We should go out of town more often

It is AMAZING how many little things suddenly happened while we were away. It's not that the guys weren't super-busy when we were home - it's just that a lot of their work suddenly came together in a way that you can SEE. There's a difference, for example, between looking at some scaffolding being used to hold a bunch of wood that's been cut and stained, and those same pieces of wood actually in their final destinations. Plus, Terry (electrician) was here as well.

Without further ado, then:

I realize this isn't a sexy picture, but this is a lovely, lovely thing. It's the thermostat for this zone - the existing house. It's been moved to the top of the basement stairs, to the wall that divides the living room from the batcave (a.ka. the current office). This baby used to live in the basement, which sort of made sense at the time, because the old furnace (oil-fired, forced hot air) used to heat part of the basement as well. Since the new boiler/baseboards have gone in, though, the thermostat hasn't able to pick up that things were getting warmer in the house. So we'd turn on the heat...and then have to go shut it off once we were oh, BOILING ALIVE.

I know, you're impressed.

OK, this is kinda cool. Here we are, looking out of the "sun space" (I'm trying to use the new and improved term for the bump out...), and you see the light at the top left corner? That's the new outdoor light to illuminate that area of the deck.

And! The heat exchanger has been turned on. This control panel has been here for a few days, but now that it's on, we can admire the fact that - as shown above - outside air of 33 degrees is coming in... and stale air of 61 degrees is going out. I'm going to have to read the instructions...one of these days.

We're still in the office (and I apologize, by the way, for the odd coloration - it's night out, and all...) Anyway, look at the bookshelves that finally are in, under the windowsills. We opted for "one tall shelf" here, so it doesn't look like much here - it's just the toe-kicks, and the occasional vertical support. Also, you might realize that all the cardboard that the flooring came in, has been removed, so you can actually see the floor. This is maple, on the first floor. We happen to love the mixture of dark and light (I forget which is which - some is the sap wood, and some is the heart wood...)

They've started the drywall on the slanty section of ceiling. It still needs to be taped, slathered in magic mud, sanded, and painted.

Let's head upstairs.

We're looking at the landing. The baseboards are in here. Yes, they need to be painted, as do the risers and the stringers. After extensive deliberations, our Style Consultant, Steve - who built this whole thing - recommended that for the landing, the baseboards be painted, rather than stained.

Now we're upstairs. Please admire the super-sexy doorknobs we went with. I'm drooling.

Here are the bookshelves upstairs - we went with two shelves here: one for trashy paperbacks, and one for non-trashy paperbacks. The baseboards are also in. The bookshelf up here is only under the south-facing windows because we need some of the east-facing real estate for baseboards. (Although Jonathan swears that this whole addition is so well-insulated that we could heat it with a candle.)

The glass is in the bathroom window!!! You can kinda tell by the glint of reflection halfway up where the two pieces meet in the corner. The inside framing (if that's the word) for this is not quite done yet... Turning around now...

The trim is up on the inside and outside of the bathroom door (which hasn't been hung yet) (Hung? Hanged?) Here we are in the bathroom, looking out. Do you see the ceiling fan? Want to see it up close?

Isn't it a beaut?

At this point in our journey, I hear a rustling from the corner. It's Charlie. I say to him, "Charles, you are NOT using our bedroom as a litterbox, are you?" He looks at me sullenly.

"I would never do that."

Yeah, right.

Turning my back on Charlie, I see that the framing is up around the doorway into the closet and OMG, are those SHELVES?

YES! Shelves and rods are up in the closet! Plus baseboards. The heavy-looking thing leaning against the wall to the right is the door into the old attic, to the back left of the closet. I'm not entirely sure what the clamps are doing, but I imagine it's something very important. Probably gluing (?!) some trim to the drywall...?

And, there is some insulation up in the hatch up into the attic, as well as lovely and attractive framing around the hole. Happy sigh!

That's it for our tour today.

And here is Maggie, making a rare appearance in this blog. She is meowing at me to hurry up and be sociable with her again. You can see that the transition between the concrete floor of the bump out and the living room floor hasn't been done yet. The concrete was supposed to get stained last week, but I believe Brad the Concrete Guy has had some trouble obtaining the stain from the supplier in a Timely Manner.

OK, that's it for tonight. Woo hoo!