Post-Move-in Update

I almost forgot how to do this, it's been so long. But, don't worry, it's all coming back. After 80-something posts, I don't think I'll forget everything too soon.

So, the construction toilet finally left on July 14th - not sorry to see that go away. That puts the elapsed time (toilet-to-toilet time) just under 11 months.



Just to refresh your memory (or for those relatively new to this project), we started here back on August 18th, 2008:

And ended up here 11 months later:

Backyard view:

We're pretty settled at this point, though we are still suffering from "moveinitis" - boxes still to be unpacked, furniture to be sold, art to be hung, stuff to be stuffed, etc. Oh, and the front yard landscaping has yet to be done.

However, the girls are pretty completely settled. Their rooms are almost complete and they look great. Here's Rebecca's room, complete with 8000 or so Webkinz on their own perch(es).

The girls also discovered the fun that can be had playing on the stairs. It turns out that the railing makes a great slide for the Webkinz, and the upper landing is a good launching point for parachute drops and bungee jumps.

The house is pretty stunning overall - we're lucky the owners are letting us live in it. The place is really bright, so we are living with some less-than-attractive paper shades on the bedroom windows for the moment.

It turns out that getting shades and drapes for a modern house is harder than it seems like it should be. Everyone wants to sell you the "usual stuff" - regardless if it looks like crap, or covers big portions of glass, or looks like grandma's house (a generic grandma, I might add, not a specific one). A few windows won't be too hard, but we've got a few really tricky ones, like the front corner window (check out the finished Chicipate wood on the sill - it looks awesome! That was a good call.)



I'm guessing we'll end up fabricating something pretty customized in a few places, but that probably means paper shades for quite some time.

We are also getting art hung and ceiling fixtures installed. I had to machine a custom angled ceiling adapter for the crystal Cellula chandelier in the dining room, so that turned out to be a project.



(We just sold the Teak dining set shown in the picture today, so we are now very excited to be finally using our new table and chairs - I'll post a pic of that in the future - it looks great!)

It turns out that we have direct, Western sun coming in the window right at dinner time, so we got a big surprise on the first night - the crystals refract and reflect the sunlight into about 2000 spots all around the front room.

It's now become a nightly tradition, waiting for the "show to start" - it only lasts a short time, maybe 20-30 minutes. I suspect that this will only happen this time of the year when the sun angles are just right. We'll let you know.

And what of "Birds, Birds, Birds" you ask? Well, it's turned out to be a cleaning and refurb project out in the garage. If things go according to plan, Ken (our electrician) will be here tomorrow to help us install it in the stairwell.

Stay tuned for that!