November 3, 2020

Some Bad News

Well, we just found out yesterday that our closing date will now be NO EARLIER THAN 18 Dec 2020. This is a real bummer as Trace and I were both hoping to be settled in the house by Christmas. But it looks like we will be spending yet another Christmas in this @#%& apartment. The problem seems to be that there just aren’t enough craftspeople available for all of the construction going on in the area. It would seem that even COVID has not slowed the construction business. And with all this COVID crap, we will not be traveling anywhere and Will won’t be coming down from NYC either. Lousy Christmas to go along with the rest of 2020! Well, at least we have our health!!

On another note, we’ve been following all the bad news coming out of Colorado about the fires. We noticed that some even got dangerously close to the Denver area, and we are really hoping that none of our friends back there have been affected by them. They have been showing pictures of the damage on the news and I was really saddened by the damage to the Granby/Grand Lake/Rocky Mountain National Park areas. That was always such a pretty area of Colorado, but I suppose that all the damage done by the pine beetle in recent years has left that area ripe for fires.

But back to the house… work has been progressing, albeit slowly. Cabinets and countertops are in. The trim carpenter has installed all the baseboards, crown moulding, doors and doorframes, shutters, and closet rods and shelves. The garage door got installed. They have built our island for our barbecue from the leftover bricks from the house. They have framed out the driveway and front walkway. Concrete for that should get poured later this week. Painters have started interior painting. They will also need to complete the exterior painting. Tile guys have started installing tile in the bathrooms. Tile work will take about two weeks to complete as our entire house will have tile floors. Plus, the bathrooms will all have some tile on the walls, and the backsplash in the kitchen will be a really cool decorative tile.

But there is still so much left to get done: On the inside the plumbers still need to install the plumbing fixtures. The electricians need to install the electrical fixtures (fans, lights, etc.) along with the outlets and switches. Appliances need to be installed. Final cabinet adjustments still need to be made. The concrete coating needs to get applied to the garage floor and the screened-in porch floor. On the outside, the propane tank needs to get buried. The concrete for the driveway and front walkway needs to be poured. AC compressor unit needs to be installed. Screens and screen doors need to get installed on the screened-in porch. Fence and landscape needs to get installed. Finally, the barbecue unit and built-ins need to get installed in the brick island. So what do you think? Does 18 Dec 2020 sound feasible? I’m thinking “hell no”!!

But here are some pics of the progress:

So this is the left side of the kitchen as viewed from the Family Room. The Pantry is behind the door on the right. The huge hole in the gray cabinet is for the double oven (both ovens are conventional and convection). The gap in between the upper cabinets where the vent pipe is hanging down is for the range hood. Below that is a water pipe where the pot filler will be located just above the gas cooktop. And you can also see the two islands. I love this kitchen!!!
Ok, here is the right side of the kitchen. The big hole in between the cabinets is for the built-in refrigerator/freezer. The little hole in the white cabinet to the left is for the built-in microwave. We will have bar stools for the front island as that’s our casual dining place. The sink in that island is a commercial stainless steel 60/40 deep double sink.
This is a good view of the rear island. The gap on the right side is NOT for the dishwasher. It’s for the wine fridge! The dishwasher is in the front island next to the sink. This back island has storage on both sides and gives me tons of prep space on top. Imagine Christmas cookie baking in this kitchen!! Heaven, I’ll be in heaven!!
We have a garage door!
The island that will house our barbecue unit some day
This is the ceiling in our master bedroom. It will look better when it gets painted.
Our mudroom
Our Laundry Room minus the washer, dryer, and upright freezer that will get installed some day.

Well, that’s about all for now. Ciao!!