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!

Hood Possibilities

On Sunday afternoon we went looking at some hood possibilities. Here are two choices, although there may be more. The boys were with us and insisted on running all over the showroom touching and pressing every little button. I think their shopping days are over; especially when we are making important decisions! I bought a new digital camera this weekend - somewhat under pressure to "hurry it along - your sons are being difficult." Not exactly how I want to make decisions with the kitchen!

Dear Rabbits,

Dear Rabbits,

I'd like to express my concern about your new interest in my flowers. I have maintained a pretty amazing backyard for the last five years. You have never taken an interest before in all the delicious items that I have available. For that I thank you. I know where you hang out; you like to stay in our neighbor's yard because he has a "garden" that we are convinced is an excuse so he doesn't have to mow his lawn. All those hundreds of vegetables that he plants every year must be tasty. So, why the change in diet?

I'd like to request that you go back to your old hang out because the tulips and other bulbs you have eaten down to the ground are really the only flowers I'm going to get to enjoy this year. And, for that, I hate you. You have kindly left the hyacinth bulbs; which incidentally are my favorite, alone. Please continue to leave them alone. Also, leave the Spider Wort, Columbine and Goblin Blanket Flower. These perennials are starting to come up and I'd like to try and transplant them before a big hole is in our backyard. Feel free to eat as much phlox as you'd like, we have too much anyway. Or, dig in on the Chinese Lantern - I'm secretly hoping that there are no traces of that after the big hole is filled in with a kitchen.

I hope you find this proposal to your liking. Please pass on to the squirrels that they are also in trouble for all the littles holes they dug.

Sincerely,
Andi

Three dudes go to a house

On Wednesday the 'subs' or subcontractors came over with Kevin from The OAR group. They were there to evaluate the job and determine a firm price for their services. The posse was compromised of the electrician, plumber and heating/AC. The excavator came out two weeks ago, because he doesn't need to get into the house. He only digs a hole.

Electrical. Seems to him that it's a pretty straight forward job. After all, much of the work will be for the new addition and that's easy when you only have studs and everything is open. The biggest costs will come from two areas, the moving of the lines to the house and the junction box. Currently the electrical lines come right to the middle of the house, right about where our new seating area will go. Also, our junction box is tapped out and they'll have to make another 'sub' to connect to the overall house electrical. He asked if we wanted the lines buried. I asked asked if there was any advantage to that. He said "only if you like giving money to WE Energies."

We said forget it.

Plumbing. Unfortunately a lot of our plumbing work seemed to have been fitted together by Ray Charles and Jose Feliciano. He told me all of the stuff he touches, which is pretty much everything, would have to be brought up to code. Right now our sink and laundry are tied into the same sewer line which is a no no. Also, he told me the plumbing inspector for our city is a real son of !@#$. He'll order all sorts of water analysis and make you do things just because he can. We may have to get our sump pump directed to the storm sewer which would cost us more, but probably be best. Luckily too we don't have to get another sump pump as he'll be able to tie into the existing drain tile.

This was good, because Andi and I are thinking in the future of making this into a master bedroom and I sure don't want a sump pump right next to the bed stand. I asked about making hookups for a future bathroom downstairs and he said that there wasn't any cost advantage now to doing that. Everything else will be easy too during the new construction so, that part shouldn't be an issue.

HVAC. After discussing the layout and how they would tie into the system and run new lines they came up with an idea. They'll be running the new duct from the unfinished part into the new part and putting three vents into the new kitchen. They'll take the existing vent and move that into a vent for the mudroom. The good news here is that our Heating and AC are adequate enough to support the new addition so we won't have to buy a new one.

It was during this meeting that I hear a muffled SNAP! "Uh oh" I thought. I excused myself from the dudes and went to inspect the mouse trap. "That's what you get you little shit. Poop all over my ceiling tiles...you get yo neck broke." Grabbing a plastic bag and plastic gloves, I immediately disposed of the unwanted guest. The dudes had no idea what I was doing, they were busy with measurements and manly talks about heavy duty toilet seats for another job they had.

After all was said and done OAR said by mid next week we should have finalized numbers. This is getting more exiting every day!