General Update

I came back from a trip to Portland and was really happy to hear Jimmy say that "things are moving really quickly and ahead of schedule".  That is a first!  Apparently the electrician was working all day on Saturday, which really moved him along.  There is wiring and light switch boxes EVERYWHERE.  We also had a meeting about where all the lights, light switches and ceiling lights are going.  Thankfully we kinda figured this out beforehand while my dad was here.  It's just something we've never thought of - the contractor helped by saying things like "when you're walking to bed from being in the living room, you want to be able to turn everything off on your way there." We also needed to avoid putting 4 switches right next to each other for all the great room lights.  I imagine myself flicking 4 switches on and off every day trying to figure out which light is which. 

At this point, things are really moving along.  The plumber is also full steam ahead with only one problem of putting both toilets in the wrong spot (and cutting holes).  Thankfully Jimmy is over there twice a day and caught it right away. 

Our appliances are being delivered today.  Can't wait to see those!  Our contractor laughs when things like that are delivered and he doesn't need them for 8 weeks.  I think they actually push him along quicker, right? :)   Maybe I can use my new stove in our current house for 8 weeks until it's done.  Now that's an idea.

Also, we picked out our vanity for our small bath:

Cabinets - the decision of the century..

Or at least it seems like. We finally figured out our cabinets (although we're waiting for one more bid to come back today).

We're doing the white of this version on the top - same flat panels:

And this color on the bottom. The door style is the flat panel though similar to the top photo.

I've always loved white cabinets, but am really drawn to the gray now as well. Our flooring is dark walnut, so we wanted to add the white on top, versus dark all around. Also, our hood above the range goes all the way up like it does in the gray photo. We thought it might look weird with such a large gap above the cabinets (our ceilings are 11 feet), but it looks really good here.

Yes - one more decision DONE. Although now looking at the photos, I'm thinking "maybe we should do all gray - I really like that color". hmm.

New Retaining Wall

So my dad stayed an extra day to help with the new retaining wall next door.  Here's a good vantage point photo showing where we removed the concrete and dug out the old wall.

Someone asked why we didn't level the yard to the lower level.  Well.. a couple reasons - having the yard up higher gives us so much more sun in the yard.  Because we're kinda 'house-locked' back there, we can use all the sun we'd like.  The other reason - it's actually um.. bedrock? I'm not sure if that's right, but it's like a slate-like rock that's a foot under the soil.  Working back there was almost like an archeology dig, but we were finding old bottles of booze instead of bones (thankfully).   Here's a picture of all the findings.

Thanks dad for teaching us all of this along the way.  I have my incredibly detailed notes of where to take the yard from here! Bolting and staining - got it!  Digging and carrying concrete is also character building, right?  By the end of this project, we'll have a lot of character!

Happy to report that my slide that was full of trash got smaller.  The demo guys have been coming to take out all the brick in the basement (from the fireplaces that we ripped out), took all the wood, which is awesome, but left the concrete.  Attention friends - come to build some character!

Change Orders & Wide Open Spaces

I'm happy to say that we feel really great about a couple decisions we made.  Things are really moving along.  The walls have come down between the kitchen/living room/dining room, and the space feels really open and bright.  We're so excited to get a more circular and open flow than our current place.  It's really unique for San Francisco.  I've taken a video to show what I mean:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7TIF1EspmU

Also, we were really hesitant about asking for a change so early on, but are really happy we did it.  The bedroom closets were pretty small.  The two interior bedrooms had small closets that backed up to each other.  We decided to combine the two closets for one bedroom and frame out another closet in the bedroom where we stole the closet.  We did it in our unit and the rental and it really changed the apartments from having small closets to decent closets.  The even bigger bonus was that the contractor didn't charge us for it.  He did it to make up for ripping out my bookshelf!  Oh, regarding that bookshelf, we decided we weren't going to put it back in.  We basically took out the rest of the wall there to make the rental living room bigger.  And it actually helped.  We need to sell the rental without a dedicated dining room (they'll have to incorporate a table somewhere in the living room), so we needed all the space we could get in that living room.  Taking out the bookshelf also gave us the opportunity to make the closet larger in the bedroom behind it.  I'm not sure this makes sense as I'm explaining it!   I need more videos!

I've also been on a buying spree this week.  Literally.  And they needed the specs on our appliances so we sprung for the nice stove (I think I mentioned that we might wait to see what the budget looked like).  As if that's either mine or Jimmy's style to wait or compromise.  :)  Also picked out our vanity for the large bath and the bath fixtures.  It's crazy that when the contractor says that we need our bath fixtures, he doesn't just need one, but 4!  Who know you could spend HOURS looking at showerheads.  Well..  you can.  Here's a bit of the style we're going for.  Our cabinets will hopefully be ordered today.  We're going for a third visit to the cabinet dealer today.  Shooting for more modern, but not too modern, but will appeal to the masses if we ever rent out the space.  Makes your head spin.   I know I've shared this with a couple of you, but we've been using the website Houzz to get a lot of ideas from.  Here's a link to our "ideabook": http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/1696737/_trid=anZtYXVjaDttZWdhbl9qb2NoaW1zZW5AeWFob28uY29t/thumbs/1676-McAllister
Happy Friday!

Sweat Equity

Digging the ditch to get out the retaining wall.

Wow.  I feel like we're talking nonstop and working nonstop with the decisions that have to be made on the inside of the house.  Great to have my dad here to bounce ideas off of and to give an expert opinion on where closets should go and where light switches should go.  We've been talking nonstop for nearly a week about all the details!  It was nice to put in some hard work yesterday and today and really see some progress with the yard.   Here's the 'before' video.  Man, I'm moving slowly!  By the end of that concrete pile, I was throwing them from across the yard and by the end of the day, that ditch (and wall) were completely gone!

We took out a lot of weeds, blackberry bushes and concrete in the yard.  We (dad) were just removing the concrete when we realized that the retaining wall was rotten, so instead of making a new walkway, we had to dig a ditch and take out the old retaining wall.  New retaining wall to go in tomorrow.

Jimmy gives a good overview here of everything we're doing.

Another good shot.  Thanks dad!

Guess who's going back for another coffee break?

And the 'after video' for the weekend.  Indie even came by to check it out.  Notice the wall is gone, we dug new holes, and put the posts back into some new concrete.  That was some serious work. 


The garbage slide is completely filled!  I think emptying that slide is the plan for next weekend.  Gulp.

OK.  Gotta go.  I just closed my eyes for a second while that video uploaded.  I'm drained!