Posted by K
Mon, 19 Jun 2006 04:16:00 GMT
Apologies to Howard Jones. Or, I should say, apologies to you for bringing up bad songs from 1985. I have no idea why my brain does this to me. This is, I suppose, the price I am paying for sort of being able to sleep the last few days.
Right now, other than moments of hot-flush-inducing absolute terror I have when I flash on thinking about how horrible it will be flying with the cat (very unhappy, and I will have to go through security and deal with taking the cat out of the carrier and carrying him through, while also taking off my shoes AND proving to the TSA that my laptop is not a bomb) or wondering if all our stuff really has a chance of fitting in the space in the truck we have reserved, I am kind of OK. We have to get rid of a bike and some plants and pots and various things like that, and pack the dishes/bath stuff/clothes we have been using and haven’t packed yet, but things seem under control.
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Posted in Remodeling: General, Moving cross-country | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by K
Thu, 08 Jun 2006 05:08:00 GMT
Well, today was a day of highs and lows. Actually, it started out good and ended up bad. So, not really highs and lows, but more of a slippery slope into misery.
The good: THE DAMN TILE IS HERE. Thanks to our friend S and her trusty Golf, (and under the disbelieving eyes of the tile guys who thought it was impossible to put all that tile in a Golf and drive it into DC and, uh, I guess we should have sent Jorge to get it in his truck), the tile is now safely in the house. She even carried some in. We sent grout (yes, we shipped 16 pounds of grout across the country because the alternative was too tiring to consider) on Monday so grout will be there very soon.
Also, I have a ticket on a plane that will get me into DC at 10.33 PM on the 29th of June (and supposedly the house will actually be mostly done at that point). I am usually happy about this, although right now the thought makes me want to cry.
The reason I want to cry: the AC ductwork. Right now I think the AC guy is crazy and I have no idea what the hell he was doing when he put in some of the ducting. I understand that not all of it could be put in the walls the way he wanted. That is fine. What is not fine is the enormous and crooked double duct in our living room, that, when framed in, will obscure some of the doorway trim behind drywall. Also, an upstairs bedroom has that problem with some trim at the top of a door. Beyond that, there appears to be a (crooked) thermostat installed where there are going to be cabinets on the kitchen/dining room wall. Check out the horribleness here.
Sigh. I sent Jorge a What The Hell (I said it all as nicely as I could) email and I guess now I will go sleep fret.
Posted in Modern amenities, Remodeling: General, Remodeling: Bathroom | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by K
Fri, 26 May 2006 03:11:00 GMT
IKEA informed me today that they suck possibly more than Nash Floors. They didn’t really tell me this in person, because talking to a real person at IKEA is not possible, I have determined. But they told me anyway, in so few words.
Here is the series of unfortunate events:
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Posted in Remodeling: General, Miscellaneous | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by K
Sun, 21 May 2006 21:39:00 GMT
The excitement in these parts lately is packing. Also, buying dishwashers and, as featured on the To Do List, agonizing over countertops.
Earlier this week, when the nice people at Squak told me that shipping the slabs from Washington state to DC would cost me almost a thousand dollars (which, combined with the actual cost of the slabs would have brought the cost of raw materials to over $2500), I realized that Squak was going to be a no go. If we were moving to Seattle, just maybe, but not in this case.
So countertop-wise I guess we are now between:
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Posted in Remodeling: General, Moving cross-country | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by K
Thu, 04 May 2006 05:39:00 GMT
I FINALLY got the windows for the dining room ordered today. I started on Monday, so it only took three days and about eight calls total, including:
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Posted in Remodeling: General | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by K
Wed, 03 May 2006 05:45:00 GMT
I just finally bought the toilet (Toto Aquia, hooray), the faucet (Delta Lockwood in chrome), the sink (American Standard Retrospect), the valves for said sink (some Brasstech stuff), and a toilet seat cover for said toilet (the Toto oval elongated Softclose dealie). Thank you to MI-5 (the BBC show known as Hot Spies in this household) for making all this less painful by distracting me just enough while forking over hundreds of dollars for this stuff.
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Posted in Remodeling: General, Remodeling: Bathroom | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by K
Sun, 30 Apr 2006 18:18:00 GMT
Treehugginess aside, I want central air. I have been living in the land of the uniseason, between 50 and 70 most of the year, and I get wilty and pathetic and whiny when the temperature goes above 75 or 80 degrees. Welcome to DC, wimp. Get ready for some suck.
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Posted in Modern amenities, Remodeling: General | 1 comment | no trackbacks
Posted by K
Sat, 29 Apr 2006 16:30:00 GMT
At this point a lot of the basic stuff is done… there are joists walls and subfloors and plumbing and electric ready. Framing is going up and drywall is being put in. We get kitchen measurements on Monday. Things are moving along.
Our contractor has an odd urgent way of phrasing things that I realized the other day is probably not intentional but sends me into a panic anyway. He also tends to not give us much lead time in procuring things, but I guess some of this is my fault and I should already have windows picked out, even though I don’t have measurements.
He gave us three days to come up with a showerhead (not so hard except for the whole have-to-order-it-online part since we can’t just pick it up and run it over). Last night he basically said “I need to know if you already chosen the windows for the dining room. They have to be 35×75 or smaller” and suddenly I feel judged and stupid like of COURSE we should have windows picked out. I know this is all in my head and that the judging and whatnot is not there, but I feel that way anyway.
So, this weekend we have to decide on said windows for said dining room, buy the sink/faucet/toilet/drain/light for the bathroom so that we have a leg up there, and send the contractor the next million dollar installment. I am thinking we should also decide on what to do about the kitchen window and get on that, as well. Next week is cabinet time. Then we can worry about sinks and countertops. The ongoing lamp-buying debacle continues in which I am outbid on every lamp I try to get on eBay. Right now we have light in the kitchen, dining room, foyer, and possibly hall. Ideally I would also like living room and main bedroom fixtures before we move in. Just because it might take some time to find the actual lamps we own once we move and it would be nice to be able to see in those rooms in the meantime.
I just saw last night that the owner of a small local DC natural food market (called, optimistically and enthusiastically: “Yes! Organic Market”) signed an agreement to put a store in about a block away from our house. This makes me very happy, even if it won’t be there until 2008. The yuppie in me wanted a Whole Foods there, but I feel less guilty about a nice local chain that only has four other stores, and it will not cause parking nightmares in the neighborhood like Whole Foods would. Granted, the wine and cheese selection will be nil, but if I ever open my wine and cheese shop up the street it means less competition for me.
Posted in Remodeling: General | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by K
Tue, 25 Apr 2006 04:29:00 GMT
Even though things were quiet for a while (in that we didn’t hear a lot for a week or so) there has been stuff going on at the house. The electrician has rewired everything, the bathroom floor joists are removed and replaced, insulation has been going up, an AC guy came by today to give us an estimate (on ducts and also AC, separately, in case we want to do the AC proper later even though it makes sense to get the ducts in now), and most excitingly, the kitchen beam is now in. Check out the pictures.
Now we have to pick a bunch of tile out for the bathroom floor. They are going to finish up some stuff this week and should be ready for that stuff soon. I think we know what we want, but we have to order it from Rockville and have someone pick it up and deliver it to the house for us. Whee. Also, time to make a sink decision so the plumbing rough-in can get in.
Posted in Remodeling: Kitchen, Remodeling: General | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by K
Sat, 15 Apr 2006 04:55:00 GMT
I finally got around to putting up the rest of the before-we-ripped-it-apart pictures. They are over here.
Also, we made the first commitment to something to put in the house, with a pair of kitchen pendants.
I am also in the process of buying some wacky lamps on eBay, one of these and one that I can’t find online right now (it looks like sails stretched between two rings, kind of).
Also, I think Fireslate is out of the countertop running, not that it was ever a number one contender. I think it gets too blotchy and stained even if you try to take care of it.
Posted in Remodeling: General | no comments | no trackbacks
