The House is Currently Winning

Earlier this week I was in the bathroom and I heard a small crash from the kitchen. I went in to see what made the noise and discovered our ventilation hood partially fell down on top of the stove. Two days ago I looked at the Roman Shade in the kitchen and noticed that something wasn't right. One of the shades is broken. Two of the loops that hold the string in the proper place have been ripped out. I have no idea how that happened. I think I need a new kitchen.

Oh, ventilation hood...we will win this battle.

Dig Date and the Fleeing of the Flowers

We have a date...well, week for the big dig to take place. We are looking at the week after Memorial Day. We could have gone as early as next week but frankly, I'm not ready. Plus, I'd like to stretch this period of waiting as long as possible to avoid our babysitter having to deal with the safety issues surrounding a big hole and three toddlers for any long period of time. So, the week of Memorial Day is the big dig and I'll be off of work in about two in a half weeks after that. Perfect.

The back perennial garden is almost all gone. My co-workers have jumped at the opportunity to provide some good homes to my plants. This weekend we are getting 3 yards of dirt delivered for another little project I'll leave for Brian to report but I think the last of the plants will go with the dirt guy. He's taken plants off my hands that I wanted to get rid of before and I told him to take whatever he wants when he brings the dirt. There are just a few things I'm going to put up against our neighbor's fence and then I think I'm done transplanting and saving what I want. Oh, it's going to be fun to design the new area!

Ranch 1 - The Man 0

Tonight was the Design Review Board meeting. To put your mind at ease, in case you were wondering, we got approval. This wasn't the same board that gave us so much trouble with our garage. In fact, this board was significantly younger, and they tore through the agenda, knocking out 8 designs in 20 minutes.

It was interesting to hear some of the comments from the board on the designs. There was a lady who had a 1920's house she wanted to put a sun room on. All they did was nit-pick. She has double hung windows all around the house and in the new room, wanted a casement window put in this room. The weasel on the board (seriously this guy resembled a large rodent) peaked over his large glasses and said, "you should keep the windows matched around the house. This one should be a double hung too." Our builder leaned over to me and said "This is unbelievable how they spend money for you, they just made her spend $1000."

Geez, what would they do with me?

The the guy right before us wanted to build a new garage and the weasel spoke up again. "Are you going to have the brick around the garage just like the house." I thought to myself, OMG..you, you were the one who was trying to f$#k with us and our plans. Turns out the home owner was going to put on the brick because he wanted everything to match.

So, our turn came up and everything was going really smoothly. Our builder paid a drafter to come up with some real nice plans, and they were impressed. The weasel was looking over the plans with his beady eyes and big glasses and piped up. "You got the electrical pole right here you know?" (In case you didn't know, the electric power comes from the back of the property, and enters the house right smack dab in the middle. )

I thought to myself "Holy Shit! Are you kidding me? I totally didn't see that. Oh my god. Kevin (our builder), did you notice this shit? Wow...thanks for pointing that out weasel. We almost built an addition over our power supply and A/C unit."

Thankfully I kept it in and Kevin indicated where we would be moving the power. The weasel seem satisfied. Even after nit-picking about our windows matching, Kevin assured them that the drawing software didn't allow for the exact window type to be shown, but need less to say, they would all match.

Now we wait about 5 days before we can get the permits, then it's a matter of getting on everyones schedule. First will be the electrician to get the power pole moved that the weasel was so concerned with. The excavator will be next for the hole and the basement. We should hear something in about two weeks as to a rough time line.

Ranch vs. The Man - Part 1

In all fairness, the city hasn't jerked us around yet. At least on this project. Three years ago the design board had a real problem with our plans for a new garage. We are still bitter and will probably hold a grudge until the day comes when we are no longer paying taxes to this municipality.

Anyway, we got the call this afternoon. Thursday night Kevin, our builder, and Brian will go in front of the design board and hopefully we will be able to get permits real soon! Kevin doesn't think there will be a problem...and he's probably right but based on prior experiences we have reason to be cynical.

And The Winner Is....

Why this hood and not the other one you ask? This one is about $1500 cheaper and does the same thing. This is the Zephyr, Savona model and has 685 CFM. Our current hood is probably about -15 CFM. It actually blows fumes back at us and then laughs and mocks us. Ah yes, we are going to win this one!

Amost Ready to Get a Building Permit

I spoke with Kevin (from the OAR Group) last night and all of our drawings are ready to be submitted to the architectural review board and one other group of people who I'm sure enjoying holding up building projects. I'm so cynical about all of this because of all the problems we had trying to build a garage three years ago. Kevin is picking up a copy of our property survey (glad we still had that from the garage...saved us a couple hundred dollars) today and maybe on Friday we'll have a date that our drawings are going to be submitted!

I'm starting to find new homes for my plants this weekend...if you are in need of full sun perennials, I have a lot! They all have to go!

Cabinets, Flooring, Counter Tops, and Back Splash

Yesterday we picked out our cabinet color, flooring, counter tops and tiles for the back splash. We were both totally blown away by the design for the back splash; it's going to be the whole wall. Not just the area behind the stove, but the whole wall!

This is the elevation drawing of the wall that has the stove and as you look out the window you'll see the driveway (the mudroom/entry way). All the squares and rectangles behind the stove is the back splash. When Stephanie, our designer, said she wanted to do something dramatic, she wasn't kidding! We had several options to pick from for colors but ended up picking this sample of color:
This is just to show what the colors are going to look like. Our tiles are all going to be 12x12, 12x6 and 4x4. Like she said, dramatic! Here is a scanned sample of our countertop:
Finally, here is a picture of our cabinets (from the Design Studio). We are not getting the "appliance garage" (the cabinet that goes down to the counter top) in the corner or the plate rack and we haven't picked the glass yet but I think you get the idea of what they are going to look like.
Wood Type: Alder
Stain: Nutmeg
Style: Mission

We also made the decision to upgrade the drawers to full extension. Meaning, when we open them we will be able to see the WHOLE drawer, not everything but the back few inches. Initially, I didn't think this was going to be a big deal but now that I know what our new cabinets are going to be like I'm thoroughly annoyed with our current drawers. It's going to be nice!