Even more progress..

We have...

~finished walls and a ceiling (just need paint)
~overhead lights that work
~cabinets IN the house (though not installed obviously)
~ an appointment for appliances to be delivered (Thursday)
~ our millionth black granite sample – (nero angola black)
~ an appointment for our granite to be templated (Friday)

Finally starting to look like a room -

We have walls (almost). The plasterers come tomorrow, then they will be done! The cabinets should be up shortly after that - probably Thurs/Friday.


We are going to pick out our granite slab on Friday too.





There has finally been a bit of glitch. Now that I realized that the cabinets weren't in boxes (which I assumed!) in the garage I peeked in. The bathroom vanity is not at all what I had expected/envisioned. It wasn’t a stock design so they had to do some custom work. Luckily I don’t think it will be a huge deal for them to make it right and I am sure they will. I gave them a photo of what I wanted and we discussed it at length. There is no question what they sent isn't the same (or even that similar) to the picture. A little bit of carpentry will solve that though.

Luckily the kitchen cabinets look great.

I should have known...

Looks like the kitchen will be completely insulated by the end of the day - just in time for our (nearly) 70 degree weather this weekend. I didn't know the contractor had a deal with the gas company.

Inspected!

So the "kitchen" has been inspected by the town, and our floor has been leveled. According to the carpenter the floor was off by 1 1/2 inches from one side of the room to the other! It is now now only level but also sturdier.

They are now saying they should be able to start putting up the real walls as soon as Monday. Thurs-Sat they will be finishing up some of the floor and insulating the walls!

Most importantly they say that the “hard” part is done!

Major Progress!

Thanks to the rainout of the Sox game, Steve and I (well mainly Steve) were able to put together the baby’s crib and the baby’s dresser today. We also cleaned up a lot of dust and put down the rug. We are still waiting on the delivery of the glider/ottoman which will go in the corner between the windows.

Other to dos - I still have to paint the changing table (I don’t like the wood color with the rest of the stuff).

And the final touch will be the murals that will go up sometime soon.

2 big arrivals

Our cabinets arrived today and our crib came in yesterday.

The former should be up on the walls either the end of next week or early the following. I finally feel like it is progressing. We have lots of new pipes and the bathroom wall /door is framed. I believe the room will be inspected for the plumbing /electrical soon, then insulation will be put in and the walls will go up.

The latter is still in a box in our living room. Once our nursery trim is finished, we can bring it upstairs and assemble.

Let there be light!

This is the first big improvement we can see! A new slider instead of the old, very drafty door-

(You can also notice there is, at present, no wall between the kitchen and the bathroom. The window you see in the right of the frame is on the bathroom wall!).










View from the front door....

Joys of living in the northern US...

We got some snow yesterday/last night...Steve had to shovel the stairs/sidewalk this morning. It wasn't very much, probably 3/4 of an inch, but all the rooftops are white and it makes walking outside slick, especially for me in my front-heavy state. When I got into Harvard Square (about 4 miles - if that- from our house) there was not a speck of snow or ice remaining!

In kitchen news, we will have a new back door quite soon. The hole has been cut in our back wall to make room for a sliding glass door. This will allow us much more natural light and solve the problem of the back door opening into cabinets (or in the old layout opening into and denting our fridge). We also have had visits from the electrician and the plumber to some “rough” prep work.

Baby Shower and Kitchen Update!

Steve and I spent the weekend in Connecticut so I could attend my baby shower. It was a lovely afternoon filled with family, friends and much joy all around. People are so generous with their time and money I am truly touched!

The kitchen is still totally gutted, right now they seem to be replacing one of our structural beams that support the ceiling of the kitchen. This was a planned repair as the carpenter didn’t think the old one was sufficient or installed properly. In addition it allows us to raise the ceiling height a few more inches. Steve can correct me if I am wrong on any of those details. We also had some collateral damage from all the pounding. One of the tiles (luckily hidden behind the toilet) in our upstairs bath broke in multiple pieces and fell off the wall, and a small piece of plaster in the dining room that abuts that ½ bath that is gutted feel off. Given the plaster is 80 years old and the interior wall there appears to be only 1-2 inches deep, I can’t say I am shocked.

I came home to

THE GOOD
Nursery - colors are benjamin moore's "lake tahoe" and "jasper yellow" (the blue is just one wall)




AND THE BAD/UGLY!
The Kitchen
this is our ceiling (top photo) and part of the outside long wall (bottom photo)

Busy, Busy weekends

We are right now on opposite coasts, but one thing is the same - we are going to be much busier than normal this weekend.

Lauren - work 10-6 Saturday and 8:30-7:30 on Sunday

(I get quite a few breaks and none of it is physically tiring - don't worry!). The major upside to working on the weekend is I am in lovely weather and from my room at the Hyatt I can see the bay bridge, the old port building and the water. View from my window at 7:20 pacific time: (Sunrise is late here!)

Steve - We have some exciting news - a dumpster is coming a dumpster is coming! Steve has the not enviable job of emptying all our cabinets so they can start ripping out the kitchen. We never got a full-size dining room table, so hopefully we have enough free floor space for all the added pots/pans. Steve also will start painting the nursery.

An (almost) clean slate

People just came and picked up our guest mattress/box spring from the house. We discovered it doesn't fit in any other room and since we need to fit a crib now, it had to go. We sold it on craigslist. This was our first big sell this way and were quite please with the results. ---For my mom: they paid cash so I don't think we will end up on Judge Judy!

So what had been the guest bedroom, now looks like this...






Hopefully next week the walls and trim will be repainted.

I don't think the relative emptiness will last long. Tomorrow we will purhcase the dresser. My shower is in three weeks, after which, presumably, more boxes filled with baby stuff will need a good home! Oh, and the crib and glider/ottoman have been ordered but won't be in for some weeks. (A special thanks to Linda/Rick for the crib and Bill/Pat for the glider & ottoman).

By request...

..a pic of my growing belly.

Feeling unaccomplished

I just got my high school alumni magazine which, like most college ones with which people are likely more familiar, is a glossy set of pages to brag about alumni enough to make other alumni so proud to have attended this institution that they send money. (Unlike my college one it doesn’t have ads, nor are classes charged for it). I digress.

Apparently a student - Ryan Sager - that was a year behind me (making him only 27 or 28), and who I actually knew quite well being a fellow day student, has written a book. It has been reviewed and quoted by the Economist, the Wall St. Journal and has been the topic of 2 Times Op-Eds. He has been on CNN, Fox News and many other radio and news programs. I had heard he was on the editorial board of the NY Post (impressive enough), but this is too much.

Of course, had he been on the Daily Show or Colbert Report I probably would have heard about his book when it came out instead of months later.

The premise of his book sounds an awfully like another book I read “The Right Nation” that also argues that the Republican party is composed of two main groups that at some point are going to have to split as the glue that binds is becoming less and less effective. I think the Right Nation was more historical, however.

On top of this, another student I knew that was TWO years behind me (also a day student) just published about about how to use advanced math to evaluate poker moves. (I am sure his parents are glad he is using his Cal Tech degree to good use).

And up to this afternoon, I just felt like I was unaccomplished because I had a to-do list a mile long and need to do some laundy.

Nothing major to report

So we have nothing major to report - we spent the weekend cleaning and doing things around the house which we had neglected for months. We are also starting to prepare the attic for its impending transition to our guest room and the guest room for its transition to a nursery. I suppose we better get that done now, as otherwise it will be many years before anything is done (or so people tell me). Also, I am in single digits until my due date.

A milestone, of sorts…

I just dropped in the mailbox my pre-admission for the hospital where I will be delivering…one more thing to make this seem very very real :)

Interesting Fact: The King of Thailand was born at the same hospital. The only reason I know is the “Square” (read 6 by 6 brick area) outside my office is named in his honor to commemorate his birth in Cambridge.

Bhumibol Adulyadej

Another beach...

another climate...


Steve and I spent the weekend in Dennis Port (Cape Cod), with my mom and stepdad and their dog (can't leave Rebel out!). It was a nice trip, though as you can imagine we passed on some of the more traditional seaside pastimes. We stuck to shopping and eating:)

Hmm, this is not good…

So we knew we wouldn’t have a kitchen or a ½ bath for awhile coming up in the spring, during the renovation. However, we were not expecting to lose the ½ bath now! Apparently a pipe burst the night before last (not the one that froze before?!) in that bathroom so for the moment the water is cut off to that room.

Steve has learned WAY WAY more about plumbing than I think he ever wanted to lately.

Kitchen Decisions

Yesterday we gave away a lot of money for a deposit to our contractor/designer, so our cabinets, floor, etc. can be ordered. (Rest to be paid at milestones during installation). Start date is going to be around March 26 - April 2 which gives them about 9-10 weeks to work until the baby should arrive. They claim that should be plenty, and we are cautiously optimistic as so far they have given us every indication that they are a well-run organization. My aunt's was just done in 5 so it can be done!

Pretty much everything has been picked except the final granite (long story I don’t want to get into right now). Since we haven't shared too much about this, and it is a huge project, here is an idea of what it will look like. White cabinets, round knobs, dark wood floors (see sample) and almost surely black counters (yes we know they show dust and finger prints).

Wall color isn’t final, but it may well be the red in the pic below. As of now, we won't have a full backsplash, but the granite will rise up 4" onto the walls... we may put a tile one in eventually, but a) we can't make a decision at this point - it is too daunting, b) the tile guy recommended living with it for awhile to see what you think will work best.

This is one our inspriation pics and the end results should be quite a bit like this - similar cabinet style/color, to the floor/ceiling cabinets, round knobs on all cabinets, similar molding and stainless appliances.


Floor:


I will post pics of some of the plumbing fixtures in coming days. Also up, more info on the 1/2 bath.

The most exciting thing to happen to our street, since, well .... probably ever.

For those of you not in the northeast, Boston had a citywide bomb scare yesterday that wreaked havoc on the city and traffic. It turns out the “bombs” were essentially lite brites of a cartoon character and part of a marketing campaign for a comedy central cartoon.

Last night they arrested the person that placed them around the city for the ad agency (3 weeks ago!), and they showed them on the news leaving his house with the cops. They mentioned it was in Arlington and I thought it looked like our generally area (most houses look the same) but one in the background looked really familiar. Still, I thought nothing of it. However, later in the report they mentioned he was arrested on OUR STREET! Apparently it was the house he lived in for a long time with his "parents."

Let's say Steve and I are not shaking in our boots about a struggling art-school graduate's family lives on our street.