Week Zero Recap

It was a whirlwind week of activity before the official start of our construction project. Besides the butchering of the maple tree, we had a full plate of tasks to knock out before the builder arrived to do site preparation on Monday, August 31st. We had been thinking about this addition since we closed on this house 12 years ago, so the rate at which the pieces were falling into place was dizzying. We met with the team from Mingioni Construction to go over the construction schedule (tenative finish date is December 12th!!), meet the Project Manager and Assistant Project Manager and walk the job. We discussed any potential difficulties and special considerations. We also showed them the amazing craigslist find we acquired last weekend!

Oh Yea, craigslist. Part of our project is the conversion of half of our exisiting kitchen into a full bath. We have a tiny kitchen currently so do not envision a palatial bath. Even with the modest square footage, we were likely going to end up with a bill for fixtures, faucets, lighting and tile in the neighborhood of $2,500 - $3,500. Enter our savior, Dirk Vernehoov... Vernhernenren... Vernhevren... let's just call him Dirk. Dirk is from Germany. He and his wife, who is Japanese, were living in Ft Lee, New Jersey near Dirk's work in NYC. They owned a nice condo with nearly every room updated and remodeled, save the bathroom. Dirk was very fastidious and precise in acquiring everything he needed to remake their bath. He had a full suite of Kohler Devonshire fixtures, including faucets, robe hooks, a glass shelf and even the matching toilet paper holder. He also had purchased beautiful imported porcelain tile , recessed lighting fixtures, switches, switchplates, even the light bulbs. Then he lost his job. Deciding to move back home to the suburbs of Berlin and stuck with a complete bathroom still in boxes in his garage, Dirk put the whole lot on craigslist. Even with the cargo van rental we got all of it for $910. We didn't even have to convert it to Euros for him.

Speaking of cargo vans, did you know that Enterprise rents them? Kim found that out while we were figuring out how to get our loot the 100 or so miles from Ft. Lee to Holmes. Now, I have nothing but good things to say about the rates and service from Enterprise, and the van itself was perfectly fine; a Chevy panel van only a couple years old with about 12,000 miles on it and well worth the price. However, the trip to north Jersey and back was an adventure. The seats in the van gave you and odd feeling of leaning in towards the center of the cab. This, in and of itself, would be hardly noticeable but for two mitigating factors; there was no center console and no armrests. With the ride you would expect from a work van, the occupants were left to rely on their own balance and the seat belts to keep them from being hurled to the floor. I, as the driver, had the added benefit of holding on to the wheel, a bonus I came to appreciate. We lashed the EZ-Pass to the passenger side sun visor with one of Kim's stretchy headbands and away we went.

The week also had us ordering the wood stove. We were originally going to go with a Vermont Castings stove, but our research showed that VC stoves had taken a nose dive in quality over the last couple years. It appears that the company had been sold repetitively and gone through at least one Bankruptcy filing. Kim dug a little further and found that the best selling wood stove in the New England states was a brand from Norway, called Jotul (pronounced yotel, like yodel). We are getting the F 500 Oslo in Majolica Brown.

We also went to look at our options for the granite counters. We already know that our cabinets are going to be an cream with brown highlights (Biscotti w/a cocoa glaze for the snobs) as well as Cognac, a rich reddish brown. We have narrowed the granite down to three colors: (left to right) 1:Golden Duen 2:Carioca Gold 3: Giallo Antico We are considering using two different colors. If you'd like to weigh in, click on the "Follow" button to register and leave a comment with your granite recommendation!

The last stop on our Line Up Your Ducks Tour was another spin up the NJ Turnpike, this time to a mecca of posh civility, the ultimate name in regal locales, the quintessential ritzy neighborhood: Brooklyn! OK I am sure there are very nice sections of Brooklyn, and to be honest the neighborhood that A.J. Madison has their showroom is not bad at all, but it was nevertheless an urban adventure. With all of the online shopping, price checking and product research we do, we have a rule: never buy a big ticket item without seeing it in person first. We had found all of the appliances we wanted locally with the exception of the Electrolux ICON range. While many showrooms near us carry Electrolux appliances, none had the ICON series range on display. Luckily we were able to find A J Madison online and the initial pricing of the package of appliances we chose was very competitive. A follow up call to Jacob yeilded a further discount. So we took a spin up to NYC to check out the range and place the order. At least this time we were able to drive up in the comfort of our own vehicle. The range looked great so we pulled the triger on the order. However the absolute highlight of the trip was running across a White Castle. Of course we had to stop. Harold and Kumar were right, it was awesome.

Check back next week for more building adventures! Heck we might actually start the project!!