Progress, continued

We now have four sides with clapboard.  The remaining exterior tasks include 7 windows on the third floor and the stair tower. 

The two large emergency exit windows that are required on the third floor were in when I stopped by yesterday.  Today, they trim out the exterior of the windows and move on to the three stair tower windows that you can see in this photo.  They are the ones that look like pulled teeth.

 Here's the mighty NayNay working on the emergency windows:

The Manly Carpenter

This is the kitchen entrance.  See the nice new door?  It has an inset blind that can be lowered in the evening.  So cool.  That icky railing will go and be replaced with a nice traditional wooden one.  Ted will also cover the steps in wood.  Or, I could paint the steps some crazy color.  Day glow something....


Last weekend Jeremy came over and yanked out all the awful bushes along the far back side of the house. He yanked out the roots as well.

Now it's ready for a fence if I can ever get the fence company to revise its proposal.  I would really like to put in the back fence this fall--just because. As you can also see, the leaves are changing.  It's September! Oy, New England...  We have three nice maples (beautifully trimmed of course) that will provide some stunning red color.

This is a picture of the wall which will separate the dining room from the kitchen.  The sink will be on the far side; the cherry dining counter will be on the near side of the peninsula.

The master builder was on a mission when I got to the house yesterday, so I have no more to report.  I will try to prize out some information from him this afternoon.  (Grumpy Ted)

Backyard Post Script

The way it looks now

3/4s There

Clapboard keeps appearing on the house. Now three sides are complete.  Here is the front:

Here's the back:

Tomorrow the guys will start on the garage side.  Ted will install the new kitchen door, while Nathan and Jeremy whale away on the siding.  Both Ted and I are taking off early this week, so the stair tower will not get its dress until next week.  Ted figures that by the end of September the outside of the house will be winterized.  He also thinks we will get our rough plumbing, heating  and electrical permits by then.  That means that we can move on to insulation and then drywall.

Ted will not rebuild the front porch or the garage until the spring.  He says he wants to get the interior done first, so we can move in.

It's not just the what, it's also the why

Living on Forbes Avenue gives me this:

My bike ride today.  It's the end of tomato season, and the pumpkins are ready...

Yellow is the Color of my True Love's Hair

 Remember this lovely place?

Well, TedNathanJeremy have been giving it a facelift, complete with new windows and Tyvek.  Last week they started putting on the trim. We had to wait to get the clapboard because the arboists were hard at work in the yard.  Their trucks and equipment overwhelmed the job site.

Finally, on Monday afternoon,  the good stuff arrived.


The boychicks started siding on the right side of the house because the staging was still there after trimming it out. The first day, they got a little done.  Ted said he needed to figure out his "system."  It involves something with a DUMMY STICK.  I am not sure if that is a measuring tool or something with which to beat Nathan and Jeremy. They got a little done on Tuesday:

That's Ted in the jaunty cap

On Wednesday, the mighty Nathan went away for a job interview. (He actually has a Masters in Engineering.  This is his "dad" gig.) So, TedJeremy worked a bit on the front.

 

Today was kind of rainy on and off, so I thought the guys would work indoors.  I was wrong.
 

My beautiful, beautiful  house....

Ted says tomorrow they will side the back. Goody.

I Talked to the the Trees, but they Didn't Listen to Me

First, there was a forest.

Then, there was Cory.

And, Guess what he did?

He worked and he worked, and he chopped and sawed and chopped until:

  

Then, he hauled it all away.

 Next comes a decorative fence.

Progress is good.

Summer Ends and We Begins the Next Phase

Today is Labor Day, and in New England it signifies the end of summer.  It's particularly true here in the 5 college area because the students are back.  The construction job feels a little the same.  We have pretty much finished phase one.  The interior framing is done, and the old clapboard is gone.

Down in the basement, Austin (who is  a friend of Number 2 son) has painted all the trim in preparation for installation this first week of September. The new clapboard is scheduled for delivery tomorrow at the same time our giant trees are scheduled to come down.

Watch this space for the big exterior transformation.  Ted says it may take less than a month.

We have moved into a couple of other phases as well. Chet, the plumber, spent this past weekend completing all the rough plumbing.  This is Chet:

This is his plumbing:

I spent about 2 hours with the electrician on Friday.  We walked through the house and ran through the electrical system.  I had a plan for which switches turn on and off which lights.  It gets tricky when you aren't sure where all your furniture is going. You have to imagine yourself using the house.  What do you do when you walk in the front door? The side door?  What do you want illuminated when you come downstairs in the middle of the night? Once you turn on the stair lights, how do you turn them off when you go upstairs?  We have all lived in houses with complicated light switches.  Or, too many light switches.  Here's an example of what I mean:

This is a bank of switches in our apartment.  Neither of us can ever remember which switch does what.  We have to keep a piece of tape on the one on the far left because it turns off the power to the modem. It looks like I will have one too big bank of  switches as well though.  There doesn't seem to be any way to avoid it on the kitchen wall near the dining room. I keep telling myself not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

I also made some decisions about kitchen lighting.  We were going to use cable lights in the kitchen.  They are more expensive than recessed lighting, they are more versatile -- you can point them in various directions -- and they are pretty cool looking.  However, we have decided to use this fixture over the island:

Martha thinks that this AND cable lighting is too much cable.  I agree.   So, we will use 3"cans.

I think they are LEDs and have a nice illumination.

We were unable to get the handmade globes for the dining room, so I had to look for a pendant for the table that wouldn't fight with the the kitchen fixture.  I remembered our lighting on Worcester Street:

I rummaged around and found it:

Apropos of nothing, I also chose bath fixtures: