Open sesame!

There is a story to go with these pictures — watch for an update!

Here is before.

And the story is this…so I come home at noon one day this week for lunch. Sophie’s crate is in the dining room and I went over to her first thing to see how she was doing. She was all hunkered over in her crate and rather subdued. Not like Sophie at all. I asked her what’s the matter and coaxed her out of her crate, petted her and tried to soothe her.

Then I stood back up and looked into the kitchen.

It looked like a bomb went off! A load of debris was in the sinks and on the counter and on the floor. My kitchen window was gone and a doorway was cut for access into the family room.

Is Mumsflowers observant? Put a check in the “no” box.

Oh my gosh!

I gated Sophie away from the construction zone and went investigating…

There were three  lovely steps leading down into the family room along with a half wall framed up for a handrail.The steps were absolutely effortless to go up and down, which is a positive for when Mom and Dad come to visit — and not a big deal for me when carrying laundry down.

I went back to work feeling pretty good about how the remodel was fleshing out.

When I came home in the evening I saw where there plumbers had been there — the pex tubing for the radiant heat was on a spool hanging from a rafter.

Thinking I should check out that set up, I headed for those steps…

…and they were GONE!

Huh?

Oh. Seems there was a conflict with the steps and the channels the pex had to go.

So if you look close at the “after” picture, you’ll see where the steps WERE.

We now return you to your program in progress…

We are having hydronic radiant floor heating put in the family room which by all accounts will be a very comfortable and efficient way to heat the area.

So follow me into the laundry/bathroom and take a look:

The lay of the land — see the two plastic tubes coming out of the floor? That’s the hot and cold water for the corner shower that will be in…the corner. The darker flooring is the subfloor; the lighter flooring is the thermal board that has little channels cut into it for additional plastic tubing to go in. Hot water will run though the tubing and the heat will radiate from the floor. Sophie will find this quite nice I am sure!

I had hopes the remodel would be done by Thanksgiving; my hopes are dimming for Christmas — maybe by my birthday in January. However I am more than willing to be surprised — if a lot of work is accomplished this week, being done by Christmas might not be wishful thinking.

Got the estimate from the flooring fellow this evening…whoo-boy. Well, gotta have a floor, right? Anyway, I changed my tile selection on the fly — walked in to return the samples and saw a better one. Still light colored, but more versatile. The flooring fellow also told me that the tile would be in the week it was ordered; the wood laminate has to come from Pennsylvania…if they have it on hand. <oh golly!>

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NP: Some version of Celtic Woman on PBS. Waiting for Castle to come on.

Recently: Watched the Ed Sullivan Rock and Roll special also on PBS. What a trip down penny lane!

Where’s Sophie? Sprawled out on the floor, wondering whether to attack the fox or squirrel…no, taking a snooze seems to be first instead.

Putting home remodel info on hold…

…to bring you this special announcement (no spoilers, really):

Um, was I the only one hiding behind the couch during Doctor Who’s “The Waters on Mars”? I mean, wasn’t this a bit too intense for younger (and this older) viewers?

And my dear Doctor seems to be losing his grip — not that it wasn’t expected over the course of this regeneration. This poor Time Lord has seen and been through way too much. <whimpers>

…and then there was the Christmas special trailer… Guess I might as well get comfortable behind the couch.

What will lie beneath

The fellows came and worked hard on the floor today. Here is a very early picture of the floor demolition:

This was back when DH was still removing the original hardwood floor. Too bad it wasn’t salvageable. Ew…look at that crawl space.

By the end of the day, the plastic sheeting was put in the crawl space, insulation was put between the floor joists and a new sub floor was put down:

AND THEN the hydronic radiant floor heating will go on top of that. It is supposed to be efficient and warmer feeling than radiators. We are looking forward to a higher comfort level this winter — as long as we are camped out in the family room.

In the “aw shucks” department: I looked online at the wood laminate flooring I picked out a while back.

It has been discontinued.

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NP: WGN News at Nine

Where’s the Sopher-noodle? In her crate, snoozing.

Wake me up when: All this TwilightNewMoon frenzy dies down. Sheesh…this isn’t Lord of the Rings, folks — go get a life.

Outside work is done!

The first round of fellas have completed their outside work on the family room:

If you look at my earlier post, you will get the before and after effect. This is before the guttering was put up — that turned out nice too.  They did a good job with the siding — you’d never know that there was ever a breezeway originally attaching the two buildings.

The flagstone patio (not shown) is a bit worse for wear, but it needs reset anyway — we didn’t know what we were doing at the time.

Not sure how my hollyhocks or Joe Pye fared being tromped on and such, but I saved hollyhock seed and have a Joe in the front that I need to move to the back anyway. Besides…I’ve been toying with the idea of putting a smallish spirea bush in the corner there…

Spring should be interesting…

And here is what happened to my kitchen window:

The vaulted roof line just clipped it, but according to the contractor, he will come up with something creative to handle a pass through type of thing

Anyway — now it is the plumber’s turn to install the radiant floor heating — I am really curious as to how that will be accomplished.

Went to the carpet place today to get a very rough estimate, go over the wood laminate selection I made earlier — I think I am staying with it — and also to look at DuraCeramic tile for the entryway and laundry/bathroom. I still hate shopping, but so far all the salespeople have been helpful and not at all pushy.

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NP: FlashForward, but I am not paying close attention. I think V will be taking the place of that. And of course there is Fringe — I’ve been missing my weekly dose of Walter.

Where’s Sophie? On the couch where she can lick the TV tray. Ew. Leave it, Sophie!!

I hate shopping

One of the necessary side trips on our remodel project journey is shopping for the peripherals.

Since waving the magic wand is not an option, like  – presto! change-o! — Mrs. Mumsflowers,  you are the proud owner of a complete family room – I now have to make decisions.

And one of the decisions is how to furnish the family room.

You’d think I’d be excited.

Well — no. And the pressure is on, in hopes of having the project finished down to the lampshades by Thanksgiving. And I am trying not to, but find it necessary to, contemplate any cost overruns that will likely occur.

However, should everything run like clockwork from here on out — wouldn’t it be nice to have a chair or two to sit on whilst admiring the completed family room/laundry/bathroom?

DH and I bought our first sofa and chair set over thirty years ago and once they were used up, managed on hand-me-downs the last twenty years. Getting something brand-spanking new once again had been unthinkable until now.

So yesterday, DH and I made run to R-town to meet up with H, who piled us all in her car so we could…ew, shop. I remember saying I wasn’t buying. Just shopping.

But first — we fortified ourselves for the task before us by stopping at Cracker Barrel for lunch. That was a very good move. I think I could live quite a while on their cornbread alone.

Borders detoured us for a few minutes, but then it was full steam ahead for SleepyCountry and whatever might be found there.

A very nice salesman, and in this case that is not an oxymoron, met us at the door and we began the chase.

Looked at two of their complete living room sets with a free widescreen TV thrown in. Nope.

Looked at their futons, as we were thinking that direction but had never seen one in the wild. Nope. Not ever.

Looked at overstuffed sleeper sofas. One of those behemoths would take up way too much space. Nope.

Do you have any smaller sleepers?

Yes we do — waaay over there.

It was love at first sight! Take a look:

It sits really well, as the seat in not overly long. It is not a microfiber, but more of a tweedy textured fabric. It has a queen-sized mattress but since all the bulkiness is absent from this model, it is small. The salesman opened it up, H and I tried it out, trying to imagine how it would work for Mom and Dad should I ever get them convinced to stay over during a visit. Bingo!

I then looked ten feet away and found this:

It’s called a club chair. The fabric pattern — well, look at it — is just too cool — and happens to go perfectly with the sofa! Again — not overstuffed — and sized right for the room. Too cute, huh? Wish we had room for the matching ottoman…

So next came the recliner search for DH and golly, were we on a roll. I couldn’t find a picture of it, but imagine a smallish yet comfortable Lazy Boy with an amber colored tweedy fabric — and you have it.

Do I buy or continue shopping? Well, you know how I hate shopping… If I can end the misery early and still be in budget, I am all for it.

We bought.

While my blog was sleeping…

…things were happening outside!!!

Yep, the breezeway, aka the airlock, was torn off a week ago and this is a picture of the concrete footing that were poured earlier this week. Yippie!

You would not believe the mud dabber wasp nests underneath the aluminum siding. It was a wasp condo!

All reconnected again! This took one day. The fellas must have worked themselves into a frazzle.

It is sooo weird to look out my kitchen window into the family room instead of seeing the corner of the family room and the driveway. And the kitchen itself sounds different. More solid sounding, or something.

This is all so very exciting…tomorrow either they will be working outside to get that back in shape or they will be inside, building the laundry/bathroom.

Did I mention I was excited?! Whee!

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NP: Everybody Hates Chris — because the news was preempted by some sport something…

Where’s Sophie? On the back of the couch — on neighborhood watch. As far as I can tell, she has been perfectly fine with all the banging, hammering, sawing going on. She didn’t pay any attention to it over the noon hour when I was home — no reaction at all. I sure hope that’s the way she is when I am gone. Not sure how she will react when the kitchen window is removed…

Totally like watching: Stargate Universe. Sort of a Lost on Battlestar Gallactica… catching it on hulu.

Um, hello October

Went to S-town today to look for new thermal drapes for the living room and dining room. I usually have good luck in the mall at Penney’s but not this time. Colors wrong — good grief what WILL go with our yellow walls?! — and by the looks of it, I’d have to order them anyway. No 63″ lengths to be found.

Phooey.

Then DH pipes up.

“When the family room is done, we will be in there all the time. It will be warmer.”

Oh.

Then I started looking for an “in between” coat — somewheres between a hoodie and a winter coat. Penney’s didn’t have anything, so we walked down to Bergners. They didn’t have anything either and the prices were way out of my budget even if they did. I’m so used to finding what I want (except coats) at Goodwill that it would have to be a really good deal for me to get a brand-spanking new coat.

On our way back I showed DH the “Fur Babies” store where  they think it is cute to put puppies in baby beds. I griped about this in a previous post somewhere…

So we left the mall empty-handed.

DH needed socks and I wondered if Farm & Fleet would have a coat to suit me, so we stopped there.

Bingo!

DH found socks.

I found the type of coat I’ve been looking for at a reasonable price.

Sophie got new treats and a new collar!

Yay!

Oh.

And it snow-flurried all the way to S-town.

Screamed like a girl…

…during Fringe tonight.

Sophie jumped up to see if I was OK.

First time I ever saw her worried about me.

Beware…

…the Sophizilla!!!