Joy and Doug's Hood Court House Web Log

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March 2006
Current Blog

Wednesday, March 1, 2006
Monday was a busy day with appliances being delivered, electrical work and more gas related activity.

Riegelmann's brought us our refrigerator, cabinet oven, microwave, washer and dryer and stove filling in the empty spaces nicely. Jim labored to get the gas connection fitting behind the stove and discovered that the granite edges at the front of the counter would prevent the stove from sliding back all the way. In a slight panic we called Millennium Stone to see what they could do short term. Meanwhile, Jim and some helpers lifted and mounted the fresh air unit down in the furnace room which will become such a big part of our

heating and air conditioning system. The electrician was running around attaching dining room wall sconces, connecting the cabinet oven and the heat pump. He also cut a hole and attached a recessed light in the ceiling wood work above the main level fireplace. This will shine down on whatever we choose to feature in that space. The most dramatic addition was his installing of the under-cabinet lights which illuminate the granite and tile splashes nicely. Millennium responded lightning fast to our granite dilemma Tuesday morning and notched out just enough to allow the stove to slide in. Jim did the sliding in with some help and it fits like a dream. Manuel and a

helper also showed unexpectedly Tuesday to touch up paint and stain where they could. When Joy and I showed up in the evening, Steve was at the house putting all the remaining rods in the stair railing that he had to custom grind to fit the holes. Angled metal shoes finished off the effect. We're still pushing for that March 11th moving date.

Friday, March 3, 2006
Plumber Tom finished up all his plumbing today, leaving the master spa tub and main level bathroom fixtures for last. He called in

an inspection and passed with no problem. Furnace man Jim was there trying to wind

down work with the myriad vent connections from furnace to fresh air unit. I need to get an obscure movie reference out of the way. Jim's work in our utility room looks like scenes out of Terry Gilliam's 1985 film Brazil in which Robert DeNiro plays a "freelance subversive heating engineer"

surrounded by a complicated mish-mash of futuristic pipes and ducts. Bonnie wallpapered

the upper half of the downstairs guest bedroom, Thursday. Our carpet installer, Mark, hopes to finish all the carpet by the end of the weekend. Friday night I helped him pull 180 yards of carpet out of the van, shuffled it through the house dodging hanging lights and woodwork,

and loosely placed it within the rooms. The majority of the carpet is a low-level leafy print with a fun pattern match. If that isn't enough of a challenge, thirty-plus steps will test his knees. The downstairs bonus room is a shaggier, dark-greenish-beige tweed which should feel nice on the concrete and deaden the hollow sound a bit. Movie night is right around the corner.

Sunday, March 5, 2006
Mark finished the rest of the

carpet late Saturday night and did an absolutely beautiful job. His seams are flawless with the heavy patterned goods. Sunday I cleaned up all the scraps and vacuumed up the stray strands and covered all the areas I expected contractors to walk with sticky plastic. Joy scrubbed and cleaned and found a few hours to put some of the lower wallpaper up in the master bedroom behind where the bed headboard will be on the north wall. She's hinting at having

Bonnie do the rest of the wallpapering. Steve showed and installed some door hardware and finished some metal rod placement under the rail on the main floor between the upper and lower staircases. This upcoming week is full of uncertainty mainly due to how we do on the rest of our inspections. Can we pass enough to move in this Saturday as planned?

Little things pop up like learning that because our door swings into the garage from inside of the house, a platform at the height of the interior is required to step out on. I learned about that from Tom the plumber who relayed that to me after he got a hint from the inspector during the plumbing inspection. So I spent an hour assembling and carpeting a makeshift landing for this week's final. Any other little things we should have known about? We'll see.

Tuesday, March 7, 2006
We'll folks, that day we've been waiting for has arrived.

We officially passed our inspections and have been given permission to occupy the place. This Saturday's move-in plans are set. We have some things being done before Saturday. Bonnie's doing the rest of the wallpapering, a late-arriving dining room light fixture is getting hung, and Steve hopes to do quarter-round installation on the main level. I'm looking forward to Jeff hooking all my audio/video gear up after the move. There are countless other things that need to get done but they all have one important distinction: they aren't keeping us from moving in. So pop open a bottle of champagne and celebrate with us sometime.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Saturday the movers wrangled our bigger items. All My Sons made quick, professional work of the big screen television and piano along with a couple bedrooms and dining room worth of furniture.

After a little cajoling and broken English, we were even able to get one of the muscle men to show off his piano playing talent. They were done and gone by noon. Good neighbors, Don and Linda, had a lunch spread ready at their house across the street. They've been so nice and accommodating throughout our entire process.

A few hours later my brother Derek and his wife Deanna and their daughter Sadie brought over a kettle of bean soup and some champagne to usher us in. We spent our first night, took our first showers and baths. Lots of firsts are ahead of us. Sunday I cleaned up the

garage and organized some extra finish wood to take back to the supplier, made a spot for the freezer and a future laundry tub, loaded a couple garage cabinets with spare stain and paint cans, and filled the van with its nineteeth load of garbage.

Joy put her kitchen together and continued the endless mopping of dust around the house. I've enjoyed keeping this site going all these months. It allowed me to step back like a reporter and see it all from an outside perspective. Joy and I have appreciated all the feedback and hope you found it fun to go along for the ride. Stop by and see it in person sometime.

Saturday, March 18, 2006
Joy and I have been in for a week. We're starting to get used to our "treehouse", not quite believing that we're in. We'll be spending the next year unpacking and sorting and fine-tuning. As for this site, I'll be leaving it up indefinitely as a novelty to look back on. In the meantime I've decided to publish a true blog at this address:
hoodcourthouse.blogspot.com/
He're you'll get the latest updates on what we're up to with the house, and I plan to expand the topics beyond our house to the things that bloggers voice opinions about, nothing Earth-shattering. But what's fun about the thought of having a full-scale blog will be the opportunity to have your feedback on whatever topic might interest you that day. We'll see how it goes. See you over at hoodcourthouse.blogspot.com/ for updates from now on...