Spring Awakening

It's been awhile since I last posted, but in the meantime, we've been settling into the place pretty well. We're actually coming up on a year in the house, which is ridiculous when I think about it. More ridiculous, of course, is the fact that we have weathered our first winter in Forest Glen with a rather deficient heating situation. I've posted about this before, and since then, there has been very little movement on the issue. We went through the coldest winter in Metro DC in several years, and definitely felt it... downstairs.

The number of times we called, emailed, and texted our contractors is laughable.  Rory, the one who actually gets things done when you need, is now nowhere to be found. Instead, we are left with Mark, who always seems to have somewhere else to be, someone else who needs something, or an ailment of some sort. You know the guy in your office whose grandma died seven or eight times over the last year or two? That's him. Who knows? Maybe he just has a big (ill?) family. But I'm to the point with health issues that I just nod and zone out until they're done being discussed.

What does the Postal Service saw about
snow, sleet, dark of night?
Yeah, they all stop our contractors
from making their appointed rounds...

A few weeks back, we finally managed to set a time for Mark to come out, but there was a "snowstorm." Then, he had to cancel at the last minute for another appointment, which I actually was glad about, since it was pretty warm out that day, and I wanted him to experience the downstairs cold first-hand. Finally, our schedules meshed last week, and he came out. I was relieved that he seemed stumped by the issue of no wind at all coming out of our downstairs vents... But not really, since I'm pretty positive it's because he turned them off when he came back in February when I was out of town and Abby called him for help. He came by two days ago and fiddled with stuff again; presumably, he flipped the switch and redirected the heat downstairs again. Tonight, regardless of the temperature, I'm gonna force the heat to go on, and see if we can feel more than a trickle in the downstairs bathroom. You know, the one that was supposed to relieve my bathroom from the kids' mess, but instead sits pretty much unused because of its frigid temps.

Apart from the heat, Mark finally got Francisco to come over and install the hot-water tap they had to uninstall before our inspection last year. Since then, I've grown semi-fond of our disposal-- Abby still doesn't trust it-- so I wanted both installed. Plumbers off of ServiceMagic quoted us more than $600 (or was it $800?) to do the job, but Mark had said $250 way back when. It went in this week... But not without $150 being added to the bill. Oh, and it's plugged into the same outlet as the disposal, which means we have to unplug the disposal until we want to use it, then remember to unplug it and flip the switch back on afterwards. Ahh, the joys of getting "everything you want" in a house you renovate, amirite?

Speaking of getting everything you want, we got to check out the Swiss Chalet (not the restaurant, sadly) the other night when Lee invited us over. That's right: an honest-to-goodness cocktail party on a Friday night! (The kids were also invited, and played great with his.). Best of all, it was the first night of actual warmth, which meant we went without jackets, and the doors (and windows, I think) were left open. (This at the end of a week that started with a snow day, no less.)

The Chalet now

The Chalet is amazing. For those of you who don't know, it's the house that interested us in the neighborhood in the first place, back in February 2011. But the work was just too extensive (and expensive) for us to handle. Lee, however, has handled it *very* well, and has it on the market now, in case anyone's looking for a place with a genuine wine grotto, beautiful modern finishes, and a super-cool master bedroom suite with cathedral ceilings. My silly-favorite part of the place actually is the door: it's a substantial wood entry door split in half, so you can open just the top if you like, when the weather warrants. You know, maybe set a pie on it to cool or something. Mmm, pie. I showed my parents around in there today during the open house, and they loved it-- although it's got too many stairs for them, which is understandable.  But in my estimation, it's a masterpiece.

The next month has a bunch of stuff coming, not the least of which will be the expected arrival of our state historical tax credit, which will make us feel momentarily rich-- that is, until we remember we already spent that money, and we need to put it back in the mortgage... And of course, I will be able to start outdoor stuff in earnest.  Sure, the deer ate all of my vegetation that didn't die on its own before winter set in, but that was just a test.  In the meantime, I'm planning out the greenspace around my house, and hoping I'll be able to do so in a nice, warm family room, without the need for a heavy blanket, and with the kids' ratty toothbrushes and gunked-up toothpaste tube messing up their own, newly warmed bathroom, and not mine!  (Hope springs eternal, right?)

The Money Issue

I wanted to call this post "The Money Shot," but thought that would get too many hits for the wrong reasons.  And also, it's not nearly that exciting.

An earlier post of mine referenced that Tom Hanks and Shelley Long movie "The Money Pit," a movie about two crazy people sinking all of their money and their relationship into the renovation of a house, with terrifying and hilarious consequences.  I had mentioned that this project wasn't a money pit, but rather a time pit, since it was pretty much on budget, yet way, way behind schedule.  Well, that's still the case, but we've basically hit our wall.  Yes, we now officially have no money left.  Creditors beware.

I realize I may be overreacting here.  Some people are used to being in debt, whether from credit card bills or IOUs or whatever.  I am used to having a mortgage and some student loans, but I have never not paid a credit card bill in full, and have always been such a good saver. (Some would say I'm downright miserly, although I prefer the term "frugal.")  But this week, we've hit a wall.  And that wall is partially our fault, mostly necessary, and entirely freaking me out.

You may recall our meeting with the contractor in January where we decided we would be paying for all the remaining materials to ensure reimbursement was still available from our loan before it expired mid-February.  Well, that decision proved worthwhile, because all the materials magically appeared at our doorstep, from tiling to wood flooring to toilets to light fixtures.  What also showed up was a Master Card balance of $24,000, and that was fine because it was balanced off by a reimbursement check for $22,000.  No sweat.  My bank has no brick-and-mortar branches, so any deposits I make have to be made either by mail or by scanning the check in and sending it online.  Well, the limit for the latter method is $3,000, so I had to send it in.  Ten days later, as I'm wondering why the check is not showing up in my account (it usually takes 3-5 days), I get the check returned to me in the mail, along with a letter from my bank telling me that because the check was made out to "Servicez Unlimited and Gregory Wahl" they were unable to deposit it.  "Not a big deal," I think, because I'll just pass this check on to the contractors to pay for services rendered, and ask the bank to make the next check out to me alone.  We owe the contractors about $13,000, so I hand it over and tell them it includes a $9,000+ advance, which should pretty much cover everything else we're going to owe them.  Then I call Patty at the bank, who proceeds to tell me all checks have to be written out to me and the contractor together.  Can she write "or" instead of "and?"  No.  Can she direct deposit the check?  No.  In other words, when the next check, for $14,000, comes in, it'll once again be made out to "Servicez Unlimited and Gregory Wahl," and once again will be undepositable by yours truly.  

In the meantime, Chase would like its $24,000, so I attempt to muster up all of my money.  Seven grand from Citibank maxes out my home equity loan.  Ten more from savings pretty much empties that out, save for what we'll need to pay the mortgage.  And that's it.  So for the first time ever, I'm going to have to carry a balance on my credit card, and I'm not excited about that in the least.  Because we all know how this whole procedure has gone timewise, and there's no guarantee even that $14,000 check will materialize any time soon. That's because I have a more-than-sneaking suspicion that we have to have some sort of municipal inspection to certify the job's complete in order for them to release the final amount, and although we've made great strides in the last three weeks or so, we're still not completely done.

In addition, it looks like Pepco wants its money too, although not from us.  I guess the electrician set up the account, and now Pepco put his name and info on the bills, and is hounding him because (surprise!) he's not paying the electric bill.  (As an aside, the bill is $250 a month-- more than we've ever paid in DC-- since we're pretty much heating the neighborhood, what with all the holes in our walls...)  He apparently contacted Lee frantically, because Pepco was threatening to shut off power and he didn't know how to reach us.  Of course we'll pay it, so I called Pepco to sort things out.  The phone call was a bit ridiculous.  After explaining that my electric bill had mistakenly been issued in my electrician's name, I asked if they could put my name on it instead.  Heck, I can give them my credit card number now and pay the thing in full, plus set up automatic withdrawals.  Nope.  I need to go to the Pepco office in Forestville (FORESTVILLE?!) in person with documentation proving I own the home.  What?  Truly, I do not need to venture an hour out of a major city to deal with an electric company do I?  "Oh," says the guy on the phone, "I guess you could go to the office in downtown DC if you want."  D'oh!  I chalk this mistake up to the fact the guy's in a call center in Alabama or India or something, and doesn't realize how inconsequential the state borders are around here.  Only at the end of the conversation, though, does he casually throw in that I could just fax the documents in rather than trekking down to the office on the same day I need to run to the Azerbaijani Embassy to get my visa and then schlep myself out to Dulles to fly out.  Yeah, guy, thanks for that late addition.  I hung up, printed and faxed the document, and it was all done in about three minutes.  Sheesh.

Okay, so Forestville doesn't look as far on this map as it is psychologically,
but you understand that faxing is a much better option, right?

So where we currently stand money-wise is at the end of our loan, with no more credit line, with no more savings, with a balance on our credit cards.  It's not like we're broke, and that's making things even more frustrating.  When we started this process nearly two years ago, we had to put $50,000 cash into an escrow account to prove we had the financial wherewithal to complete the process.  In theory, if we were to flake out of rehab, they'd use that escrow money to complete the job themselves-- whoever "they" is.  But since we're done with the loan, and pretty much done with the project, that idle money is just pissing me off, because I know it's sitting there (earning like a quarter of a percent in interest) while I'll be paying something like 18% interest on my credit card debt-- something I only have because their check won't work in my bank.  But I have no idea how to get it back, and no idea whether it too requires that final municipal inspection-- and neither does the bank.  They'll "get back to me" on it.  Oh, and as if to rub it in, we get a mystery check for $900 in the mail this week from Montgomery County.  Apparently it's a "brownfields property-tax credit."  I don't care what it is-- it's an unexpected $900, and I'm all about it.  Only it's arrived soggy, and to the wrong address.  (How is it that the people responsible for my property taxes don't know the right address to my property?)  One or the other of those issues has made this envelope come about six months late.  The check is dated August 3, 2012.  It also says it's void after six months.  That means it was void as of February 3, 2013-- three weeks ago.  I called the county and they were as puzzled as I was as to why it came so late, although they're the ones who verified that, no, it was not a mistake and, yes, it was supposed to come to me.  Although to 9618 Dewitt Drive, not 9618 Dewitt Avenue, to which it was addressed.  A new check will be issued shortly, although that $900 could have been used very well presently.

I've never understood the theory of charging a tax to someone who had no money.

This all feels rather ridiculous.  So many people are out of work or have massive medical bills or are otherwise down on their luck.  Meanwhile, we have a second home for which we spent inordinate amounts of money on countertops and wood floors and a designer closet, and can't make one credit-card payment.  I understand these are truly first-world problems.  But it is what it is, and I live in the first world.  A month from now, when I'm on vacation with my family in Florida, this will all seem like a distant (or at least recently-dealt-with) memory, but for now I'm pretty freaked out.  And those of you who know me well can understand, because I'm the one who runs across an airport five minutes before my flight to grab free food from the airport lounge rather than pay six bucks at the kiosk at the gate.  I'm the one who buys the small cup at McDonald's and volunteers to go back and forth to get the refills.  Heck, my upcoming vacation includes airline tickets paid for entirely by airline miles, and lodging provided in a house Abby's family owns-- not exactly disposable-income luxury!  So yeah, this is foreign territory for me.

That said, all will be well.  Eventually.  Eventually...  Right?

The Heat is On

Apparently, Glenn Frey
is the love child of
Randy Travis and
Chris Isaak.

Who would have thought that , 20 months after buying this house, I'd be praising the lyrical genius of none other than Glenn Frey.  Yes, Glenn Frey, that guy from the '80s that can't even be classified as a one-hit wonder, but really just the guy that happens to sing that song that goes "the heat is on."  Because, really, do you know any of the other words?  Well, I looked it up, and they are uncannily appropriate:

The heat is on, the heat is on, the heat is on

Oh it's on the street, the heat is on

It's on the street

The heat is on, the heat is on, the heat is on

Yeah it's on the street

The heat is on

I mean, can you get any more spot-on to describe what's been going on with our house these last few days?  First off, I should mention, the heat is on!  Yes, we managed to get Washington Gas out finally to install the gas meter.  That was important because none of the woodwork stuff can happen without at least some semblance of a controlled temperature.  Now, for instance, Mark can go tomorrow to pick up our wood floors; they need to be acclimated to the house for three days before installation, which basically means they'll be going in around the weekend.  And upstairs, the floors have also begun to change.  No need to show you what they looked like before, other than to remind you they are the original 1890s floors that have been on the ground in a house that's been pretty much derelict since the 1980s.  But this morning when we pulled up, we found Miguel and his three floor-doing machines (that's the technical term), each of which, we are told, cost more than $2500.  (Having been robbed back in 2008, and having most of what was taken be contractors' machinery, we told him not to store them in our house overnight.)  And Miguel (with his lovely and cold wife watching) did this to the floors on our upper level:

Yeah, I didn't recognize the floors either.

The schedule for the floors as we move through the week includes fixing any boards that need to be fixed (tomorrow), stripping the stairs (Wednesday), and then applying various ointments and salves as necessary.  Once the stairs are being touched, we won't be able to down them for a few days, so we've been getting as much use out of them as possible, having spent about 27 man-hours painting the lower level over the three-day weekend.  (Is "man-hours" a sexist term?  Well, Abby  painted for more than half of them, so deal with it.)  And, more than Miguel and his lovely and cold wife, we felt the brunt of this weekend's drop in temperatures.  Sure, Glenn Frey says the heat is on, and every once in a while we hear the heat going on, and if you're standing directly beneath a vent you can feel the heat being on, but overall we are very worried about the efficacy of our heating system.  Granted, the heat is currently set to about 55, just so we can have that semblance of environmental control necessary for flooring operations, but there is what Bostonians might call a wicked temperature gradient between the upper and lower floors going on, and it can't all be the fault of the fact that none of the doors or windows have an actual tight seal to them.  (Remember, as Glenn Frey said, "the heat is on, it's on the street."  He wasn't kidding.  We are, as every suburban dad likes to remind his kids, heating the neighborhood.  I happened to get a flyer from a home-efficiency company in the mail the other day, and I will be contacting them shortly to see if there's anything they can do about our windows.  Because we all know that ain't gonna get done with our contractor.

Our contractor.  Yep, the one who pulled all the radiators out of the house, then claims not to have realized there were so many holes in the floor so as to warrant a higher cost of replacing wood during the flooring process.  The one who seems to have alienated all of his subcontractors along the way, many of whom are quite candid in letting Abby know just how they feel about him.  One thing we have learned, however, is that however unsavory the contractor is, apparently everyone's smitten with the workmanship.  So hey, it may take two years to get this thing done, and we may have to send our kids to work in Kathie Lee Gifford's sweatshop, but by golly the work's great!

While talking to Abby about the house while driving to my parents' out in crazy-far Virginia on Friday (they have a "540" area code! "540!" Have you ever heard of that?) I was mentioning that while I really like a lot of what's happening with the house, I don't feel as personally invested in it as I did our DC house, because we did so much of the work ourselves last time.  I mean, I can remember my bloody fingers after applying muriatic acid on the brick, and I can still see the mummified pigeon fall on my coworker Billy's head as he stood on the ladder in Isaac's bedroom.  Yet prior to this weekend, the only things I actually did to this house, besides that very first day of knocking down drywall back on Christmas Day 2011 (2011? 2011!) was pick stuff out and pay for it.  And a lot of that stuff that I picked out never even came to fruition.  However, three days later, I can safely say that those 27 man-hours of painting have taken a big bite out of my worries.  (I can also verify that we listened to DC101 the whole time on the radio, and heard exactly one song featuring a female singer.)  We did some painting, and some more painting, and some more painting.  And now, that downstairs is painted like a mofo, and Abby and I had everything to do with that.

Abby had been going to paint for a week or so beforehand, and I had posted a pic last time with her in Isaac's room, but this is serious stuff.  Since that last posting, she ripped down the carefully placed painter's tape she had put up in his room, re-sanded the wall because she was unhappy with the alignment of the stripes, borrowed a laser-level from Lee, and painstakingly created a masterpiece of stripe-itude that can be marveled at from hundreds of feet away, since it faces out the window.  Seriously, it's impeccable-- judge for yourselves:

Abby's creation on Isaac's wall.
Notice the perfect alignment with the window panes.

Besides Abby's magnum opus in Isaac's room, which eventually will be a Buffalo Bills room, with red accents, she also managed to paint Lola's walls a lovely shade of what we're calling "Cinderella's Dress" blue, based on the sheets and pillows she bought for Lola in what could have been 2011, and have been sitting in storage now since Thanksgiving.  I thought this was going to be more teal than it is, but it's so bright and happy that who cares?

My job on Saturday and Sunday was white.  Abby had done a whole bunch of white prior to this weekend, so anything colorful was her bailiwick.  So I managed to get one coat on every white surface (walls and ceilings) in the family room, the laundry room, the storage room, the guest room, and the guest-room closet.  Abby was at once excited by my progress, appalled by the lack of attention I had while making several only-noticeable-to-her drips, and confused at how I could get so much more square footage done than her during the same timeframe.  Well, one of my wise commenters noted last time that while you want painting done fast, cheap, and well, you can only get two of those at a time, so there's that...  No, just kidding, I think I did a stand-up job.  (And for that, both Abby and I will be completely stiff for the first half of this week.)  

Isaac next to the newly-painted wall in his bedroom.
We let them draw on the floors, since they're just sub-flooring
and will be covered over within the week.

Can you see the white I painted in the family room?
Just nod your head and be nice, will ya?

While Isaac's striped wall may be the most technically difficult paint job we completed this weekend, definitely the boldest, and possibly the most likely to provoke ire, is in the family room.  The picture I posted directly above this one is purposely taken from this angle so as not to show you the wall to your right-- the one that you see when you come down the stairs.  It was Abby's opinion that this needed to be a "statement wall," because otherwise the room was apt to become a boring giant box.  Therefore, I give you Behr "Poppy Seed."  If you think Abby was proud when the stripes were done, you should have heard her giggling like a little girl when this color was going up.  And as for me?  I'm Mr. Color when it comes to walls, so it makes me very happy as well.

"Poppy Seed" going up on the family room "statement wall"

The completed "statement wall"

The wall's actually a smidge lighter than the black on the windows.
Lola's "Cinderella's Dress" Blue is in the doorway.

The downstairs shower, with the
floor tiles doubling on the ledges

I mentioned earlier that we were en route to my parents', because they were awesome and took the kids for the weekend so we could get all of this done.  We drove out to Sterling last night to have dinner and grab the kids from them, since they didn't have the day off today like I did.  That meant we couldn't tag team the paint job today, so I took the kids to Jump Zone in Columbia while Abby painted from 10-5.  On the way, we ran two errands: one was just a normal Target run; the other was a drop-in at Home Depot to buy our second five-gallon white eggshell container, but also to return three boxes of tile we had over-ordered.  And how did we know we had over-ordered, you ask?  Why, because the tiling in the bathrooms not only has begun, but is almost complete!  So besides our paint-stravaganza this weekend, there was a tile-fest going on in the bathrooms.  The first-floor bathroom is complete, with three different kinds of tile up and done.  Abby decided a couple weeks ago to use the flooring tiles on two different ledges in the shower, and that turned out to be a great decision.  (See for yourself below.)  Unfortunately, the tiles that went up on the vanity wall, while all coming from the same boxes, had a slight color variation that wasn't caught right away.  It won't matter once the vanity is up, because it'll block those either in shadow or altogether, but I mention it here because when you look at it below, you might think "ugh."  Yeah, we know, but it's okay, unless you plan on laying on the floor in our guest bathroom.  So just don't do that.  The floor tiles in the upstairs bathroom have also been laid, but I don't have a good picture to show, since the lighting was really poor when I took it.

The vanity wall.  (Don't) notice the four mismatched squares of tile.

So what we have here is a very, very positive week, workwise.  I apologize for not getting more information up during the week, since some of these pictures were taken on Wednesday when we came by for the draw inspection, but we've just been so busy lately.  You know, with the house.  I mention the draw inspection, and some of you may be wondering what's up with the loan and our "drop-dead date" of February 15.  Well, we had the draw inspection on Wednesday, and the paperwork went through, but I have a feeling there may be a bit of consternation upcoming between us and the bank.  Because our idea is that, since we have spent the amount of money the loan had designated, they should give us the remaining balance and close it all out.  But I have more than a sneaking suspicion that they're not happy we decided to go above and beyond the amount of the loan on our own-- which was our only recourse, given the state of the house, and was the plan from the start.  So I don't know that we'll ever see the money from that last draw-- which'd be fine, because it'd just get deducted from the total on which we're paying our mortgage.  But we'll see.  However, what is definite is that we no longer have a mythical "drop-dead date" for a loan, and we're looking at a matter of weeks for the finish.  Yeah, I know I said that before, and no, we're definitely not going to be living in the house come March 1, but it's coming, and it's coming soon.  The floors will all be done by the end of next week, the cabinets will be completed by February 28, my closet can go in once the floors are done, and the plumbing fixtures can probably go in next week as well.  I'm going on another short business trip next week, and I am 100% certain that the house will look livable, even if it may not be 100% livable, by the time I get back.  At dinner last night, my parents asked me where I wanted to go for my birthday, which is the Saturday after next.  I would really love to have it at my house, but I know that's not going to happen.  But you can bet your ass that we'll be eating dinner at  Anyu's dining-room table, in our house, on Abby's birthday, 20 days later.  And those aren't famous last words.  Glenn Frey?  You'd better start writing a song about it.

20 Months, 7,000 Hits, and a $25,000 Check

Kids and, more importantly
at this point, cabinets!

Before I start, I just wanted to marvel in my own awesomeness.  Seriously, folks, I have 7,000 hits on this thing now; that's pretty awesome. :)  Thanks for reading along.

Anyhow, it's February.  Today marks our 20-month anniversary of Maryland homeownership.  Twenty months of paying two mortgages.  And we're not quite destitute yet.  Actually, we got some good news today at the draw inspection: we're going to get a reimbursement check of just over $25,000 this week!  Granted, it's not like the money we'll actually get back at the complete end of this process from the Historical people, because this is money we spent already and have been paying interest on for these past twenty months, but still, it will make my bank accounts look and feel so much better... at least until it's spent again all too soon.

The reason behind that "windfall," however, is because stuff's actually getting done.  More than half of that is to reimburse us for the kitchen cabinets, which started going in yesterday after that slight delivery glitch earlier this week.  Yeah, but don't get too excited.  They do look great, but there's an issue: apparently, even after having been measured twice, our crazily-shaped room has thrown the installers for a loop.  Between their measuring tapes and the computers, some of the cabinets don't fit.  I have no idea why not, but I do know that, most importantly, it's not our fault, and will not cost us any money.  Phew!  What it does mean, though, is that the kitchen won't be truly complete for a few more days, and we possibly won't be able to measure for the countertop until it's all fixed.    It was pretty cool, though, to walk into the house the other day and see half of the great room stacked up about eight feet with enormous cardboard boxes.  Not to mention, Abby and Lola had a ball today when they got to pop probably 50 linear feet of bubble wrap.

Nothing else has gone in this week, which is slightly annoying, but things are being delivered like the dickens-- that is, if things can be delivered like the dickens.  Earlier in the week it was the vanities and the cabinets, then the sconces for the kitchen and porch, then tiles.  Yesterday, Abby went to Home Depot to pick up the toilets, and couldn't pick me up from work because every square inch of the car that wasn't filled with her or the kids was filled with toilet.  While there, she found some clearance tile that she thought was perfect for the laundry room and storage room-- finally, something on clearance!-- so she put six boxes of the stuff on hold overnight and went back today to pick it up.  That might be the first flooring that goes in, which'd be fine because it'd mean we could get the washer and dryer installed, and start moving stuff into the "basement attic."  We've been watching this microwave online for a while at several different stores, and the price has fluctuated up and down from about $325 to $400.  Finally when we're ready to buy it, pretty much everyone has a 3-week wait for it, whether we want it delivered or picked up at a store.  But I found a Sears about 45 miles away that had a new floor model marked down 20% so I grabbed it, and hope to pick it up tomorrow.    Sure, I've gotta drive all the way out to White Marsh Mall (which is the one where we discovered we didn't need to bundle Isaac up like all of our older female relatives were instructed during the winter, because he turns bright red and screams...), and I'll spend ten bucks on gas, but the price difference will be about $80, and we'll get the thing tomorrow instead of who-knows-when.

Isaac's wall will be Bills colors.
Let's Go, Buffalo!

Probably the most house-interesting time this week was Wednesday.  Abby spent the day painting Isaac's room and taping the stripes onto his wall, and we came by after I picked the kids up from school.  After hiking down to Purple Playground in the park, Abby picked us up and whisked us out to the flooring store in the driving rain.  There, we finally bought our hardwood floors.  I know, right?!  So the floors are expensive, but we decided to go with them and abridge where they'll be.  So at $10.25 a square foot, we'll have DuChateau flooring's Danube flooring, from their Riverside collection (all three terms sound totally douchebaggy, don't they?) in the kids' bedrooms, the guest room, and the family room.  And the 99-cent clearance tile in the downstairs rooms that really don't need such fancy stuff.  So the kids are running around in the store, the guy's writing up the order, and something truly weird happened: I noticed I was on my phone, texting, while Abby checked her voicemail and actually answered an incoming call.  Seriously, folks, not only were both of our phones charged, but both of us were on then at the same time, of our own volition.  It's times like that that make me understand that, yes, maybe we can get this darn project completed.  Anything's possible!

From there, it seemed like a hop up Rockville Pike to the fireplace store.  But it was rush hour in the driving rain, and an hour later we pulled into the parking lot of Acme Stove, which had closed nine minutes before we got there.  Argh.  No matter, though, because that would have been bonus points for the day, and the fireplace isn't a must-finish.  (Gonna try again tomorrow anyhow.)  So we went back to the house to meet up with Lee, the contractor for some of the neighboring houses.  He wanted to take a look inside our place, and we had asked him for his ideas on what we could be doing.  We're not going to drop our contractors, but anyone who has read any of my blog entries can tell that we're not confident in their ability to be proactive in letting us know what to expect next.  It was nice to talk to him, because even though he brought up a bunch of issues I hadn't thought about-- like when we should be getting the trim, and why isn't there an obvious water service to the water heater?-- most of his comments were positive and constructive and not intimidating.  Seeing that we've really taken control of the direction of things over the past ten days or so, I think we can steer this thing to a good place by the end of the loan period.  (Remember, anything's possible!)

Granted, nothing's happening.  Which is why I emailed the contractors tonight with a list of questions and information for them to use to get cracking.  First off is the paint-- Abby's been picking out colors, and only priming is included in our contract, so if we are cleared to paint, we're going to go ahead and do that, partially by ourselves, and partially with painters.  (I ain't getting up on a ladder to paint no 20-foot ceilings!) We'll get a quote from them, and from a couple other places, and go with the best quote and the best timing possible, which is cheap and now.  And at this point, while I'd certainly have no problem with giving them the business, I'll have no issue with finding another outfit to do the work if it means it'll get done.  So, until that stuff gets sorted out, I'll leave you with the letter and you can judge for yourselves as to whether I got my point across.   Now to go chase a ground hog...

Hi guys: I wanted to follow up with you as to where we stand right now, based on what's been delivered to the house and what can get moving at the beginning of next week.  We also have some questions for you, so if you could get back to us on all of this before the end of the weekend, that'd be great.

1. The cabinets have hit a snag because of apparently faulty measuring.  But it's okay with us, because it's either Home Depot's fault or the installer's fault, but not ours.  So while they sort it out and possibly order one different cabinet-- on them, of course-- there are several kitchen-related things.
• Rory, we're going to pick up the microwave tomorrow.  However, there's a kit to have it fit into the opening that is only sold online, so we'll have to wait for that to be delivered to be installed.
• At what point does the cut have to be made for the range hood vent?  Would that need to happen once the exact placement of the range hood is certain after cabinet installation?
2. What ever happened with Washington Gas?  Are we all good with the HVAC now?  We never heard anything back following the scheduled Wednesday appointment.
3. Can you guys take that horrible smoke detector away from the middle of the joist in the Great Room?  That thing is ridiculously ugly.  I'm sure it will be fine with code if a detector is put somewhere on the wall or something, but it definitely doesn't have to be where it is right now!
4. The tiles for the laundry room and storage room have arrived, and can be installed.  I think it'd be a great idea to get those done, because that'd also get the washer and dryer to the point they can be installed and taken out of the way.  I'm guessing some sort of underlay is needed for those floors before the tile can go in, and that's something you guys are going to have to get, since we can't fit stuff like that in the Prius.  
5. Our light fixtures have arrived for the front porch and for the kitchen-- 2 in each place.  They can be installed whenever.
6. Are the walls all set for painting?  We are assuming so, but wanted to make sure.  Since the painting is not included in the contract, we wanted to get a price from you guys as to how much it will cost before we go ahead and do it.  We might choose to do some of it ourselves.  We're pretty sure, though, that the painting should be done prior to laying the wood flooring, since we know what kind of mess paint is on wood floors.
7. That said, the wood flooring has been ordered and should be in by the middle of this week.  You guys will have to pick it up; the place we ordered it from is in Rockville, right near the White Flint Mall.
8. Do we need to buy a water heater?  If so, what specs?  If that's something you guys are going to do, please note we want something really efficient, but also really capable of pumping out mass quantities of hot water... I do have a wife that likes 45-minute showers, and we often use hot water with more than one appliance at a time.
9. Any word on the windows?  Last Wednesday, Mark noted something about communications with the company in Wisconsin, but nothing more... Those really need to be getting back to us soon, no?
10. Sheyy came by for a draw inspection today.  He just sent us the paperwork, and I am going to try to get it to you by Sunday afternoon.  Even though this entire draw is money owed to us, and not to you, we will still need your signature.  Hopefully we can get it to Patty on Monday.  There will just be one more draw, on or about February 13; after that point, we won't have to deal with the loan anymore, and we can just work on a project-by-project basis until we finish.  We're still very much needing to move in before the end of this month, so let's all keep our eyes on the prize!

Thanks, and I hope to hear back from you shortly.

Deliveries Begin

After an entirely defeating Monday, Tuesday turned out to be much better-- although, true to form, there was a major setback once again.  (I think the one word that describes this process more than any other is "Argh.")

I know many of you are going to say
"this is the chandelier of a crazy person!"
Well, I am married to Abby, right?

First, let's start with the good stuff.  Abby went this morning to meet with James, the local artisan (yeah, we have more than just G-Men in Washington) who's going to make our dining room chandelier.  The meeting went great, and all we have to do is measure the height of the ceiling and he can get started.  Abby really wants something that has an industrial look, and she's completely set on having Edison bulbs-- the same ones I griped half-heartedly about in yesterday's post.  After looking around everywhere with not much luck, Abby was surfing on Anthropologie.com a while back and came upon a light fixture she really loved.  And it was affordable, too-- just about $300.  The problem came when she looked at the size: 19 inches... not exactly appropriate for a dining room with cathedral ceilings.  So one day she was on her own on the one cool block of our neighborhood when she walked into this store called Corehaus.  (Not to be confused with Storehouse, the furniture store we were crazy for before it closed a few years ago... plus, they gave you free candy for browsing.)  Anyhow, Corehaus stocks a mishmash of cool, weird, artisanal, altogether kooky stuff, and they'll make you something if you give them an idea.  Abby asked if they could take the Anthropologie chandelier and make it big.  After a back-and-forth with them that included Abby telling them I did not want anything that looked like it came from a farm, we had a plan.  And in a few weeks, with a little luck, we'll have a chandelier.

Next, she headed to the house with three cans of paint.  While the contractors are going to paint 99% of the house, she wanted to paint the kids' rooms.  Mostly because she's doing a stripe in Isaac's room, which has a Buffalo Bills theme, and she didn't want to worry about the painters getting her vision wrong.  (Those of you who know Abby will have read this sentence without raising an eyebrow.)  Also partially because she kind of wanted to shame the contractors into realizing the homeowner's actually doing some work herself.  Whatever, she loves to paint, so hand the girl a brush!  For those of you who are interested, Isaac's room will be mostly white, but with a blue stripe and red accents; Lola's room will be a light, sea-foamy green to match this bedding Abby bought for her a while back that has a bit of a Moroccan feel to it.  That feel will go along with the built-in bed Abby imagines, that takes the idea of a four-poster and smooshes it right into a wall.  (The bed was bought last year on Craigslist, and was sitting, disassembled, in my bedroom for six months or so before being stuck in our storage container at Thanksgiving.)  Unfortunately, Abby didn't get much more than trim done today, because, Abby being Abby, a parade of people stopped by to talk with her.  But she's going again tomorrow, and I suggested she take her iPod with her to avoid having to talk, like I do on the Metro.  Fat chance, though!  (Remember: Abby has a neon sign blinking "TALK TO ME!" on her forehead.)

Last night before I went to bed, I checked my email and found two surprise delivery notices.  One was the West Elm lighting (recall the Edison bulbs?) that was supposed to be back-ordered until mid-March; it was apparently found, and is on its way to us-- awesome!  The other was the pair of vanities we ordered from DecorPlanet.com; they were due in the morning.  So at about 10:15 this morning I got a call at work from a guy with a thick accent and bad cell reception, telling me he'd be delivering something within the half-hour.  I told him no problem, and didn't think twice about it... which was stupid, because I had done the same thing yesterday with the kitchen cabinet delivery-that-wasn't.  At 11:15, I got out of a briefing on Azerbaijan and checked the tracking status of the delivery, only to find that the last entry read "Returning to NY."  Shit!  I called Abby, who was at the house: no vanities.  I called the customer service number and was put on hold for 20 minutes.  I could just picture the truck plowing its way back up the 95, because either nobody answered the door or, more likely, the driver had no idea where we lived.  Panicking.  Finally I get put through, and the operator assures me the truck's still in Maryland, and has not even attempted to deliver the vanities yet.  Not convinced, I'm nervous about the vanities for the rest of the day.  Only once I get home can I touch base with Abby to find out... yes!  We have two delivered vanities in the house.  Phew!

Also arriving today, the shower tile the UPS guy had failed to deliver Monday.  So I had an idea: if there wasn't enough of the bathroom floor tile in stock (see yesterday's entry if you don't follow), then we could take the smaller bathroom and finish it first, then wait the two weeks for the downstairs bathroom and mudroom.  Brilliant!  But when I mentioned this to Abby, she replied, stone-faced, that while we were deciding on what to do, someone bought the rest of the in-stock tile from the manufacturer.  Shit!  So now we'll have to wait until about February 10 for any of our bathroom flooring to show up.  My plan therefore is to keep buying everything we possibly can, just to ensure we can get reimbursement by the time the loan closes on February 15.  The stuff doesn't have to be installed to be reimbursable, just physically present in the house.  But we're definitely cutting it close, again.

And "Lintel," the other one.

"Danube," one of our flooring choices.

And speaking of floors, Abby managed to convince Floor Gallery in Rockville to lower their prices on the two floors she liked best there, although not to anywhere near Lumber Liquidator pricing.  Rather, we can get either one for about the same price as the AllEco flooring we liked but would have to wait for.  Tomorrow, we're gonna go up to the showroom and make a final decision, and theoretically we could have the flooring physically in the house by the weekend.  (Wood flooring has to sit in the house for a couple of days before it's installed, to acclimate to the temperature and humidity-- who knew flooring was the diva of the home-improvement materials world?-- so that also means our heating has to go on.  That in itself will be interesting, since we still have four windows missing.)  Once we pick the floors, we'll also venture up to Acme Stove, about a mile further up Rockville Pike, to set the fireplace work in motion.

Finally today, I attempted to buy the toilets online, but it seems they have to be picked up in the store.  Still $238 at Home Depot, but the only store in the area that has them in stock is in Falls Church-- the one across the street from the Sears where Abby bought our washer and dryer, and one of the places where the DC Sniper killed people in the parking lot way back when.  So we'll have to wait until at least Thursday to do that.

So tomorrow is shaping up to be a busy one for the house: gas meter going in; HVAC turning on; cabinet re-delivery (I managed to salvage that one, and hopefully installation can still proceed on Thursday); more painting in the kids' rooms; floor finalization (hoping against hope); and fireplace stuff.  All that, and Lee, the contractor working on the Windmill, Pagoda, and Swiss Chalet, wants to have dinner with us.  If all goes according to plan, we're going to feel pretty good about ourselves once we tuck the kids in tomorrow night.  That said, when does it ever all go according to plan?

A Wally World Christmas

Since it's the holiday season, when people usually focus on positives, I'll try something new on the blog: an entire post without complaints.  Here goes:

We pulled up to the house on Wednesday and people were working.  Drywall was being handed through Isaac's bedroom windows.  The front door was wide open, and fresh subflooring had been laid on the porch.  I marveled at how sturdy the porch felt, after having been forced to hopscotch across holes overlaid with old particleboard for so long.  I stood on the porch, waiting for the kids and Abby to round the house, and was happy with the progress I was seeing.  I mentioned the flooring to Isaac and he looked at me incredulously, as if to say "no, Dad, there were never holes in this floor."  Still, progress, satisfaction.  It was nice, because it's been a while since I had that feeling.

Then I went inside.

(This, for the casual reader's benefit, is usually the part of the story when things go dramatically downhill.)

Walls!

Not since the windows were painted several months ago have I been as excited to go through the house.  Guys were up on ladders mudding the drywall in the great room.  Walls had sprung up everywhere, and we had something we've only been planning for so long: Rooms!  I walked into my bedroom for the first time since it had been separated from the kitchen; it's not so bad!  Maybe I'm looking at it from the perspective of someone living in a 600-square-foot basement with three other people, but my 90-square-foot bedroom actually looks, well, if not spacious, then full of a lot more possibility than I had thought.  The closets are walled too, and with the borders finalized it looks like we might have an actual choice as to where our bed might go.

Downstairs, the family room is the big surprise: it's huge!  And bright!  We had been so worried walling it off would make it a long, narrow cave, shut out from all the light that streams in through the kids' rooms.  But no, it's immense!  And full of light!  And, get this: the light was not only coming from the windows, bur from light bulbs!  In the ceiling!  That were turned on!

The kids rooms are walled too, and although Isaac's room was filled with a mountain of garbage bags, it didn't matter.  Why?  Walls!  The laundry room?  Walls!  The guest room?  Well, too many walls! (They walled over a section that's supposed to have been left open for storage...)  The bathroom has no walls yet, but that's because they're waiting until the porch is finished, since not doing so would risk getting the new walls wet in a storm-- like the one that's happening right now.

Overall, a full 18.5 months into owning this place, I shouldn't be excited about walls, I know.  I should be living there, learning my new surroundings, getting used to my new commute on the Red Line, sitting next to my gigantic Xmas Tree and my fireplace and my dog.  (Okay, that last one is only in my dreams...)  But regardless of what's happening, I am excited about the walls.

And while I promised I wouldn't bitch during this post, well, okay, here's my attempt to continue not doing so.  We've been waiting for a timeline from our contractors for months.  Since we got back from London, actually.  And it's not that we've been meek and haven't wanted to ask more than once; we ask on at least a weekly basis, if not more frequently.  Well, this week we got our timeline.  It says all the work will be done on the house by the end of January, and the only things that will happen in February will be things like the final inspections and walk-throughs and stuff.  Makes sense.  So the timeline gets delivered to Patty at the mortgage company and she's not happy.  She pretty much turns around and says she needs a new timeline-- one that doesn't extend into February.  It's been a week now and I haven't heard a peep from our contractors, but what I know is that their idea is that we'll be in there within about six weeks, and our financiers want it to be sooner.  And the only way our contractors will get their money is if the financiers are happy.  So, that's all I'm saying.

(Patting myself on the back... I think that was a non-bitchy paragraph.  I think.)

So where we stand right now is about 90% drywalled, with electric and water hooked up and running.  Cabinets are ordered, appliances have already been delivered.  Still having communication issues with the contractor, but they've communicated to us that we'll be in in about six weeks.  Porch is half-done, rooms are decently-sized.  And to top it all off, the dining room chairs Abby wanted are actually comfortable, even though they're made entirely of metal.  (I didn't talk about those at all, but I will include a pic at the bottom for those who are interested.)

While we were at the house, I finally met Lee, the contractor working with not only the Windmill next door, but also the Pagoda and the Swiss Chalet.  He offered us a tour of the latter two houses, which we hadn't been in for almost two years.  For those of you who might not have known us back then. we actually responded to the real-estate ad for the Chalet back in February 2011, but since there was just too much work in that place for us to stomach (ha!), the agent showed us the Pagoda and the Bungalow since we were already there.  We were really intrigued by the Pagoda, but didn't want our kids to be "those kids who live in a pagoda."  Honestly, both of our families and most of our friends already think of us as the weirdos of the bunch, so that would've just added to our reputation.  Anyhow I jumped at the chance to look, and we weren't disappointed.  The Pagoda looks amazing: they've unearthed some original screens inside, and outdid our excavation by digging out an entirely new lower level.  Our biggest practical problem with the Pagoda was that it was only 1,400 square feet, but with the addition it's gonna be just about the same size as the Bungalow.  Moreover, Lee took a lot of the original local-quarry stones from the foundation during the excavation and re-placed them outside in spots where they look totally original to the design of the place.  Beautiful work, and made me very jealous, since I think most of our stones disappeared, despite my requesting that all of them stay put.  (But no bitching, so on to the next house.)  Across the yard, the Chalet's still well behind even our house, but the work inside is amazing.  The top floor has been converted from a hodgepodge of small, cramped rooms with slanted ceilings into a spacious master suite, complete with hidden storage compartments behind the HVAC system.  The ground floor has been developed so thoughtfully that the new flooring was laid underneath the walls, just in case any future owners wanted to reconfigure without worrying about replacing or matching up planks.  And a mysterious grotto underneath, which predates the house, is being converted into a wine cellar with a natural low temp and hi humidity.  Oh, and the incredibly expensive but gorgeous cedar shingles they put on the houses that we thought would cost about $40,000?  Yeah, Lee found a mill in Canada that made them and shipped them directly at wholesale, and he says they ended up costing about the same as the higher-quality shingles from Home Depot.  Seriously, I'd say I wish I had met Lee while we were considering contractors, but I am pretty sure we wouldn't have been able to afford him.  It's fantastic, however, to know our neighbors are going to have such awesome houses.  (Once again, we'll be the bad element in the neighborhood...)

But our house is our house, natural grotto or not, and our house is now walled; and in six weeks or so it should be Wahled as well.  (Insert laugh track here.)  While there are still a lot of issues that need to be worked out, I figure since it's Xmastime, I might as well think of the happier Bungalow-related thoughts now.  Once Santa's back at the North Pole, though, all gloves come off.



What we believe will be our new dining-room chairs;
three in copper and three in red lacquer. 
They're pretty cool, and are actually very comfy.
Very modern, but will offset the traditional style of
the dining-room table we inherited from my grandmother.