Pile of Shingles

I've learned a few things over the course of this project but here are my two most recent learnings: (1) I have nice taste. My nice taste consistently costs $600 more than the lower option. (2) If I like something, it will be backordered just when we really need it. The latest thing to be backordered is the kitchen sink. It feels oddly poetic since there are a million sink varieties out there but zero indication of quality for all but two - Kohler and Rohl. I never thought it would be a challenge to get my hands on a 30 inch white apron front sink. It feels like asking a grocery store if they have any bread.  But, it turns out - all Kohler sinks are backordered for MONTHS. Depending on which website you look at you'll see 4-6 weeks or 14-16 weeks. Those people saying 4-6 weeks are liars. I honestly thought this was a joke. The kitchen sink is so flipping important. I need it in order for the cabinets to be installed. So, no sink means no cabinets which also means ...

Update: I still hate plumbing fixtures. To this point, we've done made a lot of decisions but really just for the showers and bathtub situations and that leaves all the sinks faucets. I'm a little unclear why I can never find exactly what I want especially given the plethora of options out there generally. Kitchen Faucet I have no idea why they call this style faucet "semi-professional" but whatever. I like this style because it's compact and theoretically has clean lines. I like it creates only one hole in the counter and that the sprayer is incorporated in the overall unit. There are models where the sprayer is more of a pull-out style but I always feel like they don't pull out super smoothly. The only two options I'm considering right now are from American Standard and Kohler. There are actually a lot of options available that are really cheap .... but you get what you pay for and there is a reason why that faucet is only $200. I wish these two ...

It was a real light week at the house. To the point where I almost thought about skipping this post and merging it with next week - but that would feel like cheating... and we've come so far. The biggest thing that happened this week was nearly finishing the first floor floors. I'm honestly not sure what's really happening they keep talking about number of coats but I do know that anything that is going to be a wood floor is now a wood floor. Around mid-week there was this panicky moment about what color to stain the replacement wood floors. All of the old wood floors just got a couple coats of poly to bring out the natural color and while the new floors would never perfectly match the old, the stain color would help. If this was a different project, I would have gravitated towards a much different darker choice - but the goal here was that the floors match... not that I pick my favorite choice. Weird I know. After a lovely 7 am meeting with the stain guy Greg, we...

I am thankful that I haven't really thought about lighting until this point. The amazing and terrible thing about lighting is that there are SO MANY options. And even beyond that, there are a plethora of legitimate websites that sell lighting - unlike the bathtub research. When I approached the lighting list, the first thing I did was make a list of all the places that I needed to figure out lighting. This act helped the whole process much more approachable. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by picking lights for a whole house, it was much easier. For example, I wasn't searching for "kitchen lights" I was searching for "kitchen pendant lights". That may not seem like a big difference but trust me it is. So here's the list of all the lights. Right off the bat I farmed out the exterior non-decorative lights to my dad. He loves a good spotlight and I could really give a hoot. He just needs to pick them and get them approved by my mom. I'm not even giving ...

And welcome to the week where I actually crossed items off my list. I literally went to 9 stores today of which 2 were for food and 5 were for the house. There is a day in the not so distant future when I'll spend my weekends going to yoga and not harassing lighting store people for better pricing. I like to think that I'm not the worst person to work with. I'm very friendly. I'm on my game like 85% of the time. I remember that your kid had soccer or that your mom is sick. But - yes, I will ask you for better pricing. You don't have to give it to me, but I'm going to ask about it because this is real life. A perfect example of this would be the lighting. Here's a little timeline: went to the store on Saturday to pick out features sent them my requested order on Sunday night got a quote with 25% off on Tuesday on Wednesday I called to ask about another light and to see if that was the "best pricing". Answer = yes. I asked what if I pick u...

At this point each week is more about a burst of progress in one area. The house is so far along that it's kind of hard for multiple people to be doing their work all at once. Like the tile guy can't really do his tile stuff because the wood floor guy is doing his stuff. Theoretically they could, but it just wouldn't be as efficient. So this week was really all about the wood floors. Outside of this, my to-do list was pretty much outdoors related. I really need to nail down the landscaping asap. Like a few other areas of this project, I'm glad that I haven't rushed into any decisions. The downside of not *initially* rushing is that there are ultimate deadlines for these things... and then I end up kind of hurrying to nail down the details before that deadline. In this case the landscaping has a rapidly approaching deadline called nature. Apparently you just aren't supposed to plant anything in the month of June. So, I'm really coming close to the dead...

Oh the kitchen. I had no idea that this was the most expensive room in the whole house. Thankfully I enjoy cooking because man alive, this would be painful if you don't. The interesting thing about this whole process to me is that I don't 100% know where everything is going or how it will all look together. I think earlier in this whole process, I needed to know everything. Now? There are so many decisions to be made that I operate under the principle that I'm only working with people that I trust their decision making. Because of that I am not as worried about which cabinet is in which spot. I appreciate the way the kitchen designer thinks and her thought process, she knows what I don't like - so, I trust that she is putting things in the right places. If I had an unlimited amount of free time, I might have a different approach to this whole parade... but I don't. So here is where we are to date. The only item still up in the air for the kitchen is the counter...

Lots happening this week. Every day we are getting a bit closer to the end of the construction phase... and closer to the actual "live in house" phase. Lofty goal right? There was a whole lot of action in a bunch of areas. Like I finally bought the vanities and I finally bought the kitchen cabinets. The wood flooring also started up. The original wood floors stayed put for much of the construction. We did pull up the flooring in a few places (new master bathroom + old dining room) and stored it in the garage over the winter. The plans has been to use the existing flooring to patch all the spots on the 2nd floor ... and in other places. It's really exciting. I'm not exactly sure how long it will be before this whole thing is done. Although there are no more gaping holes in the wall or crumbling foundations, the lead time on the remaining items can be lengthy. It apparently takes 5-7 weeks for the kitchen cabinets to show up. I was not expecting that. For what it&#...