 | In an effort to save $$, we changed from Kohler faucets in the rest of the house to another company. We ordered one Elements of Design (EOD) faucet and we really, really like it. It's very sturdy and well-built. I do wish they would've had it in polished nickel, but the satin nickel finish will be easier to keep looking clean. |
| The painters are pretty much done. Once the shakes were painted, we noticed that there were quite a few nail holes in them and they weren't filled in, so we got on our contractor about that. |
| Mark and Cody finished off installing the fireplace today, including the gas starter! Very nice. |
| The power company is scheduled to come out on Friday. Neither of us is holding our breath that we'll have power on Friday. |
| So, is it possible we'll get water and power all in one week? Possible. Unlikely, but I'm open to the possibility. |
| I asked Mark if we wanted to make sure that water got in the pipes to check for leaks before we put up drywall, but he said that they'd pressurized the system with air and it held the pressure, and air molecules are smaller than water molecules, so the air would be more likely to leak out than water. |
| Mark has been down at the water district the past couple of days. "You need the packet we sent you." "What packet?" "This packet." <shows packet to Mark> "I don't have that packet." "Yes, we would've sent it to you." "OK, I'll look for it." <Mark spends evening going through all our paperwork -and there is alot- looking for the packet, can't find it.> Next morning: "Uh, actually, no, sorry, we found out we hadn't sent you the packet." great. |
| Placed the Kohler order last week, and picked up the fireplace. Mark installed it today. It's beautiful. |
| The painters have started, the colors are on, and then they'll do the trim. |
| The sexy faucet arrived today. And it is sexy. Very happy with it. |
| Mark is very focused on getting everything in the walls ready for drywall, cuz once we put that up, there is no going back. Well, there is, but that starts to get really expensive. |
| The electricians installed the built-in vacuum pipes today. |
| So, the good news is the gas company came out and hooked up the gas today. Yea!!!! we finally have a utility hooked up! Gas down, Water and Power to go. But, they came to the site way earlier than Mark and finished the work and left without digging the hole any bigger for the power. Nice. So we're back to square one. |
| Update: Mark found some guys with a backhoe working at a local construction site, worked it out with them to come dig the hole tomorrow. Called the power company and let them know that the hole will be open tomorrow. We'll see..... |
| Proof that the universe is cool: So, you know we've been having the
problem with getting the electrical hooked up (design it for us one way,
tell us something else 'no you don't have to dig it up - buy this more
expensive thing', no that's wrong - who told you that?, yes you have to dig
it up again at your expense, ARGH). So the guy from the gas company calls
today and here's roughly how the conversation goes: Gas man: 'Man, I'm sorry, you slipped off my radar, I'll be out tomorrow to hook up the gas. What can I do to make it up to you?' Mark: 'You have a dig a hole right next to the house where all the utilities come in, right?' Gas man: 'Yeah.' Mark: 'Mind digging the hole a bit bigger so I can access my electrical conduit?' Gas man: 'Sure, no problem!' Sweet |
| Still trying to decide on the faucets for the bathroom sinks. We were originally gonna use Kohler faucets, but came across different faucets (from Elements of Design) that we liked better at a lower price. The bad news is the only distributor for them is in Vancouver, WA. Talked to them this morning and EOD is a reputable company and they use standard plumbing replacement parts from Delta and Price Pfister, so if the faucets wear out, we can get replacement parts. But, Kohler offers a lifetime warranty. Do faucets wear out? Or do they just go out of style and get replaced? We ordered a single faucet so that we can check out the faucet, the color, and the quality of it. |
| Also trying to decide on paint colors. We're going for gray tones, one light for the body, and one dark on the shingles in the gables, plus the bright white trim. We matched the white to the windows (so we won't have white window, beige trim syndrome). We bought four sample colors from two paint chip strips and painted up the generator house (it's inside the garage right now and it was raining that day). OK, we like the one w/o the green undertones. But we decide that colors #1 & #3 from the pure gray chip are good, but that color #1 isn't dark enough, so we go up the strip a bit darker to colors #2 & #4, this is good, we like this. We paint a corner of the house so we can look at it from a distance. I think that the dark gray color, #4 can go darker, to color #5, but Mark isn't so keen on this. I'm OK with it as it is, so I'm fine with #2 & #4. I go to work the next day and decide that I'm gonna go buy color #5 and paint a sample somewhere so Mark can see it, cuz I'm really thinking the darker color needs to go darker. As we're driving home Mark says, uh, about the house color, I saw this house and I was thinking maybe we can go darker.... Now, he wants to go both colors darker, to #3 & #5, I still think #2 & #5 will be the winners, but we'll have to see. Also went around the house and primed any exposed wood (cut edges, hose bibs). |
| The stove arrived, unharmed into Chehalis on Monday. Gonna have to roadtrip to Chehalis to visit the stove. I can't wait for Mark to cook on it. We were discussing what we might possibly name it. See, Mark's Uncle Erwin gave us a generous gift at Christmas that we're putting toward the stove. He passed away on Easter Sunday from esophageal cancer. He'd been diagnosed late last year and lived alot longer than was expected. The hospice had sent him home a few months ago, and he got 14 weeks at home, sick but comfortable and with no pain. Mark had been up to see him several times. He started to deteriorate last week. We went up to see him on Friday, he wasn't able to communicate, but he knew that it was Mark. Mark and his mum lived with Heddy & Erwin after she got divorced, and Erwin was kinda his surrogate dad, and was very involved in his life when Mark was young. We'll miss him very much. |
| Mark has been running speaker wire for the last couple of days. We're gonna have six music 'zones' in the house. He went through the 250' spool of speaker wire and the 150' of CAD5 wire. He's now trolling eBay for more wire. All the speakers he's been collecting will actually be put to good use. |
| The sprinkler system is about half done. The orange plastic pipe won't burn if you hold a blow torch to it. It'll bubble, but not burn. Which makes sense for a fire sprinkler system supply. |
| Fireplace is in and needs to be installed. |
| The sprinkler guys have started working on the house. Usually you go get the permit first, but we're working on a 'ask for forgiveness' basis. They're going to apply for the permit and start the work. They've done this tons of times, as long as they do the design to code, shouldn't be any problems. |
| Had another planning meeting with UBuildIt. Green light on ordering
all of the finish-type items; appliances, lighting fixtures, plumbing
fixtures. LET THE BUYING BEGIN!!!!!! Now, buying lumber for your
house is cool, but buying the chandelier for the dining room is
cooler. All of the finish items that we've been picking out for |
| We went fixture shopping (front door handle, faucets) yesterday for a few items that we're still deciding on. Went to a funky shop in old Bellevue called Old & Elegant Distributing (2nd & Main). They have new and vintage fixtures and do alot of custom work. The proprietor chatted our ears off for about an hour. He was very knowledgeable about vintage homes and styles and we found out alot about Craftsman-style homes. Cabinet styles, door pulls, knobs, glass, everything. We did decide that would switch our fixtures to nickel finish as that was more authentic to the period, and we like it, and it goes better with the stainless steel of the appliances. We also discussed and agreed that we aren't too concerned about every little thing being perfectly authentic to the time period, we aren't trying to get our house in Architectural Digest. We're going to use what we like. |
| Siding is 95% done, just a few punch-list details. Really looks like a house now. |
| We bought our stove off of eBay! We found another one and are getting it for about $1500 less than we would through Direct Buy. Woo Hoo! |
| Mark got the electrical thing figured out. Short story: we have to dig up the hole. =[ We need power, they have it, they want a hole, they get a hole. |
| I love the change in seasons. The equinox plus daylight savings means that it's still light out when I leave work. It's light a magical overnight change. The best part is that I can come and see the house after work! And still be able to see the house. |
| More siding has been done on the front of the house, they're close to being finished. |