DAY 485: Granite Installed! I Can Almost See The Finish Line!

 

DAY 483: Stained

The wood is done!  Stained to match (as close as possible) the cupboards:

DAY 482: Wood Floor Down! Sheetrock Patches

George turned that pile of wood into this:

After the family read-a-thon at the elementary school I went to the house to work.  George has stained and laid down the first coat of varnish.  It is b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l! We love it! I will take a picture tomorrow.  You will say "wow" too!

Tim came to do dry wall patches.  He had to put scaffolding up to reach the ceiling above the stairs (ah...look at Brent and Cole's pretty banister!).  

Did I tell you that ceiling light story?  One of the workers in Home Depot stopped us in the lighting section and steered us to the clearance section.  We found two pendant lights, each $24.00.  They had been over $100.00.  Brent and I couldn't find anything that "wowed" us so we bought the $24.00 special.  Someday we will replace them when we find the perfect lights.  At this point, the lights get us into the house and that's all we care about.  So when you visit our house, just know that those two pendant lights are place holders, not something we intentionally chose.

To continue...
There are patches in the kitchen...

 Patches in Sierra's blue room (evidence of the leak--gone!)...

 Patches in three bathroom ceilings...

 Patches in the kitchen...

 Patches in the shower....

 This is my favorite-the patch to cover the two exposed water hoses!

Brent worked on the furnace tonight.  The pump isn't working again and he's trying to figure it out with the help of Rob.  I sealed the grout in the master bath/shower.  Then I moved to the food storage room and caulked all the baseboards.  The end.

PS Dear Camille, come to Utah to visit soon!

DAY 479: Flooring Delivered and Range Hood is UP!!

Brent took the day off of work to be at the house.  First we cleaned out the living room to make way for the wood! It was delivered today since our house is now breathing (YAY!  We finally have geothermal heat!). The wood is now all spread out in the living room.  Just waiting.  Soaking up the awesome environment of our concrete home.  I had to buy an oscillating fan to circulate the air. That's trickier than you would think in January.  With all our freezing temps these days in Utah, cooling off doesn't seem to be on a lot of people's minds. 

Last night Brent and I installed the range hood.  No, it's not white...it's just the protective plastic coating.  It's beautiful stainless steel, just like the other appliances.  (I wonder when I will look at the stainless steel and think it's outdated.  I remember clearly thinking about a new fridge "and it's a beautiful almond bisque, not white like all the other fridges".  Yep, Almond Bisque.).

It was a bit awkward putting up the hood.  I spent most of the time holding up the hood against the wall with it balanced on my head as Brent worked to find the brackets inside the foam (that's why we rarely have action shots when I'm involved).  But "yay" for success!  That thing is firmly attached to the wall.

This afternoon I received an email from a very good friend with an offer to help.  She noticed in my window that my tree is still up. (The poor tree is a bit frazzled, ornaments are all out of place, looks like a cat got inside and ran around--except we have no pets)

She offered to come help put it away.  If you know my friend, you know that she is sincere with her offer and that she would be embarrassed if I mentioned her name. It was a specific and unique offer for service, one that I will always remember.  A perfect example of a well thought out idea instead of "call me if you need help!"

I have another sweet, kind friend who lets me know frequently "call me when it's time to clean!" (She means it and I will call her) 

I am touched by the generous help offers.  I have been so grateful for friends and family who have watched out for me during this project.  It has been amazing, wonderful, and I will be forever grateful that you helped carry me!

But I do kindof like still seeing the tree.  It's a constant reminder that I'm only eleven months away from celebrating Christmas in our concrete home. You can bet that it's going to be wonderful for us. We may have missed this past Christmas in our new home but I have so much to look forward to!

Our moving date is coming.  We still don't have a specific date. But I know it is closer because boxes are now inhabiting our living room. I feel like collecting boxes so that's a good sign of confidence.   I even had friends who brought me boxes from their son's move (thanks!!). 

 

DAY 476: The Grand Arrival of the Fridge!

Ta-Dah!  It's a fridge!  Just delivered 15 minutes ago! (A dishwasher came along too)

We also have a partial victory...the electric back up on the furnace is working!!  When I walked into the house this afternoon this is what I read:

 

Now that's some good news!  

DAY 471: More Cupboards Again!

This is what appeared today:

More cupboards!!!!  We have a few bugs to work out...like some of the cupboard doors don't meet in the middle.  We'll get it fixed, as has been our tradition for the past few months.  Brent and Rob spent the evening on that ol' furnace.  Brent was dumping gallons of water in the tank as I left.

Brent is taking the day off of work tomorrow.  I will take Brent here:

 Arizona Tile in SLC (West Valley)!!! http://www.arizonatile.com/locations/locations-utah.aspx   It is an amazing show room filled with granite and marble slabs.  I've been to quite a few show rooms lately, but this one was my favorite. 

 Pretty sure that White Springs is the winner!  Tomorrow at 11:30 they will pull out four slabs/two sets of "twins".  We have to pick a set of "twins" for our kitchen.  

 Our cupboard stain looks so red against the granite.  White Springs is a light granite with gray, black, white, burgundy, and cream.  It fits everything that we have going on in our kitchen. 

 It is not a granite that has a ton of movement (that makes me dizzy) and it is not monotonous. There is just enough variation in pattern to give us something to talk about. 

We will head up to SLC after I get my replacement license.  Lost it somewhere yesterday morning (drat).  I have a bad habit of taking it out of my wallet when I drive Miss Maya to swim team in the morning.  It was there when I took her to swim, but gone when I went to pick her up.  It is a mystery and it has disappeared into the same black hole in our house that is holding Sierra's necklace hostage. 

 I was reminded today of something I read in the December 2012 Ensign.  It helped me during the Christmas season as I rehearsed the story in my mind:
In 1876 the St. George Utah Temple was nearing completion. The dedication ceremony for the basement, main room, and sealing room was scheduled for January 1, 1877.⁸ With Christmas just seven days before the dedication, many in St. George worked frantically to help ensure the temple was completed in time.

President Wilford Woodruff, who served as the first president of the temple, recorded in his journal that on Christmas day the men were busy at work with buzz saws and that 40 women spent the whole day in the temple sewing carpets. They laid carpet and put up curtains.⁹

Although they nearly didn’t finish in time, their offering that Christmas season was worth the effort. This work was their Christmas celebration. With 2,000 people present on January 1, President Woodruff gave the dedicatory prayer for portions of the temple—over 30 years after Latter-day Saints had been forced to abandon the Nauvoo Temple.

Work, gotta' love it.  I'm grateful for a husband who understands the importance of work.  I hope it is passed down to our kidlettes--we're sure trying hard to make that happen!

DAY 465: More Cabinets, Master Shower, Copper Lines and Charged Lines!

 I feel like busting out with the Hallelujah Chorus!  Celebration!  The cabinets are being installed! 

 This is a little nook/bookshelf that will snug up to one of the windows.  The DeWalt stereo will not make an appearance in our final kitchen. 

 Randy is almost done with the tile in the master shower.  He just needs to grout!  It looks great!

 Brent and Rob and soldered yards of copper tubing.  They are getting closer.  Getting this furnace up and running has been a monumental task. 

Yesterday the fellows from Geo Comfort came and charged our lines.  I really wanted to watch them fill the lines with water and methanol alcohol (the anti-freeze).  Instead Brent and I went into crisis management mode. Two of our apartments flooded--frozen pipe.  It's been a crazy two days trying to get that all semi-resolved.  Since we have so much going on we have contracted with a restoration company and will make a claim on insurance.  In the meantime we are working with our tenants to keep them comfortable.

Had another "drat" moment yesterday....
Remember the house being built next to us....the one I thought we would FOR SURE beat to the finish line? 
 http://www.ourconcretehome.blogspot.com/2012/10/day-386-relief-is-spelled-l-d-d-e-r-s.html

As I drove past yesterday I saw their truck for the paint crews.  Drat.  They might win the contest.  However, we might have a chance--the house is for sale.  Wanna' be our neighbor?  Just buy the house after we move into ours so we can win. 

Day 462: Granite

For as long as I can remember I wanted quartz counter tops.  I love the look of quartz, it's controlled, it's precise, and it's not busy. But as I have been shopping around I changed my tune.  I still LOVE quartz, but have discovered that it is much more expensive compared to granite.

As I visited one of the showrooms they pointed out  a fireplace with a quartz surround.  They fired up the gas stove for a fairly good period of time.  The quartz cracked.  Split from corner to edge.  The resin in the quartz couldn't take the heat.  This is a showroom that sells granite, quartz, all types of counter tops. They have nothing to gain by showing the problems with quartz.  It changed my mind about quartz.  We cook SO much as a family and we are generally tough on our counter tops, so granite it is.

My head is spinning with the choices. I still want something simple, controlled, not busy for the eye and one that will compliment the rest of the house.

The photos don't express at all the beauty of the stone or the lovely colors.  Of course the first slab I looked at and loved was more than three times our budget.  I guess I have good taste?  But here are a few samples within our budget:

This one above surprised me.  Surprised that I liked it.  It had such beautiful multiple colors and movement.  Everything I said that I wasn't looking for in a granite.  My most favorite slab is not here (this is Contempo Tile) but at Arizona Tile so I need to head up to SLC.  It's a beautiful white with burgandy, gray and black.

Looking at all the samples reminded me a favorite mission Souvenir from Switzerland.  My Tissot Rock Watch :

This is not my actual watch but mine is exactly like this.  It's in storage somewhere and I sure would love to get it working again.  It was such a huge deal in Europe in the 80's. Made of granite.  Maybe it's a sign...

We had to extend our loan again for 6 weeks (I actually just typed "years" which made me laugh). That January 5th deadline passed too quickly.  Oh well.  We still have much to do but getting the banister done was a huge huge huge accomplishment.  My yellow pad (reminds me of my Dad) "to do" list is filled.  Brent keeps his own list in his pocket in a Moleskine (his favorite, a love he passed on to Cole).  Every day we knock a few more things off our list!

On Saturday my friend Annette and her husband Alan dropped by.  I was on hands and knees filling baseboard holes with Crawford putty.  She was so energetic and complimentary (thanks Annette!) and said "It's changed so much since we have been here!"  I just remember responding doubtfully "Really?"  She visited a month ago.  It's nice that others can see big progress because sometime I feel like we're living the "Groundhog Day"  movie over and over and over.  But that's a great movie.....and this is a great concrete house!  

Off I go to tackle some more house tasks!