Which one of these is not like the other?

OK, so I have now two somewhat major, but not incorrectable situations with our GC. First, our courtyard steps and which direction I should push? Check them out and if you think one looks better (the sketch or the actual), let me know! My 'vision' is the sketch and the pictures are the current existing situation with my contractor. . . .so we have to correct this, this week to keep on schedule as best we can! Oh joy.

Second is the Fireplace built-in, but that creates an entire chimney atop itself. . .

Currently the Fireplace is designed to havebuilt-ins on either side (the electrical and water heater are in the process of being moved, so ignore them); We had watned to vent through the existing chimney there but it was for a boiler and so code wouldn't let us. We are asking them to run the vent farther back, so its not striaght up as I think it's going to cause us to have electrical/TV issues above it.

Larger look at the room and placement- around it will be an entire wall of bookshelves and/or cabinets on either side- we are trying to get them to move the venting back towards the wall so that it runs up the cinderblock and not against the planned-TV area.

The current exit from the family room to the courtyard

Another angle at the opening

My expected 'vision' (note the 9-10' wide stairs)

Second is the Fireplace built-in, but that creates an entire chimney atop itself. . .

And the Honeymoon is officially over. . .

So I think most general contractors are akin to an errant, but good-hearted boyfriend. There are so many good things that you do like, but the bad things that are just a matter of mis-communication, can really get to you. . .and so I think this week was my boiling point with one such issue. I had been throughly enjoying the progress as it went and watching now (this week- ending 7.24) the siding is up on the additions and the masonry and roofs are on the bay windows and so I didn't really take a good look until our morning tour with family this Sunday when I noticed a hole in my slate roof and venting from the gas fireplace taking up a HUGE amount of space in our family room. None of which I was either consulted on, or, more importantly, approved of.

And I know drywall is supposed to start on Monday (or was) because I hate the new 'look' so much, I think that we actually may just scrap the whole fireplace if they can't do what they told me they would. . .and further I am annoyed that NOT ONE PERSON ASKED me if that was OK. I know that it wasn't the plan, because we almost ordered cabinet that would have had to be fit over the new chase and I don't think we can have the TV we expected there over the fireplace. One of two things happened: My GC wasn't consulted and then its entirely his sub's fault (which I hope is the case) or my GC was consulted and just made the decision or forgot to tell me. Of course, I think communication with GC is very important and equally important is his ability to communicate properly and appropriately with the people who are paying for such things. So much on my rant. But I am boiling and this has probably shit my Sunday away quite nicely as I am not sure when I will get an answer about what the H*LL is going on with my house!

Below are last week's pictures (ending 7.17), of the progress with Windows, doors and the rest of the rough-ins (which, also, I note, if are what we expect, are not complete either. . .so I hope my GC understands that. . .) I will hope it's his sub's minscommunication so I can keep 'dating' him without being tempered by this concern.

The new 'view' from the family room.

View of the 'mudroom' from the entryway (via garage) [washer'dryer on the right under window] and the bathroom framed on the left.

View of the exterior from the driveway (both new bay windows and framed out pantry).

View of the Garage and mudroom addition from the driveway.

View of family room from the kitchen.

View of the soon-to-be pantry

View of the new window seat/family room window.

View of the kitchen from the family room doors.

Exterior View of the new windows in the corner (and subsequent masonry to match).

View of the Sliding Glass doors.

Colors Anyone? Anyone?

Probably my biggest question (aside from the pendant lighting, the kitchen plumbing fixtures, etc.) is what color is the parts of this room that can be painted, going to be painted? Aghh! So after some debate, I am leaning towards using an Indigo pattern and closely matched wall color. Granted, there will be a lot of light in this room, and I would like to get to a true blue, just on the dark side, I think I could then accent the room with a brighter, fun color, like a yellow, ORANGE, or red. I believe the patterns go in the OPPPOSITE order of how my preference would be. I hope to upload and post our last week's progress soon, but forgot the pesky uploading portion of my duties!

Water, Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink!

So this week in the lives of the Kirkebabies means rain coming through 2 stories of your house, always at night and always when Daddy Kirkeby is working late! So Mama Kirkeby gets to deal with all of the mess herself.

Just after our last post on July 1, the rain started and as I was getting ready to head to bed, I hear and see water everywhere in the foyer of the house. We had Niagara Falls sprinkling on our steps and around our molding and in the paint. Thankfully it required mostly just me over-moping the floors with towels and then finding a place to hang these now wet towels once it stopped raining. Now any of you who know the foyer, know that it is on the first story of 2 stories. So you, ask, 'How does water make it through 2 stories?'

I asked myself the same thing, in an attempt to find where the water was coming from. Once I got upstairs to our *new* officespace (e.g. converted attic 18 months ago), I witness water coming in between the cracks of the draywall, pockets of water in the paint, drips coming through the hardwood floors and the lovely sound of what i thought was a hose between the walls of my house. So I totally freaked, attempting, like a cartoon holding a balloon with more leaks than fingers, to contain each of the many leaks and water entering my house and wondering 'when will the rain stop?'! So what seemed like an eternity was a storm that was less than a hour and damage that required these enormous fans plugged into our walls to attempt to remediate/alleviate the amount of moisture plaster attracts.

Good news: the upstairs dried itself out, so all we have are plaster, drywall and wood molding to replace, along with some new trim or fixed trim, depending on whether it dries itself out. Bad News, on top of not having a *real* kitchen, and living in our makeshift kitchen in the dining room, we now have the added pleasure of having them demo the plaster ceiling in the foyer of the house to get the wet plaster out. Why does this bother me? Because they are basically demo-ing wet, 60 year olf plaster with what is probably lead paint and I have 2 children under 4 and they eat about 20 feet from the demo.
Good news: they pay for just about everything inside the house to repair (less our, thank god we kept it low deductible).
Bad news: If it rains agian, it will come back in the house.
Bad news: I can't get a roofer to do this repair for at least a week and we are forecasted thunderstorms Thursday through the weekend.
Good news: They are making progress on the remodel while we live in what seems like eternal hell....

So what I had intended to post last week, I will post now. Here are the pictures of our progress from around July 6. . . .

View of the boys outside the family room-soon-to-be-bay window

View from the family room to the kitchen

View of the patio area (where they cut the soon-to-be-9' patio door and the 2 window- one old and one newly cut on the corner)

My contruction workers helping 'fix their house'

View from the driveway of the 2 new openings for the kitchen bay window and then the family room bay window-'seat.'

And Time Marches on. . .

View of the Garage entry

View of the garage and the mudroom addition.

View of the inside of the garage (and all the old cabinets!)

Vie of the garage from the patio outside

View of the house/addition from the patio outside(window where there will be doors)

I know I spoke too soon about GCs moving fast as we are now about 1/2 way into week #3 with little to no progress. I know this happens, but come on, 3 weeks! I am the one living with no kitchen, no laundry and a kitty box in my soaking tub!

Anyway, I think they are starting to do stuff this week (or they tell me so and I came home to the smell of plumbers glue). But the last stuff done is what I am posting from my June 28 pictures of the progress. Just about everything has the external structures that are supposed to be there, in place. Next step: windows and doors!

Cabinets, Appliances and Counters, oh my! Cabinets, Appliances and Counters!

Our 'bar area' Icemaker/Undercounter Fridge

The Miele Optima II Dishwasher

The very indecisively decided Double Wall Ovens (Electrolux Icon Professional)

And one of the stars of the show: the Wolf rangetop 4 burner and griddle in the middle

And finally, the Subzero BI36 series with 'air scrubber' system to take the Ethelene out of the air

Enough to drive a girl insane. And I know I am not the only one as I 'troll' the gardenweb home site and try to make sure that I am doing the right thing. Just about everything fell into place with our appliances. . .that is except the double ovens. So I have spend the last week stressing over going 'one grade down' to the Electrolux Double Ovens from the Wolf L Series. I am sure in 3 months from now, I will not care and will probably be thankful to have saved the approximate $3600 (more than 1/2 price!) by not going with the Wolf. Then finding the floor model wolf about 120 miles from us and deciding that driving this 300 lb oven home is probably not a great idea, even to save $1500. I have been living an appliance roller coaster these past 3 months since finalizing and committing to this project. But we have to submit our final plans to the cabinet makers so we can have the cabinets in time to finish our project before our final inspection in September.

So I have the latest plans for our cabinetry (well the manual drawings our installer/dealer had done) and I think I am happy with all of my choices! And hopefully come late July we will have all of the cabinetry ready for installation. . .

One month and counting. . .

View of the exterior of the addition/Mudroom.

View of the entrance from the garage into the mudroom/laundry/new addition area. . .(notice the built in cubbies/bench on the left as you enter).

The all one height ceiling from the kitchen to the family room(they moved the family room ceiling up about 12 inches).

View of the kitchen (Henry playing) tape is marking the cabinetry for our planning. . .

View from the corner of the kitchen through to the family room.

Another view of the family room (all utilities will be moved to the new addition).

View of the family room (and step up to the kitchen) from the outside window).

View from inside the new addition/mudroom area (the interior framed area is the new bathroom); you can also see the doorway (dark area in the middle of the yellow) where the original door is now short. The inspector asked if we were going to 'keep the door this way,' and our GC was about to explain to him this house is designed for 'little people.' But, yes, we are going to make this entrance into a normal doorway.

View of the exterior on June 12

I am impressed with where we are right now(or where we were on June 12). . .most of the framing is complete in the addition and the new kitchen space and we can finally start planning out where things are going to go. . .and I have to finalize my oven selection. That seems to have been the hardest thing for me to do! Whether we go ultra-high end with the Wolfs or one step down with an Electrolux or Thermador Professional Series. . .how this $2-3,000 decision seems like a hard step to overcome!

Anyway, I am going to post our JUNE 12 progess pictures. . .enjoy.