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: