The weekend project...

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.

CC

Boxes boxes everywhere

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.

CC

Meet the Commonwealth Builder's Team

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....

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.

CC

1st Meal in New Kitchen

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,

cc

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