Nesting

Ok, so this post is not actually about the house per se...it's about what happened when we went to the house at 9 this morning for a meeting with the siding guy (who was supposed to show us trim samples) who didn't bother to show up.

We were out in Brooklyn anyway, so we decided to get an oil change and boy were we surprised when the mechanic showed us our air-filter basket under the hood.

Filled with acorns. Tons, and tons of acorns.

I'm feeling very very confused.

Creepy toy find of the day:

Did I say our digging was useless?

Name that Donut

Another contest here at "the Little House That Could", since Lucy won the "Name That Animal" being the only one who ventured a guess...(Possum??Really? C'mon...)

Help me out here people!

There is a big patch of cement in the middle of the backyard that's been on my mind. After 5 hours of random, useless, digging for no reason we decided to concentrate on the area revealing a giant...donut. We haven't been able to get leverage on it to get it up yet...but we're working on it.

Cap to a well, outhouse, or cistern? Base for some sort of post? Entrance to another dimension? Why the hole in the center?
I can just get my hand into it's middle, and from the chunks of dirt I pulled out a lovely little shard of transfer-ware china.

Window gates

Sooooo, remember these ugly things?And then this fencing which we got from a guy who got them out of a dumpster somewhere deep in Brooklyn?
Well, voila!

I hate having to have gates..but if I have to...these make me real happy.

Where oh where are the contractors?

Last week the roofer --who is supposed to finish the brick and masonry-- just never showed up.

So then he agreed to come out on Saturday to do the work...and...nope!

Finally he promised to show up today...but guess what...

Instead, we found that absolutely no one has been out there, and the plastic protecting the house is hanging by a thread and probably making the neighbors insane with the sound of wild flapping. (not to mention that we're expecting rain and at this point it's pretty much useless)
Another nice surprise was that the wood that held the bottom of the plastic to the building came loose and lodged itself in the window screen tearing a nice big hole.

Busy

Today was a day of many tasks.

First we met with the siding guy to discuss how the siding gets put up (with the help of the Hardi-Plank manual we printed out for him), chose molding for the windows, and got the general idea it won't be started until after Thanksgiving.

Then we met with the counter guys...apparently no one wants to take responsibility for having cut them...but at any rate it looks like it will be re-cut smoothly, and with all ends matching. Imagine?

And THEN we went to LIC to a great stone shop called Emtek to have some bluestone cut down for window sills. I like the dramatic fall sky...

Here is one piece which will replace the concrete that was put in--which has already cracked in half.
And here is a product they sell for coloring cement--not that we have any use for it, but I'd love to buy some just for the packaging.
We are dangerously close to Day 100, folks.

And I think the only prize I'll be winning is a big fat ulcer.

Name that animal:

The first night we left the siding out to dry we came back to find a ton of cat prints all over the planks.

The second night, we found THIS! And it's pretty darn big. Any ideas? Any trackers out there?

Sunset

Taking a break from watching paint dry.

Everything hurts.

Good news...the correct siding showed up on Friday! Twice as thick, a few inches wider, smooth...just what we asked for. And did I mention heavier...and that it only comes primed? 800' sq needing 2 coats of paint.

It took us 3 days--we could only do about 40 boards at a time spread out in the inside...
And outside.
It really doesn't look like that much, does it?
But truly...we can barely move.

There's "rounded"...

and then there's just plain "round".

The kitchen countertops came on Friday--Pure White Caesar Stone. They had asked me If I wanted the edges flat or rounded...and I said rounded...thinking a nice beveled edge like the one below, straight from the CaesarStone website.
Here's what we got. Trust me--it looks worse in real life than in the photo. It looks like 70s laminate...and why one edge is flat I'm not sure. And of course, although it's already glued on, 2 sections angle upwards.
Ah. Yes. And the giant nick in the stone in the corner.

By my calculations...

we're at day 88.

We showed up a week ago to find the roofer (yes the same roofer. There's nothing like hiring back a guy who put on a leaky inadequate roof twice to do more work on the house) cementing up the brick on the front of the house.

Does this look like re-pointing??
After a lot of needless arguing, they finally started to do it right:

Daylight Savings

4 PM in the bedroom.