and poof! a roof!

Just stopped by the house after being away a week.
they have the framework of the roof up already!

all that new space to the left where the man is on the 2nd floor is the new master bedroom suite!

This opening is at the end of the new master bedroom. there will be a small balcony.
I will ask Greg to climb up and throw pebbles at my window.
More importantly, I will know the weather without having to go downstairs first. happiness is.

the entrance to the 2 car garage, only one opening yet.

The inside of the 2 car garage. space for TWO cars. yippieeeeeeee

More framing

The upstairs rooms looking out from Seth's window

downstairs now has a ceiling

looking up from our eat-in

the new basement that was dug out--the rec room

Steal me some Steel

There was no progress at the house end of last week and early this week due to lack of steel...  I suppose its a good thing to wait for the sturdy stuff that will hold up the floors of our house but it was discouraging none the same.  I took Daniel to the house the other day and we walked through. He seemed ok with the changes so far.

Thursday and Friday, the guys were busy putting in the steel rods that have been delivered and laid across my front yard in a stripe like fashion making walking to the front door into a military exercise. 

You can start to see the second floor.

where the 2 guys are squatting is the new master suite

The second floor

the view from Sethy's room.  Through here will be the buddy bath, then Daniel's new room and then beyond that the stairs. Look at the guys walking the plank...

We were supposed to have ordered kitchen cabinets by Friday. It now is delayed to Monday due to pulls and knobs. really? If it were someone else's project I'd say that's so stupid. Sadly, it is MY kitchen and MY delay. They have pulls that don't have matching knobs and if they do, the finishes don't match. really? if i were to be reincarnated into a pull, knobs maker I'd just make sets. Sets. not so hard to come up with a SET that comes in the SAME finish for pulls AND knobs. the pure simplicity of this idea probably makes it impossible to comprehend like could it just BE this easy?  sigh.

No More Second Chances

On a recommendation from my builder and from a very close friend, I used a company called Second Chance to donate my appliances.  I had two kitchens, 4 bathrooms and some other odds and ends that were available for charity.  Let me just say that I will not work with this group again. Perhaps they are understaffed, perhaps there are so many people wanting to donate that my stuff was not that exciting for them.

First off, I called the main number and spoke to someone, who told me to take pictures of my appliances and email to another person.  That person then directed me to a third person who was in charge of pick up.  Even though I sent pictures of every bathroom, both kitchens and other items, it was as if they didn't know what I wanted to donate.  Then, when I asked questions about what stuff they wanted, like hooks? curtain rods? doors? windows? screens? the woman suggested that she deal with my contractor.  Somehow my contractor then requested that I deal with this woman directly and that was the end.  oh, and there was a fee for them to disconnect my appliances.  After asking my contractors to remove my cabinets and appliances, I emailed (again, with pictures) to schedule a pick up. At this point, I gave up on asking what they may want and just gave them what I thought they would want. No response. I waited a week. Then I did my phone/email/vmail attack daily until I finally was able to schedule a date.  The TIME? not so much. They said they'd call me on Thursday. They never did. They said on the DAY OF pick up that they'd be there at 10 but they'd for SURE call me before pickup to meet me there.  No calls. nothing. coincidentally Daniel had a 102 fever and was riding along with me all day waiting for this call... which came at 11a. with the guy already at my house. Weren't you going to call me? I asked? and he said oh yeah, but I had the wrong number. Now, this guy Luis was very very very nice so I have nothing against him but man, really? it was major work to give stuff away. 

Also, the stove was still connected and the upstairs bathrooms are still intact so I still have those items to give away but this time, I will use Habitat for Humanity.

I thought I may write a letter to complain to Second Chance but I think that I will leave them alone. 1. I'm too lazy at this point and 2. I'd rather have them live in ignorance and just lose business by their unique non-responsive business practice.

I'm done venting, for now.

 

They got a wall in China, its a thousand miles long...

We've got some walls up too.

windows of the new family room--replacing the old sun room

A view of where the stairs going up and down will be

The new kitchen and breakfast nook

From the backyard facing the back of the house:

the two big openings will open to the screened in porch, the three rectangular openings will be the windows from our eat-in

Break on through to the other side

This morning the kitchen wall came down.
We have officially broken through to the otherside.

Not a peep from Second Chance, the company supposedly in the business of acquiring donated appliances (for a fee if they do the removal... what? huh?).  Really? I have appliances. lots of them. they all work. Next week I have decided to hire sky writers in Baltimore (where they are based) and beg them to come pick up stuff that they say they really want... really???  or just contact the founder of the organization who happens to be a friend of a friend and share with him my ideas for updates and changes to his Standard Operating Procedure.  This may turn out to be a highlight rather than a frustration after all... silver lining and all that.

Now for the good stuff... pictures!

I think we are looking out onto where our new eat in will be.

another view of the wall that opens to our new space.  The branch is a sacred ritual all workmen perform when breaking through walls--JK apparently they uncovered a huge bees nest and were swatting at them. 

the view from the outside

more sacred rituals--actually this guy was the one who was trying to explain to me about the bees, while swatting, and I think cursing in Spanish.  a brief comical moment.