 | As you may know, we started painting last Friday, and we've now painted
the ceilings four times. Yes, four times. Here was our thinking,
well, not thinking so much as... well, OK, here's what happened. We
thought we'd match the ceiling color to our sprinkler head cover, to blend
them in as much as possible. So, we bought the custom matched paint
and did two coats via spraying, and then a rolled (with a regular roller)
coat of paint to give the flat surface a slight texture with the paint.
We got smart in the middle and started to do the double-spray all at the
same time, spray the entire room this way, and then spray the entire room
the other way. So, then on Tuesday, we're looking at the ceiling
color, analyzing the spots and imperfections (which we knew we'd have some
of due to keeping the walls flat, which we're still happy with, but also
realize we have to accept them being not perfect) and we're looking at it,
done, dried, and in the daylight, we're having that same issue we had on the
outside, the undertones, are they blue, or are they gray? Are the
imperfections showing, or do they just make it look like a bad drywall
job? You've all seen those, tape lines showing, nail heads popping,
etc. That and somewhere along the line, we missed the guideline about
using flat paint on the ceiling (it helps hide imperfections) ours is an
eggshell finish (a low sheen). So we have this moment of clarity, we
just need to paint the ceiling a flat, true white, sprinkler head covers be
dammed. Plus, the recessed light fixture covers are white, and we have
way more of those to match/hide/blend into on the ceiling. We put up
one of the recessed light fixture covers against the ceiling and it really
illustrated how gray/blue the ceiling color was, which also contributed to
the moment of clarity. So three 5-gallon buckets of Behr flat pure
white ceiling paint later (easily obtained at Home Depot), and the ceilings
are almost all done. We still have to build the scaffolding in the
front entry hall so that Mark can reach the ceiling there where it's about
18 ft tall. |
| The tilers have grouted the tile. They grouted the kid bath and the guest
bath and about half of the spa on Tuesday, and finished the rest on
Wednesday. I didn't think it could, but it looks even better than it did
before. Ahhhh, the spa. |
| Our molding order was delivered, but not our doors. Apparently they
ordered the wrong doors so our doors aren't here yet. |
| For dinner yesterday we picked up Safeway deli sandwiches and ate them on
our patio while watching the sunset. Our first meal on the
patio. We've begun to start to enjoy the house, rather that just
having the house as work/project. The hot tub, the patio (dirt though
it may be), are some of the areas we've begun to enjoy. It'll still be
a bit before the inside gives us the same type of satisfaction. |
| The cabinets are due to be delivered on Friday, and the finish carpenter
is scheduled to start on Tuesday/Wednesday, so Mark has got to get the
hardwoods installed before then. The floor has to be in before the
cabinets. So we have to get finished with the paint, as we should
paint before the floors go in. It's a whole domino scheme. |
| Mark picked up the rest of the light fixtures, and they are lovely. The
cool school-house sconces for the bathrooms, and the wrought iron chandelier
for over the dining room look great! The sconces for the front
hallway, that we had the debate on, also look fantastic, we're both happy
with them. All the design details are coming together. |
| The electrician came today and installed some LIGHTS! Yay!!! No more
extension cords. We have over 500 feet of extension cords running
around the house, up the stairs, all knotted and tied up with each
other. It's been a mess, cuz we only had three working outlets in the
house, one on each floor. Then we used the upstairs outlet for the
Warm Tiles, so that one didn't work as an electrical outlet any
longer. It's been hard to manage in the house. No sink to wash
painting stuff, etc. As I like to say, we have electricity, but no
lights; water, but no faucets; sewer, but no toilets. Although, now we
do have light!!! |
| We've been painting for the last two days. And it has been
hot. Really hot. It broke 100 at my folks house. At our
house, we've been stripping down to almost nothing, which is working well
since our immediate neighbors are away camping, and no one else can see us
at the house. We've been painting the ceilings, me sanding, Mark
spraying the paint, and then rolling the ceilings with the roller after
they've been sprayed to give them just a slight bit of texture. But
then we ran out of paint. We've been getting paint at the place thru
Direct Buy down in Tukwila. Normally, we'd just go to Home Depot, but
we want to use the same paint for everything so, we have to wait until
Monday to start up again. And, we ran out of steam to. It's
hot. It's 11:15 at night and it's 87 in our living room. Did I
mention it's hot? Thank goodness for the portable air
conditioner. The bedroom is significantly cooler and makes sleeping
possible. |
| The tilers are about almost done with the tile. I believe that we
have a spa in our house. Usually on the plans, it's referred to as
'Master Bath' and we've been half jokingly calling it the 'spa' during the
process. But it is truly living up to it's name. It is
beautiful. The shower is gorgeous, the tub deck looks great, the tile
detail around the windows is just enough, the floor is great, it's truly
like a spa. |
| Remember the color lot issues with the tile? Well, Mark found some
other tile that was closer in color to the original color, so there is still
a bit of a difference, but it's nowhere near as dramatic as it was.
Very good. |
| I ordered our garbage disposals off of eBay. They came today.
We were both excited. How sad is that? |
| Yes, Mark's truck needs a new transmission. We weren't too
surprised, but it's still a good chunk of change. The good news is
that since we have the lent pickup truck, we're not in a time/car crunch to
get the truck fixed. |
| The front door color we tried, Canterbury, I'm thinking yes. It's
dark, red, leaning toward purple. I'd wanted a dark barn red, Mark
wanted a deep, dark gray-purple. So normally, when you do a compromise
and 'blend' two colors that two individuals want [I want red, you want
yellow, let's do orange!], you usually end up with something not so
good. But I think the door color is going to work. It's kinda
hard to see the color as the sun never really shines on the entire front
door (just the lower part), and we don't have any lighting there yet.
That and the sun has just been so blazing and bright, it's hard to
see. I think it may work. |
| Met with the Designer yesterday (I'm taking Tuesdays off to help with the
house, or pack, whatever is needed). Picked out the colors for the
master bedroom (Cappuccino from Restoration Hardware, and Rio Grande from
Ralph), the color for the front door (we're gonna try it, and see)
(Canterbury from RL). Found a color that matches the hardwoods, Starry
Night also from RL. Have I mentioned that they have some really
fabulous colors? Not your typical light to dark paint chips. |
| The hardwood floors for the main floor were delivered, and Mark picked up
the hardwoods for my sewing room. Mark is borrowing a truck from Greg
(thanks Greg!) while his truck is being fixed, so he's been able to move
some stuff that he couldn't as easily in his Tahoe. |
| The tilers are getting closer to being done on the master bath and it is
gorgeous. I've posted pics of the work. I'm so happy with how it
turned out. We have had alot of issues with tile; shipments that we
paid extra for expedited shipping are late or shipped late, bone color tile
is sent instead of white, glossy instead of matte, boxes have been
mislabeled, the warehouse saying that things aren't in when they are, giving
us the wrong boxes, etc, etc. That and we've had some color lot
issues, but there isn't much we can do about that. Mark's been a
little frustrated with all this, that and he's got a cold. He's been
down to the warehouse multiple times this week, cuz we've got the tilers
working and we need to keep them supplied so they can keep working. |
| I found a place that would nickel-plate the clawfoot tub feet for half the
price of the original quote we received from the place in Bellevue.
Good deal. |
| Mark cut out the hole for the tub. It's big! I'm looking forward to
using the tub. I'm very glad that we got to see it on the home tour we went
on at Trilogy, and that I was able to sit in the tub and try it out.
Otherwise, we'd be buying it sight unseen. |
| Mark finished the window trims for the window in the kid bathroom, and the
three in the spa, so the tilers would have them to work around. He
discovered a new issue with the trim and the cool Euroline windows. He
has to be careful with the trim so that the window can swing open all the
way and not smack the trim, or in this case, the tile around the windows in
the spa. There is always something! |
| We went and picked up more tile on Friday, but some of it was the wrong
color, so Mark went back down to Kent early Monday and returned it.
More on picking up tile later... |
| Mark and two 'assistants' moved all our stuff out of my parents house last
week. They also moved all the house stuff out of our living room,
stuff out of our carport storage area, and some boxes of stuff that I'd
already packed up. It made a slight dent in the whole project.
We still had the Uhaul trailer that we got in Canada so that made it a lot
easier. The 'assistants' were recruited from the Home Depot parking
lot. You know what I'm talking about. But man do they
work! Mark has done this a couple of times, and gotten great work done
each time. And at the end of the day, they thank him for letting them
work. Somebody suggested we go to Labor Ready, but those guys are guys
that can't keep a job, and don't really want to work. Mark used them
before when he was working at Office Furniture Outlet, but had nothing good
to say about the workers he got. Now, if we were a business, we could
get in trouble, but we're not, so it's not an issue. |
| We also picked up the door to the storage room, but it's still in Mark's
truck, which is in the shop. On Friday during all of our run around
errands, we were coming back on Bothell Way from the Woodinville Home Depot
to return the empty Uhaul trailer to Uhaul, when we went over a bump and the
truck started making this really, really loud grinding whirring sound.
We pulled over on the side of the road, and it stopped, but then once we
started going it again, it continued. So we made it into the Bothell
Park n' Ride lot, called a tow truck, unhooked the trailer, chained it to a
lightpole, towed the truck less than a mile to Biddle Chevrolet. Yeah,
you gotta love $75 for less than a mile of towing. Took the shuttle to
our house to get the Saturn, called Metro and nicely asked them not to tow
the trailer, drove the Saturn down to Kent to get the tile that we needed to
pick up before the warehouse closed so that it would be ready for the tilers
on Monday morning. Went to my folks house for dinner, borrowed Dad's
Bronco II to go get the trailer and return it to Uhaul, and returned the
Bronco. Holy Cow. And the thing is, the trailer was EMPTY!
We'd towed it full, all the way down from Penticton, in 100 degree
temperatures, across Blewett pass with nary a whimper. And a stupid
pothole finally does us in. Mark's been having some trouble with his
transmission lately, so my layman's prediction is he's going to need a new
transmission, but overall that's not too bad. His 95' Tahoe has over
380,000 kilometers on it, that's about 235,000 miles for those of us in the
U.S. Trying to figure out MPG on the truck is challenging and requires
several calculations; dealing with gas in gallons and an odometer in
kilometers. Now Mark knows all the conversion calculations off the top
of his head; me I'm a little more reliant on google. It's a good thing
that on our team, he does the math and I do the grammar. |
| The tub template came and we laid it out and planned where the tub will
go. It will just fit. |
| The kid bath tile is all done, and it is beautiful. The steam shower
is probably just over half done, and it is also gorgeous. Mark made
two really cool niches for shower products. The tile we selected has a
matte finish, so it doesn't look brand new. So loving it. |
| After some long discussions, we decided to extend the loan for one
month. This gives Mark an extra 3 weeks to finish so we can finish the
house and go to Hawaii. I'm such a demanding bitch to
want both. |
| We've been picking out paint colors. We've selected Plantation by
Ralph Lauren (color matched by a local supplier) for the main house
color. The other main color will be Latte from Restoration Hardware
(also color matched). We've selected a moss green carpet for the kid
bedroom and the guest suite/basement area. We've selected Shale Blue
from Ralph Lauren for the kid bathroom, and we're working on the colors for
the master bath. We've got a couple of combos picked out; one main
color and a darker accent color on one wall. We've selected the
carpet, so we have to match the paint colors to that carpet. It's much
easier to find paint colors that match the carpet than vice-versa.
Even though there are like 7 light cream to oatmeal colors to pick
from. We have a meeting with the interior designer on Tuesday just to
get a 2nd opinion from a 3rd party. |
| OK, we are getting down to the wire. Our loan is scheduled to close on
August 15, but we are not going to be done by then. The tilers have started
their work. Mark is going to paint the house this weekend, I'm gonna help
some. We've got a finish carpenter lined up to help with the cabinets and
stairs, and some other finish work. I've also taken an extra day off work
each week for the next 8 weeks for more time to help Mark or pack up the
house. We're trying to get it to all come together, but we're going to have
to get an extension, but the question is, how long? 30 days costs 1/2% of
the loan value, 60 days is 1% of the loan value. The other thing that throws
a monkey wrench in the whole thing is that we have a vacation scheduled from
September 5-15th at the fabulous Hawaii House that Jean gets through work.
If we pay for extra time, we lose alot of it when we go to Hawaii. We're
discussing canceling the trip. =[ Plus, we don't have firm commitments from
anyone going with us. I'm really pushing to go, but Mark is much more
focused on the house. I can't believe that we can't get people to go
to this wonderful place with us!!!! WTF!!!! ARGH. It took me 5 years to get
the house this time, and we're going to loose it! Can you tell I'm
frustrated?!?!?! |
| So the tilers are also going to do the tile on the tub deck. So, tubs come
with a template, so you know what size the opening is. Well, our entire
plumbing order is in, except for the tub, it's still 3 weeks out. We ordered
it April 24th, so it's been 11 weeks. It's supposed to come within 8 weeks.
So, this wouldn't be a problem, except we need the darn template. So, we had
to order it from Kohler, and get it overnighted (ground was going to take 10
days - too long, and no 2-day service option, argh). So, uh, Kohler, you
should pay for that, right? No. Uh, supplier, you should pay for that,
right? No. Yeah, that's right, we'll pay for it. Thanks. |
| We'd been planning on getting a large flatscreen monitor/HDTV TV to go at
my desk so that we'd have both PC & TV there, so they had one at Costco
for $75 off an already good price, so we got this really nice Samsung
23" flatscreen for a really good price. We installed it at the condo,
and man that thing is huge. It'll take some getting used to. |
| OK, it's been a while cuz we've been gone. We went up to Penticton
for Mark's 20th High School reunion. Had a good time, Mark got to see
everybody. I had a nice relaxing trip, no expectations, no
worries. But we are back to the grind. |
| Remember the hardwood floor we wanted to get that wasn't going to be
delivered until 4 days before the loan closed? Well, Mark called our
FloorCo buddy Steve who just happened to be having lunch that day with the
president of the company that makes the hardwood. Apparently all the
local stock of the hardwoods was being used up for the Street of
Dreams. But the REALLY good news is that not only do they have a solid
wood version , but they have an engineered wood version that we didn't know
about. They look the same, you can't tell the difference, except if
you look at the side view. That, and it's $0.95 cheaper a square
foot. So, not only do we get the floor we want, we get it for $950.00
cheaper! What a deal!!!! Woo hoo! |
| The tile guy has started work on the master bath steam shower. He's
done the pan, and was getting ready to install the tile floor. Well,
we needed to have the 'Warm Tile' heated floor tile stuff installed before
he started. So, Mark did a bunch of work Thursday night installing the
Hardibacker on the floor in the spa. He put over 500 screws in.
So, I came by to help him about 11pm. Ended up working on the floor
and the warm tile system until 5:30am. But it got done! See the pics!
And just to let you know, the sun is coming up about 4:30am, and the birds
start to chirp then. When we initially heard them, we thought we had a
bird in the house, but then realized it was the sun coming up. The
tile guy was surprised that it was finished when he came to the house about
8am. He applied the first 'float' coat to the floor in preparation for
the spa floor being done. Progress. |
| We've been looking for a piece of artwork for the large wall in the
kitchen. I found a really cool piece at Costco this week. Check
out the pics to see it! |