Day 113 & 114, Entertainment systems comes on-line

Paul Hughes is our AV guy. He is reviewing his notes as he starts to map out the audio distribution system. Paul had to trace all the wires and discover the location of the original system wires and speakers.



BELOW, you can see the rack of component starts to fill the 30" tall instrument holder.

I am glad Paul knows what he doing. Trying to get all the electronic units to speak with one another is quite an undertaking.

Note how all the cables are neatly tie wrapped and labelled with key ID info.

Paul shows Craig how to access various entertainment channels. We now have a lot more viewing choices thanks to Sandy getting an enhanced program package.

Even the dog seems to like some of the programming.

Brad, the plumber has had to return to the job site. The utility faucet is leaking and water seems to beading at the back splash.

Brad was unsuccessful in solving the leak that has Sandy and I buffed.

BELOW, Chris is clearing plugged drain. They were successful in clearing some material that was blocking the the water flow.

Stacy has been tasked with installing the ceiling mount for the flat screen in the studio.


We are insuring the that all the equipment works with the satellite and audio component.

There seems to be a lot of finger pointing to get this work completed.

Paul is hooking up the Studio system. Darrell is building a corner shelf to houses all the components as well as a set of speakers. Our visitors will have the ultimate entertainment system. The other time Sandy puts on the Dog-TV channel, "yes there is such a channel". I have observed the cats watching the doggie on the screen.

Paul spends a lot time on his phone time talking to DirecTV. We have several receivers and three have programming recorders. Paul is from Tennessee and always find another southerner at the customer Service desk.

Things were going pretty well till we got to the Kitchen and as much as we wanted to be done. We got an error code that requires a tech to come to the house. Anyway welcome to entertainment technology.

BELOW, Paul's calling DirecTV again, while we are having lunch.

Sandy is learning to drive my BMW Wagon and she asked me to teach her how to drive down the driveway. I purchased a set of 6 18" cones. She is using the cone for another purpose, yet to be revealed.

What's next... stay tuned.

Day 112, Darrell's back, Paul is arriving soon

It has been some weeks since I wrote another blog. There are a lot of reasons for not writing next blog. I not hiding behind any reason, I am just restarting my creative juices and blogging.

LEFT: Darrell, Stacy and I discuss the days work to be done.

Darrell is showing his latest fabrication, a special door stop to keep the front door from running into our antique hat tree in the entry. He even painted it old rub bronze to match our finish standard.

He is very clever in solving these kinds of problems when a commercial alternative is not available.

Another custom adaptation is our door screen. Darrell used his metal fabrication skills to create this custom cover to hide our ringer on the blue wall.













BELOW, We had an unexpected wind storm one day and one of the causalities was an antique mirror falling over and breaking one of the side panes. I think it can be fixed.

 RIGHT, Darrell and I discuss the remaining punch list items to be done. We must determine what are our needs are versus wants. The list is dwindling. 

 

 BELOW, The antique are being staged as Sandy decides how to arrange all her treasures

 

 LEFT, Here's our newest addition a display cabinet from a local antiques shore. Sandy now can display her glass and crystal figurines.

 




BELOW, Our family room is starting to take shape  every furniture piece added.

 

 I ordered bamboo drawer dividers for the Kitchen. They come in three different styles. What is cool about these units is they expand to fit any size drawer.

LEFT, We now have our new entertainment center. It is custom design to hold all of our audio-video components in a rack that pulls out and rotates 90 degrees to reveals all the the rear panel plugs and connectors.

Darrell and Stacy level the cabinet and centered the unit on the wall between the two wall plugs.

BELOW, The kitchen flat screen is mounted and ready to display when the master system is connected and turned on.

Now the next phase is officially launched... Enter the Music Man!

Paul has been waiting for the furniture to arrive and be installed. Now it is his turn to make the magic happen.

RIGHT, This is Sandy's roll top desk. Darrell and Stacy assembled it and glued or fastened any part that needed repair.

BELOW, Craig is enjoying the new hot water heater. I love the chai latte's.

Day 111, A catch all for moving-in...

Jeff is the Screen door guy. I wanted to have screen over our front door so we can let the warm breezes through the house without the flying critters from the outside landscape. He did an awesome job. As you can see it is very hard to see it mounted to the front door.

I hope we don't have anyone or dog go through it when it's deployed.

Here the reason we decided to stay and remodel, our sunsets

Here's one of the challenges of living at the top of the hill... T U R K E Y S!

Sandy thinks it is so fun to watch the baby turkeys show up every Spring. She tends to forget they grow up into full size birds. They have no natural predator, you never see one run over. In the Fall they flock into our front yard turning it into a turkey toilet... Yuck!

Our next big event is the installation of the entertainment center. We have three flat screens to get up and get running. The master system is in the Family room. We have another one in the Kitchen so we can enjoy our cook top counter or the new eating nook. The original flat screen is slated to be repositioned in the studio and mounted from the ceiling.

RIGHT, Paul is confirming we have all the parts and pieces to do the job. He starts on Monday, November 25th.

Pixar and Tamika play with a new toy in the Family Room. They were on a down stay until we turned our attention to Paul. We sure miss Pasco and Ben, however the youthfulness of young pup does add a new energy to our home. Pixar turns two year old on December 2nd.

BELOW, this is the last memorial to Ben and Pasco before we get serious about moving back into our new home.

Our utility room is 75% operational. Sandy has been preparing all meals for the kitties and dogs. My favorite item is the 24" deep sink. I love it for the special deep cleaning project only a deep sink can handle.

We love our new bathroom, heated floors, great shower fixture, glass bowl sinks, wall mirror, plenty storage, lighting and drawers. I love the pull out shelves to store all our pharmaceuticals and home remedies.

As we sort out what drawer get what item. We have decide what gets store away, what will go into a studio kitchen set and what will be donated. We directing our stuff into YES, NO go or Donate / Re-purposed.

BELOW, we need to order cushions and have a table built to reside in the elbow of the nook seating unit.

We have done our initial stage of the Living room (antique). Sandy even has her roll top desk in it's new resting space. I did restrict her to three Tiffany floor and table lamps, we will see if she can do it. Also we visited Robert's Relics in Windsor to find a curio cabinet for all her glass treasures.

This antique display unit comes with:

1- A light at the top

2- Six glass shelves to display Sandy's collections

3- It fits perfectly in the space

and we love it

BELOW, the Family room is staged for the new entertainment system soon to be assembled next Monday... Bring on Super Bowl Sunday.

Everything in the back bed room is ready to be sorted for determination of it's final destination.

 

NEXT: I don't have a clue, I am going to visit my son in San Diego for four days, more next week...

We are going to KOA for Thanksgiving, doesn't get more American then that!

Day 110, The Devil is in the Details

When you come to the end of a project whether it is a major remodel or daily chore; there is the tendency to skip on to the next something. I have learn that some of my worst goofs are created in this phase of a project. As I hand the final draft payment to Darrell for the outstanding delivery of our remodel. I know we have a myriad of punch list items to complete. I have notice as we started using the appliances, fixtures, cabinets, doors etc we start to see new things we ignored before.

Sandy and I preparing for the next stage of this project is the move back.

As Sandy blesses the last draft check. We still know we have host of invoices pending for non-scope approvals including our new entertainment center to be delivered next week. 

She reminds Darrell to start protecting our floors by wearing her dusting slippers

Clint and his wife, Sarah posed in front of the 'Blue Wall',  our wonderful introduction to the rest of our new living spaces.





BELOW, this is our memorial of our two senior Labs who crossed over the Rainbow Bridge. Next week, Sandy will say goodbye to Pasco and Ben is her very special celebration of their lives in our home.

Darrell and Craig got a change to catch up on all the pending punch list items as well as discuss lesson learns during the remodel process.


We are staging the furniture in the Family Room as we prepare to receive the entertainment center and the wiring of the flat screen and speakers.

You got to love Darrell when he gets to something he is really passionate about. He is a man of strong Family and Work values. I love to listen to him describe riding sand buggies at Pismo or describing an experience with a past client. I wonder what he will say about the Steele's after this project.

ABOVE, these are some of the familiar items as we move through the punch list process. Left is the actual list, sample stains to finish off the new entertainment center, grout chart to transition from the oak floor to the porch paver tiles. And of course the flow of funds from owner to builder.

ABOVE, Darrell and Sandy share a dog moment with Pixar, our new Lab and Tamika, our resident blond retired breeder.


LEFT, something in causal conversation you learn some interesting facts. Like Darrell ordered this cabinet extra because he felt it would look funny if we only had cabinets on the right side of the sink and nothing on the left. Sandy and I didn't have a clue he did that...

Darrell and Michelle worked feverishly to put a check mark to one more punch list item.

These two have make this whole remodeling experience at very wonderful home transformation.

BELOW, Picks up on all this other calls that are part of a busy builder's business partner.

Sandy is displaying the note pad and lab coasters given to us by the Brittans. The pad is proudly located on our middle refrigerator and the coasters are staged just in front of our gas cook top.

Soon I will be shooting 17 new shots of the remodel based on photos I took on May 6th, 2013, day 1 of the start of remodeling. The plan is to position the camera in the exact location and angle as the original shot.

Currently, I am staging furniture in the Living and Family room. I want to have the AV equipment installed plus a few other completed punch list items before I break out the Nikon and tripod.