Quiz

Is Harry:

a) Excited that the construction is done?
b) Thrilled with the news that he's going to have another sibling?
c) Psyched to be celebrating his 6th birthday?
d) Pumped to go out for sniffing and bathroom relief?
OR
e) All of the above.

You decide.

Done

We've actually been done with the construction for about two weeks. Now comes the hard part: moving back in. We've made a few trips to the storage unit and retrieved most of our kitchen stuff so no more pizza and takeout for us! (okay, so that's not true, we got pizza the other night) It's been an interesting process trying to figure out where everything is going to go in the new kitchen and then making sure it's all clean (I think we've run about 7 or 8 dishwasher loads in the past 24 hours). Overall though its been a good process and we've been able to actually use the kitchen (I can smell the fresh baked bread right now).

The other hard part is deciding what to do with the kid's room. Right now it's not painted or used for much more than a place to put boxes. Obviously this will have to change soon.

Someday we'll get around to taking and posting some pics of the new, lived-in space.

Cooking Up Our Next Project

Two Years

As one major chapter of our life comes to a close, and we embark on a new chapter, it seems appropriate to reflect on the vows we made to each other two years ago today.

Andy's vows to Katie:

Katie,
You are everything I could ask for
In a friend, a woman, and a wife.
You are my best friend and the love of my life.

I promise to be there to celebrate your successes
To laugh with you in times of joy
And comfort you in times of sorrow.

I will encourage and support you,
Honor and love you.
I will respect our differences
And do my part to work through
All our challenges.

Katie, as I stand here before you
In front of our friends and family
Know this:
You have my heart,
You have my soul,
I will be yours and stand by you through eternity.
You are my love.

I love you.

Katie's vows to Andy:

Andy, I knew from the moment we met that you were important to me. It wasn't long after we met that I realized you were my best friend. I spoke and you listened; I laughed, and you laughed with me; I cried and you supported me. From the earliest days of our friendship, I was never afraid to share my deepest thoughts and feelings with you, because I knew that would be there for me, no matter what. And that trust has never faltered.

As our relationship developed, I discovered that you are not only my best friend, but the love of my life. And I stand here before you today, Andy, because I am the happiest -- the luckiest -- woman in the whole world, because I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with you.

I promise to stand beside you in moments of joy and moments of pain, to be your pillar of support as you have always been for me.

I promise to take care of you in sickness and in health, to never leave your side in times of weakness.

I promise to be the best mother I can be to our children. I want to nurture in them all the qualities that I admire and adore in you.

I promise to be faithful to you and honest with you. There is nothing in this world worth risking the trust that we have in each other.

I promise to be your best friend. Always. I promise to love, honor and respect you even when we disagree, because that is what best friends do.

I promise to be your partner in all things, large and small. Apart we can succeed, but together we cannot fail. Together anything and everything is possible.

I love you with all of my heart, Andrew Magoun. Today and every day for the rest of our lives.

We've enjoyed quite the adventurous and challenging two years (new house, major renovation); here's hoping the next chapter brings is as much fun.

Nickels and Dimes

As the project draws to a close (well, hopefully) our experience is taking a turn for the worse. It seems every time we turn around there's some other little thing that needs to be fixed. Of course this doesn't come cheap and somehow a) isn't the contractor's fault and b) wasn't anticipated by them in the beginning. As you can imagine our frustration level is rising constantly.

Right now the inside is probably 95% complete but we still can't fully move in (and let the animals have free range of the house) because the contractor still needs access to the back of the house. This is just mildly annoying until added with the removal of any protection for our floors this afternoon. Why they would leave our floors unprotected when we've repeatedly expressed our keen interest in keeping them undamaged is beyond me. More and more it seems as they don't really care about what our final impression is.

On that cheery note, here are some pictures of the kitchen.

Despite some initial issues with the shipping of the tile, we think it turned out pretty well.

Rising from the Ashes (er, Constuction Dust)

This week brought some major changes. On Tuesday, after several delays, we finally have a functioning boiler/water heater/space-age thingy. Obviously, we have yet to test the heating capabilities but the water heater gets a big thumbs up. Maybe it's the fact that I don't hear well, but I'm amazed at how quiet it is running; and, once we have those cabinet doors installed, I doubt I'll even remember that it's there (Andy says he can hear it, but I figure I'll be spending the most time in the kitchen anyway ;o) ).

Also on Tuesday, our countertops were installed along with about half of the appliances. I'm salivating over the new rangetop and can't wait to try it out. I have a list of recipes I want to try ASAP. Hopefully I won't go bonkers and try them all at once.

The painters were here today to finish painting downstairs and it looks GREAT! Andy and I limited ourselves to the historic colors in the Benjamin Moore collection (about 300 choices vs. about 5000), and I'm really happy with the way things turned out.

And finally, the siding guys have been here for the past few days, pounding away. The BAR mandated that as much of the original siding as possible must be saved, so they have the undesirable task of pulling off the sub-standard siding, and piecing in new stuff. On the front, this meant loosing about 90% of the original. Our house looked pretty bad for about 24 hours there. We've got paint swatches for the exterior up on the house, so we're taking the weekend to figure out which one to use. Tough call.

A few pictures of the emerging kitchen:









Sadly, it was not all good news this week as we hit some major snags with the tile we selected for the backsplash. We're still trying to iron things out, but I'm hopeful that we'll be able to salvage the situation and move forward.

If at first you don't succeed...

This is not what you want to come home to:

Apparently everything is fine (as in not really dangerous). The gas company showed up first thing this morning, about two hours before the inspector got here. Without the inspection, the gas company can't 100% certify there isn't a leak (there isn't - there's been no drop in pressure on the line for about two days) so they put this lovely little tag up. In the long run, though an unpleasant surprise to come home to, it's not a huge issue because we wouldn't have been able to take advantage of the gas anyway. (Un)surprisingly, there's one more piece that needs to be special ordered for our Triangle Tube water heater/boiler. So even if we had gas we'd still be waiting.

In other news the kitchen/powder room floors are being finished...

...and they look fantastic.

Our powder room floors are actually recovered from the second bedroom. We're very happy we were able to keep them in the house. You can also see a sneak peak at the color of the bead board.

Empty Promises and Shattered Dreams?

So maybe that's a little melodramatic.

This week finds our project a little beehive of furious activity. It seems like there's always at least 2 or 3 different groups of people working on different aspects of the house. (Today, for example, we had the plumber installing the boiler/water heater, the paint guys painting the powder room and trim, gas guy installing a new gas line under our house, and the siding folks working 'til dark on the exterior.) The good news is that things are really falling into place; the bad news is that all these people in a small space is bound to cause some confusion and frustration (been there already). I think I'll focus on the good. Tomorrow the boiler/water heater/space-age thingy will be fully installed and all systems go. Fingers crossed that everything works as it should. Otherwise, we'll be having awfully chilly showers on Friday morning. In yet another daring feat of scheduling, our contractor has the flooring folks slated to sand the floors at 2 pm tomorrow. This, of course, is entirely dependent on the gas company coming out in the morning (8-12) to turn the gas back on... no gas means they can't finish installing the boiler, and if they can't finish with the boiler, the sanding will have to wait.

Phew. Tiring, isn't it? And that's just a small piece of the puzzle for the next few weeks.

Contractor also gave us a (tentative? optimistic?) date of estimated completion: September 18, 2009. Three weeks. Holy crap. That would be amazing. (Can you tell we're not betting the first-born on it?)

Important Couple of Days

In a pretty amazing act of fate, our parents anniversaries fall within 24 hours of each other (25 and 26 August). Once we figured this out years ago, we both pretty much knew we would get married. I mean, really, who can pass up that kind of sign?

We could like to congratulate both sets of parents on 30+ years of marriage. Thank you for continuing to set a great example.

Cabinets

The kitchen cabinets have (mostly) arrived. The missing pieces should be here early this week. Unfortunately though, we're still a ways away from having full use of the kitchen.

The new farmhouse sink.

These are half of the "hutch" cabinets we have around the original window. The others will reach to the celling (covering up the pipes) and be the same maroon-ish red (I think technically it is a cranberry color). Directly under the window will be a moveable table/cutting board.

Our lovely new stove and range hood will fit in nicely. This is looking from the backdoor of the house.

The pantry, wall oven, and microwave/small oven. In the foreground is the table (still missing the wheels and, most importantly, the cutting board) going under the window.

Spot for the fridge.

In other news, two sides of the house are now sided. These two sides have new siding; the other two (more visible to the street) will have mostly original siding, with some new mixed in as necessary. I guess this means we should start picking out paint colors!

Coping Strategies

We all have our methods of coping with stressful situations. After almost 4 months of living in a construction zone, we're not the only ones seeking the means to cope.



Harry cuddling with his stuffed rabbit (a bit unrecognizable after a brief de-squeaking attempt)



Teeni settles in for the long haul in Andy's discarded shoe box.



"Just do it" is exactly what we're thinking, Teens. Trying our best to convey that sentiment to the contractor.

Calm before the storm

In less than 24 hours one of the final (hopefully) phases of the remodel will begin. Tomorrow the cabinets show up and installation begins. That means we've spent the weekend moving things around downstairs trying to make room. Originally this was going to be relatively easy: we'd just put everything into the 2nd bedroom. Since the final coat wasn't put on the floors in that room until Friday afternoon, we decided to find other locations for our things (now the floors will have a good three days to set).

Here are some shots from the past few days:

Our new hot water heater/boiler. The thing is friggin' huge. And, until the gas company gets off their duff, the most expensive piece of wall art we own. A new gas meter needs to be installed before this can be hooked up; Washington Gas, being the monopoly that it is, is taking their sweet time in getting back to our contractor about doing this.

Wainscoting in the new powder room. The floors are from the 2nd bedroom. This room is where a fair amount of our stuff is now stored to make room for the cabinets.

Old and new floors in the 2nd bedroom. We think both look really good, but despite being "inferior" (according to the contractor), we still like the older look better.

371 days and counting...

It's been just over a year since we first met with the architect regarding this project. Will it ever end?

As Katie said earlier today after figuring this out:

"the house is going to be gorgeous....

the house is going to be gorgeous....

the house is going to be gorgeous...."

On the bright side the kitchen floors are going in now.

Doggie Happy Hour

A hotel just down the street hosts a Doggie Happy Hour twice a week during the summer.  Even though this is nearing the end of the second summer with Harry, last Thursday was the first time we went.  We met up with some other greyhound owners and had a great time.  

Harry was his normal, lovable self, acting as a wonderful ambassador for his breed (as we walked through the courtyard people kept saying "is that a greyhound?").

No, you're not seeing double.  Harry is on the right and Laddie, who was kind enough to share his bed with Harry, is on the left.

Slow and Steady

Let's hope the old Tortoise/Hare story is right.  We're definitely moving slow, not so sure about the steady bit right now.  The kitchen cabinets are being delivered and installed starting on the 17th.  Before all that we have to have:

• our kitchen floors installed
• two coats of stain applied to said kitchen floor
• the trim finished in both the upstairs and downstairs
• all three coats of stain applied to the upstairs floors
• enough time for the stain upstairs to set so we can move things in there
• move as much as possible from the downstairs into the upstairs to make room for the cabinets
• all walls primed
• kitchen painted
• countless other things done I'm sure

And this all has to happen before the 17th.  Hopefully the contractor will return to their "let's amaze the client with how much we've accomplished everyday" ways of yore (two months ago).  Hopefully.

On the flip side, some of the trim is up and it's starting to look good.

Walled In

As Andy's previous post alluded, we now have drywall up (it's actually completely finished as of today, some of these pictures were taken last week). The rooms are really taking shape, though it's not without the cost of drywall dust, that's for sure.

Kitchen wall (range will be directly in front of you, powder room is on the other side of the wall).

View looking into the kitchen from the existing dining room, powder room to the left.

Upstairs south window in the second bedroom (this window replaces the horribly mangled excuse for a window that was there before... Andersen window owners beware).

Upstairs bedroom view to the southeast. It's incredible how much light this room gets. It's awesome.

In other news:

Though we don't yet have pictures of it, the south window in the kitchen was re-installed this past weekend. It looks great all cleaned up and the light in the new kitchen is just phenomenal. We can't stop smiling when we walk in the room.

Siding is going to be a bit of a fiasco. Suffice to say, it'll look great in the end, it's just a matter of what body parts need to be sold to finance the whole thing. We're committed to the "restoration" aspect of the work, but we're not convinced that the contractor is equally on board... stay tuned for the awesome conclusion.

We've had our first tiff with the contractor over... of all things... flooring. It would seem that our definition of words like antique heart pine, estimate, and samples vary from the contractor's... or perhaps more correct, these things exist on a spectrum, with our absolute on one end and their interpretation somewhere in the middle. In any case, it's been a little tense, and I'm not thrilled with the outcome, but also not willing to dissolve further into naysaying and frustration. I think we're too close to the end of our patience and our budget to press the issue any further.

Gratuitous Nala Photo

"Could you move? You're blocking my sunlight."

Homecoming

When we came home from Maine we were expecting to see this.

Unfortunately, we saw this.

Not really sure where the confusion happened (we were expecting them to install the drywall while we were out of the way/town)... Oh well.  All of the drywall is now up and should be finished soon.  We're meeting with the contractor shortly to see where we are and what's next.

The Maine Event

After almost two years of waiting and anticipation, it finally arrived.  The New York Times calls it "the greatest thing this summer", The Chicago Tribune's editorial board says "this is a long time coming and definitely worth the wait", the Morning Sentinel summed it up with the headline: Finally!*

That's right.  Katie went back to Maine.

Luckily for me, she allowed me to join her.  As mentioned above, it was almost two years since the last time we were in Maine (five points for guessing the last time).  Far too long.

The trip began by dropping the pup off at "summer camp", aka a friend in lower PA with three other greyhounds, lots of fenced in land, and a big heart.  From there we made our way to see my dad at the National Model Railroad Association's National Convention in Hartford, CT for dinner.  Check out page 15 of this PDF (it's big and takes awhile to load).  Not only did he win the scratch built competition for cabooses, he also won: 

• the "Favorite Model Award"
  
• the United Trans Union Brass Lantern Award (this is awarded by the people who actually work on cabooses to the model that most accurately captures their world.  A very prestigious award.)
  
• the People's Choice Caboose Award (incorporating both kit built and scratch built models).
  

Congratulations Dad!

Eventually we found our way to the greater Boston area to see Jack and our newest nephew, Nate (born 9 July).  Both of them were extremely well behaved (I don't think Nate cried the entire time we were there - he'd gotten it all out the previous evenings apparently).  While Nate (and hopefully Lauren) slept, Jack and my Mom and brother showed us the neighborhood.  We were both envious of the 18 basketball hoops within a one block radius of Jack's house (we know because he pointed every single one out to us and ensured we saw them).

Prior to leaving for Maine we also managed to make it up New Hampshire to see my grandmother.  All in all a successful first two days!

Once in Maine we were able to relax, see the coast, enjoy home cooked meals, and visit Katie's family.  A few of the highlights include:

Ocean Point.  Katie's favorite spot in the world.

Relaxing on the coast after celebrating Katie's Great-Grandfather's 95th birthday.  

What's that Aunt Valerie?  There's a ghostly-looking pirate ship out there?  I'm skeptical.

Oh, there really is a pirate ship out there.

Perhaps the highlight of the trip, however, (beats the creepy pirate ship for sure), was our visit with Katie's cousin Megan's two girls, Hazel, and new baby Stella.  At barely 2 years old, Hazel is talking up at storm... and the storm is hilarious. When told that Uncle Mike, Aunt Kathy, Katie and Andy were coming to visit, she replied "No, Mommy, not Andy... Andrew."  This kid has more snappy comebacks than a comedy routine.  So cute.  And Stella is a good natured baby who loves to smile and didn't complain once in the nearly 4 hours that we spent together... even when being kept awake during nap time.  Good kids.  

There are many, many things that I'm leaving out about our time in Maine, all of them however, were wonderful.  

Unfortunately though, the vacation eventually had to end and, after many, many hours in the car, we finally arrived home.

*Okay, so none of these papers actually said these things or ran stories about our trip.  But they should have.

Siding

A lot has happened recently at the Money Pit.  Most noticeably to the neighbors is the siding.  All of the new (post 1920 or so) siding was removed leaving the (possibly) original siding underneath... and some sections that definitely aren't siding and likely holding the house together/up.

Day 0: Just the same old house.

Day 1: Looks promising!

Day 2: Looks... ugly.  Why was this ever in style?

Day 3: Old is new again.  Looks good right?

Well, except for that side.

By now the house is mostly wrapped in Tyvek until the contractor can match our siding.  At first glance this is easy since we have Dutch or German lap siding (since my heritage is significantly Dutch I'll go with that).  

Not so.  Apparently we have an extra little bump that means the matching siding will have to be special order.  Oh goodie.