We're Sealed!

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...

CC

Track lighting and ceiling fan options

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,

CC

Powder Room Options

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, 

CC

We've Been FRAMED!

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,

CC

Happy Memorial Day!! Week 5 Recap

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,

CC

Finally some pix...Week4

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,

cc

Sorry for the interruption...

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?

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,

cc

Mmmmm....Pah-scetti

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.

CC

Gratuitous Food Porn - Potato Asparagus Hash

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

Week 4, begins...Progress!!

When last we left our intrepid and plucky remodelers, they were knee deep in muck as seen below. This was taken Friday evening. There is a concrete footer that this iron rod is set in that is underneath the 6 or so inches of bilge water.
Here's a better view of the completed footers.
Here's the tent structure that Dave built, as the weekend progressed the footers did dry out. The weather was spectacular on Sunday, May 10th - God's gift to Mid-atlantic Moms!

Here's the wide view, unfortunately, it got really windy on Saturday night and Sunday. The tarp was a casualty of the wind. All of those 12 foot beams that were holding it up toppled at some point, leaving only the roof part that Dave built. It did the trick, tho.

In order to accomodate the new roofline of the addition, we had to have our window upstairs replaced with a smaller one. Here is is below. We really like it! It's a Simonson window, which we'd never heard of (I'd only heard of Pella and Andersen windows).

Here's the wide view. The new window is in a small bedroom, we use as a home gym. The window to the left is my bathroom.

Monday, Steve came and the masonry guys were here at about 7am. There was an intermittant (and unforcasted, grrrr) rain, but they were able to get started and lay the new foundations. Most of this will be essentially invisible. The portion below will be under our new deck.

Below is the view from the rear. This will be about where the new fireplace will be.

Here's the side view on the side of the house.Here's a better view of the back.

Mom, here's the side yard. This is the Wygelia and the white azelea bush that's on the side of the house. Ironically, this has been one of the most beautiful Washington Springs in a few years, a perfect combo of a wet late winter, cool but not freezing temps and good luck.

Here's the front yard where they came in with the back hoe, it really tore the yard up.

Here's some interiors. This is the new hallway. Steve and Dave framed in our new powder room on Thursday and Friday, complete with new pocket door, that's the metal frame on the right.

Here's where the door to the powder room will be.

This is looking into the new kitchen. The back wall will probably be gone next week.

We're looking from the kitchen into the new dining room!

This was taken from the front door, looking into the new hallway.

So that's where we are. I think we're going to see real progress this week. Alan said that once the foundation is in place that the new structure will go up quickly. I cannot wait!

Dad Update!! My Dad got his staples out of his knee at 4pm this afternoon. He came home from the rehab facility on Saturday, and he's already making it up the 25 steps to his bedroom and the shower! I am amazed at his progress and terribly proud of him!

S'all for now!

L8r,

cc