September 3rd, 2006. The REAL move in day. It was a gorgeous day. The storm cleared the skies. The move went pretty smoothly. There was only minor damage on one object...which unfortunately was on one of the most important pieces. The couch that we originally wanted upstairs in the master bedroom couldn't make it up the stairs, so it went in the back of the living room which consequently we are happy with. While the queen mattress made it upstairs, the box spring didn't. We were told that you can just take the fabric off, cut it in half, fold it over and staple the fabric back on. I'll explain in a bit that it was a little more complicated.

The miracle of the day was getting the previously mentioned green couch in the basement. It required quite a bit of massaging, but the movers finally did it. They tried bringing it outside and through the basement door, but the frame was short by 3 inches. The only way down was by bringing it back inside and taking the interior door off and squeezing it down. So it's there to stay.

The movers basically put all the boxes in 3 locations - basement (theater room), first floor and second floor. The first floor was pretty much open game, but since the carpet wasn't down yet, it wasn't a good idea to put anything in the hall or the master suite, so that left the other 2 bedrooms. I had been storing the closet shelves that we bought way back when in the small bedroom, so I had to take them out to make room for the movers only to move them back when the carpet was going to be put in.

The lack of carpet on the second floor was a hindrance since we couldn't put anything in the master bedroom and closet before we did and now that all our stuff was there, we had a lot to unpack. We couldn't wait for the tile work in the master bath to be finished before the carpet installation. So that was the next step, but we still had the rest of the weekend to clear a few boxes.

The first thing to be unpacked was the kitchen. It was the best thing to do because, a) we need to eat, b) the room was ready and c) it had the most amount of boxes involved. That way a huge chunk of unpacking would get done just from this.

In the interest of saving a lot of money we decided not to redo the kitchen. We were doing a lot as is, plus I redid the kitchen in our last place so this time around we really wanted to do something different...so it can wait. That being the case, the only thing we had done was really add a baseboard heater (there was never a heater there before) and since we are going to redo the room eventually, I cut the floor so the fridge could fit into the cabinet (it was a 1/4 inch too tall). The cabinet door couldn't open before that. The other thing I did was replace this tiny lazy susan in the corner cabinet with one more suitable to the cabinet size (i.e. larger). We found a nice one at Ikea. Then the corner cabinet door hinge broke. It's a 150 degree hinge (as opposed to 90, which is what most are), which is harder to find. So once again I go to Ikea...I told customer service that they forgot to give me that hinge in the kitchen set I just bought. They obliged.

When we eventually decide to redo the kitchen, we're also going to want a place to put a second fridge. In fact we designed the laundry room with that in mind. The plan on the room is to have shelves on one side to store all the large kitchen stuff, and have a space that is big enough to fit a fridge. For the record, it's also just the right size to fit an arcade machine that I have my eye on ;). Right now we just have a set of shelves there for cleaning supplies.

There's also a utility sink in there as well. The plumber was so impressed with it, he couldn't believe it was Ikea. Sounds like a commercial, I know, but he also told me how he installed a $10K utility sink. That blew my mind.

Actually, the only room in the house that we did absolutely no work to (not even paint) was the sun room...at least not yet. It actually worked out because this served as a staging area for all of our stuff. All the tubs, toilets and sinks lived in there for months before we could install them. Even the cabinets that I purchased for the basement were there for so long that the boxes were bleached by the sun. Even after we finally moved in it was still a mess of stuff.

Once we were in, we set up shop in the medium guest bedroom. There was already a bed in there and the working bathroom is across the hall.

That week the carpet guys came back to do the upstairs. Everything was straight forward with this except I had to help to bring it up the stairs around the same corner that the bed frame couldn't make...it was tight. That means it took 3 guys to get this carpet upstairs. Then I went on my way and the guys installed carpet in the master bedroom and closet, and followed it throughout the hallway and down the stairs. We once again choose a berber type carpet, but this one was mostly beige in color.

There were 2 spots in the house where I needed to create access panels in the walls. In the basement, in order to get to the plumbing stack as it enters the slab, and in the master closet in order to get to the jacuzzi motor. They were both simple enough to make. I just cut some MDF to size, painted it the same trim color as the rest of the respective rooms, and screwed it to the studs. It's only in emergency that I would need to open them, so the screws are easy enough to remove since they are exposed. Added a small trim around it and done.

Once the carpet was in, I began to put together the master closet. That meant finally putting up the Elfa sheves that we bought the day after we closed on the place. This stuff (made of metal, and a lot of it) was shuffled around 3 or 4 times before finally getting put up...and it was quite dusty. Finally the closet was ready.

In order for the stone guys to finish the master bath without destroying the new carpet, I had to protect the carpet by taping down plastic and paper to the floor. What was left upstairs was the wall and the window / door frames. Once that was done, the last area was the first floor bath and hallway, which is accessible from the front door.

The granite floor in the bathroom continues into the front hall but with a darker green and brown granite. Since we had extra tiles and the closet had no floor we put in granite tile in the closet as well. It's silly, but we had extra. Even the stone guys got a chuckle from that.

End of September. After all the tile was in we had the plumber come in to set the toilet in the master bath and the toilet and sink first floor bath. I was a man with 3 thrones. At first, we had to tape a sheet to the window in the master bath because the window wasn't frosted, nor did we have a blind for it.

In the master bath, we had a custom limestone countertop put in. It's an "L" shape with one leg made of the same 1.25" stone. Apparently the installer never made something like that and even though I described it perfectly, it didn't come out the way we planned. It's great, none the less. On the other side of the room, we had a small piece of the same stone put in on the side of the tub as a little seat. As well as a saddle for under the door made of the same stone. All that was left to make the room physically useful was to hook the sink up, which the plumber did in no time.

Now that the contracted work was mostly done, the little things mostly fell on me...and there were a lot of little things. One of the first things I had to set up was my desk. I needed a spot to work in case a paying job came in after all. The rest of the basement was a mess, but the office was all set up, including the shelves, in all of its Ikea glory. I used the same Galvant L-shaped desk I bought for the last place, and hung Effictiv cabinets above to match. Across from the desk was another set of Efectiv cabinets floor to ceiling, but since they didn't make the same color I had anymore, I got a darker brown that worked just as good.

After a bit of research, we found out that the whole "cutting the box spring in half and bringing it upstairs" thing only worked for extremely cheap ones, i.e. not ours. The idea is you take the staples off the fabric and peel it back to expose the inside. Then you cut the rib boards that run the short length, fold it over (bending the wire that usually runs around the top), bring it upstairs, fold it back and staple the fabric back on. The bed frame and the fabric should hold the thing together. But that didn't happen. Our frame had a net of 1/4" steel wires running throughout, not top mention 3 steel beams running the length. Folding it was not happening. After trying to bring it up again we saw that it was just 2 inches too wide to make it up to the first landing. Once up it should be fine. 

So what I did was peeled back the fabric as I mentioned above, and just cut one of the ribs...and made it up to the landing. But then it wouldn't go up...it was stuck on the second rib, which was a .5 inch too long. Then I just notched the wood and the frame had the right angle to slide right up the stairs. A quick repair on the rib (by screwing on a metal plate) and stapling the fabric back on and it was good as new. When we decide we are done with this bed, it will leave in pieces.

By this time we had to clean out the sun room. It was filed with tools, spare parts and everything you could think of. You could barely see the floor in this 17' x 9' room before we cleaned it. We needed to make room because...

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