Unpacking and shopbuilding

Unpacking is not fun.

But having a new house with your beloved things in it is fun.

And so we unpack.

We must make better progress in advance of Oct 1, when we are featured in the AIA Design Matters home tour (http://designmattershomestour.eventbrite.com/). Yikes. That is really soon.

Here are key things that'll happen in September:

• Shop is to be framed, roofed, sided, wired, and fitted with a custom garage door. This is already in process. If I were less lazy, I would post pictures.
• Backyard is to be leveled out--the current surface texture is what I'd call "moon-like"--and areas behind the house and beside the house are to be excavated a few inches and filled in with gravel. Vendor is hired, work to begin this week.
• The front door's concrete stoop will be re-poured so that it's a lovely smooth surface again (also currently moon-like, which is not very welcoming). I believe Andrew's setting us up... Andrew, do your magic!
• Betsy's kitchen wall in her mother-in-law suite will start to come together: countertop, sink, refrig, burners and dishwasher will join recently-installed cabinets.
• 1,397 things will be put away in their proper places (or stashed in a closet so as to temporarily disappear from sight).

Later in October, we are supposed to lay down grass seed and straw. And hope for rain. Oh, also we need to transplant some roses. Oh, and master our holiday music compilation. Sh*t. October promises to be as busy as September. Well, at least there's Halloween.

Holy shhh

10...9...8...7...

Tomorrow afternoon a crew comes to carefully remove our kitchen countertop so that it may be moved to the other house and ultimately re-installed.

Yikes.

Wood floors, migrating kitchen

Hardwood floor installation starts next week, soon to be followed by re-finishing of the wood floors on the kids' level.

Our kitchen countertop in the old house is removed on Wednesday. It goes into storage while we move the cabinets, and then makes a triumphant return. Wait...how in the heck will we eat for 3 weeks? ;-)

Here's the kitchen countertop in its original environment:

We now enter the Zone of Insanity.

See you in a couple of weeks then...

Well, the house isn't finished enough for an appraisal. Apparently we need finished bathrooms, kitchen and bedrooms for it to be habitable. Come on! Greg could easily live in it in its current state. (In retrospect, this seems pretty sensible, but we Leedys are dreamers.)

So....let's get the bathrooms and bedrooms done and move that kitchen!

Here's a picture of the house sans port-a-john. It comes back this week, but for a brief, shining moment, it was gone.

Totally floored

We've hired a crew to install our hardwood floors (and refinish the ones we saved in the bedroom wing). I think they get started later this week or early next. Floors!

A few more things on the horizon:

- Drywall mudding/taping (this week)

- Bathroom tiling (2 weeks out?)

- Painting

- Trim work

- Carpet

- Stair/landing railings

- Move the kitchen from house 1 to house 2 (yikes!)

Andrew, you have your work cut out for you. That list makes me tired. And frightened. And excited.

Here's a reminder of how beautiful the front of the house is when the sun is shining. Flowering spring tree, sub-contractor vehicles and port-a-john are bonus items. ;-)