Christmas Comes Early

Merry Christmas everyone! It's been awhile since I've put up a blog, largely because I was waiting for a few things that were almost done to get completely done so that I could take nice pictures of them to put on the blog. As has so often been the case, getting things that last 10% done is the hardest part. I'll catch everyone up room by room:

Bedroom:
We had just finished painting the walls of the master bedroom in the last blog entry. Shortly after that at 7:00am on a Saturday, the carpet guys showed up to carpet the bedroom. I won't even get into how unpleasant it is to be unexpectedly interrupted at 7am on a Saturday, because the big problem was that we were planning to paint the trim of the bedroom that day. Colleen, who was also sick, 'greeted' the carpet crew and thoughtfully explained to them that perhaps it would be better if they came back a few days later. They left the rolls of carpet and exited stage left. Five verification calls and three schedule changes later, they showed up again to install the carpet. Below is our new master bedroom and it is done! Well, we need to paint the doors and there is some minor touchup paint work to do, but it is ready to be moved into as soon as the bathroom is done and we don't have the threat of workers walking through our bedroom.

Bathroom:
The bathroom has had a lot of work done to it. The tile was installed and the flooring were both installed a few weeks ago. As I alluded to before though, it's the last 10% that is holding things back. Even though I sent a warning email to our project manager not once, but twice, telling him that the tile guys were going to tile over the access to the tub plumbing and motor, nothing was done. The result was that they had to cut out tiles that we had just paid to have installed. Ultimately they will have to create some kind of access panel to replace those tiles. Early this morning we saw the first attempt at that panel and it was a feeble attempt. I had a conversation with the carpenter and I think we are going to find a better solution to that little issue. Since this is Christmas, this little story has to have a happy ending. In this case, it was that the plumbing was all done! Our early Christmas present was getting to try out the tub last night. I have to say, it was pretty awesome. Our tankless hot water heater definitely did the trick and the inline water heater in the tub (it heats the water as it recirculates in the jets) is fantastic.

There are a few other things around the bathroom that still need some work. Our bathroom counter was ordered with the faucet holes in the wrong place, so that still needs to be replaced and the faucets installed. The shower enclosure needs to be done as well. The contractor for that spent all of last week and most of this week not returning our calls, so that is still in the very early stages of what will likely be a few weeks long process.
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Greatroom:
Not much happened in the greatroom for a long time, largely because the contractors are done with that room and Colleen and I have been trying to get paint done elsewhere. Finally, Colleen got to lay down the first coat of paint in the greatroom only hours ago. We are hoping to get the walls painted over Christmas, the trim over New Years, and the floor in the weekend after that. The goal is to have the room ready for entertaining in time for our Super Bowl party. That would be a pretty simple task except for the fact that Colleen and I are headed to Europe for two weeks. Such a tough life . . .

And it was Good

One of the great understatements of all time is after God creates the first light he steps back and thinks 'this is good.' I mean, if I had just created light out of nothing I think I'd be just a little bit more excited than that. I'd be calling all my friends and saying 'Hey, you know how it's been dark since before the beginning of time and all the sudden it's light now? That was me! Isn't that awesome!"

Almost all of the remaining lights in the addition were installed today including the pendant lights over the counters. To say that Colleen and I thought the lights were 'good' would be a huge understatement (but probably not as big as God's).

We have also been able to gather the waters under heaven in one place. By which of course I mean the sink now works. Somewhat less miraculous than God's third day on the job, but an accomplishment none the less.

p.s. Happy 5 month anniversary to the Addition!

Ups and Downs

We had a couple of good weeks there in a row, but this week was back to the more typical up and down cycle. It ended on a great note with us hosting the traditional 'Friends Thanksgiving' here on Saturday and Sunday.

The Heat is . . . On (do do do do do, do do do do do!)

Early in the week the thermostat was installed so we were blessed with heat in the entire house for the first time in a long time. Apparently the installers cranked it up and turned on the 'emergency heat' feature to make sure it was warm when we got home. Since I had also already closed some of the vents, this basically made it 85 in some parts of the house and 60 in others. Since then it has evened considerably. The air handler is also very quiet which was a bit of a concern. The programmable thermostat looks like it will be great, but it looks like it will take three hours to program correctly and we haven't yet put in the time.

That Sinking Feeling

As you may recall, our counters were installed the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and our stove and microhood have been here for months. We were really hoping that we would be able to get the plumber out here to install the faucets and the stove. Well, he did . . . sort of. The stove and dishwasher are sitting in their spots and the sink faucet was installed, but he didn't leave himself enough time to get into the crawl space to hook up the drain or the gas line, so none of it actually works yet. So close! This was especially unfortunate with the party this weekend. We put some flower arrangements in the nonworking sink to keep people from using it so at least it looked pretty.

Come Hell or No Water

Determined to host parties no matter the state of the addition, Colleen and I hosted our second 'in construction' shin-dig this weekend. The 'Friends Thanksgiving' is a lot like any other pot luck Thanksgiving get together only it's with friends instead of family. We put some cardboard and our brand new area rug down in the greatroom and used a projector to make a 104 inch screen on the wall.

Additional Accumulation

The addition saw its first snowfall this past weekend. I'll leave you with a few shots of the addition in its blanket of white.