Nolong

As a colleague of mine put it: In the race between the contractors and the contractions, the contractions won by a long shot!

So, if you haven't heard, our little Xmas baby surprised us by arriving on Thanksgiving! Nolan Christopher Long was born 11/21 at 12:35 am. Despite being 5 weeks early, he is in perfect health and did not have to spend any extra time in the hospital. Pictures are up here and here. Margie and John have christened the kid with his official Long handle: Nolong.

Because the timing was awesome, Nolan was ready to come home before the floors were ready to be dry. Finishing was happening at the same time, and the smell was overwhelming even for adults, so we checked into the Four Seasons for a few days. We are home now, and the kitchen is nearly complete. Stay tuned for a post on the kitchen.

OMG! My Kitchen is a Kitchen!!

I came home today to discover that my first floor is now a LIVING SPACE, no longer a WORK SITE!! All the garbage and shit is cleaned up, the paper covering is off the floors, and the appliances are mostly installed. It actually looks like my house again. Check out the photos--they're a little dark because the lights haven't been installed in the kitchen yet.

Of course, the big challenge is still the floors. Floor guy is blaming the wood once again for delays--which is convenient since it can't defend itself. The boards are installed, but now they need to sit again. Uh, didn't they just sit for 2 f'ing weeks? If this wood sits around any longer it's going to have to go on welfare.

Paint and Tile

The tile backsplash has been mostly installed. There's still a weird little section that's not finished, and it looks like they have some grouting to do. Also, it looks like someone was having fun stacking little plastic buckets on the counter.

They have simultaneously been painting the room. The paint is Benjamin Moore Harvest Gold, which sounds like a hideous appliance color from the 70's, but the color looks great in the room. It's pretty close to what was in there before, but is a little richer and warmer. I love that the way the painted soffits look against the white ceiling.

Granite

What was formerly known as the biggest project bottleneck, the granite countertops, are now installed! Here are some kind of dark pictures of the counters. They look much better in the daylight, the stone is flecked with blue eyes that show up if you look at it from an angle.

The honor of biggest remodel pain in the ass now goes to. . .THE FLOORS! For some reason the wood is not acclimating to the house. Don't even ask me what that means, but $200 worth of space heaters are down there trying to suck every last bit of moisture out of it as we speak. I am hoping that they can actually start installing the shit in a few days.