Joy and Doug's Hood Court House Web Log

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Monday, August 1, 2005

This month we'll see the installation of finish wood trim, doors and cabinetry (and, hopefully, corresponding staining and painting). We expect to see the exterior of the house painted.

All the tile should get set in areas not involving cabinets. Anything beyond this getting done will be a bonus as far as we're concerned.

The entire month will also be a continuation of Joy's daily, weekday breast cancer radiation treatments. We'll also find out more about what is going on with her pancreas. Look back in past entries to catch up on the fun. Thanks to sister-in-law, Deanna, for taking some pictures Sunday with our niece, Sadie.

Saturday, August 5, 2005
Slow weeks happen. Steve got some main level doors hung in the pantry, bathroom and hall closet. And that was about it. Behind the scenes we met and talked with Matt multiple times to iron out cabinet details.

Joy finalized and ordered some plumbing and light fixtures. It can be a little crazy-making, this ebb in activity, but standing back and gaining some perspective, we'd have it like this every time to get the contractors we feel are best. Of course we'd like something going on every day but the reality is that the good ones are busy.
Kick back and enjoy the view.

Tuesday, August 9, 2005

Steve and Darryl set their focus on the main floor Monday and Tuesday. All doors including the front door have been hung. Intricate casings have been installed around the doors. They're moving onto window casings. The artists have taken up residence at this phase of construction.

Tom and his helpers set two-inch square tiles diagonally on the three shower pans. They'll continue with shower wall setting and move onto master bathroom and laundry floor installation over the course of the week. In an effort to do as much with everybody's busy schedules, Tom plans to set the floor tile before the cabinets,

getting it in the vicinity of the cabinet toekicks. This has the potential of making Matt's cabinet setting job more involved. At this point we're grabbing at any offer to move the project along even at the price of small inconveniences along the way.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Bit by bit Tom built up the shower walls and finished the laundry floor. We delivered travertine for the master floors and did some clean-up this evening. Darryl finished up the main level casings and moved upstairs, but he and Steve will be moving on to another job for a while. We put a big bug in Gary's ear for getting the outside of the house painted.

Friday, August 12, 2005

We learned today that Joy will be having her endoscopic ultrasound next Friday the 19th at Oregon Health and Science University to probe around the mystery spot on her pancreas. Her breast radiation treatments are producing some redness but no pain. Tom has continued his beautiful work on the showers and moved to 18" square travertine tile installation on the master floors. The shower walls each have a recessed bottle holder to tile in and around. We may have shorted Tom a little bullnose. We definitely ran short on the travertine.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Tom and crew finished tile installation as far as they could go Monday and grouted the master and downstairs showers today. The main level bath wainscotting was finished with a diagonal placement of tile.

It was difficult pulling Joy out of that room she was so enthralled. We hope more work from our finish man Steve is on the near horizon. Matt should be assembling some cabinets, but we're predicting he won't meet next Tuesday's granite fabricator deadline for getting some base cabinets in the kitchen so they can do a detailed measurement. We're along for the ride at this point and there are always bigger things to be concerned about anyway when it's all put into perspective.

Friday, August 19, 2005
2 p.m. -- This just in. Joy called from OHSU to report that the procedure to study her pancreas went well. She's a little drowsy of course and looking forward to a nice nap. They took a biopsy and we'll have results on that Monday, August 29th. In her words, everything "looked" non-cancerous to the doctors, so that gives us hope in the meantime.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Not a lot happened this week until today and Wednesday evening with the much-anticipated delivery of the base cabinets in the kitchen and master bathroom. Matt's cherry wood is beautiful and we're glad the decision was made

to do the interiors in the same wood grain instead of white melamine. It's a nice touch we hadn't really thought about. His construction is top-notch, looking more like furniture pieces than cabinets. Matt rushed to get the bases in so fabricators could get a measurement for the granite slabs and not delay that process any further.

Joy said she's waited 26 weeks for this day, caring more about how the cabinets would look, I guess, than other things like framing and drywall. Jim brought in a whole bunch of furnace related pieces to give the fresh-air circulator some attention, and Steve is due back to continue on with trim work.

Saturday, August 27, 2005

We went to Hillsboro this morning to meet Thom at Elite Granite and Marble, another fabricator we plan to deal with for our master vanities, spa tub deck and laundry counters. After approving of a stone that would work for those areas we drove directly to Sandy where Ed was spraying blackberry vines on the hillside, Steve was working on finish details, and the wrought-iron railing fabricators were preparing to set our deck railings. The railings were just what was needed to finish the decks and add some required safety. Steve concentrated on

the upstairs master bedroom level, setting window casings and bathroom and closet pocket-doors. We discussed layout of the pantry and master closet shelves. In anticipation of a Tuesday measurement by our other granite fabricator, Millennium Stone, we placed the gas stove where it would go in the scheme of the kitchen cabinet set-up. The house was happy to have so much attention.

Monday, August 29, 2005

Joy and I went to Kaiser to hear the official results of her endoscopic ultrasound as it related to the cyst discovered in her pancreas. The results of the biopsy taken at the time suggest she should undergo surgery to remove the portion of the pancreas that contains this tumor because it is either already malignant or may become malignant in the future.

They don't want to mess around with it and say this surgery should take place within the next couple months. There's another doctor to see, a revisit with her main doctor and then we should get some dates. We're predicting this should all happen about the time we're ready to move into the new place. Steve continued trim work with a major focus on the main level crown molding. The profile is huge but fits with the tall ceilings, and it will settle in better once it's painted. Steve's to be commended for the amount he got done going up and down ladders all day. He looked exhausted.

Continue on to September