Nearly Next To Almost Fin...

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

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

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

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


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




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

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

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

Hmm. blurry. New sink all shiny and clean!

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

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

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

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

Kitchen pendants over bar area. They are just gorgeous.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hope so!

S'all for now.

cc

Today, Worksite Dramz & then lots of work!

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,

cc

Just wow.

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.

CC

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

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.

cc

Inside - New stuff!

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