We're In - well, kind of!

So, we survived the move! Tuesday was the big day - we moved the big stuff from the storage unit and all but the little stuff from the apartment (there was waaaaay too much of that). Rod was finishing up his part of the trim work (still plenty to be done) as things were coming through the doors!  By the end of the day both places looked like they had been hit by a whirlwind.  After a good night sleep in our new home (very quiet, but we need some dark window coverings in the bedroom so Minnie doesn't wake us at the crack of  dawn) we headed back to the apartment to finish packing the little stuff and clean, clean, clean!  What a day.  We dropped off the keys at 5:15 and came home to walk the dogs and eat our first dinner in the new place.  Our friends Meg and Bod were kind enough to provide it - delicious!  We had hoped to sleep in Thursday morning, but we both hurt so much that we were up and out by 6:15.  It was a good day - we relaxed a little (Bill needed more coaching on this concept than I) and caught up on some shopping.  It felt weird to be doing normal, daily things.  I was asleep in the chair by 9 that night and since there was no news to watch (no TV as of yet), I headed to bed early and fell sound asleep.  We worked on various little catchups and put-aways Friday and then headed out to dinner in Fairhaven with some friends.  Bill returned the excess oak flooring to Mukilteo this morning (love getting those refunds at this point) and I worked on bookkeeping and cleaning screens. (Interestingly there are more mosquitos here than in our old house which was built directly over a pond!) Bill worked on the coat closet flooring this afternoon while I took worked in the office again (and, I confess, took a nap!). We're in - well kind of  - the "To Do" list is huge, but we'll get there......

We woke upon moving day to pouring rain - we can usually see the houses on the
hill in the background it this picture - not that morning.  Luckily by 10:00 it
had lightened up and we were on our way.

This kitchen at the apartment packed and for the most part ready to go.  I wonder
if the coffee maker is always the last thing to be packed? Bill is
looking forward to a bigger kitchen. (Not that much, but....)

Our first dinner in the new place.  It was so kindly provided by our friends
Meg and Bob.  Salad, bread and a southwestern stew.  Delicious!  It was
great to be sitting at our Amish table that we bought in Wisconsin about 7
years ago!  Memories of a good road trip......

There are a lot of scraps of paper
around our place that look like this.
Just how long was that span?
How many rails?

And HOW many handles do we
really need?  I've been trying to
figure a way to cut down on the
num-ber, but my nails have broken
off so much without them that my
fingertips are killing me!

And what really are you supposed
to do with al the instruction manuals?
Especially the parts written in
Spanish & French? You can guess
what I did with them.  The rest
are going in a house notebook,
just like the one I left at
4210 Springland!

Bill, Minnie and Sam enjoying the new great room (small by comparison
to most) it still needs a lot of finishing, but it's getting there!  Yahoo!

The dining nook with our fancy card table!  We have to find something
better, but that is going to have to wait!  Great light - great views!

The "den" with our comfy chairs and the now working TV.  That big
leather chair to the rigt used to be in Bill's office, I forgot how
comfy it was. We are still falling asleep by 8:30 in these chairs!  

The master bedroom - it feels great to sleep in here.

As you can tell there's some finish work to do here, but we are using it as a
office for the time being. Do the colors look familiar? 

Well, what can you say?  The loft is something else....... plenty of time
to finish it......

We passed!

Just a quick note that today we passed enough of the inspections to get a temporary certificate of occupancy!  Just what we were going for - which means the movers are coming tomorrow and we are officially 631 residents!  Comcast isn't going to be as fast so we may not be reconnected to this site for a few days.

Bill came up with a great idea this time.  Have the movers come the day before we have to be out of the apartment so we have a day to clean after everything is out!  We're getting smarter all the time - hah!  Just in time to not have to move again!  (His wish!) Oh well, better late than never.

More pictures once we are in! Take care........

Cable railings, closet floors and filling cabinets!

Things are moving along!  We finally found a local source (good old Hardware Sales) for the cable railing components - what an experience that has been.  That allowed us to install the cable railing this weekend and be ready for our inspection tomorrow.  It was a learning experience about swaging (crimping) little tiny washers and cable (not fun to cut), but we are happy with the results.  Bill finished the master closet floor and I painted the upstairs bedroom ceilings white so the rooms don't glow so much.  I also spent time unpacking boxes from storage and the apartment so that the kitchen and bathroom cabinets are starting to look like someone might actually live there some time soon!  Can't wait.  It's been several long days, but.....

A funny aside - I actually did not wear my "work uniform" (consists on any certain day of one of two pairs of jeans and one of three shirts) for an entire day on Thursday.  It felt GREAT!  (Yes, friends have noticed and I do wash them regularly.) I can't wait to wrap up the project and do that more than once a month!   Lots of pictures today!

So here is the brand of tensioners (like there isn't enough tension in our lives
already) that we used for our cable railings.  We got them locally after a lot of
hunting around (and being told that they didn't carry anything like it two weeks
earlier) and they worked wonderfully!  Youtube came through with an installation
video that was invaluable!

Here is a picture of the tensioners attached to the posts, but the cables still
free.  Bill and I both commented on how we liked how the cable flows - there
might have to be a cable sculpture in our future!

Here are the tensioners before the second end of the cable is
connected.  It's an interesting system.  Heed their warning to
wear gloves when cutting and attaching the cables - it works
much better and the cable doesn't stab you!

Here's Bill getting the center post on the second side ready for cables.  Kind of
a picky job, but ........

Ta-da!  Done!  So this is the second floor deck off the guest rooms!  Nice view into the yard  -  I love how the
cables kind of disappear!  It is a great place for morning sun and afternoon shade!

One of the upstairs bedroom after the ceiling has been painted white.  Ah,
much gentler!  It was a little too bright before!  I had so wished one coat
would do, but it took two!

Emptying the apartment!  Bye-bye books and magazines!

There's a temporary rule - we can't leave the apartment without taking a box or
container full of stuff up to the house.  The kitchen is looking pretty empty, but......

They are starting to fill up at the new place!  Yahoo!  It might actually happen!

We don't have a lot of space in the new kitchen, but this pantry
is going to come in handy.  Wish it was a little taller, but!  Already
moved the to-go cups out of it and into the island.  We don't need
them everyday!

And the last of the oak flooring!  Bill finished the master
bedroom closet about 6 this evening!  He may still do the
coat closet, but he's not sure yet!

Now it is starting to look .....

like a real home!  This week has been a productive one - the place is really starting to look and feel like a home, which is good since we are planning on moving in on Tuesday (the inspection is scheduled for Monday afternoon).  The plumber installed the downstairs shower fixtures, the bathtub and its fixtures, the filtered water faucet, hooked up the hot water, installed a garage sink (LOVE IT!!!) as well as all the toilets.  The electrician came and installed the last of his fixtures - at least those that have arrived, we are still waiting on a couple of things.  He's recovering well from his neck surgery (YAY!!!).  We hired a finish carpenter to help us with the trim and he has done beautiful work!  We found a local source for the deck cable railing hardware (Hardware Sales, of course) and Bill's started the installation.  I painted the ceilings in the upstairs bedrooms to the yellow isn't so shocking.  We even started taking things up to the house from the apartment so it isn't a total madhouse next week.  Sorry for the run-on paragraph - it's been a run-on week!  Here are some photos of the progress......

The living room with the new windows & door and trim in
place.  It is doug fir and just a plain and simple molding. Rod,
the finish carpenter, did great work! Yup, those old kitchen
cabinets are still on the back porch.  They are waiting to be moved
to the shop once we clear it of all our stuff!!!!

The window trim in the sitting area off  the bedroom, we have a great
view to the backyard and lots of light. Do you think we will ever get those labels
off the windows? The humming birds like them.

The den/library's new windows - and two of them actually
open.  That was a big reason to replace as many windows
as we did - very few opened before.

This is a two-for-one  - you get to see the new tub in place (no longer in
the bedroom) and the new window trim.  The bottom trim fits to the top of the tile
perfectly - I think Rod had a hand in that - so I don't have to cut all those
little two inch tiles to fit there!  Yahoo!

Our groovy kitchen island lighting.  Notice the amber color -
kind of an ode to the old orange carpet and tile!  Yep, that
island is already becoming a place for junk!  Oh no!!!!

The master bedroom floor and railings are done!

This week has been one of progress!  I love the "finishing" touches because you can really see a difference and it feels like we're moving forward.  Putting off moving for a week was a divine idea as we are just now wrapping up some of the things that need to be done for the inspection......  And we probably aren't as grouchy as we would have been otherwise!  Here are some pictures of the progress......

Here are our good friend Paul (who by the way won the bet as to
when we would really move in - by more than a month I might add)
and Bill finishing up the master bedroom floor!  Yahoo!

After a little cleanup.  The extra wood in the boxes on the left is for the closet
that Bill will work on after the outside deck upstairs is done.... 

The doors are going in!  Yahoo!  We decided to hire a friend, Rod, who is a finish carpenter
to put in the doors and help with the trim!  He got in three of the doors downstairs  yesterday,
three upstairs, another down and the closet doors in today!  What a difference - I love the doors,
but miss the openness......

Here I am working on the last panel for the interior railing.  It was one of those
frustrating situations.  I have a reputation now for saying, "I cut it off twice,
and it's still too short!"

FINALLY!
It's done..... at least for now.  I want to refinish the top rail on the
stairs so it is smoother.

Okay, the towel is an old rag, but the faucets are in in the bathroom and
the drains work!  They do this little pop-up-pop-down thing that I really like -
who knew!?!?!?

Yahoo!  There is water in the shower now!  And I finally
caulked it today - about time! Tub goes in tomorrow.....

A reprieve, but we are still working our tushes off.....

So, last night we decided we couldn't make it in by June 1.  It's a combination of things, but it sure felt good to acknowledge that we were both feeling too much pressure and starting to make mistakes because of it. We are giving ourselves a week or 10 days more to get farther along the road to completion - our hope is to get most of the indoor doors, some of the trim, all of the railings, most of the plumbing installed and .......  you get the picture.  We had a great day, albeit a very long one.  (The dogs were very happy when we walked in the door about 6:15 and insisted we go out  - that's down 4 floors - immediately.) The long run of railing along the loft and walkway is done - now for the part over the entry way and along the stairs.  Bill will start wrapping the outdoor porch beams and post tomorrow while I finish the interior sections.  Hopefully our plumber will come install the tub and faucets.  I cleaned the kitchen cupboards this afternoon so they are all ready for stuff and we had the cabinet maker install a couple more of those pull out shelves.  He and his crew are great - they've taught me all kinds of wood working tricks. So, here are some pics.......

So the fun thing about this railing is that putting it together is a bit like a
puzzle or quilt.  You have to figure out the size of the spacers, but then its a regular
pattern - big spacer, picket, little spacer, picket, little spacer, picket, etc...

Bill suggested I might be wasting time laying out each panel before actually starting
to install each "panel," but it helps me avoid spacing issues at the end and it
makes for quick installation.

Yay! The right side is done, the left is the framing that Bill finished late today -
I hope to have it all done tomorrow!

Bilie working on the "frame" for the stair railing.  He did a beautiful job - I
hate to cover some of the board surface with the pickets!

The cooktop and hood are in!  We need to add the vent cover to the hood,
but that will take a little work first, so....  But you get the idea!  Boy, do we
need a backsplash of some kind here! Any ideas?

The two new pull-out shelves on the top are great!  I don't know why
we didn't order them in the first place!  I vacuumed and washed
all the kitchen cupboards this afternoon so they are ready to
be filled!  Can't wait to get going on that, but the railings are
calling my name for tomorrow.

And all the appliances are in!  Yahoo!  You'll probably never see the island this clean again, so enjoy it!  It was FULL of all kinds of stuff about an hour before this shot was taken.

Now you can see how the railing relates to the kitchen.  I am standing where the dining/living room is.  The beam  over the island is where the wall was previously.  There is soooo much more light now.

Dad's bevel square!  It sure has come in handy with all the weird angles we
have encountered.  People warned us that in a remodel there are no 90° angles -
I think they are right!  It helped a lot for the stair railing also! Thanks, Howie!

Alone again.....

Seems our plumber didn't like us that much, he didn't come back today.  Hopefully, we'll see him tomorrow.  The HVAC guy did come and we (yes, Bill and I) installed the cooking hood so he could connect the ducts (?) and he set up the fireplace logs - no gas it seems, but.....  We spent most of the day by ourselves working on the railings - Bill worked on the skeleton while I worked on the pickets.  If you've been to our old house this will look very familiar!

My sister Pat's comment on seeing the new railing was 'I thought you moved!"
Yeah, it's' the same pattern.  I have two panels finished - 5 to go!  Argh!
Gotta get these in for the inspection! Once again I thought a lot about my mom
and dad and all the work they did on our homes.  I am so thankful they taught
us how to use various tools (from table saws to knitting needles) to create things.