...

In the dining room we have Spiced Pumpkin. It's a rich terra cotta color that we thought would nicely compliment the cabinets and the cherry wood furniture we bought from Stickley. See how well it looks with that panel for cabinetry (I think that goes in the refridgerator space).

In the foyer and hallway, we chose a neutral shade that is slightly darker, than the color that was already there. This is called Twisted Oak Path. We believe it compliments the Spiced Pumpkin and the shades we chose in the New Space.

This is 2 shades of yellow, but we don't remember the names of them. The window wall is an accent color, and it's slightly more yellow than the rest of the room. The wood work will remain white. The fireplace will have a black slate surround.

The display nooks in the hallway will be painted Twisted Oak Path, with the backs painted a variation of the shade used in the powder room....

...remember this color for the Powder room? It's called Fruity Punch. It's only going to be in this semi-circle, next to the Euro-crapper we bought. I think the rest of the room will be a basic white.

The hangers for the mirror, and the wiring for the pendants in the Powder Room.

And now the exciting stuff....

meet The Granite. It's Brazilian, and the pictures don't really do it justice. Its got swirls of bluish-black, specks of amethyst colors, and golds, and whites, and greys. We thought it was fab-oosh.

Here's a wider shot of the buffet into between the kitchen and the dining room.

Here's my new GE Monogram 5-burner cooktop. The granite guys took the cooktop and the sink with them to custom fit them in the granite.

Here's the new sink, smaller prep sink on the left, deep basin on the right. The holes in the back, from left to right are: counter top disposal on/off switch, Soap dispenser, Main Faucet, filtered water dispenser.

Here's the rear view. The bar juts out about 24 inches, it's still got the 2x4 underneath because the counter won't be fixed until the plumbing is attached and completed. Here's the first shot of the accent color we chose called Ruby Dusk. It sort of eggplant colored we chose it for this under counter area and the trim on the Curve in the New Space.

Here's the wide shot of the new workspace.

Here's the wide shot of the New Space, with the accent colors.

Here's the view of the kitchen from the Dining Room.

There you have it. It's really coming together quick now. Today the crew is finishing the deck while the painters wrap things up inside. They make do some cabinetry while the painters are working.

The siding guys will be here. They replaced siding and trim on the side of the house yesterday, it's a mess now. I think they'll be there until the middle of next week, but the great thing is that since Commonwealth is subbing it out, they can focus on detail work inside.

It was took dark last night to take exterior shots, and I didn't have the bandwidth this morning...as I will address in a separate post.

Anyhoo, have a great weekend eer-one!

S'all for now,

BIG DAY TODAY....

2009-07-16T05:54:00.000-07:00

The painters were at the house yesterday and they completed the dining room and part of the new space. It looks great!

Tim made great strides on the Deck yesterday, it should be completed by Friday or Monday.

Today the painters come back, they will probably finish up on Friday.

The granite countertops are completed and will be installed today!! When the are in the backsplash can go in and the appliances.

Oh, and I almost forgot! The siding guys come today to start installing the new siding! Steve said they may finish that in one day, like the roofers did, however the roofers arrived at 7am sharp and worked all day, but the siders had yet to arrive when we'd left at 7:30am.

I'll post shots tonight or tomorrow.

Week 13 - waiting waiting waiting

2009-07-14T06:27:00.000-07:00

We scheduled movers for July 31st.

Are these guys ever going to finish? We're at the point where everything is just about to be finished, but it's either half installed (like the cabinetry or the electrical and lighting fixtures) or waiting in the limbo of our smelly garage (appliances and plumbing fixtures)...the garage is smelly because the port-o-pot is right next to it, and well, odors waft. A lot has to happen before we can move back in.

Friday, the countertop folks came and measured for our countertops and then left. Steve said the turnaround is usually a week.

Monday our appliances arrived and are in the garage waiting to be installed. We got the GE Advantium oven, the GE Monogram wall oven (electric convection), GE Mongram 5-burner gas cooktop, GE Monogram 'Euro' hood, Jenn-air 'fridge, and Bosch dishwasher. We spoke personally to each appliance and welcomed them to our household...and appologized for having to store them in a smelly garage. The Bosch seemed put out, but then it is European.

This week, is interior painting, and the siding sub-contractors are going to remove our existing wood siding and replace it with the Hardi-Plank.

No pictures, really because there's not much to show right now. Steve has been by himself the last few work days as, the rest of the Commonwealth crew finishes smaller jobs.

Die Kabinette sind angebracht worden!

2009-07-09T17:05:00.000-07:00

Or...the cabinets have been installed, auf Deutsch. Oh, how we have waited to see these.

This is week 12. On Monday the floors were buffed and a second coat of poly-deathfumes were applied. I took the day off and palled around with my folks in Old Towne Alexandria. Good times were had. The floors were finished around 3:30pm so we couldn't walk on them until 6 pm. We all went out to dinner and when we came back they were beautiful. Hawkins flooring was able to buff out the mail that dried stuck to the floor on Friday, Steve said the boss scowled, and uttered a "Dios Mio", and probably a couple of other Spanish unprintables, and then he just buffed it out. They're gorgeous.

Anyhoo, on Tuesday they started installing cabinetry. Thank goodness that Mom and Dad got to see the base cabs installed before they left on Wednesday morning. Below are some shots of how it turned out on Wednesday morning.

This is the dining room that thier using as a staging area. Below is the cabinetry for the 'message centre'.

This is the main work area. We went with a maple base, that is stained to look like cherry. Natural cherry cabs were THOUSANDS of $$$ more. Melissa Chernick, Commonwealth Designer Extraordinaire, steered us towards this manufacturer. The company's name is Diamond Cabinetry, and its a semi-custom cabinet maker. Melissa says that semi custom means that you order cabinetry from a catalog and it's made and shipped to you. They came in boxes that were labelled, manufactured in Alabama. Wonder where? There were some really talented carpenters in the town I grew up in, Ozark.

This is the wall for the pantry and refridgerator, and what we call the Baking Centre. The pantry has pull out shelves. The 'fridge will go in the centre, we got Jenn-Air 'fridge with french doors and a pullout freezer. The Baking Centre will have an appliance garage and book shelves for cookbooks and whatnot.
This is looking from the sink area into my new workspace. The corner cab is a garbage can lazy susan. 3 plastic bins, one for garbage, one for paper, and one for glass and plastic. No more schlepping recyclables out to the bin! The cab at the far right will open into the New Space, so that we won't have to reach accross the expanse of countertop to reach the door, there will be another appliance garage under this cab.

A front view.

This will serve as a broom closet, and cleaning products storage. It's only about 1 foot deep. Hmm, it looks disturbingly like a Confessional!

This is the Message Centre. I'll show more pix of this later, it doesn't make much sense now.

Here's the outside shot. Steve moved that gi-normous mound of foul smelling dirt and is ready to build the deck. You can't see it in this shot, but the holes for the posts have been dug. The stuff is all on our parking pad out front ready to be built.

Today, the plumbing fixtures arrived! Melissa Chernick, Commonwealth Designer Extraordinaire, came by this morning as well to finalize our color choices. They did more work on the cabinetry, adding doors, drawers etc. The guy from the granite place came over today and measured for the countertop. I can't wait to see it, because I haven't looked at it since February. Next week, Mike-the-drywall-guy is coming next week to paint, as well as the tile guy to do the backsplash.

It's all coming together really fast. We can't wait to see the finished product.

S'all for now!

CC

The First Coat is the Deepest, and now a gift from your postal service...

2009-07-04T08:02:00.000-07:00

Friday morning, apparently fairly early, the flooring guys arrived and laid down a coat of sealer, and the first coat of poly-deathfumes. Remember, we had to vacate the premises on Thursday night and bunk with Ste. Cheryl of Shirlington. We had a wonderful evening with this pious woman. She was charming, witty and lively... especially once we plied her with a gin martini at the Busboys and Poets restaurant in the village of Shirlington, where she was at home, among her faithful.

Anyway, Friday morning we all headed to the house to see what it looked like. Here's the fabulous results. The stain matched pretty closely, didn't it! Here's what it looks like at the base of the stairwell. This is the existing flooring, sanded stained and one coat of poly.

Here's the existing floor in the old living room, new Dining room.

Kitchen floor, it's all new flooring from the wall that juts out on the right. Remember this used to be our teensy dining room.

The flooring in the new space.

Looking towards the entrance to the deck.

Looking back towards the kitchen.

New hallway.

Oh, and whats this next to the front door?? Oh, wow, we forgot to tape up the mail slot!!! Good thing the Entertainment Weekly was face up, or we'd have a permenant visage of Michael Jackson, rest-his-soul, staring up at us for the rest of our time in this home! As it was it's only a gas bill and a home-for-sale flyer. Steve said the floorers can just buff this out.

My parents are intown til the 7th, we had a wonderful 4th of July, with Fireworks on Lake Barcroft, BBQ Ribs, and most of the trimming. Hope eer-one had a great holiday.

WooHoo! New FLOOR!!!

2009-07-01T16:50:00.000-07:00

The floor crew installed our floor today. They didn't get to sanding and stripping the old floor but they did finish installing the new.

As you can see below in this kitchen shot, the removed the old flooring back to the dining room area.

Here's the view from the corner of the new space looking towards the back door.

This is looking towards the kitchen. BTW, the odd circles in the picture are caused by dust. I think the schmutz were seeing is dust particles reflecting off the flash. Nice, huh? I told M this evening that I don't even see the point in cleaning up much, because it the next day it's filthy again...just want my house back at this point. Anyhoo....

This is looking towards the front door from the new space. This is red oak, btw. We're going to try to stain it to be similar to the old flooring.

Here's the kitchen. Now they can install all them cabinets out in the garage!

Here's the powder room flooring.

Here's the entry to the den, where we're living for the duration of this project. This is why we have to move out when they poly-deathfume the floors tomorrow. The only way we can get up to the bath/bed levels of the house is to round this corner here, and head up the stair way. I can do it without touching the floor, but I resemble a spider monkey whilst doing it...try not to picture it, it's too disturbing. However, if I knocked some drywall schmutz on the floor while I was impersonating George of the Jungle, the floors would be just as mest up. We're vacating...thanks to St. Cheryl of Shirlington.S'all for now,

I like the little car, and this neat-o fright-wig, but the big floppy shoes are binding...

2009-07-01T03:45:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, a painting crew came over and applied a coat of primer to the whole level. Later that day, Commonwealth Designer Extraordinaire, Melissa Chernick, arrived with paint samples that we had chosen the night before. She applied the new colors to the newly primed walls. I'll take you on a little tour.

Below is our old front door, which is not changing, there's nothing wrong with it. Steve and crew have completed most of the woodwork throughout the new level. So, the windows and doors all for the most part have their surrounding woodwork now. The first sample is below on the wall on the left. It's an antique cream, not too dissimilar from what we had on the walls before.

This is looking down the new hall way towards the new space. The ceiling height is 7'3" in the hallway. They just finished framing in the woodwork here, and in fact have a bit more to do, on the otherside of this opening. The entrance to the existing den is still rough.

The new Dining Room with the completed woodwork around the existing window.

Now, the colors don't show as well as I would like them to, bur here goes. This is standing in the corner of the Dining Room looking at the front of the cove. The 2 splotches on it are a light greenish/blue. The one on the left is a pale wedgewood blue, the one on the right is even paler blue. Melissa, thinks this will really make the Curve stand out, because the walls in the Dining Room will be...

...one of the 2 splotches below. They are sort of a terra cotta shade, we like the darker of the 2 shades.

Here's the interior of the Cove in the kitchen. I like the paler of the 2 shades here.

Here's the new window wall with the completed woodwork. Nice, huh? This is going to be an accent wall, with one of the 2 golden shades on the left.

Here's a closer view of the completed wood work.

Heres a closer look at the 2 colors. We think the one on the left is too vibrant, so we're leaning towards the lighter of the 2.

The rest of the room will be the lighter of the 2 colors of the wall below. We're choosing a shade of eggplant for the Curve and the bar area.

Here's Tim's completed display cases, there will be an accent color on the back of each shelf, we think it will be variations of the color we're choosing for the new powder room.
Are you ready for the powder room, color?

You sure?

OK...scroll down a bit...

It's called Fruity Punch...HEY! No cat calls from the Peanut gallery, I HEARD THAT!

We'll thats where we are this week. Midway thru week 10.

Today the new floors are installed, and the existing floors will be sanded today. Steve said that he'd seal us upstairs and down with a double plastic seal. That worked well for the drywall, so hopefully the mess won't be too bad.

S'all for now,

Quicky Update

2009-06-30T07:21:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-29T05:36:00.000-07:00

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

Meanwhile, in the big outdoors

2009-06-24T16:34:00.001-07:00

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,

Drywall Completed, CHECK!

2009-06-24T16:28:00.000-07:00

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,

Roofers & Drywall & Cabinets, Oh MY!

2009-06-23T05:36:00.000-07:00

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,

Max Headroom...a note to me Mum

2009-06-20T09:05:00.000-07:00

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,

Canoodling with the Nesco Pressure Cooker, Part 3

2009-06-19T05:49:00.000-07:00

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....

2009-06-18T03:06:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2009-06-16T06:20:00.000-07:00

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,

Interesting stats for readership

2009-06-15T07:51:00.001-07:00

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?"

2009-06-15T05:27:00.000-07:00

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,

Food Pron...continued

2009-06-14T05:16:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-14T05:10:00.000-07:00

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.

Shedding more light on the subject....

2009-06-11T11:39:00.000-07:00

COMMONWEALTH DESIGNER EXTRAORDINARE, Melissa Chernick, sent us options for our dining room fixture yesterday. We're not sure what we're going to pick. We're going with simple Mission Style table and chairs, clean lines, so keeping that in mind she offered us these 5 choices...whaddathink?

OPTION #1: I like this one a lot, but like the nickel plated one better.

1969 - Lyndon Six-Light Chandelier
By Kichler Lighting

Light Bulb
(6)100w A19 Med F Incand
Finish
Distressed Black
Glass
Linen

Dimensions
Height: 26" - Diameter: 27" - Chain/Cord: 72" -

Description
Lyndon Six-Light Chandelier Includes 65" of extra lead wire and 6' of chain

OPTION #2: this is too industrial for my tastes

21086 - Julius Multi-Light Pendant
By PLC Lighting

Finish

Satin Nickel
Light Bulb
(6)40w T4 G9 120v Halogen

Dimensions
Width: 44" - Height: 4.5" -

Description
Julius Multi-Light PendantThis fixture features a Satin Nickel finish and Frost glass. Supplied with 10 ft. cable and quick grip cable support for quick and easy adjustment..

OPTION #3: I really like this one.

12704 - Deco Chandelier
By Maxim Lighting

Number of Lights
Five Lights
Light Bulb
(5)100w A19 Med F Incand
Finish
Florentine

Dimensions
Width: 18.5" - Height: 22.75" - Diameter: 25.75" -

Description
Inspired by the Art Deco era, this classic series features Wilshire glass shades and hand painted with our classic Florentine finish.

OPTION #4: Pretty, but a bit too stuffy.

11854 - 5TH AVENUE 3 LT CHANDELIER
By Maxim Lighting

Light Bulb
(3)60w A19 Med C Incand
Finish
Wormwood
Glass
Gold Aurora

Dimensions
Height: 23" - Diameter: 21.5" -

Description
A graceful post-modern design features our rich Wormwood finish and Gold Aurora artisan glass. Each piece of glass is hand blown and has its own personality.

ADDITIONAL OPTION #5: I found this one somewhat disturbing...dunno why. Maybe the lights look too much like tentacles.

On a Mission to Danker

2009-06-09T07:28:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, M and I got the furniture bug. We read in the WaPo that Danker in Crystal City was having a Stickley furniture sale. Both of us love Arts & Crafts/Mission style furniture, and Stickley is well made, and mostly affordable. We ended up buying the table pictured below, it's called the Harvey Ellis Table, it has mission-y enlays in each corner. Its a roomy 44 inches wide at the ends and 6ft long without extension. With two 15 inch extenders it

We chose these arm chairs, with a different fabric, of course. It's also in Cherry, very close to the shade for the cabinets.
This is the Tulip Fest carpet M and I bought about 2 years ago, it's in storage. We love the colors in it; burgundy, sage, gold...so we're kind of sticking with this palette.

I thought you'd like seeing these...tonight, Thursday, June 11th, we're meeting our Commonwealth Designer Extraordinare, Melissa Chernick, at a furniture store that we found called, BIF. It's in Fairfax, VA and when we went through it on Sunday we really liked what we saw, its very contemporary. We're in the market for a sofa set. Melissa is going to help us with our choices.

S'all for now,

Week Six, Interior get the frame

2009-06-05T05:37:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday err-one! Week six has come to an end, M, me and the Commonwealth crew are at about the mid way point. This week was all about interior framing. These guys, Steve and carpenter, Tim worked like demons this week. It was truly a pleasure to come home each night an see what they'd accomplished.

Join me in a quick tour of the new space!

Below is the framed out kitchen ceiling. Tim thought we should keep the lovely fixture, that used to be in the dining room, he felt it really complemented the new decor. NOT! This is the dropped ceiling that I was trying to tell you about early in the blog. It's hard to describe. The ceiling height in the middle of the cove is the standard suburban 8ft, the dropped ceiling around it will lower to 7'3" there will be speakers and spotlights inserted in the dropped area.
Detail of the dropped ceiling in the kitchen. There will be LED lights hidden in this cove area, lighting the interior.

Ok, this view is from the front door, looking into the new dining room into the new kitchen. Notice the curvey new wall area that will frame the entrance to the kitchen. That metal framework is something that Steve said they hadn't used before, but it allow the dry wall guys to attach directly to it. There will be LED lights in the interior of this extended area, shedding indirect light up towards the ceiling.

Another side view of the dining room wall feature.

Tim framed out this display shelf. This was an area that is going to be behind the pantry cabinetry. We saw it on the plans as dead space and asked Melissa if they could use it, and she come up with these built in shelves. They will be lit somehow with LED lighting.

Detail of Tim's handiwork.

Inset shelves, a different view.

Below is the detail of the new structure being framed out in the new living space. This will be a shelf that extends out into the living space from the kitchen cove. There will be LED lighting hidden at it, and there will be space to display things on it.

At it's longest point it extends 26 inches into the new space. The wall above it will be sheetrocked where the studs are, creating a nice backdrop for art, or wallhangings, what-have-you.

Ok, so that's what we got so far. Not bad, huh? It's all really coming together.

Give me a shout and let me know what you think.

Have a great weekend all,

S'all for now.

Melissa's computer kitchen drawings

2009-06-03T07:18:00.000-07:00

Here's the drawing Melissa did to illustrate how the new fixtures would look in the new space. This is looking from the new living space into the new kitchen. The granite we chose is lighter than the type in the mock-up. But the cabinetry and appliances are the same.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Option 4

Thoughts? We're going with option 2, by the way.

Cheers,

Pendant Lighting Options

2009-06-03T06:46:00.000-07:00

Designer Extraordinaire, Melissa Chernick, sent us pendant lighting options last night!!! She also sent computer drawings of what they'd look like in the new space. I'll post those next.

OPTION 1: Melissa liked this one, but we thought it was too similar to the powder room fixtures, and lacked some umph we need for the space.

144-6 - Nikko Mini Pendant By Z-Lite

Finish Brushed Nickel Shade Black Light Bulb (1)60w A19 Med F Incand Dimensions Height: 8" - Diameter: 6" -

Description The Nikko Family is a soft relection of contemporary. The outer organza shade allows a glimpse of the inner opaque shade which eminates a soft glow. Includes telescoping rod ranging from 18"-36"

OPTION 2: These reminded us of the art glass we saw in Murano, Italy on our trip there in 1997. These really spoke to us.

E92071 - Carte Incandescent Pendant By ET2 Lighting

Finish Satin Nickel Glass Counch Light Bulb (1)100w A19 Med F Incand Dimensions Height: 10" - Diameter: 6" - Overall Height: 120" - Min. OAH: 24"

Description Dabble in the art of design by creating a custom collection without an equal. Complete the unique creation with a dizzying of glass selections. Choice lighting just took on a whole new meaning. Ajustable height Slope ceiling compatible

http://www.lightinguniverse.com/MiniPendants/ET-Lighting-Carte-Satin-Nickel-Mini-Pendant_4924439.html (link to be able to zoom in on fixture)

OPTION 3: I loved these for there whimsy, but thought they may not put out enough light and were a little too whimsical for the space.

PD30155SN - Milano Mini Pendant By Vaxcel

Part #

Finish Satin Nickel Glass Honey Ripple Light Bulb (1)40w B10 Cand F Incand Dimensions Width: 3.125" - Height: 9.25" -

Description Milano Mini Pendent. 6' of adjustable cord.

OPTION 4: We loved these, and for us it was between option 2 and 4. These are close in color, to the type of granite we are getting, so we were a bit concerned that they'd wouldn't call attention to themselves.

ALR-8815-10 - Alabaster ROCKS!™ 1-Light Mini Pendant By Justice Design Group

Part # 3559560 Price $99.02

Shade Cylinder w/ Flat Rim Metal Finish Brushed Nickel Cord Black Cord Light Bulb (1)40w G16½ Cand F Incand Dimensions 5 1/2" H x 4" Dia. (Shade)

Description Mini 1-Light Pendant. Each shade includes 8 ft. of cord for adjustable drops. Canopy: ¾" H x 5 ¼" Dia.

Next up. The computer drawings of how they'd look in the space

We're Sealed!

2009-05-31T13:48:00.000-07:00

It's been a great weekend here. M and I had saw a great play on Friday night. An Arena Stage production of "Looped" starring Valerie Harper (yeah, Rhoda...that Valerie Harper) as the stage actress Tahlulah Bankhead. She was so good that you forgot she played Rhoda Morgenstern completely. Lots of laughs, and but it was also sad and poignant. Highly recommended, it's at the Lincoln Theater on U Street thru June 28th. After that it heads to Broadway, and if Ms. Harper gets nominated for a Tony and you didn't see her while you had the chance and she was in DC...won't you be kicking yourself??? No!?? Whatever.

The Commonwealth guys were able to complete the framing on Friday thank goodness. It rained torrentially all day on Friday. This pic I took on sunny Sunday, because the yard was a mess yesterday. You can see the room really take shape now. Remember the middle area will be a gas fireplace when it's all completed.

Here's the view from the inside I took on Saturday morning. All the windows are openable, so cross ventilation will be excellent.

Here's the side view. Susan Pierce, the architect, really had it down, M and I were expecting the deck to be on the back of the house like it used to be, however, Susan pointed out that it would obscure the view of the back yard (of course, duh). So this makes much more sense for us.

Note, the red steel beam and joist. This was installed on Thursday. The ceiling in the new space will be 11ft at this point, and slope down to 8 feet at the window wall.

Here's a veiw of the side window. The door to the deck has not been installed yet, but it will be to the right of these windows.

Here's the view looking from the other direction. See the flash of pink from the old kitchen? The beam will of course be completely sealed in drywall. There's a reminant of the brick wall on the left there that won't be demo-ed, but sealed behind the new wall. The spaghetti mess of old wires is going on Monday. This week the electric guys will be out to do preliminary pre-work for wiring! The temp wall will be gone this week.

One thing we noticed on Saturday morning was the light that was coming in from the backyard from the new window was really substantial. We won't need lamps in the morning.

I'll leave you with a bit of food porn. This was a potato-pepper-asparagus hash I made for lunch today. It turned out really well, I used a bit of smoky paprika to finish it, and served it with a fried egg and 2 toasted pieces of sour dough bread. Great way to start a Sunday afternoon!

S'all y'all...

Track lighting and ceiling fan options

2009-05-29T07:55:00.000-07:00

So, Melissa Chernick, Designer Extraordinaire at Commonwealth, gave us several options for track lighting in the new addition. The option below is a more traditional, warmer oil rubbed bronze. We liked this and a brushed nickel style pictured farther down the page.

Oil Rubbed Bronze Option 1:

5DS34 - 34" Designer Supreme III Fan By Monte Carlo Fan Company

Oil Rubbed Bronze Option 2 (with cherry blades):

ME52 - 52" Metro Ceiling Fan By Craftmade Fans

I must say, we weren't excited by either choice. So Melissa gave us two others for the brushed nickel option.

B554P - 54" Premier Blades (Set of 5) By Craftmade Fans

Fan Blade Custom Cherry

I like the smaller spots without the glass globes I think.

Brushed Nickel Option 1:

FA52 - Fifth Avenue Ceiling Fan By Craftmade Fans

Brushed Nickel Option 2:

We're leaning towards option2 with the brushed nickel track lighting.

S'all for now,

Powder Room Options

2009-05-29T05:25:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd posted these earlier, but I was mistaken. Our new powder room is going to be stylish! Designer Extraordinaire, Melissa Chernick from Commonwealth found this really nifty mirror below, and we are sort of building the decor of the tiny powder room around it.

What do you think? We thought the circles on the frame went well with the curves that Susan Pierce built into the design in the new space

Below, are the four lighting choices that Melissa gave us for the space.

Option #1 - We liked this and thought it was cool, funky and contemporary, but when we saw the elevations below it looked dinky next to the mirror, same with option #4.

Option #2 - We loved these, and thought they would look great with the mirror. We also thought it would complement the vaguely Asian, simple lines of the vanity we chose.

Option #3 - These looked too much like bowling pins four our taste.

Option #4 -We liked the whimsy of this optioin, but were concerned it was too small and wouldn't produce enough light.

The elevations below showed us where they would hang relative to the the mirror. We thought Option #2 looked the best. Click the pic below to enlarge it, it's easier to view.

We chose a vanity that is dark brown wood, the sink is a solid porceline piece that sits on top, and the fixtures are the 'waterfall' variety that are really popular now (which means in 10 years people will wash their hands and think, "Wow, is that 2009 or WHAT??!!!"

S'all for now!

L8r,

We've Been FRAMED!

2009-05-26T17:16:00.000-07:00

The picture below was taken on Friday evening, this is looking out the side of the addition where the deck will be. The hole on the left will be an awning style window that will open outward.

The rear wall, the solid portion will be where out new gas fireplace will be. It will be surrounded by windows, and appear to 'float' in space.

Here's the brick wall that will be removed. Inside the door opening you can see plywood, the Commonwealth guys built a temporary wall behind the brick wall so that when it's removed there will be a minimum of dust entering our house. I was really impressed by this.

So, this is inside the house looking at the temporary wall. That's the old dining room with that charming foyer fixture we never got around to removing. Sometimes I can't believe that its taken us 8 years to make these changes, but then I remember that it's taken this long to figure out exactly what we wanted.

This is looking towards the new powder room, the temp wall covers the whole opening to the outside.

M and I had a fantastic weekend, we played in the dirt all day on Saturday and Sunday, and we both got an enormous amount completed. I was able to finish some stuff I'd been working on in the veggie garden, and M was able to finish things he'd been putting off for a while. Monday we had a fantastic Memorial Day, we cleaned / paid bills in the morning, then went to a community picnic on Lake Barcroft. It was a barge party, with 4 party barges lashed together that meandered the Lake for about 2 hours. Afterward, we went to see "Star Trek" which we heartily recommend if you're into Sci-Fi.

Below, is what greeted us on Tuesday night. Steve was able, with the help of a very able bodied laborer, to remove the brick wall, it's all in the dumpster now, except for that small portion on the left.

It rained much of the day on Tuesday, but I told Steve that it may have kept the dust down. He concurred. Here's the view out the back...it will be very relaxing to sit on the sofa and look out at this.

Below is detail of the roof and the temp wall

This nook will be a nice place to read or do crosswords.

There you have it, so far. We're now starting our 6th week, so we're roughly at the halfway point. We saw Alan this morning and he said that once it's all sealed up, they can call in the subs to do electrical, plumbing and HVAC stuff.

We're doing ok!

S'all for now,

Happy Memorial Day!! Week 5 Recap

2009-05-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

Early in the week, the Commonwealth crew created the new back wall as you can see below. You can make out the holes for the windows and the fireplace.

Here's the side view.And the rear view.

Next came the new roof.

You can see, why they had to change the window style in that upstairs room, the roofline is covering the where the bottom of the old window.

Rear view with roof.

Detail of the roof before the plywood went on it.

We signed a change order to have all of our existing sideing replaced with Hardi-plank (a concrete based siding material, hence it's considered 'green'). We're going with a buttercream color, and a slightly darker trim color. It will save us thousands in painting costs down the road, because it doesn't need painting. Our last painting job cost nearly $5K...so this option seemed really attractive.

Side view of the new roof.

This was taken last Thursday. They finished the roof on Friday and completed the left exterior side wall. Here you can almost see where the fireplace will be on the back wall, it will be surrounded by openable awning style windows. So the fireplace will appear to 'float' in space.

Below, this wall will be a solid wall. we decided to go with the Hardi-plank rather than brick. This wall is invisible from the street, and invisible to our neighbors as well, also, we need wall-space for art and what-not, our Wallunit, that gave us such pains to move will go along this wall.

Closeup of the rear wall.

On, Tuesday they will begin to demolish the brick exterior wall. The Commonwealth team have created a temporary wall on the inside that will, hopefully, keep a majority of the dust and debris outside where it belongs.

Happy Memorial Day all. Have a safe one and don't eat too much potatoe salad!

S'all for now,

Finally some pix...Week4

2009-05-22T11:39:00.000-07:00

We are now at the end of Week 5, and due to good weather there has been astounding progress. These Commonwealth men have been KRANKING!

Here's were we were last week:

This was the finished footer, with the brick wall. This was Wednesday night, on Thursday, Steve filled the foundation with gravel and waterproofed the base with a plastic liner.

Thursday night there was a dreadful deluge, and this waterfeature was the result. It filled Steve's foundation with about a foot of water. That's the sump pump chugging away. He was able to clean it all up, however, because...

Below is the finished flooring that new guy, Tim and Steve finished last Friday. They secured that tarp really well, so it didn't flap at all.

Friday, a guy with a backhoe came and they dug and graded around the new addition. The remainder was this six foot pile of stinky wet muck. Eww.

Finally here's a pic of the finished upstairs window. with the new bricking around it. They still have to put the framing on each side, but it looks pretty good!

Next up, Week 5 recap!

s'all for now,

Sorry for the interruption...

2009-05-21T03:48:00.000-07:00

I have been at the InAAU (Int'l Association of Avaya Users) convention at the fabulous Gaylord Palms resort in sunny (HA!) Orlando, FL. I am leaving today and will post pix tonight of the ongoing project.

M says that, unlike Orlando, the DC area has experienced a run of sunny dry weather! The Commonwealth crew has been able to finish the floor, the 'window' wall and framed in the roof of the addition. Today, M said they indicated that they would begin the demolition of the outside wall. YAY! So, things are moving along.

I'll post more later, my flight out of Orlando is at 2pm this afternoon, and I arrive in DC at 5pm. I am looking forward to getting back.

S'all for now, have a great Thursday!

CC

What's the opposite of praying for rain?

2009-05-15T11:14:00.000-07:00

We're doing the anti-rain dance.

Quick upd..

The brick masons finished the foundation on Wednesday. It looks really good, they also finished the brick work around the new window that was installed upstairs.

Thursday, Commonwealth's project manager, Steve, worked to prepare the foundation for the building of the frame. When they dug the hole for our addition, runoff from rainfall has no where to go but towards the house. So, Steve worked with a subcontractor with a backhoe to dig out and level the work area. Its a huge mess now. There's a 6 foot pile of stinky muck next to the back door now. Steve installed a French drain around base of the new foundation that will eventually send runoff to the side yard. He also lined the new crawlspace with a plastic liner and about 6 inches of gravel.

Last night, we had several ferocious storms blow through! Steve had carefully protected the new crawlspace with a plastic tarp, held up by some 12 ft 2" x 4"s The rain filled up the tarp with water, and formed a pool that was about a foot deep!!! I told Steve that I didn't remember the water feature in Susan Pierce's design, that I could try to find some Coy to compliment it!

He got a real charge out of that.

I am going on a business trip next week to Orlando, I will post pix before I leave.

I hate leaving M in the middle of the destruction but it can't be helped.

S'all for now,

Mmmmm....Pah-scetti

2009-05-15T06:10:00.000-07:00

I fired up the Nesco Pressure Cooker, the gift from our buds, Joe and Markles, and made my signature Spaghetti meat sauce.

The cooker has a BROWN feature that allows you to pre-cook everything before you apply the pressure setting. Here's my sauce recipe:

on the BROWN setting:

1 lb ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 pkg of fresh button mushrooms, sliced (you can get these pre-sliced and cleaned)

2 tsps of Italian seasoning

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp of crushed red pepper

When the onions are translucent, ADD:

1 large can of crushed tomatoes

1 -14 oz. can of diced tomatoes

1 -6 oz. can of tomato paste

STIR until well blended,

Place the top on the cooker and lock into place. Adjust to HIGH pressure setting for 7 minutes. Release the pressure and serve over cooked noodles. I cooked them outside on the grill burner, which is actually not a bad way to cook them, you don't have to worry about spills.

Dinner was ready in about 30 minutes, including prep time. I usually make this recipe in a slow-cooker, and allow it to simmer on LOW all day.

This was my first time using a pressure cooker, and I was only a little nervous. My mother had a stove-top model from Mirro that blew it's pressure valve once! I think it's still lodged in the ceiling of her kitchen.

S'all for now.

Gratuitous Food Porn - Potato Asparagus Hash

2009-05-11T18:07:00.000-07:00

I did this entirely on the grill, using the side burner, and setting up my griddle on the grates.

This recipe was adapted from a mushroom/asparagus hash that was in the WaPo several weeks ago, which is pictured above. We had no mushrooms, but had some asparagus that needed to be used, so I improvised. For the herbs, I have more fresh thyme than anyone could possibly use, (it's taken over!), I had some fresh greek oregano and some anemic basil that I started from seed in December and is finally looking like it might grow.

Here's the recipe this served 2, but you could easily double or triple it.

2 slices bacon diced

2 medium potatoes in a 1/4 - 1/2 inch dice

1 red or yellow bell pepper diced coarsely

1 medium yellow onion

5 - 10 spears, of asparagus (depending on thickness) cut into 1/2 inch lengths

salt and pepper to taste

Italian herbs (optional)

4 eggs

Over a medium flame in a large skillet with a cover, render the bacon till crispy, remove and set aside. Add the potatoes, cover and allow to cook for about 3 minutes, remove the cover and add the onions and peppers. Partially cover, and cook for about 5 minutes. While these are cooking, cook the eggs sunny-side-up on the griddle, cook to desired doneness (We like ours nearly cooked through) and remove from the griddle and set aside. The potatoes, etc should be done by this time and slightly browned, add the asparagus and cover again, cook for about 3 - 4 minutes, and everything should be perfect! If you have fresh herbs add them right and the end cook for another minute.

Place a mound of hash mixture in the center of each plate. Arrange 2 eggs on each plate. Serve with a crisp white wine, and a small fruit salad.

Bon Appetit!

l8r,
cc

Renovation Blovations

Holiday Letter for 2010...

Christmas on Beachway

Stay Tuned for the BIG REVEAL!

A busy, frustrating, exhilarating, exhausting weekend

A Fireplace Painted, a Media Room Reborn

Finished Fireplace

Crouching Ardvaark, Hidden Wombat

The Slate is partially installed

The Burro Has Landed.

2 down, 1 to go...

Coming Together...but don't look too close

The weekend project...

Boxes boxes everywhere

Meet the Commonwealth Builder's Team

Move-In Day Looms....

1st Meal in New Kitchen

Nearly Next To Almost Fin...

Today, Worksite Dramz & then lots of work!

Just wow.

First utter darkness, THEN, A glimmer at the end of the tunnel, mayhap?

Inside - New stuff!

Outside - Who's House is THIS?

Backsplash - It is complete.

Are the Jonas Bros in concert here or what?

ANTICIPATION

Sweatin' to the Moldies

Are U Ready for Dis?

BIG DAY TODAY....

Week 13 - waiting waiting waiting

Die Kabinette sind angebracht worden!

The First Coat is the Deepest, and now a gift from your postal service...

WooHoo! New FLOOR!!!

I like the little car, and this neat-o fright-wig, but the big floppy shoes are binding...

Quicky Update

Week 10 - Weird Week Ahead

Meanwhile, in the big outdoors

Drywall Completed, CHECK!

Roofers & Drywall & Cabinets, Oh MY!

Max Headroom...a note to me Mum

Canoodling with the Nesco Pressure Cooker, Part 3

D-Day....

PASSED INSPECTION!!!

Interesting stats for readership

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

Food Pron...continued

Ready for Inspection, Sir!

Shedding more light on the subject....

Edison Chandelier (Pottery Barn)

On a Mission to Danker

Week Six, Interior get the frame

Melissa's computer kitchen drawings

Pendant Lighting Options

We're Sealed!

Track lighting and ceiling fan options

Powder Room Options

We've Been FRAMED!

Happy Memorial Day!! Week 5 Recap

Finally some pix...Week4

Sorry for the interruption...

What's the opposite of praying for rain?

Mmmmm....Pah-scetti

Gratuitous Food Porn - Potato Asparagus Hash