Dinner

This was the turkey prepared for the first Thanksgiving we've every hosted at our house.

Cooking a turkey wasn't that difficult but what made it turn out really great was brining it for 24 hours before cooking. The hardest part was carving - I mangled the bird, but even in little bitty bits it still tasted great.

Cabinets

The cabinets were installed in the kitchen today. There is still a lot of work to be done, but you can start to see what it is going to look like. The work triangle (sink-cooktop-fridge) is going to be much better than our previous horrible arrangement with the cooktop tucked away in a corner next to the sink. Plus, there is more floorspace in the food prep area than I initially thought.

We did discover a minor flaw in our kitchen layout - there isn't a good place near the sink to put a garbage can. The can is in a cabinet across the way. Not horrible, but it would be more convenient to have close at hand to the sink.

Silver

Every cloud has a silver lining. We have a very heavy rainstorm in the area today and it has saturated everything. The bad news is that we discovered a leak in the new kitchen roof. The good news is that it was found before all of the finish work was done. The guys think it is a seal around one of the vents. Hopefully, they can fix it quickly.

Exile

When you work from home, a noisy construction project is very disruptive. Yesterday while we had tile cutting and a lot of heavy machinery digging outside of my office window, I was reduced to taking conference calls in my own ersatz phone booth. Our upstairs closet outfitted with a folding chair - we still have the funky wall paper from the previous owners in there.

Otherwise, I've just been spending an inordinate amount of time at Starbucks (usually mornings) and Ukrops (which has a nice quiet upstairs cafe with WiFi). We still have at least a couple of weeks to go, so I'll probably be pretty well known by the end of this thing.

Crowd

When I left the house this morning at 8 AM, there were a large assortment of workers in there. We had a crew of electricians working in the kitchen. We had a crew of roofers finishing up the last corner of the standing seam roof. We had a large crew from the floor finishers hustling us out the door (from the original Lee's Floors, not to be confused with the raft of imitation Lee's Floors in the greater Roanoke area). Poor Ellie was very confused about all the activity and our kind neighboors let me put her in their yard. Jack didn't seem too happy about being awakened early and thrown out of his comfortable bed (actually a sleeping bag on the floor at this point, but he still looked grumpy). All I can say is that it was much quieter at the Roanoke Airport (which has some kind of construction project of its own going on).

Back

We just returned to Roanoke from Figure 8 Island on Friday. The home renovation project is still going and now we have a construction zone bisecting the house where the kitchen used to be. This means we have to walk outside to get to the family room since the area is sealed up (although there is still dust everywhere). After being in the ultra relaxed environment of the beach for a week, this is a nice shock.

Today, they are in there banging around and sanding the hardwood floor in the bedroom. We did the ecologically sensitive thing and used the hardwood from the kitchen floor (which will be replaced by tile) in the bedroom. We should know the results tomorrow.

Inside

We now have two gaping holes in the back of the house. It's been a noisy and dusty process and this is one week that I wish I worked in an office, but we are making good progress. As you can see from the photos, we are weather proof and have a lot of the plumbing and electrical roughed in.

The only real issue we've run into is that the door manufacturer built 5' doors when 6' doors were specified. It was their mistake but it would have taken another 3-4 weeks to get the proper doors delivered, so we took their offer to sell the doors at cost. Another foot of door would have been nice, but the time lag would have been a real pain to coordinate across all of the various activities. Also, it puts us almost $1000 ahead on the budget.

Mini

Now that the kitchen remodel is picking up some steam, all of the old appliances are failing. A couple of weeks ago, the kitchen faucet started dripping like crazy. The the garbage disposal started to die. A couple of days ago, the refrigerator gave up the ghost.

Since a repair call for a refrigerator with an expected life of a month is not going to happen, we have gone back to our college days and bought a mini-fridge. This monster features enough space inside for a six pack of beer and a quart of milk. Plus, we moved some of the magnetic crap from big fridge so we hardly miss it. What else do you need?

Roof

Another few days and we have half a roof on. A few more days and we should have a complete roof. After that, the windows and doors come in and then the real fun starts: we start to bash through the external walls.

Frame

A couple more weeks and we have almost complete framing. Everything looks good and I like the way it is turning out. It makes the house look huge, even though we aren't adding that many square feet. We should be under roof next week and start getting the windows and doors in.

The next thing is to pick out a tub for the bathroom and other plumbing fixtures.

Floor

After another few days, we have a floor and some of the framing of the interior walls is starting. We need to start picking the finish items soon (tile, bathroom fixtures, etc.)

The past two weekends, the people working on the project have put in at least a few hours on Saturday morning. I don't exactly need to hear it six days a week, but I'll trade a few quiet Saturday mornings for a project completion before the kids go back to school.

Walls

Another week and we have the beginnings of a wall. The project passed inspection on Monday, so it should be smooth sailing for the rest of the framing. My thoughtful wife sent me this picture today of the latest progress and it looks good. I missed all the fun of having the power turned off to move the circuit over to the left hand side of the house.

We did our first (and hopefully last) change order this past weekend to screen in the new porch instead of leaving it open. It should be really nice during the outdoor season. Last weekend, we went to a party hosted by some friends who have recently added on a screened-in porch and it was a very nice space. I'm looking forward to it and the price wasn't all that bad (I'll just have to drive Goldie, our 1999 Subaru wagon, for another year or two).

Wood

Here is the progress to date on the home project. They have started to frame in the floors over the crawl space. To do that, they had to relocate the downstairs heat pump unit. After the move, the system works fine. So, that is good (especially since it is hot right now).

They have been pulling out some of the bricks to reuse them, thus the gaping holes in the exterior brick facing. This is not a quiet process. It makes the same sort of sound as cavity drilling at the dentist. I spent a lot of time working at Starbucks and Mill Mountain Coffee this week.

Playing With Blocks

Two weeks into the project, we have a wall of concrete blocks and more holes in the ground. We also have a big pile of gravel in our driveway, but that is being moved around back today.

So far, so good.

A View of Nothing

What do people do when they block up a window during a renovation project? A new master bath is going in just behind the wall of the current bathroom where the window looks out now. What happens to the existing bathroom window? Do we leave it in, put a trompe-l'oeil painting in it or make it a plain wall?

All of these decisions...

Backyard

The project has now begun in earnest and it is every bit as messy I thought it would be. Here is a snap from yesterday afternoon of our backyard after a day of digging with two of those little Bobcats.

Unfortunately, this used to be the thickest and most lush grass in our whole yard. At least I don't have to mow for the next few months.

Hammer Time

After a brief visit from our contractor yesterday, our renovation project is kicking off next week. I wrote a check for 15% of the total to get the ball rolling (probably top 5 in dollar terms of checks I've written in my lifetime). The Roanoke Gas guy was out here scoping it out as well, so it almost feels like a real project.

There are are still a ton of big and small decisions to be made: What kind of flooring do we want in the kitchen? What hardware should be used in the bathroom? What about appliances? Etc. From all accounts, we are in for about 4 months of dust and bother, but right now, we are at the always optimistic inception of a project where optimism reigns supreme.

Unlucky

We just closed on a mortgage refi on Monday to pull some money out for a home improvement project (new kitchen and master bedroom). Of course, the rates just fell to near record lows. I figure we would have done at least quarter point better if we had waited to lock until this week. On our loan, that would have meant about $40 a month or $16000 in interest over the entire 360 month amortization.

We locked right at one of the local peaks in late February. At the time, there was a lot of turmoil in the banking sector so it seemed like rates would be volitile upward as the market tightened. But, the Fed threw the dollar under the bus and rates went down. Can the Fed come bail me out for placing a bet at the wrong time? Maybe if I just stop paying my mortgage they will allow me to renegotiate the rate. I guess not since I take responsibility for my own financial actions and live with the good luck and the bad. It would be nice if the powers that be in this country felt the same way.

Coincidence?

I just noticed that the Staron color my wife picked for our planned kitchen counter upgrade matches the solid surface counters at Starbucks. If she was sure of anything in the kitchen showroom we were in, it was the counter top color.