Our house...again in progress

It's time for me to turn my attention elsewhere...I don't want my blog to become a big bag of downers that readers are afraid to check out for fear of me turning their happy day into a sad one. So without further ado, I'm focusing today on the progress we've made over the past couple of weeks with the painters.

As you might know, my home addition that consumed my life this past year added a media room to our house so we have the option of converting the old media room to a bedroom as our family grows. The last step to complete the project was to have the built-in below the TV painted...it was delivered in it's raw state.

Finally, we have paint! we have doors on the cabinet!


We have....need of an audio guy!!! I mean, seriously, what am I supposed to do about all those wires under there???


And just in case you're thinking Wow! The house looks completely done, here's a picture of what's going on behind the couch---I guess I am a master of deceit! (this is all the stuff that we removed from the nursery to make way for the painters...)


And here is the hallway leading to the baby's room...we painted the floor white so it would flow into the baby's room.

Okay good to see you, thanks for coming, please leave now...

Yesterday morning I was expecting the cabinet makers to come and install the doors on the new built-in unit....only it rained, and in Southern California, that means everything grinds to a halt...especially in the construction business. The first priority is to cover their outside jobs, and make sure any lumber or other supplies that are stored outside are safe from the rain....

....and so my cabinet guys showed up at 12:30 p.m. rather than 8:00 a.m. ...and things didn't go according to plan. The guys looked like they hadn't done a thing by 1:30, and by 2:30, only 1 of 6 doors was installed. I've become used to napping around 1 in the afternoon because that's what the babies tell me they would like, so by 3:00 it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. Finally around 4, they finished the doors, only to tell me they forgot to bring the pull-out shelves that go inside the cabinets to hold the DVD, Tivo, etc. Great...still not ready to paint.

At a little after 4, Ajay got home from work and I was absolutely positively walking in my sleep. And he's the one that went out into the world and used his talents to bring in money...but then again, I'm guessing he didn't have to produce enough energy and calories to produce two new human beings, did he? I guess I do deserve some credit after all!

Bluuuuuuugh!

This morning I woke up to the sound of rain. Normally that is a wonderful sound...we are always bordering on desperation for rain here in Southern California. Our house has a lot of skylights, and normally I LOVE the way rain sounds when it comes down.



So peaceful, so restful, such a wonderful sound.....rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrip (that's the sound of a needle skidding across a record) STOP EVERYTHING! Crap!!! We still hadn't ordered the tarp to cover our new outdoor furniture!!! It's out there getting pounded by rain.


I jump up and pull on my Uggs....bending over I feel something trying to come up from my stomach. Bluuuugh. I feel yucky. I open the door to see how much rain has come down. A lot...and it's still coming down. Ajay is also aware that we (meaning "I") didn't get around to having a tarp made to protect the furniture. I hate it when he's aware of one of things that I didn't get done...I know it sounds silly but I hate to feel like I didn't do my job...to be fair, he does do a really good "I'm disappointed, not mad"....which I'm sure will haunt our adult children 30 years from now. Anyway, after the rain slows to a sprinkle, I run out and start drying off the table...mind you it's 6 a.m. I must look like an obsessive compulsive nutjob! Realize that with every wipe of the table, I am dry heaving and hoping I don't barf on it too. To my utter delight, the water has beaded up perfectly and has not penetrated the table....just like they promised. No damage. Wonderful! I find some big sheets of plastic that we saved from when our couch was delivered and do my best to cover the newly dried table. And then I run inside to try to barf in the sink. Nothin'. Once again, just Bluuuuugh feeling.

Just leave it unlocked....

The phone rings.

It's Dave, my contractor. We have some details that need to be finished in the new room addition...the floor outlets need finishing, as well as the exterior lights need to be installed.

Dave: Hey, are you going to be around for a while?

me: yeah, for about a half an hour, why?

Dave: The guys at Bob's Electric can make it by today to finish up.

me: I was planning to head out in a while.

Dave: Just leave the side door unlocked so they can come in and knock it out.

Pause.

Pause.

Pause.

Okay, let's see....leave the door unlocked so 2 electricians can come on in and finish their work. The same electricians as before? No, new guys that I don't know. But I should just let them have full access to my house. While I'm gone. The last two electricians were tatted up ex-con looking guys. So I'll definitely do that....yeah, and while I'm at it I'll leave my check book out and ask them if they wouldn't mind writing out their own check.

Silly Dave.

Construction progress

We've made a lot of progress over the last week. The guys on the outside took on the monstrous task of moving the half-ton beams to the back yard.



They also worked on pouring the new patios outside the new side doors.

We got another delivery of plants, including a new tree for the front yard and the moss to replace the not-dense-enough thyme in between the travertine and cobblestone.




We finished painting the trim around the skylights, and the even cleaned all those filthy skylights!

The outdoor lounging cushions arrived.


They laid the foundation of the Buddha fountain.


They also touched up the kitchen cabinets, and re-painted the laundry room cabinets and the master bath cabinets. They touched up all the dry wall patches, and re-calked as needed.

The painters painted the fireplaces.


They delivered the rug for the new room.

Now we await the delivery of the couch, the exterior light fixtures, the A/C grate, a few pieces of hardware for the new doors. We still need to hang the swing, mount the exterior lamps on the sides of the fireplace, secure the beams, finish the fountain, move the Buddha, finish the side patios, repair the broken concrete on the front steps, finish planting the front and side yard. And a few hundred other little things---all in the next 3 days!

Down to the wire

This morning, something happened. I looked at my clock. It was 7:30. There weren't any workers here. I began to get a little worked up. Ajay called from the hospital and we chatted, and then I let loose what I was thinking. "Maya arrives Sunday! The fountain that holds the Buddha hasn't even been framed or whatever you call it. How in the world are we going to finish this project!!!??? I mean, when we started the project, we all laughed at the prospect of this project taking until Thanksgiving. Now we're looking at it taking until the turkey is being served...or maybe even the pumpkin pie!"

Ajay as always was cool and pragmatic and suggested talking with Scott about my concerns. Well, okay, ummm, certainly I would have thought of that if I didn't have 3 times the normal amount of estrogen and progesterone pumping through my body.

So I waited until 8 and called Scott, our landscape architect. I told him I was getting nervous. I told him we didn't have people here yesterday, we didn't have people here working a couple of days last week, and it just seems like time is ticking away. He reminded me yesterday was a holiday. The guys would be pulling up to the house at any moment. He assured me he wasn't nervous and that it would get done.

Well, if he's not nervous, neither am I. Yeah, right.

Today is the day....well, almost, not really....

There isn't enough noise outside today. Why aren't they here? I decided to do some friendly investigating and called my contractor, Alex. Apparently, the rest of the country is aware that it is Veteran's Day (how was I supposed to remember this? I've been in bed consumed with naming my four embryos!?), and of course Laguna Beach doesn't allow exterior work to be done on holidays. One mustn't upset thy neighbors. Bummer.

My general contractor, Dave, however showed up this morning with an electrician for indoor work. Today he was supposed to complete final electrical work on the new room addition. Except, well, he forgot some sockets or something. And since it's Veteran's Day, the electrician's home office wasn't open so my guy has to come back tomorrow. Bummer. So here is what he was able to get accomplished:

Ceiling lights installed and switched!


3 of 4 plugs installed on the media wall, including the cool highly placed plug for the flat tv.


And our new coffee table came, also!


And finally, this is how Pooh feels about the new room:


Oh well, maybe tomorrow we'll get to see some dirt roll and sparks fly.