HOME AT LAST!

We're home!

We moved yesterday, slept in our new bedroom, made breakfast in our new kitchen, and ate breakfast (and lunch) in our new dinning room.

Here are some photos of those new places.

Notice the new chairs. This is an important addition, which will allow us to just sit comfortably with our feet on the ottoman (which is barely in view in front the chairs) and read a book in the bedroom. THIS is luxury.

The dinning room is actually so big that our large table looks small. That's my jacket drying from last night's downpour. It not pleasant moving furniture in the rain! And of course, there's the New York Times spread open on the table. We had one hellva time getting them to deliver the paper to our temporary address, and, of course they didn't get it right when we moved back home. But since we're still shuttling back and forth, we get the paper somehow.

And this is the gleaming new kitchen, minus the Richlite counter tops that should be ready for installation next week. We've almost moved everything into it and, as expected, we have room to spare. In my entire life, I never had so much space in a kitchen. You can see the refrigerator that started it all on the left.

And last but not least, the living room.

The new sofa, old table (which won't stay there, but works for now) with pictures of our children and their spouses, and the new, built in bookcases. Lots of work here: area rug, Leon speakers on that back wall (the Kaplan boys at work, check out their website at www.leonspeakers.com) and some more tables. And all the artwork needs to be added.

One of the most amazing things is the remodeled house is SO different from the original house that it feels like a totally new house! This came as a big (but pleasant) surprise to both of us. And actually, that was part of our intention; to have a house that was Len and mine, not just mine. We didn't realize exactly how "new" it would feel.

Juan and his crew are still working on the outside: downspouts which we sure could have used in last nights downpour, finishing the deck railing, and doing the ever-present "punch list".

But WE ARE HOME.

Very close

As you can see by these photos below, we are almost there. The new refrigerator came today. The closets on the left are pantry closets with pullout drawers! Finally, enough room for all of the weird pasta we collect (and use).

The lights you see are actually over the counter top extension which is cluttered with all the tools at the bottom of the photo.

The stove is operable and they are working on the vent. The countertops should be in next week.

And we move in on Thursday! They will still have some work to do outside, but everything will be done on the inside. We are very excited, but also overwhelmed by the thought of packing and unpacking.

And you may not hear from again until after the BIG MOVE.

We're almost there!

We're getting close. This the almost completed kitchen and the photo below that is me (see? on the left? admiring that new gas stove that I ran out to buy at the last moment. Five burners, self-cleaning, digital, stainless steel. Almost all the bells and whistles.

The cabinets are wonderful. Pull out drawers (you can see one on the left below), great fronts, but not so easy to install. Len is doing the drawer fronts himself and ran into problems so it took a long time. But pretty much done. Next is putting on the hardware.

And, while all this was happening at the house, Ella Whitty Kramer was here with her dad, Eli Kramer and mom, Naomi Whitty. She had lunch with us in our cottage backyard. That's a french fry in her hand. They left today to head back home to Alaska. We had SO MUCH FUN spending time with her.

This is NOT X rated

Despite what this looks like, this is not an obscene gesture. Juan Rodriguez, our contractor, is showing us how the height of the vanity in the bathroom is really convenient for us short people. I am looking on gleefully, because the bathroom is almost done!

Below are the doors to the screened porch which we expect to practically live in. We continue to imagine we're just sitting on the porch, drinking wine, listening to the crickets . . .

After, we've cooked dinner in our gorgeous new kitchen. These are some of the cabinets. the two big one's on the left will be pantry closets, with pull out drawers.

And, we interrupt this blog to present this adorable little one, our granddaughter Ella, visiting with her parents Eli Kramer and Naomi Whitty from Alaska. We spent the afternoon with her and had a GREAT time. Went to Young's to see the baby animals, ate ice cream, went to the farm to buy apples, and then for a short walk in the Glen. It was great -- she is lively and curious and fun to be with. They are here until Wednesday, so there may be more pictures.

A bit of a panic yesterday, when the appliance supply place informed us that they couldn't get the stove! They've had the order since the middle of June and now they tell us! We're a week away from moving in!!! So, while Len was at a meeting yesterday, I ran out to Sears and bought a stove. We should have done that in the first place. It will be delivered Tuesday. Another crisis averted.

The Tileman Cometh

The tileman cometh, but then he goeth. He wenteth because he did it wrong the first time and had to come back. See those little diamond shaped things between the large tiles? He forgot to insert those very expensive glass tiles and had to re-do part of the floor.

And speaking of tile, we just found out today that the local distributor of the tiles we are using in the kitchen has gone out of business! Luckily enough we hadn't purchased the tiles yet, but now we have to find a new supplier. They are a national brand and there is another distributor in Dayton, but it is sad to see a long-standing company, Kemper Designs, go out of business.

And did I say mistake? We had the new front door painted at the factory with the same color as the screen porch. Juan gave them the Sherwin Williams number, but when the door came, it was not the right color. Hard to figure out how this could have happened, but it did. They are coming out to remove the door, repaint it, and set it back in. Since we're not sure why they got it wrong in the first place, we're not totally confident that they will get it right the second time. And finally, those scratched up posts (legacy of Boo, the cat), will be gone.

One great thing, below, is the pantry cabinets. I'm admiring them on Monday when they started to put the kitchen in. They ultimately will all be covered in wood and you won't see any white at all. We may finally have enough room for all those spices and pickle things I can't seem to resist buying.

And lastly, Juan says we will be home in two weeks. We just can't wait, although the thought of packing and moving all the stuff is giving me a headache already.

Watching Paint Dry

Who said watching paint dry is boring! Not if you are remodeling your house.

We love watching the primer on the house dry. The entire house was primed THIS MORNING. For those of you who know anything about painting walls and ceilings, this is nothing short of miraculous. Juan, our contractor, recommended using a company that spray paints. He said it would be cheaper and quicker, words we LOVE to hear.

And he was right. They primed today, it will dry overnight and tomorrow and then spray painted on Friday. Juan thinks one coat will do it since we are painting it a sort of creamy white.

Whole house painted in two days! Amazing. And for those of you who also like to watch paint dry, here's a photo of the living room drying. That thing in the box is our new front door.

And we have a deck and steps from the deck. The color of the deck is a sort of a bluish grey so it looks great with the house.

There are also great steps from the deck; wide and shallow. Good for walking down and sitting on.

There will be lots to report these next few weeks. The crew work with Juan, Ari, Tom, Delbert, and Vanessa, are just amazing.

Something Finished At Last

Finally, something finished.

Below is the yellow ceiling of our new screened porch. The yellow is just gorgeous. Buttery and bright. It makes the room look just wonderful. You can get a bit of sense of the color blue that the walls will be painted as well.

We just LOVE IT. One of the great things is you can see this sunny yellow from the front door of the house. So it just brightens things up instantly.

We're painting our front door the same color.

And it is something that is done! The roof also counts as done, but somehow this ceiling has made a big difference.

We've also met with a landscape designer, Nadia Malarky. She has come up with a wonderful concept for the back yard. We'll start it this fall if we can.

We LOVE Sheetrock

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have Sheetrock. The house is almost completely done. (Well, except for taping, sanding, painting, flooring, kitchen cabinets, lighting, decking, but you get the idea.)

Below is a photo of the dinning room and below that is the new bathroom. The purple Sheetrock is specially made for wet areas and is water resistant. What a color! Judith you would love it!

And, they are almost finished with the siding. The workroom is completely finished (see photo) and if the rain holds off today, they will likely finish the house.

So the end is truly in sight. We are still on target for first week of September.

Yesterday we met with one of the possible landscape designers and today we meet with another. We've decided that we need help with the backyard. And the front needs some sprucing up. We'll see . . .

The photo below gives you a good idea of what our backyard looks like. Muddy clay. I now know why this part of Ohio has been so famous for its potteries. You could go out to our backyard and make a set of dishes right now.

Chinese water torture

Its beginning to feel like Chinese water torture. Every day there is something, but its drip, drip, drip.

But we have siding. I went into a panic when I saw it, however. Our house is blue (see on the right) and this stuff was what used to be called gruck green. But Juan reassured us that this was just the primed wood. To be painted blue. Somehow I thought it would come blue.

Here is more siding and trim around the windows. On the right is the dining room; left Len's work room.

And here is the door to the bathroom. (I told you, it's drip, drip, drip).

The dry wall folks were supposed to be here today, but didn't come. They will be at the house on Monday so, with any luck, we'll have something great to see. CAN'T WAIT.

While we are living in our "cottage", we're spending one day a week on "staycation". Going around to nearby places that are tourist attractions and finally seeing them. We've had a GREAT time doing this and I heartily recommend it.

Today we went to Carillon Park in Dayton, filled with wonderful historical buildings and artifacts from Dayton's "golden age" -- the 1880's - 1960's. We saw some amazing log buildings from the late 1700's when Dayton was first settled, the original 1905 Wright Flyer, and some phenomenal equipment from NCR, including a gigantic steam power generator. I'm not kidding. It was amazing.

We both loved it all. I think we forget how early this part of Ohio was settled and how much invention and innovation came from this region: the airplane, the cash register, the starter motor for automobiles. Things that truly transformed life. It has made me a big fan of Dayton Ohio!

progress that you can actually see

Steady progress and more to see. That's if you love seeing sheet rock, thick insulation, and doors yet to be installed.

But it really is kinda interesting to see what your house is made of -- the innards, if you will.

Below is a stack of sheet rock stacked up against what will be the kitchen peninsula. That wooden wall on the right is our front door space. The new door is here, but not yet set in. It is yellow (to match the ceiling on the front and screen porch.)

And below is the peninsula itself (with the door open to the garage. The wall opposite the peninsula will have our new refrigerator. THAT new refrigerator.

And for those of you waiting for an outdoor shot, here's the new soffits (sort of under the roof line).

(And I know this is just riveting . . .)

Last but not least, is the sheet rock in the new shower.

And if some you just can't wait to see the blog, there is a thing you can click on at the very top of the page that allows you to get a notice in your email every time I add something. I actually find this a nice way to keep up with blogs.

And we're STILL trying to figure out this comment business.

design challenges

As Juan promised, there is more showy stuff. That's if you consider insulation showy!

The photo below is of Len's workroom at the back of the garage. It won't be heated, but it will be insulated so he can use a space heater and work in the winter. The door is from our "old" house. It led out from the dining room to the backyard. It and its companion on the other side (which you can't see in this photo) bring in tons of light to the workspace.

I'm expecting great turned bowls from this warm and well lit place!

And speaking of recycled doors. This one below is our former front door, now the back door from the garage to the outside. Again, having these glass doors in what is usually a dark space (garage) is great. Already it makes a difference. And if we have any money left after this "new refrigerator" we will get new garage doors with windows. Even more light!

Last but not least, they have started to put up the siding on the new additions. Can you tell the old from the new? We couldn't, which is great news since it means we won't have to paint the whole house. BIG money saver, that. The blue barrel on the right is our rain barrel which will be hooked up to the downspout and provide us with water for our nearby vegetable/flower garden.

And we made some changes to how the kitchen peninsula will look. I had a problem with the original layout , so last night we made some changes. I think/hope it is for the best. It is really hard to picture in your mind how things will actually look and sometimes you just have to make a leap of faith. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Thank you all for sharing this adventure with us. It makes it much more fun. Truly!

rock hunting

No photos today. We spent about an hour in the back yard collecting rocks. Really!

I (Toni) had a long conversation yesterday with my friend Judith B. about rain chains/cups. As I am sure you all remember, we are putting two up, to go through holes in our deck, out the drain pipe and into what will hopefully become a dry creek bed (sometimes wet.)

The issue both Judith and we have is whether or not these rain cups can handle the heavy rain we often have here in Ohio and sometimes have in California. I've got my fingers crossed a bit, because we can't afford the biggest ones ($450 for rain cups! Try again).

We had a brainstorm last night. If we put rocks/stones around the drain pipe under the deck, some of the overflow (if any) might be diverted and flow more gently onto the dirt. And our backyard is FULL of stones.

I think some of them might have been there since the Ice Age. No kidding. This part of Ohio was the edge of the big glacier. We even have a suburb of Dayton called Moraine. Lots of debris, including stones, were washed down from the north and sort of settled here. So, some of the stones are like river stones, round, almost polished.

Since it is going to be in the 90's today, Len and I went out first thing this morning and dug up and collected stones. We lasted about 30 minutes. Our 60+ legs couldn't handle much more.

We'll see if this works. We LOVE the way the raincups look. If any of you are interested, we got them at www.rainchains.com.

Still slow . . .

Not much "showy" work this last week. The crew has been concentrating on getting all the electrical work finished for inspection and cleaning up to get ready for the dry wall (YEA).

There are now two piles in our backyard. On the left below is the new Hardi Plank siding for the house to match the original, on the right is the new Trex decking. We're a bit worried about the latter; our friend Judith had it at her house in Oakland and it stained. We're hoping that they have improved the product.

Sometimes its hard to go over to the house. We miss living there a lot. Our little cottage is nice, but its not home. We're hoping that seeing more progress will help. And that should start coming next week: sheet rock, siding, deck.

slow but stead

Juan Rodriguez, our contractor, told us there will be slow times, and this is one of them. Not much to see yet. But wait till next week! He told us the dry wall folks will be there which means we will actually see something "real". WE CAN"T WAIT!!!

In the meantime, tile on the shower floor . . . to be matched by larger tile on the bathroom floor which is in the front of the photo.

more deck steps on both sides . . .

and an empty kitchen except for those nice, horizontal outlets! For those of you who have actually been at our house, that wall used to have a sink below the window. It will again soon.

our deck

Although it has been raining here a lot this week, the crew has managed to get one group of steps almost constructed. There will be a matching set on the other side. That's the dining room on the left; bedroom on the right.

Also on either side of the opening (that's the screen porch, folks), there will be two rain chains that will come down from the roof, through a hole in the deck and out these large black tubes into the swale that we are turning into a dry creek bed at the end of our yard. For those of you who know Yellow Springs, drainage is a BIG problem. Our village spends tons of time and money figuring out how to manage the water runoff properly. Lots of wet basements in this town.

We're in love with the rain chains which were "invented" in Japan. We're buying ours from rainchains.com. They look MUCH better then regular downspouts -- unless you can afford copper -- and will be part of the design. The deck itself is being made from Trex which is a green product that requires almost no maintenance.

We'll take some more photos tonight. It's not raining today so they might finish the other set of steps.

.

Progress (although its mostly in the walls)

Wall Outlets ARE important!

We continue to make slow, steady progress. Big issue was how to place the wall outlets, particularly in the kitchen and bathroom where we have this gorgeous glass tile. As some of you know, I have been collecting photos from blogs and cutting out pages from magazines related to this renovation. So we looked at them, desperately trying to find out how the REAL designers do it.

This turned out not to be helpful. Page after page of bathrooms and kitchens with nary an outlet in sight! Where are they? How do you plug in your coffee maker, food processor, toaster oven if you live in a designer kitchen? How do you make them look good in all that expensive tile/glass/marble/granite?

We contacted the glass tile manufacturer and they said they could make an outlet cover for us, but it would be a special order and would be expensive. We looked at a million websites. We gave up . . .

We turned to our friend/person of great taste/design consultant extraordinaire, Joan Berger, and she admonished us to place the outlets horizontally and close to the base boards. And she is right. They look much better this way.

So as you examine these photos, look for where the outlets are!

Above is the new dinning room looking out to the back yard.

Above is another view of the dining room. And below is a view of the new door to the garage. It will be between the dinning room and kitchen. See the low, horizontal outlet?!

And, for those who are tracking this, I (Toni) will be posting mostly from now on.

It's been a week of great progress!  The crew recovered from the water damage and really got a lot done.  Just to compare, here's a view of the back of the house from last winter, before any work started.  The back door to the garage is on the left, 2 french doors into the dining room and living room are in the center and a window in the bedroom is on the right.

Now here's the latest view of the back (a little different perspective due to all the construction stuff in the backyard).  An edge of the workroom is on the left.  Panning to the right of that is the back door to the garage, then the new dining room.  Then the deck, screened porch and sliding doors into the living room with the dormer to bring light into the living room.  On the right is part  of the bedroom.

We went to see the house on Saturday evening because the roofers were there in the morning, before the big rainstorm, and started to put on the shingles.  They are sort of visible on the shed roof that is the roof of the screened porch and on the roof of the dormer.

Here is a better view of the shingles from the other side on the roof of what will be our bedroom and includes Toni admiring the work

After admiring the progress, Toni looked into the house just to see what was up, and we discovered the rain had left it's mark - there were puddles in the living room, wet marks on many floor areas and serious water above the ceiling in the garage.

We called Juan, our builder and he came right over.  He fixed a couple of places in the tar paper on the roof where water apparently got in and punctured the garage ceiling to release the trapped water (after we moved the stuff stored below it).  Today (Sunday) he and the roofers were at the house and removed all the wet drywall.  Tomorrow they will remove the rest of the wet insulation and use dehumidifiers to dry out the house (the weather is cooperating as today is hot and dry as is the forecast for tomorrow.  So, we've had our first setback, but everything now seems to be under control (or at least as much as it can be).

So, today you can really start to see the rooms taking shape.  On the right is the new bedroom, then the rafters for the shed roof of the screened porch to the left.  Left of that is the new dining room and furthest to the left is the workroom (without a roof).

The construction in the backyard continues...the roof dormer for the living room is beginning, and the deck is framed.  We can really see the bedroom, screened porch and dining room spaces forming (right to left).  Far left is workroom behind the garage.When the trusses are up, they'll look more like rooms.

Notice the dark green wall in the old bedroom on the left.  And the dark green wall in what is becoming our closet on the right.

Yes, they are the same wall.  More progress to come!

Day 3

The construction outside continues ... the far left is what will be my workshop, the center is a new dining room and the right is a new master bedroom.  Roof trusses next week!

The Beginning

We found a cottage to move to for the interim 

and started to pack

After 2 days, the house looked different...

the kitchen cabinets and appliances disappeared and the master bath vanished

and the backyard sprouted new construction