The Final Touch

Our happy home got a facelift last week—the final touch in our summer of renovations. Just as the summer came to a close, we had our house painted. We're grateful that the sun lasted through the end of September, because this week, it's rain central.

Check out the Post-Constructionism photo set for some shots of the new color. It didn't photograph that well; the colors are a light gray/blue (looks pretty blue in the sunlight) and a deep, dark purple for the trim.

This is likely the last time we'll update the blog. Thanks for reading along and sending commentary as we made our way through the maze of construction.

Project Redux

The project is pretty much complete. It's been more than a year in the planning, but less than six months since we "broke ground" on our construction project. The house is in the process of being painted (it's blue. no, no, it's gray. or blue) and we should had pictures of that in just a few days.

This process has taught us a few things:

1. Trust your intuition. If it feels like you'll like a piece, design, idea or color, it will probably suit you. And that's all that matters.
2. Cats always find new nooks to investigate. And they look damn cute snooping around.
3. We can do some of this stuff all-by-selves. I mean, since April, we've repaired a garage door lock, built a garden box and landscaping step, replaced a few light fixtures and spackled & painted up a storm. Even watching other people construct things can be empowering.

Here's a final photo set. For more details, you'e just going to have to come visit.

8*P

Murky Glass

You know what's funny? About a month ago, I actually believed we'd have a shower door already. It's Sep 18th and we finally have our shower door installed after 6 visits, two glass mistakes and one bad idea of customer service.

Let's see how this reporting people to the Better Business Bureau thingy works...

Moved in

At long last, our shower door is being installed tomorrow. After that, it's time to FINALLY call the inspector. 141 days after we began, we will have a stamp of approval (hopefully). We have loved this project; we loved inspecting the construction every day and even had fun down to the little details thanks to such an amazing contractor. Pat Casey, Brock, Cliff the Carpenter, Todd & Steve the electricians, the Drywall Finishers Tweedledum and Tweedledee, those Crown plumbers, even Ernesto and about 9 unnamed installers—we salute you.

Here are some photos of our move-in weekend: At Last

By the way, NO thanks to our hall of shame vendors: Customline Shower Company, Lamps Plus (Should be minus) and the fine folks at A-Boy Supply. Ok, thanks to that one guy at A-Boy who has his stuff together.

Almost Home

It's been a wild ride, folks. We scored a great contractor and team, amazing sub-contractors (see Cliff's many examples of fine woodworking) and some bad, lazy vendors (ask someday about the tub saga or our disaffection for Lamps Plus).

This Friday, August 3, marks day 101 of our happy experience of growing our home. Now we can have a few visitors, say, from the East Coast (hint hint) and have them comfortably stay in our house without fighting for bathroom time. Now, our local friends will jump at the chance to watch our kitties (and bathtub) when we head out of town. Now, we can proudly boast 4 bedrooms & 2 bathrooms if we ever decide we can part with this awesome house. This is all good news, because, aside from a trip back East here or there, we're never going out again!

Humor aside, check out what a difference a week makes in our almost final photo set. We'll likely share another one once we're all moved in.

Thanks everyone for your support and listening to us drone on about how awesome Pat Casey is these last few months. Now, c'mon over!

Rounding Third

Rounding Third is the name of Ben's softball team. I think the name fits for how we are feeling this week--we're almost home. We are getting *so* close; a little bit of construction ennui has set in (Are we THERE yet?). Most of all, I think we're just pleased as can be.

Thus far, our biggest complaint is with the lighting store and their unusually inept staff. Pat installed a shower shelf today that was meant for a 7 foot tall person but in the scheme of things, it is a minor detail. We are so grateful to have found such a great contractor and construction team, we cannot wait to celebrate them with a post-project party in a couple of weeks.

This weeks's updates include:
1. Final trim
2. Painting touch-ups
3. Finished cabinetry
4. New old carpet! (We're able to re-use our nice, relatively new carpet)
5. Plumbing??

Enjoy the latest set of photos here: new photos

Time Flies

It's summer. Summer is filled with things to do, weeds to pull, flowers to deadhead, concerts to play and yada yada.

The great news is that Pat & Brock are rounding the last lap and hope to have things wrapped up in the next two weeks. We're giddy (and jittery) about our decor choices and checking them out to see what we've mish-mashed together.

Check out the new photo set, weighing in at over 30 lbs of light fixtures and 100s of lbs of tile, all during a heat wave in our fair city:
Week 11

And in other news....

We built (well, we stayed out of the way) an arbor in the backyard last weekend.

Here's a glimpse:
Arbor

Bathroom Preview

Hi! Sorry it's been so long since we posted an update. We have a lot to show for the last couple of weeks...some bright, colorful walls, a new vanity (not yet installed), the medicine cabinet, trimmed windows and more. But importing and posting pictures takes time—with a holiday, 4 concerts for Ben's band and a newly launched homepage for Imbibe Magazine, we've been busy. In the meantime, here is a post I drafted sometime ago, but did not want to show until now:

Here is a preview of the color scheme we have going in the new bathroom. The off-white is our floor tile, the slate 1x1 tiles are for the shower floor and the black granite is going to be our vanity countertop. The wood for our vanity is local Alder with a cherry stain, inspired by this vase we received from Ben's cousins Bernice & Marylin in 2002 when we were married.

Colorful

Pat Casey, our hero, went to buy the interior paint today! It's midway through week nine and the trim is about halfway done, and the windows will go in tomorrow. It seems like just a week ago that there was a hole in our roof.

We thought we'd share our picked paint colors with inquiring minds. However, keep in mind that these colors look pretty much nothing like the paint chips in "real life."


NOTE: Quiche Lorraine is so not pink; it's orange. Seriously.

POLL

So, on Flickr—that's the photo site I send you to weekly, do you see the comments I make about every photo? i.e. the "Helloooooo" on the image of me peeking out from the closet.

Flickr users: I'm putting the comment in the "title" portion, is that right?

Here are the latest photos so you can test it out:
Week 8: Primed!

Week 7: School's Out for Summer

Though it's been a while since our last post, the big news of the last two weeks has been the completion of the drywall. This past Thursday the dry wallers completed the patching and mudding process and beginning tomorrow, trim will be installed and primer applied to the walls. Let's get ready for some painting. For those of you who have had a hard time envisioning what the end result will look like, we shot this video (music courtesy of Dizzie Gillispie) to help you see how the upstairs will look upon completion:

It's June already??

We're into week seven here, folks. It's drywall time. Brock (Pat's employee) finished up all the insulation by himself last week and he installed the shower tile backer on Monday.

The drywallers will be here tomorrow to hang drywall, and it will be finished by the end of the week.

Next week is paint. Paint. Do you think we should have our paint colors picked by now? :-)

Ben and I are heading to dinner at local pub, Pause, to hold a dinner meeting to vote. Results will be shared.

Dog Day Afternoons

We're home. We're also catching up a week out, on press deadline and just plain tired.

The trip East was wonderful, not to mention warm. 90-degree, humid weather reminded us about summer in the swamp. Apparently, we trucked that weather back to Portland with us. It hit 92 yesterday, but hot & dry is more manageable than sticky. Sorry, Easterners....just remember to come visit during the summer.

Here's what's new. We returned home to dormer windows, a plumbing shipment (remind me to tell that story someday) and full siding on the dormer. Unfortunately, PC isn't feeling well this week, so Brock has been doing the work of two. He's put up 90% of our new insulation, ripped up all the carpet pad and a few other things. He also rocks out to some pretty good music, which has been enjoyable. Even with one guy on the job, it still seems we're moving faster than our neighbors can fathom. As an aside, both our neighbors did pretty major construction projects since we moved in. Let's just say we didn't use their contractors for a reason. Check out the latest progress at the latest photo set.

Tomorrow, Friday, the drywall is coming. The neighbors even have to move their fossilized Nissan Altima. Big stuff.

It's Electric!

We're in DC. For the next half hour. We'll be in Philly by noon. We're on the East Coast for Rana & Chris' wedding; Rana and I have been friends since the first grade ballet pageant. We're pretty darn excited. The DC detour involved a visit with Ben's sister Hendi & her man J, two ridiculously adorable nieces and a night out with 14 of our closest friends in DC. Fabulous.

In all the excitement of travel (a total of 11 full days this month that both Ben and I were home), we haven't taken many pictures. Week 5 doesn't even get its own album, but it does have its highlights:

1. Electricians came Monday and Tuesday to wire the new space. We now know where every outlet & switch will be placed. We also have to go lighting shopping, pretty quick. As in, yesterday.

2. On Tuesday, Steve, electrician #2 (and a huge fan of dimmers, by the by), left his keys in his van's middle console. No matter where you live, not a good idea. Steve's truck was driven off by an unknown perp at about 1pm. Exciting.

3. We're supposedly getting windows today. Update next week.

Have a great holiday weekend, folks, and thanks for stopping by!

Quiet on the Set

It's Friday. The only sound is people slowing to roll gently over the new speed table on our street (limit's going down to 30 MPH too, check out the article).

The contractors had off today and yesterday, I sort of miss the activity, I have to say. I'm inspired to vacuum, scrub and polish this house top to bottom (well, not the top level just yet). I've uploaded the last of this week's pictures and week four is now officially complete.

I have to say, it's nice to be home on a week day and hear the birds chirping. But I'm looking forward to next week: windows, electric and The Tub (more on that later). Tomorrow, Ben returns from a week in Boston. Just in time for the fun to begin again.

The New Wake Up Call

G'day, Gawkers! It's a sunny Tuesday in Portland, headed up to 77 degrees. Perfect for working on a house, I s'pose. Ben is in Boston for work this week; I bet he's not missing saw sounds during phone calls. He is missing the plumbing stack set up, but since it's running through his office, that's a good thing.

The season of sub-contractors has begun: plumbers & roofers this week, electrician the next. We're done with framing as of today, so as Harvey promises, it's about to become all about small, less dramatic process, right down to the trim.

One fun and very noticeable change this week is the addition of skylights. We added two in the master bedroom to make up for shrinking the room a bit. I took some pictures this morning and became keenly aware of just how much light they'll shed on our bed. I think we'll be investing in some shades or a sleeping mask, whichever works best. Check out the new view from my pillow:

Swift!

One thing we keep hearing is how fast things seem to be going. As of yet, we can't tell if it's just because none of you are living here, or perhaps things really are progressing smoothly and swiftly as it seems.

Check out the set to the right (Week 3.) We practically could sleep in the dormer at night. Well, on a clear, warm night with blankets. Lots of 'em.

Oh Yeah. This is really happening.

It's three days into week three and I have just returned from a business trip to Long Beach, CA for the Specialty Coffee Association of America conference. It was a good time (if not a little over-caffeinated).

Ben documented Day 1 of Week 3, when Pat and team ripped open the roof where our bathroom will be. This is a week chock full of BIG progress:

1. The roof came off on Monday
2. The master bathroom exterior walls were framed on Tuesday
3. The gable roof is being framed today, Wednesday
4. They expect to close up the hole by the end of this week.

Check it out!

May Showers

It's May 1. I'm not sure how that happened, but here we are. I'll take May 1 over Feb 1 any day, but today, the weather isn't living up to its May Flowers reputation. The May 1 forecast calls for rain, possible thunderstorms and even hail.

Portlanders all know to take that (or any) forecast with a grain of salt since things often shift rapidly, but Pat Casey (PC), Contractor, needs to be especially cautious. You see, this week, he wants to cut a hole in our roof. He's balancing the need for progress with a yucky forecast. In the end, Mother Nature won and we're going to get a few days off from big noise & dust. Pat will be back Friday to cut that hole in the roof.

Can't wait for pictures of that event!

Visions

It's the beginning of week two. This weekend, we got a chance to see what space our dormer will occupy as Pat & team knocked down the wall between our bedroom and old storage space that will soon be a full master bathroom. This week, if the weather holds, there will be a hole in our roof here:


We also got an understanding of the changes to our bedroom, which will be slightly smaller due to the new walk-in closet, but it will still be a nice size. And two skylights will open it up nicely.

If you haven't seen the architect's plans, visited or ever listened to us drone on about this project, this may all be a little hard to grasp, but trust us, it's cool. Plus, the architect's plans would not translate well into a digital image; check the Design & Details photos on the right-hand side of the blog.

Phase II Begins

The huge headache of permitting we had a week ago is over. Today, we've got a contractor in our house ordering windows.

That's right folks, construction has officially begun.

Here is the new view from our kitchen (note: that is not our dank, outside-for-six-months mattress).

The First Frustration

It's two months since our last post. And we're just THIS close to getting started. Our contractor was all ready to start this week. We moved out of our bedroom and into the first floor in preparation.

Then the city Permit Department happened. The last permit on our house was pulled in 1928, as a one story house. Interesting, because we bought a two-story house. But apparently the second floor isn't permitted so we have to prove that our first floor can support a second floor at all instead of just proving that our second floor can support a bathroom.

At this point, we're still hopeful it will all go through without a hitch, but keep your fingers crossed for us!

Geeking Out

It's a beautiful 60-degree Saturday afternoon, and while I *should* be outside, the computer lured me into a spreadsheet session. If you've ever worked with me, you know I love Microsoft (cough) Excel. I love the grid, the sortability and the calculations that spreadsheets add to any project—from a website launch plan to moving across the country.

This week, the theme has been "geeking out." You've fallen victim to it: you get so caught up in the details that suddenly making plans for a leisurely Sunday drive becomes a table full of maps, guidebooks and some reading to have along for the ride. First, on Thursday our architect Jennifer and a friendly, Tuba-playing structural engineer named Jeff stood in our hallway and pondered load-bearing calculations. The practically finished each other's sentences and shook measuring devices to make a point. They happily discovered that our little project won't require anything major, just a lateral beam to spread the load, located in a new wall we're building. This might make a little more sense if we share the plans someday.

Then, today, we headed over to the Parr Lumber to learn more about windows. We had a straightforward conversation with their sales guy who laid out the pros and cons and printed up a handy quote sheet. I was inspired to come home and peruse brochures, pick faucets and clean up our own little spreadsheet.

I like geek time.

P.S. Mom, I know my room was a mess growing up (and it still might be if it weren't for Mr. Ben, Tina). If it helps, I think this geek thing is more about obsession than, um, neatness. :-)

Still Intact

Welcome! If you're here, you've been invited to follow our first experience with construction as homeowners.

First, a little history: In June 2005, Ben and I purchased a home in the Arbor Lodge neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, located in the North "quadrant" of The Rose City. Our English-style house was built in 1929 and has three bedrooms and one full bathroom. We looked for about three months before we found it; on our first tour of the house, we fell in love with its warm charm, bright & cozy kitchen, spacious basement (big enough for both band practice and exercise) and a second floor bonus room. Our beautiful, high-celinged master bedroom is on the second floor, but the only bathroom is between two bedrooms on the first floor. While there is more than enough room in our home for us and the two kitties, when nature calls in the middle of the night or when guests stay over, we often wish for a master bathroom. Well, in late 2006, for better or for worse, we signed papers on a line of credit that will allow us to make this dream a reality.

Now, we have preliminary design done and a contractor selected—the fun is just beginning. Stay tuned for more developments and feel free to advise, sympathize and just plain smile.