Dirt, Mud & Gravel-scaping

Landscaping is the linchpin that holds the rest of this project together and it is not moving quickly.  The only thing that is truly getting spread out is time, thus the new term "timescaping."  Har, har, har.

It really was a bunch of factors, so I'll primarily put the responsibility on us - we picked a new landscaping block that is SUPER popular so SUPER sold out.  Now it's back in stock and action is back on.

Day 1: A little bit of dirt spreading...

... and electric cable (to the garage) cutting.  Bummer.

Day 14: Boulders in place for retaining wall along driveway.

And more dirt moving.  Note the gigantic weeds that have grown in what remains of the topsoil.

So, Lucy started weeding.  What a little gardener!

She had to take the weeds around the big hole and into the woods.  

Did you notice that we had the garage hardware installed?  I generally don't care much for the looks-just-like-a-blacksmith-from-the-1970s-made-it hardware, but I found some really simple, nice stuff from www.360yardware.com (their motto is "Life's too short from crummy hardware." Love it.)  They distribute for Lynn Cove Foundary & Forge, very nice stuff.  

Makes the budget door look a little less budget.  It totally is only a single door, I know we completely had you fooled!

Bars, weather events & fake cows

How simple it is to post when you can marvel at the work that others do.  Now we actually have to get off our butts and unpack boxes.

It's... so...  hard... 

Therefore progress is very little.  But, for the things that do not depend on us, some progress has been made.  

To the Bar!

With the addition of stools, our island is now officially a bar.  We really love the look of the Emeco Navy stools, but with a price tag of $700 each, not gonna happen.  So, off to find the best "interpretation."  We settled on the Delta stool from Crate and Barrel which is a FINE alternative at svelte $139 - also figuring in the 10% off coupon & gift card I purchased for under the value both on Ebay.  Since the stools, we haven't eaten at our dining room table once.  

The Emeco Navy Stools were used in our inspiration kitchen, these Crate and Barrel Deltas inspire us plenty.

Gutters

I have never seen so much water in my life.  With each major weather event, we watch our top soil get carried away.  We needed gutters installed ASAP, so we checked with a couple of seamless gutter companies on Angie's List.  We ended up going with Gutter Systems in Minneapolis.  Bruce quoted the entire project for 1/3 the price of the competition and his reviews were outstanding.  We ended up getting gutter helmets, too.  They are Hallett Gutter Guards and seem perform very well... of course we know because of the aforementioned major weather events.  If you want a chuckle, view Hallett's customer testimonial video.  It rocks. 

Without a downspout color match to our future paint color, we went with a match to our soffits and trim.  Picture an obscuring tree/bush in front of these conspicuous buggers.

Garage Door

Today the garage door appeared!  There is still some hardware that needs to be installed on the outside, so it will look a little bit sharper.  It's a Midland Garage Door installed by Twin Cities Garage Door.  

The playhouse and the fireplace will not actually stay in front of the garage door... hopefully in the next few weeks, we'll have a patio and a yard!

Within a Mile

Saint Anthony Park is about a 5 minute drive to downtown Minneapolis.  Pretty darn accessible, if you ask me.  We went for a walk through the St. Paul (Ag) Campus of the University of Minnesota tonight which is about 3 blocks from the house.  We walked around the campus and visited the cow barns.  It is INSANE that this is all so close to downtown!  To top it all off, there is nobody on this beautiful campus!  

Our new neighbors.

Why would we ever need a lawn?

Lucy making friends with giant, fake cows.  

Curb cut mania

This is a mobil post, so I'll leave it to the pictures to do the talking.

Pay special note to the fitness level of the gentleman finishing the curb cut shirtless. Andy hopes he can compete when he's nearing 60.

Did you know the lines are to encourage the cement to crack there and not elsewhere?

...chirp...chirp... (crickets)

Nothing to show - literally nothing.  My sincerest apologies.

We DID get the certificate of occupancy on Friday, so no more sleeping on the neighbor's floor.  It has been glorious - the biggest excitement has been with the shower.  It is really nice.  We had been showering in the basement bathroom for the last 5ish years since we regrouted the upstairs bath (we didn't want to get it dirty again), so anything above ground is luxury.

Pretty much nothing has happened to the house since we moved in.  There are a few things to look forward to in the near future, I promise.

• Finishing the install on the big bathtub
• Installing of the garage door
• Gutters
• Landscaping
• Exterior painting
• Dining room, living room and master bedroom light install
• Driveway install
• Window blinds (going cellular)
• Finishing the wiring for sound and TVs and getting them mounted
• Figuring out the different systems - Zone heating/cooling?  No idea.
• Finishing the move in process!

House Purgatory

Well, we are no longer Falcon Heights residents.  Saying good bye was kind of hard, our little house saw us through nine pretty great years.  The move was complicated first by torrential rain, then by an almost broken toe (Andy's).  Thankfully, the doctor said today that it wasn't actually broken, which shocked the doctor.  He said, "when it looks that gruesome, it's broken."  

Anywho, our stuff has moved to the new house.  We technically have not.  Thanks to our new almost neighbor who reads this blog, we were offered sleeping arrangements in the house next door!  How is that for welcome to the neighborhood?!  (Seriously, thanks again, guys.  Lucy wants to know where the boys are.)  In the mean time, we spend our waking hours unpacking and moving in, but sleep next door and plan to shower at the health club.  Dear St. Paul - this is inconvenient.  

Pantry

Oh goodness, we love having storage.  The pantry has been wonderful as we unpack boxes from our previous "pantry" which was a cabinet in our basement bathroom.  

A work in progress - two shelves already dedicated to beverages.  We must really like beverages.

Mudroom

While it's hard to appreciate yet since we have yet to enter/exit the house as we would if everything were done, the mudroom is definitely proving it's worth.  The shoe shelves are finally up and boot trays in place - bring on the shoes!

A jumbled mess now, but I have great hopes that this room will provide much organization to our lives.

Walk & Step

Our front walk was poured today, as was the bottom step by the back door.  Getting closer to mud-less access.

Bottom landing on the back step (sorry for the plumber butt shot, or cement dude butt in this case.  Hopefully your resolution isn't very good.)

Front walkway is kind of super-sized.  Still like it!

Carpet

The kids' rooms and the den now are carpeted.  All of the extra stuff piled in common areas were able to be put in place.  Still looks pretty sparse.  

Den!  Even though this is on the north side of the house, it's filled with light. - though you can't tell here.  Lucy liked sitting in here watching for her Papas (Grandpa).  

Totally can't tell, the kids rooms are monochromatic gray, but the carpet has fun circle & square patterns.  I am so distracted by the shimmery light from the crystal ceiling light.

2 - ish

We shall now redefine what the phrase "moving in 2 days" actually means.  Due to not passing today's occupancy inspection, it means that our stuff will move in. We will unpack all of our stuff, spend all of our time there, eat there, but sleep somewhere else.  It will take the next week to address the crazy, minor issues pointed out by the inspector... we we will be sleeping in a nearby hotel.

I choose optimism!  Let's look at fun stuff and make believe that this little blip never happened.

Shower
Staying at the American Club in Kohler ruined me, I wanted a shower with sprayers shooting everywhere.  Putting in a Kohler package with rain tiles shooting from every direction is awful expensive, and the labor adds up, too.

Enter the pieced-together Moen system.  In order to get a shower rigged to combine a rain head with a body spray, you usually need 2 valves (x2 on the labor).  Moen has the M-Pact 3330 value that is both a main valve and a diverter valve.  That means you can have RAIN + BODY or RAIN ONLY or BODY ONLY.  Then you can use normal fixtures to create a pretty luxurious bath.  Dude, I am going to be so clean.

Can't wait for my first shower.  I did use the toilet for the first time today.  Not as gratifying.

Rain

On another rain-related topic, it poured last night and this morning.  If we don't get our landscaping done soon, it will all wash away and we'll have to start over.  

The walls on those canyons are about 3 to 4 inches tall!

Tomorrow the wood floors get sanded and a top coat applied.  10 hours minimum to cure, just in time for movers on Saturday morning.  Ye ha!

Fore! (or four)

Dang.

Entry
I pulled up to the house today and magically there was a railing!  I had no idea that it was going up this week.

No more worry about falling into the egress window...  of death.  Railings!

Numbers!  Mailbox!

Legitimate front door handle installed - I now have keys!  Once we paint the exterior, the door will be the 2012 Pantone Color of the Year... that's right, Tangerine Tango!

Electrical
Light fixtures are going up right and left.  Ahhh....

Welcome! A couple of Lowe's lights.

To the right is another Lowes light.  To the left this spot over the stairs gave us great concern.  I give you the George Nelson Bubble Lamp - Propeller style!  I wanted so badly to turn it on, but the electrician had the circuit turned off.  Notice the Linen color paint - my mistake from yesterday.  Latte is in the dining room, Linen here. 

Yes, more Lowes lights.  The pendants are now in place over the island and over the kitchen sink.

Hooks 'n Stuff
Door stops were installed today, so no more worry about fly-away doors taking a chunk out of the wood work.  I also worked with one of our carpenters to determine where all of the towel rods, robe hooks, and toilet paper holders.

Finally, the hooks were mounted in the mudroom.  Looking functional!