semi live update

it's amazing- another update and it's only been a couple of weeks since the last! below is a pic of the house from February- just to see what it looks like with the windows, painted front door and snow.
(there is no snow today- just clouds and rain)

now we'll start with some pics of the kitchen/living room/dining room- the area that used to house home base. since january it's been demoed, framed, drywalled, primed and pipes for radiant heating have been installed. the subfloor is the next step, and will probably go down in the beginning of april.

below is a pic coming in the door- the left will be the kitchen, the sink will be under the smaller, higher window and counters will wrap to the right. the hall leads to the powder room and the other area will be for dining.

ignore the blur, (which will also be the title of my debut album if I ever choose to have one)
the fridge will be in front of the wall that is still open and the stove will be in the middle of the back wall.

another look, less blurry and further away (also title for follow up album)

dining area

next two pics: standing in the dining area looking at the living area

standing in the kitchen looking past the dining and into the living room

standing at the door looking at the bar area- ahh i can almost taste the guiness

looking at the door that leads out to the foyer

today the subfloor arrived for the master suite- here's how it went down.

looking into the master from the door.

looking from the other side of the room

standing in the dressing room looking into the master bath

the subfloor arrives and after deciding he will not sink in the mud the driver pulls around front






and they are still laying it as i type. so this is about as close to a live update as you can get.
hope you enjoyed it- spring is supposed to start tomorrow and the forecast tonight calls for some snow- can't @$%#in wait!!!!!

Quick update

I forgot to mention in the first post of 2008 that we do in fact have heat. We've had it since November and it's only in the upstairs rooms where we're living but it is heat and it works really well.
Since I'm going back in time here's pics of me on both Christmas Eve and Christmas getting the studio ready. And here's a tip- if you ever have composite vinyl tile (CVT) make sure you clear coat it as soon as possible. Do not allow people to walk on it or continue construction before you can coat it because you will spend an insane amount of time and energy trying to get all sorts of crap and scratches off of it.
And bleow are pics of Fritz's dad and his sister Gioia's family when they visited just after Christmas. It was a wonderful visit, we had a lot of fun and it was my first chance to meet my three nephews TJ, Jesse and Jake and brother in law Terry. And it's with great thanks to Gioia that the big window in behind them got painted and to the guys that the catwalk was removed from the landing where they're standing.

Something new

Ok, we've heard enough flack regarding the slow nature of updating the blog. So this is the first official post of 2008.
I don't have a lot of pics to upload- but hey at least it's a new post.
I will however share briefly the fact that I won two tickets to see Bon Jovi and Daughtry playing in Pittsburgh this Wednesday 3/5. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend but did pass the tickets along to our neighbors so they can enjoy the show.
How could I have won such a prize you ask? Well the local radio station B94, and Straub Brewery held a Bon Jovi karaoke contest Friday night at Lumberjack's a local bar/restaurant. I was the only female in the first round and I impressed the judges with a heart felt rendition of "Living on a Prayer". (please note- that although I did not have the teased hairstyle I did make sure to use the same hand move as Jon uses at 1:18 in the clip)It was not truly karaoke because although the music was being played there were no lyrics on any screens so I had to use my last remaining brain cells to to remember the lyrics and cleverly fill in the rest with crowd pleasing antics- such as taking audience members hands during the appropriate points in the chorus. I came in second place for that round (out of 4 contestants) and won a plastic pint glass and two tickets to paradise. And although my performance was "awesome" as Fritz told me, I'm not sure if it was worth the torture of having other Bon Jovi lyrics stuck in my head for the past two days.
The Rendezvous was this past week and we were lucky enough to have two extremely talented and nice carvers Juli and Dave stay with us. Juli carved us an apple for the house- it's gorgeous and I'll post a picture along with other house pics later this week.
As for progress on the house- we've dropped home base, framed the living room/kitchen/dining room area and are in the process of having the drywall finished. And I picked out our kitchen appliances- to be delivered sometime in April.
They'll be laying the furing strips to prepare for radiant heating soon and then the piping will be installed. We're getting closer and closer to having the big areas finished.

Pic # 1 below- The inside of home base as it was last May when we first arrived.

Pic #2 and 3 below- home base as it was being demo'd in January. Our neighbor and friend Aaron came over with a chainsaw and the walls literally came down in on one another. He was excited- he doesn't get many chances to use a chainsaw inside.
We were excited that home base was finally going down.

Pic #4 below: Home base finally down and removed . Although there was a lot of dust in the air, the room immediately felt lighter and happier. Home base made no sense- we do not miss it . Pic #5 below- The rubble that remained when we removed the back wall seen in pic #4. We took down most of it to open up where the appliances and cooking area of the kitchen will be.

Pic #6 below- Obligatory self portrait with rubble mentioned in Pic #5. By the way if you ever have to demo and haul plaster know this- it's heavy.

Hopefully I'll have finished drywall pics to post soon- and when I say soon I mean before 2010. Hey- this way if I post sooner it will be a really pleasant surprise.