This is the end, beautiful friend...

...of the blog. If you are still reading this, you are one loyal reader and friend indeed. :) What I will do in this post is offer my reflections on the whole renovation process: would we do it again? what did we like best? what mistakes did we make? what do we wish we had done differently? I'll also post a few more photos from the finished product, now that we're all moved in. I had semi-promised a "virtual tour," and I did attempt to make a video. But the darned thing was 11 minutes long and very wobbly (I'm not much of a cinematographer), and the camera angle was too narrow to show off the space well, so I decided to spare y'all.

Would we do it again?

This is an easy question: Without a doubt, yes. We're thrilled with how the project turned out. Our new master bedroom is large and gorgeous, and the master bathroom is sheer indulgence and luxury. Quite frankly, the laundry room itself has made my life so much easier that I would've done the renovation just for it.

People are always curious about whether or how much the project went over budget or past the deadline. It did both, to a small extent, but for understandable reasons. When Wagner first bid the job, I told him that I realized that it would be hard to determine the exact cost ahead of time. He surprised me by saying that, on the contrary, his bid would likely be right on target, unless Jon and I made a bunch of change orders. And this is in fact how it turned out. We went over budget, but in each case it was because of decisions that Jonathan and I made during the process to do things differently. For example, when we didn't like the first skylight and had it taken out and replaced with a wider one, that added to our cost, but we feel it was well worth it. Wagner had also budgeted a certain amount for the tile work in the bathroom, which I greatly exceeded when I picked out the expensive floor mosaic and border options. But these were increased costs we were happy to pay in order to have the bathroom look the way I wanted.

In terms of total cost/value, it's hard to know for sure, but up until the recent real estate implosion, I think we would've been able to sell our house for at least the combined cost of what we paid for it and the renovation. Today things aren't selling so well, so it may be a couple of years before we recoup our costs. But it doesn't matter, as I have zero intention of moving out of this house any time soon.

We also finished the job maybe a month behind target (well, besides the built-in bookcase, which was delayed even longer--but I'm not counting that because we were able to move in without it). That's not bad at all considering what a lousy winter we had with weeks of temperatures too low to allow for any brickwork, and the two weeks we lost in the ice storm.

This is a photo of the foyer to our addition. The painting is entitled "The Far Side of the World," which is rather fitting, because when the doors to the addition are closed, I can't hear the kids or anything going on in the rest of the house, so I feel like I am in a separate world of my own.The painting was done by Peyton Higgison, an artist I met through the Piano Forum.

Random thoughts and advice, in no particular order, for others thinking about or embarking on a renovation

1. Hire John Wagner, or someone like him. Wagner is the main reason this renovation has been such a positive experience, and I've read enough horror stories of renovations that go badly to know that we are truly fortunate to have been able to work with him. You want a contractor who is accessible, reliable, detail-oriented, and obsessive-compulsive. Wagner often drove his employees and subcontractors crazy with his instructions and tendencies toward micro-management, but as the client, we appreciated it greatly and were delighted with the outcome.

2. Know ahead of time what you want the space to look like and how it will be furnished. Okay, that sounds obvious enough, but this a point where we failed miserably, occasionally with less than optimal results. Some of the delays we encountered on the project were due to my inability to reach timely decisions on major issues like carpet choice or cabinet finishes. I sort of went into the renovation adopting a "just in time" mentality, thinking that I didn't have to, say, select a washer and dryer until the day before we needed them delivered. Had I done all my research and shopping much earlier--in the case of the washer and dryer, before we had even planned the layout of the laundry room--I would've known, for example, to put the hookups in the right place.

As another example, when we designed the bedroom, we sketched out a plan for four smaller rectangular windows and the large picture window. The bedroom was built before we even went furniture shopping for it. As a result, when we bought the furniture and had it delivered, I discovered that if we put our bedside tables in the logical place--i.e., at the side of the bed--they overlapped with the windows somewhat. Had I known what furniture was going to go in there before we drew up the plans, I probably would've put the windows farther apart or located them higher. It's not a big deal and it doesn't look bad the way it is; it just isn't optimally laid out, in my opinion, and it bothers me a little because if I had planned everything in advance better, we could've made it look perfect.

I don't know if I could've done things differently, really, as having all these decisions made in advance would have required a tremendous amount of advance planning and time that I didn't have the luxury of engaging in. But it's something for people planning their own renovations to consider.

3. Take a sabbatical from your job if possible; failing that, free up time SOMEHOW. The only way I was able to maintain my sanity this past year is that we did the renovation while I was on sabbatical. I honestly don't know how I would've coped if not. Most days I was talking with Wagner or doing research/shopping/decision making for the renovation at least an hour a day, and often I'd be putting in six-hour days on nothing but the renovation. This is probably the best advice I can give here: Undertaking a major renovation will suck up more of your time than you EVER imagined, so don't do it unless you're okay with that concept.

The corollary is that you should plan your renovations around major life transitions carefully. Don't decide to renovate during your maternity leave for your first baby on the reasoning that "I'll be sitting home all day doing nothing, anyway." (All experienced parents are laughing hysterically at that premise.) Don't undertake a renovation during a critical time in your job or career trajectory. Recognize that while the renovation is going on, you won't be getting much done on other life projects that might be important to you.

In short, you and your family need to come to be at peace with acknowledging that your project will take very high priority in your life for an extended stretch of time. To this day my kids have developed a conditioned aversion to Home Depot due to the many long hours they were forced to follow me around there.

4. Inspect all work involving subcontractors carefully immediately upon completion. If I had followed this advice, I would've noticed the stain on the carpet right when it had been installed, and we would have had a basis for asking for a replacement from the carpet company.

5. Don't be afraid to spend big money on high-visibility items. From a purely economic perspective, I shouldn't have bought the bathroom floor mosaic. That little square of floor cost $1200. And I knew when I was ordering it that I was giving in to an extravagant impulse. But now that I see the finished bathroom, well, I just love that mosaic. It has become the focal point of the bathroom and transforms it into something special. The tile mosaic may be my favorite individual feature of the renovation. I don't regret it in the slightest. Keep the time scale of the project in mind and don't be afraid to amortize. If you're going to the expense and effort of undertaking a major renovation, it doesn't make sense to feel a little let down every time you walk into your new space. And if this sounds just a little like fancy rationalization for spending big bucks on a tile medallion or an electric blue washer/dryer set, well, you're probably right. ;-)

This advice only works if you adopt the converse, and economize where you can or where you don't care. For example, we took a fairly inexpensive approach to our bedroom closets. We could've gone to a specialty firm and got all sorts of walnut shelving and built-ins, the way a lot of houses with big master suites do. But this was an area I felt we could safely economize, as we'll be keeping our closet doors closed when we have guests over.

6. Tempur-Pedic mattresses are very, very nice. We hesitated before spending so much on a mattress set, but the 90-day free trial convinced us to give it a go. All I can say is... wow! Here's a product that all those commercials and testimonials are actually right on target. We love this new mattress set. I am a light sleeper and used to wake up several times a night. Now, it's not at all unusual for me to sleep the entire night through without waking. Jonathan used to wake up with backaches. No more. And, best of all, the Tempur-Pedic mattresses don't develop those annoying little permanent gullies where you've been sleeping. I wish we had bought some years ago.

7. Take your time to research and measure before determining placement of items. I've talked before about my spatial skills deficiencies. There were a lot of times in this renovation where Wagner would call me over and I'd have to decide where to locate things like towel bars, toilet paper holders, and the like. Most of the time I'd have this slightly panicky and helpless feeling that I had no idea what the exact best spot would be. Most of the time it ended up not mattering much, but sometimes it did. The cabinet above the toilet, for example, ended up being way too high. I can't reach the top shelf, which limits its usefulness. The grab bar by the toilet is also too high. In retrospect, I probably either should've gone around and found examples of object placements in other houses that I liked and then recorded what measurements or dimensions they used, or maybe I should've tried temporary installments of things for a few days to make sure I liked it. Yeah, I could always shift things around after the fact, I suppose, but I also know we'll probably never get around to it.

8. Walk-in showers are wonderful. If you ask hubby Jonathan, he'd probably say that his favorite feature of the new renovation is the walk-in shower. He loves being able to just wander in and out and not have to squeegee any doors. I'm kind of surprised, actually, that this kind of design is not more popular; I guess it's because they require more floor space. Wagner also mentioned a couple of times that they're trickier to design because you have to make sure the floor slopes at just the right angles so you keep the water where it belongs.

9. Honeycomb blinds aren't the best choice if you want to keep windows open. We ended up installing honeycomb blinds on our bedroom windows. I liked the look of them, and I'm particularly happy we went with the cordless design. It looks a lot better without any cords dangling. But now that we've got them installed, I'm thinking we should've gone with draperies instead. Jonathan loves fresh air whenever possible, so we sleep with our windows open if the weather permits. However, we've discovered that if we have the windows open but blinds lowered, the slightest breeze will set the blinds to knock-knock-knocking against the window frame. And have I mentioned that I am a light sleeper? ;-) What this means is that we either have to keep our windows closed or raise the blinds, too, with obvious privacy risks. We're probably going to end up having drapes installed over the blinds just so we can use them on nights we want the windows open.

10. The internet is your friend. Use it. I did a lot of research on the Web during the renovation. Particularly helpful was the Do It Yourself Forum, which has sub-forums on every possible aspect of home construction and desing. The Fine HomeBuilding website was also quite helpful.

11. Stay organized, or rue the day. I accumulated an enormous pile of brochures, business cards, pamphlets, paint chips, receipts, floor plans, etc. over the course of the renovation. My organization scheme was simple, but effective: I bought a large plastic file box from Office Depot and shoved everything renovation-related in there. I could've been even more organized and sorted the stuff by category or room, but this was good enough: If I needed to see a particular brochure, I knew that all I had to do was look through that box, and it would be there.

12. Go to lots of open houses or home tours to get ideas. There are a gazillion home design and architecture magazines out there, but most of them seemed to feature homes that were way out of our league and/or were places where people don't actually seem to live or put possessions in. So they weren't all that helpful. But going to see real people's homes, and lots of them, actually was helpful. I got lots of ideas for color schemes, built-ins, etc.

13. Avail yourself of the advice of people who do this for a living. I am truly grateful to many of the staff I met at various tile, electrical fixtures, plumbing fixtures, and other stores. These people know more about this stuff than I ever will. They could explain possible advantages and disadvantages of various options that never would've occurred to me.

14. Toto toilets are awesome. This toilet more than lived up to its enthusiastic billing on the Terry Love's toilet forum. It has been positively wonderful. So wonderful, in fact, I'm probably going to ask Santa to bring me another one for Christmas to replace our temperamental toilet in the half bath.

15. Marry my husband, or someone like him. Okay, so the first alternative is out, as I have no intention of letting him get away. But throughout this renovation, Jonathan has been fantastic. He'd give an opinion when asked but was also content to let me decide things on my own, and he didn't second-guess a single decision. He cheerfully wrote checks when I picked out more expensive items than originally budgeted. He patiently tolerated the inevitable disruption and inconvenience of the construction process. He has been so wonderful, in fact, that it has been exceedingly easy to remember that the renovation and our house is actually way, way, way low on the list of things that really matter in life. I am truly a fortunate woman, and it's not because I have a nice house. :)

And with that, I bid you all farewell. Thank you for reading my story! I hope you enjoyed it. :)

Our furnace is smarter than we are

Okay, I lied. I forgot I wanted to write a post about our new furnace before my final wrapping-up post. You may recall all the angst I went through in selecting a humdifier. We opted for a high-end, combination high-efficiency gas furnace heat-pump unit. The HVAC guys explained it to me, but I will confess to being a little fuzzy on the details. Apparently this model is supposed to be quite good for the environment (we'll get some kind of tax credit next spring for it), and inexpensive to run to boot. When the weather is moderate, the heat pump works. Then once the outside temperature gets below a certain point, the gas furnace kicks in.

The unit also has a variable speed motor, which the HVAC guys assured me was a Good Thing. Apparently it revs up and down slowly, rather than gusting out blasts of hot or cold air at one speed. I will take their word that it is a desirable feature (something about saving on power costs and being easier on the furnace motor), but I can tell you that hubby Jonathan is less than thrilled with this feature. I think I have mentioned before his lovable quirk for getting up on cold mornings, cranking up our other gas furnace, and then lying on the carpet next to the floor vent and warming up next to the blasts of warm air. Of course, he can still do this in other parts of the house, so it's not a deal-breaker.

We had an electronic air cleaner installed on it, and the HVAC guy explained that we should run the furnace on "circ" mode all the time, in which the fan kicks in roughly 30% of the time to move the air through the cleaning system. He said it should only cost about 17 cents a day to do this, but the improvement in air quality is highly worth it. As an added benefit, I think it means we run the cooling part of the unit much less, too, because just having the air blowing adds to our comfort level.

Everyone who has seen the unit who knows something about HVAC systems assures us that this is a Very Good Furnace. The guy who installed it kept raving about it and told us, "This furnace will still be serving y'all long after I'm gone from the planet." Okay, so maybe this wasn't the most reassuring comment in the world given that he looked 70 or 75 if he was a day. So I cast him a worried look and inquired, as delicately as I could manage, about the state of his health, and then I asked if--more to the point--the furnace would outlast me. He harrumphed a bit and allowed as he couldn't say because he didn't know how old I was.

And, after all that angst, I am delighted to report that the TrueSteam humidifier has been working wonderfully. Now that it's summer, we don't need humidification at all (quite the opposite), but it did a terrific job of maintaining the desired humidity level when we first got it up and running in winter. Even during the months when we were finishing up the renovation and thus kept the thermostat very very low in the addition, the TrueSteam was still able to keep the humidity at the target level of 40%... even when it was in the 20s outside.

I'm so happy with it, in fact, that we'll probably replace our old and not so effective humidifier on our other unit next winter. :)

Both the humidifier and furnace/ac are controlled with a top of the line programmable thermostat, the Honeywell IAQ system. The instruction manual for the thermostat is an intimidating thick booklet. The thermostat has a touch screen control panel, rather than the little round dial that I am used to with our other thermostats. There's several screens of commands you can scroll through, and I still haven't figured it all out. You can program this thing literally to the minute, with a different schedule every day if you want. I am embarrassed to admit that we turned off the scheduling feature and instead just manually turn it on/off when we want it. I kinda miss the round dial, to tell you the truth. ;-)

...but the system is still pretty crafty. It senses the outside temperature and simply will not allow you to turn on the gas furnace heat if the temperature is too high, nor will it allow you to turn on air conditioning if it's too cool outside. I'm sure this is good for cost-control and environmental reasons, but it makes me a little uneasy to think that my furnace knows what's best for me and will overrule my commands if it doesn't agree with it.

I think I'll call it "Hal."

The last piece

Apologies to any followers of this blog for a very long absence without posts. The renovation has been completely finished except for the large bookcase unit for the bedroom, where we encountered delays when the carpenter couldn't get it finished before an overseas vacation.

But, I am happy to report, he returned, the bookcase got built and painted, and on Friday they came to install it. Now that was an adventure in itself. The unit is quite tall and wide--about 84" by 60". They were able to get it inside the house and around the first turn from the main hallway to the kitchen hallway that leads to the addition. But then they were stumped. The foyer to the addition is in the shape of a T, with a short hall leading to the laundry room on the left and another short hall to the bedroom on the right. They got the bookcase to the long part of the T and sat it down. And then we all nervously appraised the angle it would need to turn to negotiate its way into the bedroom. There were five us present: three of the carpenter's men, my husband, and myself. Two of us (hubby Jon and one of the carpenters) thought the bookcase could make the turn. The other three of us shook our heads and said "no way."

Tape measures were produced and measurements taken. Various options were considered. We briefly thought about taking the bookcase back outside and bringing it in through one of the windows. A quick run of the tape measure over to the window made it clear that wouldn't work. We thought about installing it in our kitchen nook instead. But, dang it, we had a wall in the bedroom dedicated for a bookcase, and there's just something nice about having books in one's bedroom. So then the carpenters said they could take the book case back back to their shop, cut it in half, and then install it in pieces. I didn't really like that option, either, as we had been waiting so long for it.

In the mean time my hubby and the carpenter who thought it would fit had been fiddling with the tape measure, and they swore the bookcase could make the turn. So we decided to go for it, and after about ten tense minutes, sure enough, the bookcase made it in the room with about an 1/8th of an inch to spare.

The photo above shows how it looks. I keep my impressive "literary" books out in the bookcases in our living room, to show off for guests. ;-) So this bookcase gets my less-literary but much-loved books: my Robert Heinlein collection, every novel Stephen King ever wrote, Ed McBain's 87th precinct series, other science fiction, and Tom Clancy's thrillers. This new unit is huge; it easily handled the contents of the two smaller bookcases we had in our old bedroom with several empty shelves to grow on.

We had opted to go for a less expensive type of wood and have it painted to match the trim. It looks nice, but now I kind of wish that we had opted for a higher-grade wood to match the furniture. But given how much we went over budget on this project, it's probably just as well that we didn't.

And, best of all, I can now say that the renovation is finally and officially completed. :-)

I plan on writing one more post, a kind of wrap-up with final reflections on the process and, with any luck, containing a virtual tour of the space. Stay tuned.

Rub a dub dub... the laundry room

Believe it or not, this blog is coming to a close. I have a couple of more posts I want to write after the last remaining items are taken care of. (We're still waiting on our built-in bookcase unit for the bedroom.) And I want to write a longish retrospective concluding post on the lessons learned during the renovation. With any luck, Jon and I will never have to face as time-consuming and complex of a construction project again in our lives, but if we did, I feel like I've learned a lot and would be able to do it much more efficiently the second time around.

But the subject of this post today is to show off pics of our new laundry room. I knew when planning the project that I was quite frustrated with our old laundry arrangement (washer and dryer shoved in closet off kitchen, with annoying bifold doors that continually got in the way). So I knew I would be looking forward to having a dedicated laundry room.

What I didn't realize is just how much I would appreciate this new room. The photos above don't really get across how nice and big it is. Just having space to maneuver laundry baskets and sort/fold laundry is wonderful. Wagner installed a bar across one wall where we can hang-dry items. We re-used our former kitchen cabinets and counter, and they work well in the space. Being able to close off the doors to the laundry room (and also the addition) cuts out all noise entirely of the machines, yay!

But my favorite part of the room are my new Electrolux machines. You read in an earlier post how I was intending to buy a more economical set but was compelled to go with the Electrolux because they were one of the few models that allowed people to reverse hinges. After I bit the bullet and ordered them I wondered if I would regret the extravagance and wish I had gone for a top-loading model instead.

Well, maybe I'm just reducing post-decision dissonance, but I absolutely love the Electroluxes. They clean everything well, and because the washer has such an efficient spinning mechanism (more on that, later), it saves me 20 or more minutes of drying time. The capacity is huge, too, so I'm probably doing 1/2 as many loads. With the lessened energy and water consumption, I'm feeling good about the reduced impact on the environment. The pedestals seemed outrageously expensive at the time (they added maybe another $500 to the price), but they're worth it. No tiresome bending over to move stuff in and out of the units.

But that spin cycle: Wow. High-efficiency washers will spin very very fast, which they can do given their design and the lack of a center agitator. What do I mean by "very very fast"? 1200 revolutions per minute. When that thing gets going, it's like watching the inside of a jet engine. The first couple of weeks we had the washer, we'd all stand there transfixed, mouth open, gazing in awe as the spin cycle progressed. (Okay, so maybe we're easily amused, but you have to trust me that it's pretty darn amazing.) When I did research on HE models on the internet, I was a bit alarmed by some highly critical reviews I read where people complained about excessive vibration and noise. All I can say is that this has been a complete non-issue for me, and these machines just hum along and are substantially quieter and shake less than my 15-year-old Kenmores ever did.
And perhaps the best thing about it is that Isaac is captivated by the new machines and is actually eager to do laundry. He'll do all his clothes by himself, loading and starting the machines, and taking out and putting away his clothes. In fact, he'll even come to me and ask if there's anything else that needs washing because he likes to operate the equipment.

And that's just fine by me. ;-)

The cat has been acquitted

The analysis of the carpet sample from our mystery stain showed that it was not caused by animal fluids, so our cat Slippers has been cleared of any and all crimes involving the new carpet. She is greatly relieved.

However, the carpet manufacturer rejected our claim, anyway, on the grounds that there was no evidence that the stain occurred during the milling process. They have a point, I guess, but I also know that *we* didn't make the stain, and I feel just as confident that it wasn't Wagner's crew or the carpet installer.

I didn't want to press the issue with the carpet manufacturer because there really is no way to tell when or how the stain happened, seeing as the carpet had been in the house for two days before I noticed it. So I was just going to let the matter drop, when Wagner said that he and the flooring wholesaler we bought the carpet from had agreed to split a $500 credit to return to us. I thought this was very gracious but not fair to them, as I was convinced neither of them was responsible for the stain. He insisted that we deserved some kind of credit, though. But then I pointed out that Jon and I shared some responsibility as well, because I didn't inspect the carpet thoroughly right after the installation and only noticed the spot a couple of days later.

So we decided to reduce the credit to $200 each from Wagner and the carpet store, which I still don't feel entirely right about, as it seems to me that it's the carpet manufacturer who should be paying.

We also decided not to attempt a repair through plugging in a new patch of carpet. The carpet installer said that over time the seams would become visible, and I'm guessing the cure will be worse than the problem. The spot really isn't noticeable unless you look carefully for it, and I am sure it is just the first of many spots this carpet will attract over its lifetime.

The important moral I learned from this incident is this: Take the time to inspect all work done very carefully, just as soon as it is completed. If I had gone to the effort to look the carpet over closely the day it was installed (instead of just poking my head in and saying "Looks great!" the way I had done), I would've noticed the spot right then and there, leaving no ambiguity about when it had occurred.

Of course, it's not exactly helpful that this lesson was learned at the tail end of our renovation and not the beginning. *sigh*

Our first night in the new room

So Jonathan and I had our first night in the new bedroom. We're still only partially moved in, but we got the essentials taken care of and can move the remaining items more leisurely over the next few days. We were particularly looking forward to trying out our new mattress set. After decades of experimenting with different--and progressively more expensive--mattress brands but always being disappointed with the permanent gullies that would form where our bodies would lie, we decided to spring big time for TempurPedic mattresses, which are made of the memory foam that was guaranteed never to form any gullies. Jon had been waking up with back pain, too, and TempurPedic mattresses are supposed to help out with that as well. They were hideously expensive, but they came with a 90-day free trial, so if it doesn't work out we can exchange them for something else.

I think I was so keyed up over the big move that I had a hard time falling asleep, so it wasn't the most restful night's sleep I ever had. Our poor cat, Slippers, was even more keyed up. She started out sleeping on our old bed upstairs, but then she got lonely and came looking for us, meowing plaintively and loudly. I called out to her, but when she jumped up on the bed she got even more confused because Jon and I had decided to switch sides. (I wanted the side with the shortest distance to the bathroom.) I am more willing than Jon to devote the bottom 1/3 of the bed space to the cat, so she has learned to stick to my side. But all this disruption was too much for her, so she just meowed and crawled around on the night tables until I scooped her up and shut her down in the basement. Maybe I'll have Athena switch over to sleeping in our old room right away, and she can be the one to give up foot space and Slippers will have company...

The photos above (taken before the blinds were installed) show our room with the new furniture. Athena said, "Wow, mom, this is the first room in our house we've ever had where all the furniture matches." Sad to say, this is true. ;-) The top photo shows the fancy glass door to the bedroom. This is not as revealing as it appears, as we also have a solid wood door leading from the kitchen to the addition foyer, which can be closed for additional privacy and noise reduction.

Getting punchy

It's hard to believe that this renovation is just about completely finished. Right now Wagner is just working on his punch list. (A "punch list" is the final list of tiny details that need to be fixed, like touching up painting, adjusting doors, and the like.) The other weekend he came over to the house and spent 3 or 4 hours going through the addition, waving a hand-held light over every inch of the walls to look for drywall or paint issues that needed touching up, trying out every door, etc., and taking notes for his punch list. Anything he saw that needed work got marked with a little piece of blue masking tape.


Progress accomplished this week:

--Touch up painting/drywall work, lots of it.
--Sconce in bedroom replaced; it had a faulty ballast so we swapped it out under warranty.
--Wagner moved out most of his stuff stored in the garage, so now Jonathan can park in there, too.
--New vinyl flooring installed in former laundry closet. (We had some left over from the garage study.)
--Washer and dryer hookups in former laundry closet dismantled, water line capped, spot where hookups were drywalled over. Closet repainted. We now have a large, functional backup pantry; see photo above.
--I was so pleased by how the new laundry closet floor came out that I asked Wagner to put down a new floor in our main pantry.
--Cleaned out main pantry; sorted and transferred all the household maintenance items (tools, light bulbs, etc.) to new closet; pantry will now be devoted solely to food items. Went overboard and sorted canned goods according to food type, though I stopped short of alphabetizing it all. I'm not quite finished (there's still a shelf of vitamins/medicines I need to reorganize), but my pantry has *never* looked this good. (See photo; you can't tell from this angle, but the pantry stretches out about 8 more feet to the right around the corner.)



--New bedroom furniture delivered. It looks great, and to my relief, the dressers/armoire etc. match the new bed very well in terms of color and style. I was a little nervous about it given that I had only the digital photos of the bed to go by when shopping for the rest of the furniture. We're shopping for mattresses today; I'll post photos of the furnished room after they get delivered.
--Blinds ordered. I was overwhelmed by all the window treatment options and the cost, so I ended up going very basic: cellular (honeycomb) blinds on the bedroom and closet windows, wood blinds for the garage study. I went ahead and paid extra to get the cordless option for the honeycomb blinds, because I have never liked the look of strings hanging down, and our old blinds inevitably got the strings all tangled up. We also decided to pay extra for an "operational" blind covering for the fancy arch on our bedroom window, so we can open and close it, rather than getting a fan-shaped blind that would be permanently closed. So we'll start with that for our window treatments, and if later on it looks too industrial, we can add draperies.

Obstacles encountered this week:

--We had an episode of extremely heavy rain accompanied by strong wind. The new skylight leaked about 5 drops from one corner. This did not concern me. However, we got a veritable downpour for about 5 minutes coming through the doorway between our dining room and family room. Although this was completely unrelated to the renovation/addition, Wagner--bless his heart--sprang into action and got a roofing company to come out and investigate. Turns out that we had a roof vent that needed replacement. We also had to go through and replace a big chunk of insulation in the attic that had gotten soaked. The roofers also redid the flashing around the skylight. I wasn't sure it was necessary to go to all that effort (it had been a ferocious downfall, and we only had a couple of drops coming through), but Wagner just said sternly, "Skylights should NEVER leak" and insisted that it would be fixed.

--Two days after the carpet was installed, I noticed a small spot on it where the color is different, almost like a bleach stain. It is barely perceptible (Jonathan swears he can't see it at all), but... it is there. And it was a brand new, expensive carpet. We reported it to the carpet company, who have sent out two people investigating it. They even took a sample of the fiber to analyze it to see if they can determine the source of the discoloration. The guy who installed the carpet says it looks to him like it was a flaw of the milling process. The carpet people are eager to suggest that it occurred AFTER installation, perhaps by one of Wagner's men, or they even had the temerity to suggest that our cat had peed on it. I've seen how careful Wagner and his crew have been about cleanliness throughout this job, so I'm quite convinced the carpet came this way. And our cat has been so freaked out by the renovation process that she never even goes in the addition (besides, most of the time the door to that area stays closed).

So, we'll see. I have no stomach for making them replace the entire carpet. And the spot is barely perceptible. Unfortunately, it is located in a high visibility area of the room, not in some corner or where it would be hidden under furniture, drat it. But as Jonathan said, we're going to be making plenty of more obvious stains at some point in the future. On the other hand, we paid a lot for the carpet, darn it, and it should have been unblemished. The carpet guy said he could just plug in a replacement patch (we have plenty of leftover pieces), which would look better in the short term, but the seams could become visible after a year or two with repeated vacuuming or cleaning.

We'll wait to see what the carpet analysis shows, but at this point I'm leaning toward NOT doing the repair and just taking some kind of credit for having a new carpet installed with a blemish.

The garage "this is not an apartment" study

I'm behind on posting some photos. The garage study, which--for the benefit of any Fayette County Building Inspectors who might be reading this blog--I will emphasize is not a garage apartment but rather a guestroom or study, was actually finished some weeks ago. Here's what it looks like. The first shot shows the kitchen area. These were our old cabinets we had in the main house kitchen before we renovated. The flooring came out great, I think. We ended up using a brand called "Konecto," and it sure looks like hardwood from a distance but is instead practical and easy-to-maintain vinyl. The refrigerator was a floor model clearance deal we got for a bargain because it had a small, imperceptible chip on one corner:




This shows the room taken from a different angle and gives a good view of the built-in bookcases that run all along one side of the room:



And here's the small but serviceable bathroom:

My gorgeous new kitchen backsplash

Larry the tile guy and his assistant finished putting up the beautiful tile accent for the area above the kitchen sink. It's made out of hand-carved marble. We added the decorative picture-frame border around it, and then set a tile made of travertine to provide a backsplash in that area. An employee at the tile store had the good idea to set the tiles on the diagonal, which I think really adds to the visual appeal.

All in all, this really provides a beautiful focus to the kitchen and makes up for losing the window over the sink. And it's *infinitely* better than looking at a blank wall while I'm washing the dishes!

Certified for Occupancy!

The building inspector came by on Monday and conducted the final inspection and issued our final occupancy certificate. WOOT!!! The finish line for the renovation is now in sight, and we are so close to being done that I can taste it.

The amount of work that has been done this past week is amazing, and I doubt I'll be able to remember or list it all:

Progress accomplished this week:

--Shelves installed in computer room closet
--Carpeting installed in computer room and both master closets. Wagner is holding off on the carpet in the bedroom proper until the very end, so as to minimize odds of staining it.
--Computer room and closet repainted.
--Closet hardware installed in both closets. The photos above are from Jon's closet.
--Lights over vanity installed. See pic above.
--Laundry room finished and turned over to me. Washer and dryer delivered and installed. Despite one minor setback (see below), many loads of laundry done, accompanied by tears of happiness.
--Old washer and dryer taken out and donated to 72 year old woman who has none at the moment so doesn't mind having to duct tape the dryer closed.
--New shelving installed in former laundry closet. We're going to use it as a backup pantry.
--Prep work for installing fancy tile mosaic above sink. The mosaic is hand-carved form marble and very very heavy, so Wagner had to cut out the drywall and install a kind of concrete board to attach it to.
--Mirror over vanity and full-length mirror in bathroom being installed even as I type.
--Furniture stores that are warehousing all the bedroom furniture we bought have been called and delivery scheduled, for April 7th. We're going to be out of town much of next week and I figured it was best to have a few extra days Just In Case.
--All sorts of minor drywall and painting touch up going on.
--General clean-up of Wagner's tools and stuff stored in garage.

Obstacles encountered this week:

--Ceiling over vanity is not level. This was the pre-existing ceiling of the (former) garage, so there was not much we could do about it. We opted to keep the bathroom mirror level to the floor, but it means one of the vanity lights will have to be relocated upwards about half an inch.
--My failure to research washer/dryers and thus realize that the dryer should go on the RIGHT, not LEFT, led to my having to pay a lot more than I wanted to for a set with reversible hinges.
--Pedestals for washer/dryer were back-ordered. The salesguy asked, hopefully, if I could just wait two weeks or so to have everything delivered. I had four loads of laundry already piled up and no washer/dryer, so my reply was: No frigging way. He was not happy, but since it was their mistake (they had originally told me everything was in stock), they agreed to deliver the washer and dryer first and come back a second time to install the pedestals.
--Washer and dryer got installed, and they look beautiful. Deliverymen left. I started my first of 4 loads. It got through exactly 1/2 of the first load, and then the washer started beeping at me and flashing an error message: No water. Much gnashing of teeth. I called Pieratt's, distraught, and told them my beautiful new washer wasn't working and I had a load of sopping wet laundry in it, and three more on the floor. We purchased from Pieratt's (a small local business) rather than a big box store because they have given us great service in the past on other appliances. They came through this time, too: Within ten minutes of my call, I had a repairman at the door. It took him an hour to figure out what was wrong, which turned out to be that the fancy "Flood Safe" reinforced hoses I had bought for the washer and dryer (to protect against a hose breaking and gushing water all over the house) were incompatible with the Electrolux model. Hot water was going through but, for some reason inexplicable to the repair guy, not the cold water. Something about the fail-safe valve on the hose. We put the original hoses back on and all was fine.

I need an ambidextrous washing machine

So today was a day long awaited for, a day dawning bright with enthusiasm and a vision of the wonderful life that would very soon be ours when the renovation was completed: It was the day that I went out to buy the new clothes washer and dryer, because Wagner told me that he would turn the laundry room over to us on Monday.

I had been doing a little bit of research about various washer/dryer models. We're buying new because our old set is 15 years old and on its last legs, especially the dryer, which requires fresh applications of duct tape on the door several times per drying cycle to keep the door from popping open and stopping the drying action. I am *very tired* of duct-taping my dryer closed.

I was leaning toward getting a front-loading washer system, because I liked what I read about their greater water- and energy-efficiency (yea! good for the environment!), their larger load capacities (yea! fewer loads to do!), and being more gentle on clothes (yea! clothes last longer!).

But mostly I wanted one because they came in all sorts of cool colors (turquoise, sea green, silver, cherry red) and were definitely sexier looking than our old Kenmore white box.

Because I was clever enough to know that Jonathan would not willingly shell out the extra money required for a typical front-loading washer (boo! mega-bucks!), just because I liked the color better, I marshalled the other arguments in favor of a front-loader. I then asked him when he wanted to go shopping for one. Jonathan hates shopping with a passion, so he visibly shuddered and told me he would trust me to pick it out on my own.

Heh heh.

"How much extra does a front-loader cost?", he asked. "Er... a couple of hundred, maybe. I don't know. But with the economy so bad I'm sure I can drive a hard bargain." He cast me a suspicious look but hauled out his wallet. And so, armed with a stack of $100 bills, I ventured forth to Pieratt's to see what they had.

At first all went easily. I explained to the salesman the features I was looking for. He showed me a deluxe Electrolux model that possessed an appropriately bright blue hue, not to mention a bunch of other fancy features. Then I looked at the price tag. $1299. Yikes. And that wasn't even counting the pedestal, which was another feature I was determined to have, as I had grown quite weary of bending way over to get my laundry out of the dryer. The pedestal would add another $249. The dryer and its pedestal would be another $1300 or so.

Gulp. My stack of $100 bills wasn't that big. Not to mention I also had to buy a refrigerator for the garage study at the same time.

So I asked the salesman to show me some less expensive units and settled on a Frigidaire set that went for about $800 each, plus pedestal, available in black, which while not as cool as blue or sea green was better than basic white. I was just about to bite the bullet when the salesman asked, "say, where is your dryer located right now? On the left or right?"

"On the left." In fact, when designing the laundry room, Wagner had asked me where I wanted to put the dryer. I said it didn't really matter, but since I was used to throwing the laundry into the dryer on the left, we might as well keep it that way. And so that's how he installed the hookups and dryer vent.

Well, THAT was a multi-hundred dollar mistake on my part. Turns out that it matters a great deal what side the dryer is on. The vast majority of front-loading washers and dryers are manufactured with their door hinges arranged such that the dryer needs to be on the right. Otherwise you have to carry your dripping wet laundry around two open appliance doors to get it transferred.

Oh man. I did NOT want to do that. It turns out that there are only a couple of models where the door hinges can be reversed, and at Pieratt's they only had one: The fancy Electrolux that cost the mega-bucks.

So I asked in a small voice what my other options were. I could go to a top-loading washer, and he showed me a few. But they were all ugly and white, and I really was hoping to reap the environmental benefits of a high-efficiency front-loader.

He then suggested that I could stick with the front-loading system, buy a cheaper pair, but then just switch their locations and stretch the various pipes and vent tubings criss-cross in the back. I didn't like this idea one bit, as it seemed to me that it would add at least two turns to the dryer vent hose, and I knew that bent/kinked dryer vent hoses cause massive problems. He assured me that it could be done as long as I didn't mind moving the unit out from the wall a few inches and had enough clearance.

I set him off to work up some prices and called Wagner. He was also dubious about the criss-crossing idea. He then started speculating about what would be involved in moving the plumbing and/or dryer vent location around, and I could tell right away it would be an expensive nightmare as it involved tearing into drywall and/or flooring. So I told him not to worry about it and that I would either get the expensive set with the reversible hinges or go for a top-loading unit after all.

At this point I was ready to dicker with the sales guy, who looked me in the eye and said that Electroluxes sold on fixed pricing and that they could not budge a penny on the sale. "Not even for the PEDESTAL?" I whimpered. "Nope, I couldn't even sell it to myself for any cheaper," he replied.

I was striking out left and right. I told the sales guy I wasn't ready to make a decision and made a quick visit to Lowe's. There the salesperson confirmed that only a few models allow you to reverse the hinges. They had the same Electrolux model as Pieratt's, at the same price, and he confirmed that they were not allowed to lower the price at all. Shucks.

But he also voiced the opinion that criss-crossing a cheaper set wouldn't be a good idea. He wasn't worried about the dryer vent so much, but he said that he would be concerned that the washer pump wouldn't be able to pump out the drain water efficiently over a longer distance.

So I went home, discouraged. I explained the problem to Jonathan, who said "how much would the reversible-hinge washer cost?"

"About $1200."

"For the pair?"

"Um... no. Just the washer." I wisely decided not to mention the pedestals for the time being.

A silence ensued, which I hurriedly broke by explaining about the good bargain I had at least been able to find on a refrigerator, a close-out floor model for about $500.

And now I've spent the last few hours scouring the web and trying, futilely, to discover whether it really is viable to criss-cross your placement of a washer and dryer, and reading a hundred or so passionately argued debates about front-loading vs. top-loading washers.

After slogging through all that, I'm still liking the front-loading units better. The data are pretty convincing that the extra upfront cost of the front-loaders are recouped after just a couple of years of lower water and electricity bills. I really like the idea of being a good environmental steward and not pumping so much detergent-contaminated waste-water into the ground. But I also don't want to have to worry about dryer lint accumulating in a kinked-up pipe and catching fire and burning my nice new addition down. So.... I guess I'll go for the Electrolux with the reversible hinges after all. They're in stock and can be delivered Monday. I'll finesse the Spousal Acceptance Factor by paying myself for whatever balance the stack of $100 bills can't cover.

And if I'm paying that much, I'll go ahead and pay the extra $$ to get them in blue. ;-)

Progress Report --- Week 23

Progress accomplished:

--Countertop installed. See pics above. We went with the "Giallo Quarry" style of Silestone quartz. I think it came out looking terrific. The photo also shows the cabinets installed.

--More painting of addition interior completed. I believe the primer coat has been put on everything, and he's been doing second coats and/or detail work on other parts.

--Interior doors hung.

--Toilet in master bath installed.

--Faucets for vanity sinks and jacuzzi tub installed. This was done after the photos shown above were taken.

--Plumbing inspection of addition conducted and passed.

--Clean-up of backyard, gazebo area done. Wagner had been storing some of his stuff in the backyard, and he got that all cleared out, along with some paving stones he had put down when we had to exit out the back yard through the other side of the house. He also stacked all the leftover brick neatly by the house, as we wanted to keep some spares Just In Case disaster falls.

--Decisions made on how to handle the area above the kitchen sink. Recall that we used to have a window there that had been blocked up in the renovation. I had thought about putting a bookcase there but ultimately decided that wouldn't work well. So I started looking around for a nice decorative mosaic or something we could put in as a backsplash. Wagner found a gorgeous, custom-made design showing a basket full of fruit. It's a lot prettier than it sounds; I'll put a photo of it soon. It was marked down less than half price, and it will make a wonderful focal point for the kitchen while I'm standing there doing dishes.

Obstacles encountered:

--Various illnesses of Wagner and crew slowed things down. There's a nasty stomach bug going around Lexington these days.

--Carpenter has gone on a vacation trip to Europe and was unable to get our built-in bookcase done before he left. So that's going to have to wait until he gets back and un-jet-lagged.

--When faucets were installed on jacuzzi, one handle looked longer than the other. We were mystified that the supplier would've gotten the set mixed up, but we went back to Ferguson's and told them we needed the correct size handle. Turns out that the handles were *exactly the same size* and it was just an optical illusion caused by us looking at them from the side. Given my well-documented deficiencies in spatial reasoning, I wasn't surprised to hear that I was mistaken about the handle lengths. But when I was talking with one of Wagner's men, he looked at me like I was crazy and said "No way those handles are the same length! That one is clearly a lot longer than the other!!" So I had him whip out his tape measure and we held it against the faucets, and the evidence was indisputable--they were the same length. Very weird.

All in all, the closer we get to being finished, the more I'm itching to get in there. At this point I'm guessing we won't be done by our (revised) projected completion date of the end of March. But I'm hoping it won't be too much later. I'm ready to be done. :)

The master bath shower, unveiled

I finally got the chance to take some photos of the master bath shower. Enjoy! This first shot is taken inside the shower area, looking out to the drying off area.



Here's a shot of the main showerhead, with soap dish and recessed box for shampoo bottle storage:



The next shot shows the second handheld showerhead. Note the two grab bars installed on Wagner's strong nagging advice. In retrospect it doesn't clutter things up too much, and I suspect we'll be glad they're there in 20 years. Maybe sooner.



Shot showing detail of corner shelf and decorative border/trim:




And here's a view of the bench that runs along one side of the shower (covered with paper for protection):



And here's our whirlpool tub, covered with blankets for protection and to prevent me from getting in there prematurely to soak in the bubbles. ;-) The window lets in quite a bit of natural light but presents photographing challenges that exceed my meager skills in that area:

Progress Report --- Week 21

I probably should've just numbered my progress reports rather than call them Week Whatever, as I think I'm off by a week or two. Oh well. At any rate, there's been remarkable and considerable progress done since my last report.

Progress accomplished this week:

--Installation of bathroom cabinets and crown molding completed.
--Primer coating of paint put up in bedroom/bathroom. Paint color looks as nice on the walls as on the paint chip, phew!
--Baseboard trim installed in addition
--Furnace and humidifier installation completed; furnace is up and going. It's an amazing system, and I will be shortly writing an entire post dedicated to it.
--Garage painting completed.
--Concrete poured on walkway besides addition. Now all we have left is to add the brick portion of the walkway.
--Plumbing in garage study connected and functional.
--Plumbing, HVAC, and electrician inspections of garage conducted and passed. Final inspection occurs TODAY, which means that this morning may be the last time--and I am getting all teary-eyed with joy writing this sentence--that I will ever have to scrape ice off my windshield. Wagner wanted to save half the garage for storage of his equipment, so that means poor Jonathan will still have to park his car out in the driveway. I felt guilty about nabbing the available garage spot, but that feeling soon faded. ;-)

Obstacles encountered this week:

--Grouting around the decorative trim in shower doorway in the walkway is too rough, making it difficult to paint neatly around it. Wagner is going to have the tile guy back in to smooth it out somehow.
--New garage door seal let in some water during the last rain. We had the installer out this morning to look at it under warranty.
--Sub-freezing temperatures (what a surprise) are preventing the masonry guy from laying the brick walkway.
--Medicine cabinet we picked out for garage bathrooms sticks out too much, but can't be recessed due to ductwork in the wall. We'll take it back and just put up a plain mirror instead.
--Plumber deemed our current setup (one hot water heater for the original house, a separate one for the new bedroom/bathroom) as not ideal. He was worried there wouldn't be enough hot water for the whirlpool tub and shower if we used them in close succession. So he attached the two water heaters together somehow so that they're connected and serve the entire house.

Bathroom talk

So this morning Wagner wanted me to show him where to place all accessories in the garage study bathroom. We got the towel bar, medicine chest, and hand towel ring situated easily enough. Then he said, "Where do you want the toilet paper holder?" This was a matter of critical importance to me, as I definitely wanted to avoid situations like I've encountered in the past where you have to twist around and reach behind you to get the toilet paper.

So I sat down on the toilet (somewhat gingerly; the bowl has been installed but not the seat yet), reached my arm out to where I thought a comfortable place would be to grab the toilet paper, and told Wagner, "Right there!" He just shot me The Look and said, "Okay, but that's really very strange." "What do you mean?," I asked. "It's just that most people put their toilet paper holders over there," he replied, pointing to a spot that was much lower and further back.

So apparently I have weird bathroom preferences. I pointed out the whole logic of having the toilet paper at arm's length in front of you, so that you don't have to twist around in contortions every time you go to the bathroom. Wagner then started reassuring me that I should place the holder exactly where I wanted it, no matter how unusual such placement was. But the last thing I want is a weird bathroom that would be mocked and rejected by all the other bathrooms out there. So we compromised and put it somewhere in between. ;-)

While we're on the topic of toilet paper, I have to share my excitement over the toilet paper holder we got for the master bathroom. It's an ingenious design that does NOT involve one of those blasted little spring mechanisms, which I hate with a passion. The spring things in the middle always seem to pop open and fall apart in two pieces when you change toilet paper, and they always seem to be either too tight (so you have to exert the strength of ten to get it to fit in the bracket) or too loose (which means they keep falling out). But as bad as the spring mechanism kind of toilet paper holder is, they're still orders of magnitude better than the hook-shaped toilet paper holders, where every time you pull on the toilet paper the whole thing comes flying off the hook and rolling across the floor.

So you can imagine my heartfelt delight when I discovered a beautiful toilet paper holder at Ferguson's, the Moen Icon model, that operates with a simple pivoting arm mechanism. When it's time to change the toilet paper, you just swing the arm up, swap out the rolls, and then set it back down. Why every toilet paper holder in the world is not like that, I don't know. Here it is in all its beauty:

Progress Report --- Week 20

Progress accomplished this week:

Hurray! It's amazing how much has been done once the weather and utilities started cooperating.

--Tile work in bathroom FINISHED. It is gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. I'm thrilled with it.
--Installation of cabinets in bathroom begun. Should be finished tomorrow.
--Knob selection for bathroom cabinets made. I must be getting better at decisions because it only took me an hour to decide.
--Exterior paint on addition/garage trim begun, should be finished tomorrow, weather permitting.
--Concrete poured outside garage (see photo above). Wagner says that the garage is close to being completely done and that we can set a date for when we can start using it to park our cars. Hurray!
--Design of closets begun. I'm using a free service that ClosetMaid has where you send them measurements of the closet space, tell them how much space you need for long vs. short hanging stuff, shoes, etc., and they ship back a plan with all the part numbers identified. We did a first round of this, but I want to tweak the plans they came up with a bit. I'm trying to decide between using mostly functional (and cheaper) wire shelving units vs. more expensive but better looking laminate shelving. Given how much I went over budget for the tile, I'm leaning toward functional and cheap. ;-)
--Caulking and prep work for interior painting in addition begun.
--Rest of bedroom furniture purchased. We found a nice dresser and chest of drawers that would match nicely the new bed we had already bought. It was a discontinued line and thus on sale. The snag is that the furniture store would only sell it as a complete set, including a bed (which we didn't really need) and an armoire (ditto). Jon still liked it better than the other dresser I had identified, so we went ahead and bought the set, on the reasoning that we can use the extra bed in the garage space and squeeze the armoire in somewhere. The children, who were sick and tired of me dragging them to furniture stores and looking at dressers, didn't care one way or the other as long as we bought something.

Obstacles encountered this week:

--The tile person had miscalculated the amount of tile we needed and we were short a couple of pieces for the floor. Rather than wait for a new order to come in, we used some of the leftover budget tile from the laundry room to put on the bathroom floor under the cabinets. No one will ever see it, but I think it bothered Wagner not to have it all uniform. "What if you swap out the cabinets?" he asked. I told him that (a) we probably won't ever do that, but (b) even if we did, we'd be putting new cabinets over it, so the different tile STILL wouldn't be visible. We'll still go ahead and order an extra box of the main tile just to have spares in case something happens, but this way we didn't have to delay work on the rest of the bathroom.
--Steady rain beginning this morning will probably delay pouring rest of concrete around side of addition and finishing exterior painting.

The Ice Man cometh... and stayeth

When this renovation is finally done, I think I'm going to put the house on the market... and move to San Diego or Florida because I am exceedingly tired of this winter weather.

Just kidding, mostly, but man all this snow and ice and bitter cold temperatures is disheartening. We were without power for 3 and a half days last week. We got electricity back Friday afternoon, and I gleefully called Wagner and told him the good news. He was elated as well and lined things up with the tile guys to resume work on Monday. We packed up our clothes, cat, rats, and guppies and moved back to the house, where we enjoyed exactly two glorious nights of electricity. Sunday morning, though, Jon was outside shoveling snow when he heard the big "Boom!" of a transformer blowing out, and we were plunged into darkness and cold once again. So once again Wagner had to call off the workers and once again we had to pack up kids, pets, belongings and move back to Jonathan's office. It took another couple of days for the power to come back on, this time for good--we hope. Cross your fingers.

Of course we had thrown out all the food in the freezer the first time the power came back on and bought replacements... which I then had to throw out again. Sigh.

But finally, finally we were able to get Larry (the tile guy) back in action. I just love talking with him. He is a true crafstman in every sense of the word, and it is gratifying to see just how deeply he cares about doing a good job. The other day we were talking about some issue of the tile layout, and he casually mentioned that he had been "thinking about your job while lying in bed last night." I laughed and told him that I hoped he had much better things to think about at night than my shower. He replied that he took his work seriously and enjoyed doing jobs like ours, where it wasn't just a simple floor but more like "artisanship."

The shower is done, and the rest of the tile work will be completed today or tomorrow. We have to stay off it for 24 hours, but after that I'll take some photos and post them. It is absolutely gorgeous and well worth the considerable amount we went over budget for it. Here's a teaser photo of the floor with the medallion that didn't come out too well because the sunlight was glaring on it (I couldn't walk on the floor to take it from the other angle). It hasn't been grouted yet and will look a lot better afterwards, but this will give you a feel for what it will look like:

(Lack of) Progress Report -- Week 19: ICE STORM

Progress accomplished this week:

--Much of tile laid out in shower last weekend/Monday, including decorative trim. Even though it hasn't been grouted yet, I can tell it will look very very nice when it's done.

Obstacles encountered this week:

--But that's the only thing that got done this week, because Lexington was right in the middle of the bad ice storm that swept the Southeast. The nasty stuff started falling Tuesday, and when the street began to look like an ice rink, I shoveled and scraped a path from the addition to the workers' truck and told them to get home so I wouldn't have their deaths on my conscience. That evening the ice built up so much that tree branches and entire trees started falling all over the city, knocking down power lines. We lost power Wednesday morning, and Kentucky Utilities is saying nothing besides a recorded message that it may take "weeks" before the power is restored. Yikes.

I can't complain too much, because we are safe. Jonathan's office has a nice little apartment on the second floor, so we packed up the kids, cat plus litter box, two pet rats, and two fishbowls full of guppies and are camping out there for the time being. The schools have been closed all week long so we are enjoying plenty of, er, quality time with the kids.

Poor Wagner calls us periodically to ask, with hope in his heart, if the power is back on. I assure him that no matter how much HE wants the power on so his crews can get to work, WE want it on even more.

When we drew up the design and bid for the renovation project, we contemplated at great length including a whole-house backup generator that would cost roughly $10,000. We ultimately decided against it, due to the expense and our assumption that we wouldn't need it all that often to make it worth the cost, and besides we would always have Jon's office to stay at if we lost power at the house. Oh well. As Jon pointed out to me, we can't second-guess that decision just because of some temporary (I hope!!) inconvenience, and even if we had decided to get the generator, it probably wouldn't be up and running at this point.

Progress report -- Week 18

Shot of complicated tile work that needed to be done around whirlpool tub, with holes drilled for the faucets:



Photo of the elusive plush carpet with a mixture of colors (which I talked about in a previous post):



Here's our shower floor, all tiled and grouted:


Progress accomplished this week:

Good heavens... where do I start? Wagner says the house should be finished by the end of February. I'm not sure I believe him (the addition still looks very, well, unfinished), but he's the expert. At any rate, we seem to be very much on schedule, which is a minor miracle given the weather.

--Underlayment for garage study floor installed
--Cabinets in garage study hung. We're re-using our old kitchen cabinets that we had replaced during the kitchen renovation this summer. They are still quite serviceable and look fine.
--Cabinets in laundry room installed. We re-used some more of our cabinets/counters from the kitchen here.
--Tile work begun in shower and bath area. This is probably the most visible and important progress made this week. Larry (the tile guy) got the shower floor put down and grouted, and he is now hard at work putting the wall tiles in place. We hope to have the shower portion done this week.
--More closet doors installed throughout addition

Obstacles encountered this week:

--Cold weather has prevented work starting on pouring concrete around garage. Man, I'm tired of putting this down as an obstacle. The temperatures have been in the teens or even single digits all week, never approaching anything close to freezing. This is particularly frustrating because Wagner made the off-hand comment, "Too bad we haven't been able to pour the concrete, because otherwise you'd be able to use the garage for your cars." I think of that comment every time I'm scraping ice off the windshield in 5 degree weather on dark mornings.
--We don't want to put up the rest of the fence until the concrete is poured (to avoid any mess or concrete splatters), so we still only have fence posts in the back yard.
--The doorknobs I had chosen for the addition doors have not yet arrived. They were a new product line that Home Depot had samples of, but the shipments have been delayed with no assurance that they will be in stock any time soon. I'll have to go pick out some different ones. In keeping with the goal of adopting universal design for the addition (to plan for the future should we need things accessible), I had selected the lever kind of doorknob (as opposed to the round kind). But most lever types don't look very attractive. This new model was quite nice, so I went with it. I'll have to look around some more and see if I can find another lever type that looks as good, or maybe switch back to ordinary round doorknobs.

Maybe, just maybe, a decision on the carpet

As you know if you have been following this blog, I've had a hard time making the flooring decisions for the addition. I must have been to a half dozen carpet stores, and some of those on 3-4 occasions. I didn't think we had exotic tastes, but it still turned out to be very difficult to find a carpet that met all of Jonathan's and my criteria.

Jonathan's needs were simple: He wanted something thick and plush. Easy peasy. There are roughly 43,617 thick and plush carpet styles.

My needs are rather simple, too. Recall that my main criterion for choosing a shower tile was something mottled and containing the color of soap scum, so as better to hide dirt. I used a similar rationale for choosing a carpet color. I had noticed that, with our current carpet (which is a very plain beige colored plush), the slightest spot (such as when I spill coffee bringing it to Jon) or stain (such as when Isaac throws up) stands out like a sore thumb.

To me, it makes a lot more sense to have a carpet that contains a mixture of colors in an irregular pattern rather than a sheer expanse of unblemished and pristine sameness, which in my household is going to last a day, maybe two, at the most. Finding such a carpet shouldn't be a problem, as there are roughly 38,992 mottled color pattern carpet styles.

Putting those two sets of requirements together, it meant that all we needed to do was find a thick plush carpet with a mottled color scheme, preferably a color scheme including shades of coffee and vomit. Just joking (mostly) on that last bit. ;-)

You would think that would be an easy carpet to find. The reality is the intersection of those two sets is scarily close to zero. (Who'd've ever thunk that New Math I learned in grade school would actually be relevant???) There are lots of plush carpets, but they're almost all just one pure color. There are lots of mottled color carpets, but they're almost all shag or frisee/twist style carpets. And because neither Jon nor I were willing to budge on our criteria, I spent an awful long time looking at carpet samples. (Note to any carpet manufacturing executives who may be reading this: There is a real and potentially quite lucrative niche here that needs to be filled. We can't be the ONLY family in the world who wants a plush multi-colored carpet.)

Wagner had long given up on his gentle hints ("You really need to pick your carpet soon so I can order it") and moved on to more desperate tactics of escorting me to carpet stores, showing me various samples, and asking with a hopeful tone his voice, "how about something like this?", only to be crestfallen when I would say, "no... it's not mixed enough" or "no, it's too shaggy."

But we finally found something we liked. It's beige with speckled flecks of browns, greys, and blacks sprinkled throughout it. And it's a nice thick plush. I tried to find a sample on the web so I could post a photo of it, but I couldn't find one. But trust me, it's a lot prettier in person than how I described it.

The only snag, of course, is that it is more expensive than most carpets. *Sigh.*