Carpet!

On Monday morning, when we left for work, our two bedrooms (and more specifically, the carpet in our two bedrooms) looked like this:

Second Bedroom

(you could call this carpet color... Literally Dusty Rose)

Master Suite

(you could call this color... Dingy Mint)

And remember this old flooring... you might recall it from the old front hall... well, it continued on into the Master Suite hall and closet...

So that was Monday morning. By Monday evening, when we returned from a long day of work, our two bedrooms (and more specifically, the carpet in our two bedrooms) looked like this:

Second Bedroom

(this color is called... something Mocha - we can't remember exactly)

 

 

Master Suite

(this color is called... something Cocoa -- see explanation above)

 

 

And that hallway?

(she's a-carpeted, too!)

All the way into the closet:

(cold Chicago winter mornings? no problem.)

ARE YOU EVEN KIDDING US?! SO MUCH BETTER!

Finally! Floors Part II and a Call for Organization

The floors are here (again)! And they're glorious! They really do look beautiful. And maybe even (dare I say it?) better than before? Wood's a funny thing. We ordered the exact same product as we did before and this time around it has more variation, interesting coloration, and richer tones. Or maybe we're just SO excited to have consistent, seamless flooring in again that it just looks and feels that much better to us? I'm not sure. But I think it's the former.

(it also looks yellower and brighter in this shot than it really is, as you can see below where I've panned out)

Again I have to apologize for the lack of sufficient photo evidence - we were so ecstatic about getting our home back the other night that I never took pictures of the floors before we put back all our rugs and arranged the furniture back into place. Still... come on, this is fabulous, isn't it?

The relief at having this all set back up and put into place lit a little flame under our butts. We kicked it into high gear yesterday getting our organization on. The second bedroom had suffered as a paint storage, everything storage, furniture storage, catch-all room for a few months. Our plan for the summer was to get it set up as the guest room/office it's truly meant to be. That will wait just a bit more, but after yesterday's work we can finally see back to imagining it in its final glory again.

(clean, virtually empty of random stuff, besides the pictures we haven't put up that still need to find their homes)

(an organized closet = Maayan is happy!)

And since we were also already at the organization game and doing so well, we figured why not tackle another project and took the extra closet in the hallway to task. It, too, has fallen into a state of chaotic question marks, actually, since we moved in. We're not really sure what it's real purpose is, but it's just extra closet space in a somewhat awkward placement in the house. With all the work we've been doing since we moved in, it sort of just start being a holding pattern for random odds and ends that didn't yet have their own place in the world, as well as for tools and supplies we are using more regularly. With the bathroom debacle and the other work going on the past few weeks, it actually really got horrifyingly out of hand. I was ashamed to open it if I needed anything and someone was over, and a lot of stuff fell into the black hold it had become and I couldn't find it anyway. But look:

THIS HOUSE... IS CLEAN!

(ahhhhhh... that's a collective sigh of relief, since I know I can hear you sighing with me. thanks for the support.)

Quick Update

Blogger is causing image-posting problems (I'm researching options, and may be moving this blog to another host soon... will keep you posted), and on top of that our Internet's been finicky for the past three weeks, so I apologize for the absence of posts and am here to provide a quick update on the goings-on at the HSS. Certainly, with the drama that unfolded last month on our beautiful new floors, you can imagine there's been plenty happening that would, under normal Internet/blogging circumstances, have provided lots of posting fodder. It's true, there's been lots of frustration, rearranging, planning, interacting, shopping, and other activity. We'll give a good ol' summary once everything's finished and back to "normal," we promise.

In the meantime, though, we're here to report that our place has been "packed in" by professionals, and floors should go back down starting tomorrow! Hooray! Unfortunately, the turmoil of all of this means it will be challenging to live at home, so we're packing ourselves out and will be enjoying a brief staycation at the Other Home Sweet Schwab (Dave's parents' place) for at least the next few days. Supposedly we'll be back home by the weekend.

What this also means is that I won't be home tomorrow to record and post our eleventh Twentieth in our home. Can't believe we're so-quickly approaching our first full year! You'll have to forgive the fake-20th post again, which I'll take and post our first day back home. Every day's the same right now, anyway (read: hot/humid/sunny/beach-vacation-y), so it's six of one, half a dozen of the other, right?!

We'll be back soon!

Living in Limbo

As you already know, we had some damage to our floors thanks to a leaking hose, and that they had to be professionally dried out prior to the insurance being able to determine our next steps (while this was happening, we lived at the Marriott downtown). Well, today was the "next step" in the long list of next steps.

I am working from home today and was therefore able to meet our insurance adjuster and the flooring restoration folks who will help fix our mess. They came and took lots of photos and scribbled a billion notes and then gave me some papers to sign and we're on our way to recovery. I first want to say that both our insurance guy and the folks from Universal Restoration Services were incredibly kind, helpful, and utterly reassuring. While I am/we are still totally overwhelmed by everything going on, I genuinely feel a bit more hopeful after today's appointment. We'll know, likely within the next week, what the timeline for the project will be. We will cover our deductible and that's about it. Which is a huge relief. (That last sentence is a huge understatement.) They will need to replace *all* of the flooring - not just the damaged portions. And actually, we can change our mind on color/type/etc., if we want, and if it's within the priced-out retail cost they get for the replacement of what we had. So... what do you think? Should we go with the same? or make a change? When it all starts, they'll move our furniture and cover all our cabinets, shelves, walls, etc. so nothing gets dirty from the dust and work. If we need to, our insurance will send us back to a hotel while it's all going on. Suddenly, everything feels like it'll be fixed. It's still depressing and upsetting, but I think I can see just the hint of a glimmer of the light at the end of this long tunnel. It'll still probably be at least a month before it's all over and done with, but we're on our way. More updates when we know what happens next. This is why you pay for insurance!

In the meantime, here's our temporary state of affairs:

(storage room)

(suitcases - just unpacked, ready to be packed again if necessary)

Floor Update

We'll file this one under trials and tribulations! Here's the quick update. Thanks to a great suggestion from Dad (why didn't we think of this ourselves? because we've never done this before!), we called our homeowner's insurance. And they jumped on board! Over the past few days Dave has been in touch with our claims adjuster who's instructed our every move. Today, an insurance-directed floor company came over to assess the damage and pull up the flooring so that the drying process can begin before the adjuster himself can come next Tuesday.

Remember these floors?

I have to say, it truly never occurred to me that we'd be seeing them again... or so soon!

They pulled up the warped flooring (as you can see, it was a good portion of the dining room and front hall) to reveal mold already growing on the subfloor beneath the damage. They sprayed anti-fungal stuff over the affected area, and set up several large fans and a giant industrial dehumidifier (that's it in the second picture above)...

(Lanie just does not understand what's going on!)

We're not allowed to open the windows at all, or to turn any of the equipment off. Also, there's a large drainage tube running from the industrial dehumidifier to our kitchen sink:

Clearly this presents a challenge to our routine and comfortable living... so what're we to do? As of tonight, we'll be housed, thanks to our insurance company, at the Marriott downtown (less than a block from my office, as it turns out), until Tuesday. Lanie will be comfortably living at her second home with Dave's parents'. Since we won't be back here until Tuesday, and since nothing can really be done until everything's dry and the insurance adjuster comes to look at it and give us further instructions, we won't be able to provide a next update until next week. So... that's where things stand for now. We'll post what we know as soon as we know it! (Happy Anniversary to us!)

I'm off to pack my bags...

A Few Steps Back

You know that expression, "When it rains, it pours"? Well, no one ever told us that "When it pours, it kind of monsoons, for several days." Sigh.

You may or may not have heard/read (by text or Facebook stalking) about Lanie's run-in with some stingy insect (we think) on Thursday. It led to the allergic reaction of all allergic reactions. Day 1 her face was so swollen she appeared to have furry elephantitus. Day 2 most of the swelling went down, but the hives were everywhere and her eye was so puffy she looked like a little kid with pink eye. We're now on Day 3, and while she's definitely better, there are still horrible hives everywhere, some puffiness around her *other* eye (which she scratched enough this morning that she cut herself under her eye, yeesh), and she's so miserably itchy, she's scratched of chunks of fur all over herself. Poor dog. Pathetic. I won't embarrass her further by posting a picture. Just use your imaginations, and exercise sympathy. She's so uncomfortable!

So that's the raining (although, when it comes to Lanie's health, it's really not normal "rain" anymore, we're pretty much in a constant state of thunderstorms...) and the pouring. The monsoons have struck the Home Sweet Schwab where it hurts: our new floors.

Last night Dave noticed that our floors, in a small area near the dining room table, were buckling. He concluded that it must be due to the humidity we experienced briefly when Chicago thought it might not be winter forever last week. We both got upset, but sprung into action. We shut all the doors and vowed to sweat out the summer so as not to encourage more ruin to our flooring, and Dave called the other flooring guy (the guy we didn't use, who in retrospect is who we should have used) who suggested that we start by setting up fans and a dehumidifier to see if pulling out the moisture would allow the wood to settle again. So, that's what we did:

But then, we realized that it wasn't the humidity. In the air duct you can see exposed there to the left of the last picture, there is a leaky hose:

And now we have a nice little area of ruined flooring that will likely have to come up and be replaced. The good news is, worse things can happen! Also in the good news department, it's not the humidity, so we can stop kicking ourselves for not buying laminate flooring. Finally in the good news department, hopefully not all of the flooring will have to come up, and we have left-over boxes from the original install, so if we have to buy more, it'll only be a box or so at most. Bad news: this just stinks.

But... you learn! As we've said all along, this whole thing is really just a great adventure. We've never done this before, and next time we'll approach every step differently, having experienced some of the mistakes and pitfalls of first-time home ownership in this place. Onward!

Dining in Style...

I worked from home today to accept the delivery of our new dining room furniture! And Dave came home to put it all together in time for us to have dinner ON it! Hooray! Everything came from World Market, and I have to give credit to the delivery service they use -- totally worth it. It's a separate company that they use exclusively. They charge a fee, but it's completely reasonable, and the service is outstanding. I highly recommend both WM and their delivery chaps. Now... for the furniture:

(construction destruction)

(attaching legs)

(upright table and bench)

(bench)

(long-view)

(chair)

(big picture))

Not to mention those beautiful floors!

Our house is becoming a home...

 

Floors: COMPLETE!

The floors are finished! And they look fantastic! We finally bid adieu to our contractor (thank goodness, but again, no need to get into the details) Monday, after he came back to complete his incomplete job. Among other minor issues, the main finishing touch was the installation of a "shoe" to the baseboards. A "shoe" is the little bump-like lip adjoining the baseboard to the floor, effectively covering any gaps between these pieces resulting from inconsistencies in slope, etc. We did not know about any "shoe" when we purchased our flooring, so The World's Greatest Contractor had to come back to add it in. He wasn't the easiest to deal with throughout this project, but in the end, it really made a difference to have him return. This is a shoe:

So the only thing left to do is paint the baseboards so that the nail holes are covered and all is clean and bright and shiny and new! Hooray!

Full flooring impact in next post on... OUR NEW DINING FURNITURE!

Crop Circle Explained -- Already

I jumped the gun on wondering about the tape crop circle... Dave wasn't home when I got here - he and Lanie were out for an evening jog. They just got back, and it turns out Dave made the tape crop circle, because the boards feel loose in that area, and he wants Danny to take a look at it tomorrow and see if it's a problem that can be fixed. Sigh. Oh well, mystery solved.

Floors: Near Completion

All of the flooring is installed! So why "near completion" you might be asking? Well, I'm not sure. But all of our contractor's equipment and stuff are still out, so it looks to me like he's not quite finished yet. Also there's an interesting taping situation going on in the front hall, which equally leads me to believe that there more work to do. I think he needs to do some finishing work on the thresholds and the baseboards, but beyond that, I can't figure it out. Guess we'll find out tomorrow. In the meantime, it really looks transformed. Here are some new shots, including a few "perspective" shots for my dad...

(from the front door looking in)

(aforementioned taping situation... we'll call it a tape crop circle)

(mysterious tape crop circle markings - arrows pointing at... well, nothing except the middle of the circle.)

(from our bedroom door, looking down the hall toward the dining room)

(and looking into the kitchen...)

(look at that beautiful, seamless hallway situation! ignore the edge of the tape crop circle...)

(living room)

(perspective shot: looking into the living room from the balcony, by way of the new door! (forgive the mess))

And on a side note... how great is it to still have day light at nearly 7:00pm?! Hooray Spring!

Floors and a Door

Good news! After some set-backs (a few additional set-backs while we were away... but they're in the past now, so they need not be regurgitated), we have some serious floor progress! Hooray! And they are really looking great. So far, the floors are installed in the living room, dining room, most of the hall space, and some of the kitchen. All that's left is the rest of the front hallway, including the closet, and the rest of the kitchen. One or two days more and we're fully floored--literally and figuratively. We also got a surprise phone call on our way home from our travels letting us know that the replacement slider for the living room had come in, so the new sliding door is also in place, and it looks fantastic. Bonus: it opens and closes easily! Great day at the HSS! Enjoy...

(living and dining room: complete!)

(hallway through to the master suite door: complete!)

(front hall -- complete up to the closet area)

(kitchen: just barely started... say goodbye to those amazing laminate faux bricks!)

And here's the new slider (I promise I'll provide better photos in daylight):

(ooh la la = easy access to grill)

Lanie thinks it smells funny in here, but I think she appreciates how sleek it's looking!

Hopefully there will be more exciting news to report on tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm off to consider running for the condo Board (oh, man...)!