Let there be light

It is very cool the way the painters do the spraying. First they brush the windows panes with a liquid film that dries into a kind of plastic-wrap consistency. Then they put on their alien uniforms and masks and spray the room with abandon. So the paint covers everything including the windows. When they are done, it's pretty dark. Then they take a razor and peel off the film from the windows - and behold! Brightness and factory finish trim.

After one of the interminable rain and or snow storms we've had in the last weeks, I was
checking out the big closet in Sarah's room. Lee pointed out that the chimney is no longer leaking. Should I be nervous that the way they stopped the leaking was by covering the chimney with plastic? I wonder if it's the type that peels off like the kind kind the painters use.

Brian has been here every day getting us set up electrically. The blue phone cables are being sorted out. He gave the yellow ethernet cables a huge haircut in order to make them nice and neat. He said there are 18 cable wires - I know of 14 places for TV's. I wonder what Peter isn't telling me. I have to call the phone company and comcast to get them to run their cables from the street into the house. I wonder how long that will take. I hope they are more organized than the gas company was.

Bill set up templates for us to approve for the shelf for the take-out window in the kitchen/vestibule and for the faucets and sink placement in Peter's bathroom.
Here's a picture of Peter ordering a half caf espresso mocha latte with skim milk and whipped cream. We're hoping to get a Starbuck's franchise in here to help with the costs.
If that doesn't work, maybe I can just have some pretty fresh flowers on the shelf.

I was surprised that the longer faucet was the right one for Peter's sink. Fortunately, Suzanne from Porcelain and Brass had sent us the longer and the shorter ones to try. Some things aren't intuitive. We also found that the sink would be better closer to the front rather than against the wall. Now we are ready for the countertop folks to come do the templates.

Let me introduce Don and Paul - the heating guys. They are the inside team, and have been diligently installing the air handlers, filters, humidifiers. Everything is being insulated so it will be super quiet and efficient and the bonus is that it all looks very psychedelic.

By the way, the well guy never did show up during the week. Now they're saying Monday. We'll see... In the mean time between Brian and Paul and Don we will be able to at least run resistant heat (that means electric-$$$) once the painters uncover the vents in all the rooms. It'll be expensive but still cheaper than running space heaters in every room.

And just when I thought I had done all the color decisions - we have to decide how to stain the trim in the basement powder room. The darker color that matches the rest of the house and that actually is in the cork here and there, or the lighter color that basically matches the cork.

Any thoughts? , anyone?

The aliens have landed

The house is aswarm with activity. And a few very out-of-this-world-looking creatures are wandering around. They say they're the painters, but I don't know...








And I think I found their spaceship up on the 3rd floor:


And some of their furniture:

Whoever they are, they're doing a nice job on the painting. The trim is coming out nice and smooth,just the finish we want. And so far I'm ok with the colors I've chosen. I was very nervous about the guest room being too orange, but I think it'll be fine, especially once the carpet is in. And the guest bath is looking good.

These photos don't show the true colors. And while we are talking about the paint - we made one rather important discovery: the new Aura paint line claims that one coat is enough so even though it is twice as expensive the cost ends up being the same as using 2 coats of regular paint. So far, we have had to do 2 coats of the aura in every room. Which actually does make it twice as expensive as the regular paint. It looks nice on the walls but I'm not sure it's twice as nice. Paul has a sample of one of our colors in the regular paint so we are going to try it and see if it looks noticeably different.

Barry joined our forces this week. He's in charge of staining all the new trim so that it will look like the hundred year old trim that Daniel is working on making look like new. And Katelyn is still up on the 3rd floor staining all the built-ins up there.

Kenny's back down in the basement this week putting the cork floor on the powder room walls in the indoor/outdoor room. I am very impressed with the way it is coming out. As Heidi says, it really brings the brick in the ceiling of the I/O room. I always keep bathroom doors closed,but this is lookingso good, I may make an exception.

Unfortunately the room is so small, it's impossible to get a decent picture.

Brian was back, withEric, and they were wiring for phone, cable, and going live with more outlets and switches. Brian and I went through the house and decided which switches would have dimmers and what colors plates would be everywhere. Another decision to cross off the list.

And Lee and I went through all the bathrooms to measure for rods.

That's it for tonight. Tomorrow I'll introduce Don and Paul, the indoor HVAC guys who are hooking up the air handlers. Speaking of HVAC, the well guys are supposed to come tomorrow to install the pump. We'll see.

A good day - I think

I met with Heidi this morning to try to select lighting for anyplace in the house. I don't know why I am having so much trouble with this. I can make unwavering decisions about everything but lighting fixtures. I did manage to select and order sconces for the 2nd floor guest room. So add that to the chandelier for the dining room and we've got 2 down and only about 80,000 to go.

The good news is that we have finalized the selection for the master bedroom carpet. Tomorrow I will order it and never look back.

Also, Heidi brought some sample fabrics for the living room and dining room - cushions, chairseats, window treatments - and when I showed them to Peter, he actually liked them! Another thing we've agreed on. It doesn't get any better.

When I got to the house, I found that all the doors on the 2nd floor were blocked off. The painters had sprayed the primer on all the trim, so there was paint everywhere. I thought they had covered the floors and windows in case of the occasional spill, but in fact it was so they could spray with abandon. And they did. Paul said he was going to get the trim paint today or tomorrow. I can't wait to see a finished room. You can't really tell from the photos, but the windows are completely covered in paint. The theory is that the film they had put on in the prep work will just peel off with the paint leaving just glass.

So the sanding has moved to the first floor. Between the smell of the primer and the dust flying, the only way these guys can keep working is by wearing masks. These are really heavy duty - I don't think I could wear one for more than about 5 minutes. I wonder if I'll ever see their faces.

I found Katelyn up on the third floor. Apparently she is the one staining the built-ins up there. She was wearing a charming babushka-type thing - unusual for her. She said she had dipped her hair into the stain. After a quick run home to wash her hair of the unwanted red highlights, I guess she figured better to look like the little match girl than ruin the blonde. The last I saw of her she was lying under the shelf in the suitcase closet, hopefully not overcome by the fumes of the stain. Maybe we should get her one of those gas masks.

Kenny was also in a third floor closet. He's installing the floors in the larger closets. No muss, no fuss, no fumes - the guys really have it easy around here, right, Katelyn?

Brian the electrician was back today. He's hooking up the switches for the heating elements under the walkways and the terrace over the front door. So we may never have central heat inside, but if it gets really cold I guess we can go sit on the back steps. Actually, I'm really curious to try it out. It's supposed to snow on Wednesday - we'll see what happens.

The living room ceiling looks pretty interesting now. There's a lovely pattern of silver screws. Lee thinks it looks like stars and is considering leaving it that way. Kidding, right, Lee???

Tomorrow I am going to the cabinet place to meet with Wendy hopefully to finalize the selection of the countertop for the den furniture. Then I'll go to the house where the interior HVAC equipment is supposed to be arriving.

The rest of the story

The deliveries were only a small contribution to the hustle bustle going on at the house.

The painters have arrived to do the 1st 3 floors, and immediately got involved prepping for the prep work. They covered the floors with plastic, then with heavy duty paper. I know they were doing it for the painting, but I feel alot better that the floors are more protected from scratching. I just hope everyone is still careful about gouging. The painters also sprayed the windows with a film that will protect them (the windows) and make it easier to spray the paint on the trim. I guess it just peels off after and we have perfect trim and paintless panes.

And Peter and I have finalized all the paint colors except the living room. I'm very impressed with us.

Paul is the lead guy of our painting team. He and his crew are sanding their little hearts out. There's so much dust that Daniel had to stop doing his refinishing. He'll be back when the dust settles.

Francisco is still up on the 3rd floor, finishing up trim work and beginning to stain the built-ins. We decided to stay with the color selection for the 3rd floor hallway. Once the carpet is down and there are pictures on the wall, I don't think it will look like Sarah's room is the same color

Also, up on the 3rd floor, the closet that will house the air handler is being cleaned out. I guess Lee still believes that one day we will have central heat and air. I have my doubts.

Outside, the garage wall is almost finished, and the stairs are about half done. I like to climb up the stairs to view the back 40. Can't wait til there's also a deck up there and some railings.

Back in the house, Bill and Katelyn installed the built-ins in the den. We've decided to definitely go with a stone countertop. Peter made a selection that looks great, and I think it will be better to break up all the wood in there.

The plasterer's are back doing touch-ups throughout the house and finishing work in the basement.

Lee has decided to put the screws to the living room ceiling. He's jacking it up, and putting screws in to re-attach it to the floor joists above. We're hoping this will make it high enough and secure so we don't have to tear down the whole ceiling and redo it.

Every day is a little bit like Christmas with new packages to unwrap. We've got the laundry basket for the 3rd floor built-in hamper (now we just have to build the bult-in hamper)

And Lee got to open the boxes for the sinks for the laundry room and wet bar. It's fun to see things so long after I had selected them since I have no recollection of what I chose. So far, I am pleased, and so far everything fits.

And the front hall is filled with all the plumbing fixtures that Lee picked up. We have toilets galore.

And Ken is down in the basement, working on the stairs, so they'll float but they won't fall down..

And finally, Lee and I couldn't figure out what these belong to. The taller ones, leaning on the wall on the left are the doors to the cabinet below. But there are 3 smaller doors or drawer fronts leaning against the back wall. Whoever figures out where they belong (not including Katelyn or Bill who hopefully know) gets to be the first to stay in the coveted lower level guest room.