Christmas fireplace

double click on the photo to enlarge
Just a picture to share how Beautiful the Fireplace looks :)
I have to admit I love our fireplace!!!!

Septic system approval........finally!

Tom had been thinking of calling the Septic System Engineer since summer, he tried him twice, there was no answer, it wasn't a top priority so...... September rolls around....we need to get a hold of the engineer for another property also for final approval. Tom still can't get in contact with him......"so let's look him up on the internet"; says the smart wife, same address & phone # Tom has. Uh-Oh......Problem.....need the systems approved & another engineer won't approve what's already in the ground. Tried facebook-BINGO-only problem is he's leaving for Costa Rica on a one way trip! Sent him a message via FB, hoping he's still in business.......got a response from him the next day. Explained the situation...he's on his way to Costa Rica for two weeks then he'll be back, can schedule them both in then before he & his wife leave for good October 1st! Cutting this one close..... He was able to sign off on the house no problem, the other property was another issue. Tom went to meet him, waited an hour, he didn't show, it was pouring when he went & the site was a mud hole. Tom came home & of course the Engineer called then, he was at the site....luckily Tom was able to trouble shoot from home & explain it all. He signed off on the property & he's off to Costa Rica! (The engineer...not Tom-he's not going anywhere until the house is done:)

Changing Landscape

The tree we tried so hard to save, to the point of creating a curved retaining wall, is not going to make it. So it had to come down. Not an easy decision.
(Hello.....But if it has to come down doesn't it make sense to do it before Martha has to rake all the leaves that fall off it's branches????)

The guys really did a great job with it being so close to the power lines & the house, there were a couple of moments where I got a little nervous, OK, maybe more than a little...when one of the guys yelled to the other to send him up a smoke-how exactly do you tie that to a tree rope? Ummm, I'm thinking gas chainsaw-2 hands should be on the chainsaw & rope...open flame to light the cig... not to mention they got a little later start than planned.....Dusk was falling .......and the moon was starting to rise....Of course Tom had to get in on the act, a little extra umph from his pick-up to bring down the last fat section....But hey-tree's down & all is well that ends well. No one blew up, the neighbors new vehicle is fine other than a coating of sawdust...

Over the next 2 days the clean up continued, the stump was ground and now I'm going to have to come up with something "cutesy" to do where the curved retaining wall was......any ideas???

THE FINAL FLOOR!!!!!

I know you heard it all before...the glue went down, the floor went down yada, yada, yada. There's always a glitch and this one is the final strip is like 1 1/2 " wide! What a pain in the butt!!! (I say this like I'm the one ripping the wood & gluing that skinny strip without making a ooey mess that the Clean-Up B&%#$ (which is me) will have to deal with).
Hey can you do parentheses within parentheses?

Well it's in...and it's almost anticlimactic...I mean we've waited so long for the last floor to go in and it's just like it's here. OK, Whoopee, ya know....I've got another floor to clean....yeah.

Finish trim work.....we'll be moving the furniture in soon!

The Floor Is In
Before October 1st!!!!!!

Meet Joe.......

Meet Joe...he's the window guy.
He brought most of the windows to be installed.
I know you picked up on that didn't you? "Most" you question?
Why yes, most, 1 broke in transit from the factory to the warehouse, he brought a 6 ft slider for a 5 ft slider space & believe it or not, we just couldn't make it fit. Well maybe we could have if Tom decided to redesign the sliding glass door opening to the master bedroom....but I really don't think we want to go down that road!
Unfortunately the poor guy had the defective one out already before he realized it, he had to put the defective one back in for now.

There's a problem with the transoms to be replaced in the
kitchen & family room (of course!), apparently the header shifted compressing down onto the transom. They'll have to break the glass in order to get the window out and obviously the window has to be a "tad" smaller now, so he has to order different sizes.

He changed out 24 out of the 28 in one day, he even peeled the stickers off & washed the one window that wasn't easily accessible! Should hear back in about 3 weeks for the rest.... Unfortunately I have to peel the stickers & wash the other 23 now!

New walkway

We're slowly crossing off that "Honey-do" list! (Little does he know, I keep adding on...hey I have a honey re-do list now, it has been 4 years after all!!!) The outside walkway went in on the side of the house to the shade garden. It was designed with the leftover stone-oops-I mean the calculation for stone delivery in July of 2008 must have included the additional walkway, 'cause there was plenty! The walkway from the garage to the shade garden is complete!!!!
Looks pretty good huh? Of course I supervised this project!

Dining room floor prep

OK, I know this really isn't the floor,
but the finish trim work needed to be done before they started the floor.

Now we can get to the floor!
We started prepping the floor....the self leveler was applied...

And THEN........
Mandy took off for a couple of unexpected weeks...certainly not her choice! Boy are we glad to have her back (this part of the "we" is very, very glad!)

Deck destruction

When we originally installed the decking, it was supposed to be temporary. Tom had planned on eventually removing the pressure treated lumber & replacing it with composite decking.
Well temporary turned into 4 years . I guess eventually is "partially" here now???
We started removing the deck boards so we could reinforce the cantilevered braces underneath. After the reinforcements to the decking, we covered it with old plywood from another job.

L click to enlarge photos

This is for the winter and I can't believe I'm saying this; but it'll only look good covered in snow!!!
In the spring we'll hopefully have decided on how we want the finished deck to look.
The old deck boards were quite weathered though and are perfect to finally face the front of the deck now, so at least that looks pretty good!.

Now we just need to consider extending the deck to the property next door where my Birthday present sits! At the rate we're going we'll have a boardwalk running along the river before you know it!

Eva's Last Day

Well we've joked about it for years (literally!), that the house would be done by the time Eva went to school. No, No, don't get too excited.......we're not quite done & Eva's not going to kindergarten. Mandy did find a great daycare program where Eva will attend preschool 5 days a week & stay right there for daycare after. So we did lots of fun stuff on her last day, we baked cookies (chocolate chip of course) played in the sandbox and swam in the "hot pool!" We'd played with all the fun toys, especially all the ones that made the most noise!

Eva's trial day at daycare was a big hit & she had no problem adjusting on her first day. I'd say she was more than ready for this.....And so was Auntie Martha ;)

:( Martha room

The Martha room has been turned into the storage room, didn't have that for long now did I??? The hardwood flooring has been brought in to acclimate (into the Martha room of course) and all the dining room furniture brought in to store. I'm certainly excited that the dining room floor is going in.....I just hope it's soon!

Birthday Present Update

On June 26th, the old car & the neighbor's boat named
"The Redneck Yacht Klub" were towed away!!!! YEAH!!!

They were totally moved out by the 15th of July
& Tom closed on the property July 28th.

So this is what we have now......
You can see the wheels turning in Tom's head.......
The possibilities are endless,but as he ponders & comes up with ideas,
I'm just happy to have the dog gone

& the cat no longer using our shade garden as his litter box!
Our plans are to have the house down before the snow flies
& just live with the vacant lot for awhile (hopefully a long while!).
We'll see what happens.....

The Den (AKA "The Martha Room")

Yes it was worth the wait!!!

After we moved the furniture out & into the family room , Mandy repaired all the nail pops & touched up the paint. Then it was all mine...I cleaned it & didn't waste anytime moving the new furniture in, along with the bookcases & the stereo!

The Family Room is Done!!!!!

Looks like Tom will finally be shopping for
his big screen TV, the old one just doesn't cut it !!!

TIME TO START DECORATING!!!!!

New Picture for The OZ Bath

Moving Forward

It's been 3 weeks since the siding repairs & I keep hoping for a hard driving rain to make sure the leaks are eliminated.....but No...we get nice straight down rain, a lovely garden soaker, all the areas around us get the driving rain!
So we discuss it, assume (you know the old saying...assume makes an ass out of u & me....let's hope this doesn't apply here) that the leaks are no more & go ahead with the drywall repairs in the family room.

Drywall repairs & a fresh coat of paint

Long as she's up there, might as well fix those nail pops...
a sponge taped to a long pole does the trick....

Might at well clean those ceiling fan blades too.......

(L click on any pic to enlarge)
Might we just impose one more time to clean the globe now????
Mandy couldn't reach the globe to unfasten the screw holding it on,
so Tom hooked the end of the hose to the air compressor
& attached it to the long pole
and just blew the heck out of the dust & dead bugs inside there!
Sure hope the paint was dry-that stuff really went flying!

Time to start the trim.......we're really getting close.

Window Warranty

I wasn't going to be home when the rep from Paradigm, the window company came. I had gone over the whole list (Yes it actually was a written list with details of each window issue & it's location) with Tom of the window issues before I left & we discussed questions that I needed answered. I admit I was actually considering canceling my appointment to be there, But Hey-it was a hair appointment!!!
Their customer service was excellent as we can attest to from Sept of 2006 when we had all the issues with the peak window.
Tom started going over the list with the rep & he just took it from him, told him they have had some issues with the film but not to this extent...No questions, they're replacing all 28 windows.
They're even replacing the one that "spontaneously cracked all by itself" when the house sitter was here! We were going to have them replace it anyway but now it's "No charge".
Tom didn't get all my questions answered but I'll take care of that when they replace the windows the end of August. Great customer service!

So Much for the Light at the End of the Tunnel...

So we think we have all the leaks fixed & I'm just lovin life.....we've got Tom's family coming in for the weekend & I'm gonna get my hands on our great niece Samantha who just turned 1 in May. Just look at that smile!

Samantha & her mom arrive (amazing how parents take a back seat after the kids are born) along with a torrential rain storm.
Guess what....Now we're putting buckets under the leaks in the family room!
There goes the light at the end of my tunnel.
The guys actually checked back after the rain storm to see if all was well & they found out I wasn't a happy camper. On Monday they went back up & found (surprise, surprise) the window molding between the upper triangular window & the lower square window had apparently never been caulked. Don't you wonder how they could have been up there specifically looking for issues relating to leaks & they never checked that??? Well it's all caulked now....once again let's hope this does it.

Ooohh Am I Mad!!! Water Leaks, Ice Damning...

You know that whole sitting down & crying thing??? We're not done....We can't repair the family room drywall until we actually determine where the leak is & eliminate it. In order to do that we need to remove the siding from the upper half of the house on the back side of the family room.

L click to enlarge photos

What we found were areas of plywood that weren't covered with Tyvek, areas of Tyvek that did not go under the window flashing, ripples in the Tyvek where it should have been smooth which literally created "funnels" to channel the water underneath it. Black water stains very evident on the plywood.... The whole area has been recovered with water & ice barrier & re-sided, lets hope that does it!

So the issues we found lit up a mental idea light bulb..."Hey, if that's the problem in the family room, could it also be the problem in the front of the house?" Tom had the guys pull the siding off the upper half of the house in the front. Sure enough, same issues & more...there were definitely sections where the plywood was water stained black. They found a hole under the soffit, which is one of the areas the ice damning was the worst....so was the heat from the house just funneling out of there & up under the soffit??? Makes sense to me, but then what do I know????
I just can't believe this mess....:(

L click to enlarge photos

And again..."Hey, if that's the problem in the family room, could it also be the problem in the dining room?" Tom had the guys pull the siding of the upper half of the house over the dining room. This is starting to sound like a bad re-run...there were sections where the plywood didn't even meet, missing Tyvek, like the top L & R pics-that bottom section of Tyvek was actually never there! The bottom L pic (over Al's head) you can see where there was a hole in the plywood & they filled it with expanding foam insulation!!!! The bottom R pic, the plywood is still wet from the last rain!!! No wonder the damn dining room won't dry so we could put the floor in!

L click to enlarge photos

Might as well tackle the last known area of leaks, which was in the attic. Remember the night we finally moved into the Master bedroom & woke up with cold wet feet??? No? I sure as heck do! ( Blog 3-13-07 Cold Feet) The leak hadn't reoccurred there but did in the attic. Guess what they found after pulling the siding??? Missing Tyvek, check out the upper R pic. This section of the house actually had the roof flashing over the Tyvek instead of under it...where do you think the water was diverted to ???

Well it's all fixed and there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel!!!
We'll be able to finish the family room & actually put the floor in the dining room!!!!

The Diva of Destruction

Time to repair the water damage in the family room, Mandy's chipping away at the bubbled paint, making even a bigger mess and I just don't think she needs to be smiling like this!

Long story short (is there such a thing?) she pulled off the drywall corner along the beam and the drywall underneath was moldy-gonna be a little more extensive than we thought, obviously this leak has been there since the beginning.
I think this is the point where I sat down on the floor & cried.

Window Washing 101

Well really it's only 74, but that does include doors & transoms too...then again it's inside & out so is it double that??? Or when one refers to window washing is it assumed that both sides will be washed? A question to ponder.....
In June of last year I told you we had a problem with the film that was installed between the window panes, it is supposed to keep the house cool in the summer, warm in the winter & help reduce fading from the sun's rays, but it was breaking down in places. Well we never ended up getting a hold of the company, (Procrastination is our middle name) thank goodness it's a lifetime warranty. So if you really want the whole story again see "Window Washing" 6-4-08, I had to do the same damn thing all over again. Except there are more windows now....well not more in the house, Tom didn't add another addition since the last up date, there are more windows with the film breaking down. So far 28 have film issues & 10 have scratches in the glass!!! How the heck can you have that many windows get scratched and some inside & some out??

Yes that actually is me in the picture, Mandy took a turn behind the camera.
So Tom called Paradigm, the window company, between our schedule & theirs, we'll see them the end of July. They travel from Maine & are in our area on certain days...so we'll see....I'll let you know the results.

They're In !!!

So it took from May 20th to June 8th ( not exactly the quick time frame Mandy originally thought) but they're re-stained, they're sealed & they are in!!!! We have a little tweaking to do yet, but it looks like this might actually be it!

Window Seats & Hearth Take 3

Back in May when the concrete seats & hearth (that didn't quite turn out right) were moved outside, I foolishly was under the impression that's where they'd stay until they were done. Tom & Mandy stripped off the sealer & stain, then took a wire brush to them, brought them back to the grey concrete state out on the deck.
Mandy liked the looks of them...."aged concrete" she called it.

Not quite the effect I had in mind (what little mind I have left, although I can tell you I'm feeling quite "aged" about now)....

Now the slabs need to be re-grouted & re-stained....YIKES.....in our Dining Room!!!!
They can't leave them outside in case it rains...so we move half the stuff out of the dining room, shove the rest into a corner and cover it with plastic......this just keeps getting worse! What about those beautiful walls??? Are they gonna get that stain on the walls?? Oh listen to me whine.....At least we don't have to worry about the floor, it's still concrete (haven't found that leak yet).
Mandy did say they'd do it as quick as they can....Somehow I'm thinking we don't quite have the same time frame.

Again the ugly color stain....

Again the repeat of the process... let it dry, then clean it, then clean it again, then shop vac it off, then let it dry again.

We put them in place and the right side window seat is darker than the left, quite obvious in the lighting in the family room vs. the dining room. So......off they come again to be re-stained......these are not light weight either...we're talking solid slabs of concrete, takes 2 people to lift the window seats & 3 to lift the hearth. Each time we lift & move them we run the risk of breaking them (not to mention I'm supposed to make decisions & decorate,not lift weights!). The thought of breaking one and then having to completely do them over does not make anyone happy...keep your fingers crossed this one is it!

Last Tile!!!!

Tom & Mandy with the last cut on the last tile for the whole house....
(which, of course, according to Murphy's law took 3 tiles to get there)
The tiling is done!

And they did a gorgeous job.......
here's a view from the loft

(You definitely want to L click on these pics,
Tom's tile dusted face is nothing I want to see again any time soon, but the floor is awesome!)

Martha's Early Birthday Present

CAN YOU GUESS WHAT IT IS????

(L Click for a clue)

I got a really great present! It has this really spiffy green tarp on the top of it & a well worn dog run in the back (that was used by the dog that bit Tom)!
Thank goodness Tom forgot to get me what I asked for last year....which was for Mandy to paint a mural on the big brown ugly wall next door, which is the view from our bedroom, 'cause I would have hated to tear down the mural .

Now the whole damn thing can come down!!!! YEAH!! This is sooooo much better than last year's present from Tom....which was a grill....although he does cook great food on it. Funny we were talking last night about maybe a fire pit there now.....I guess that would be just another type of grill wouldn't it?

Hmmmm...do I sense a theme here???? Ha Ha!
Long story short, apparently the property was foreclosed on in Oct '08 & the person who bought it let Bob & Brenda stay on a month to month basis until spring. He sent a letter to the neighbors on the other side asking them if they were interested in buying....
Steve, ( the other neighbor who just put a great addition on his house) brought the letter over to Tom, saying it wasn't anything he could do right now....was Tom interested? Tom told me & was I bummed....figured there was no way we could afford it now, Steve & Tom were hoping to share the cost. Well, Tom called the guy while I wasn't home & bought the place, and the rest is history!

Starting the 2nd half.....

Moving along........YEAH!!!

Well....Now What????

They sealed the stained concrete & it created it a milky white film all over.
Needless to say it looks like hell & Martha's not happy :(.
You can see the difference with the one in the back that didn't get sealed.
So we talked to the tile & paint people @ the big box stores for ideas on how to remove the sealer. That's a whole other project now.....
Tom's going to move them outside for that phase, so at least we can get moving on finishing the floor.

The Window to Where???

So there's this cut out in the wall of the family room that needed to be trimmed out to tie in with the oak railings. It opens into the "I don't know" room, so called because we have no idea what we're going to do with it. Our niece Elise calls it "The last minute" room. "Don't worry Aunt Martha" she says, "at the last minute you'll figure it out".
In the meantime, Tom & Mandy have obviously decided it's a good place to hang out........I guess now we know why it's taking so long to finish the house!

2nd Window Seat & Hearth

Tom & Mandy working on the second window seat & the hearth.
We came up with a color decision & we're going for it!
It won't dry this color, it'll be much lighter (I hope).

(L click on the collage-you'll get a good idea of the mess)

Family Room Floor Is Going In!!!!

I have to admit, there were times when I wondered if this day would ever come.

Sample window seat is in

Well it's not exactly what I had envisioned, I guess I was thinking more of a polished effect with more color shading....this is a little more rustic.......

But it looks great with the fireplace & I'd say they got the color just right.