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.

Paint by Numbers (Painting: Day 4)

Days: 4

Pizzas: 2

Parents Roped into Helping: 3

Beers: 15 (estimate, probably low)
Gallons of paint: 14
Square feet painted: 6160 (440 sq ft per gallon); 0.14 acres

Square feet of ceiling: 2714

Painters tape applied: 1620 feet; 0.3 miles
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Holy crap am I tired of painting. On the bright side, we did actually accomplish all of our goals. Every surface that is going to have a light installed on it has had two coats of paint (and a coat of primer) applied to it. We actually have some significant painting yet to do, but this certainly got us most of the way to the finish line. The only thing that we still need to paint in order for the construction company to finish their work is the trim in the bedroom and bathroom which should be more of a one-two day project. The bathroom is done, the bedroom is done, the great room ceiling is done (so . . . much . . . ceiling), the closets are done. Eventually we need to finish the greatroom and repaint the stairwell and the guest room, but let's not dwell on that right now.

Painting: Day 3

Today was productive, but not quite as productive as we had hoped. I can certainly say it was not from a lack of effort though. Here's a quick recap: the bathroom and two of four closets are completely done; the master bedroom is primed, taped, and ready for its first coat of color; the greatroom is half primed (we ran out of paint). Tomorrow the bedroom will get color and the greatroom will get two coats of ceiling paint.

Colleen's dad took the day off from painting to hunt. To fill in for him, we brought in my mom. We got quite a few pictures of her today, but none of her face. I think that's because she spent almost every minute here facing a wall putting down tape or paint. That's her on the right (guess from which side of my family I got my height).


Our electrician was here working hard for at least 8 or 9 hours and still didn't get everything done. Again though, there are some highlights: the kitchen and master bedroom are completely wired (including our awesome new ceiling fan); elsewhere all of the switches and outlets are in, but few of the lights have been installed. The lights that are installed look pretty sweet. Hopefully our electrician will be back again soon to finish up.

Painting: Day 2

What better way to celebrate with your family on Thanksgiving than by making them do manual labor? Colleen and I put together some lofty goals this weekend and to meet them all, we needed some help. The electrician is due out tomorrow to install the electrical sockets, switches, and lights. Since lights are annoying to paint around, we wanted to get as many of the ceilings painted as possible before he arrived. He'll also likely install the vanity light which means we'd like to have the bathroom painted. And in the great spirit of 'while you're at it' we decided to try to get primer up in the great room and the master bedroom. Colleen's parents have been a big help the last two days and my mom is due to show up tomorrow.

So far we're doing okay on our goals. We have at least one coat of paint on all the surfaces that lights will be installed on. The kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom ceilings are done, and we hope to have the bathroom wall and one or two of the closet ceilings done by the time the lights are installed tomorrow. See some highlights of the fun below.

With no light, painting at night involves worklights and creepy shadows.

Paul powered through the entire ceiling of the great room in one shift.

Rhema performs what has become the least favorite activity: cleaning the walls.

This was just as comfortable as it looks.

Count(er)ing Our Blessings

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Before I get into the new addition news, let me just say that Colleen and I have a lot to be thankful for. Clearly we do some whining on the blog, but it would be a little boring if every blog entry was 'Things are Great!' We really are blessed just to be able to do a project like this and it has been a great adventure. Moreover, we are truly blessed because we have such great friends and family to support us (some of whom are literally helping us out right now). Okay, enough sappy stuff, let's get to the news!

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At last update we were priming the kitchen in prep for painting. We got that all done (except the ceiling) and it looks very nice. It's a good thing we got it done too, because Tuesday was a very counter productive day. Usually that's a bad thing, but not this time. A small army of guys showed up to install our counters on Tuesday. Because we got Corian, the largest section was all one piece (a big selling point for us since it means no seams for water and germs to collect). I was at work, but Colleen got a great shot of the counter when it was still vertical.

It took them about 3 hours to install and they look great (again, please ignore the floor).

We've spent much of the last two evenings shelf papering and putting dishes in our new cabinets. It's extremely satisfying to finally be reversing the flow of stuff by taking it out of storage and putting it into the kitchen. We are doing lots more painting over the holiday weekend and quite a few things are slated for next week. We should get our appliances and sink faucets installed. I'm hopeful the thermostat will finally be installed so we can get some heat in the addition. Also, our tile is due to be 'produced' on Monday so it might arrive before the end of next week.

Optimal Prime

As you can see from the picture below, we officially started painting today. Colleen is busy priming the kitchen for paint and I'm (supposed to be) washing the walls of the master bedroom and taping them in prep for painting.

Just because we are painting, don't think the addition is done, it is just to the point where painting needs to happen so that other things can happen. In the case of the kitchen, the counters are due to be delivered soon (about a 50/50 chance of having them here before Thanksgiving). The bedroom ceiling has to be done so they can install our light fixture so that we can get our plugs and switches installed (so that we can do more painting).

On a general note, it is not often that things go more or less right for a few weeks in a row, but we are definitely on a good streak recently. My November 7th post made some bold predictions about things that I hoped would get done, and nearly all of them are done or on schedule: The cabinets are in; the countertops were measured last Monday and due in soon; the grading was done despite the heat pump; the vast majority of the trim has been finished; and Colleen and I are in fact painting. Hopefully that momentum can continue for a few more weeks. Lots of important stuff is due in soon.