Randy the Chandy

All of the lighting fixtures that I chose for the house came from one store or another. If you said to me, "love that light, where'd you get it?" I would be able to tell you exactly where ("Pottery Barn") and how much it cost ("originally $99 & 25% off"). Although, I am happy with all of my purchases that isn't a very exciting story. 

However, one of our light fixtures was a gift and it has a bit of a story to it.

Fun Fact:

Every time we visit H's parent's house his father, my FIL, tries to get us to take something (or a lot of things) from their basement AKA The Storage Hub. Sometimes we decline, other times we rummage around and take one or two items. For instance, the last time we visited The Hub, H ended up with two arms full of records. Yes, he is slowly migrating from preppy to hippie to hipster. It is a slight problem.  At least he is ahhh, well rounded?

Back when we were building the house I had asked my MIL if she had any chandeliers down in The Storage Hub. It's a little bit like asking, "What's in your bag Mary Poppins?". One coat rack and a hand mirror later and you're set. 

She walked me downstairs and pointed to a sealed box. H was anxious to head out, so we scooped it up and drove off, new treasure in tow. It wasn't until Mr. C asked me to rush over my light fixtures for the electrician to install that I finally un-boxed the chandelier. I don't know what I was expecting but, it wasn't exactly "me" nor did it mesh with this modern, city dwelling. It was also too small for the space it was about to be placed but, there was no time (or budget) to go out and find a new one. After all, we had an occupancy permit to obtain!

So, the too small, gold chandelier was hung. No one could deny it was just too teeny for our high vaulted ceilings and large upstairs landing. But, it would do for the time being.

It's a little dingy but, with a little sprucing up it would (will) be quite beautiful. I'd love it in a small bathroom with some new candle slips. 

Now, for the big rod iron twist, about a year ago my MIL went to Paris, as she does almost annually. It was there that she sent me a picture of this chandelier that she found for sale. 

It was hard to identify the size in the picture but, the structure and details were quite becoming. So, as a gift for our new home she purchased it and had it shipped to the good ol U.S. of A. (Note: this is a slowwwww, freight-liner kind of shipping.) So, out of my mind it went.

Long after H and I had moved in, my MIL called and said the French beauty had arrived. I originally thought it would work well in our dining room and would bring a nice casual, pub feel to the built in benches.

But, in person the French chandy is large. Way too large to hang above the dining room table. Plus, I had grown obsessively attached to this light fixture that had already claimed the space as home. 

I knew just where it had to go. 

Vuala!

Here are some pictures to show you the size differences. 

From below. 

 

From the stairs that access the RTD.

Now, we all know that size doesn't really matter (LIE! Sure it does.) but, the Devil is in the details & I love the details of this randy lil chandy: 

The scalloped bobeches. (Surely you know what a bobeche is.)

 

The green rod iron with shimmery gold highlights.

The leaf and floral design that mimic the beautiful outdoors. 

So there you have it. My little lighting story. Oh, and to the future owners of this little abode of ours... I am pretty sure Randy the Chandy is coming with us on our next adventure. #sorrynotsorry

Thank you MIL and FIL, we love our little (BIG) French treasure!

Appraise The Work

As soon as the wires were up and our back yard didn't look like this anymore, our mortgage broker ordered the appraisal. 

The appraiser came and Mr. C was kind enough to escort him through the house. Our mortgage gall suggested that he be here instead of us in case the appraiser had any structural/rehab questions (& probably so I didn't say truthful crazy things like our foundation was made of diamonds and our paint laced with gold in hopes of persuasion in our favor). 

So, I did what I could. I cleaned the house and in hopes that the appraiser was a fan of 'merica, I hung up our flag. 

We ended up just over where we had hoped to be which is awesome and means maybe the flag worked. (Thanks again Mike & Sunshine for the house warming present!)

Next stop, the permanent loan closing. Hold on to your seats kids, I know this is getting almost too exciting to handle!

The Wire (s)

The wire saga has finally come to an end. You first read about it here. Then again here.

A brief recap: The wires that were hanging off of the side of our house had to be hooked up to one of the electric poles on either side of our house. Sounds simple enough but, this couldn't happen until our neighbors signed the waiver that said wires could cross the plane of their property.

Until the wires were taken care of the appraisal was pushed back and so was our ability to convert from a construction loan and into a permanent loan.

We needed the owners of two houses next to us to sign off on the waiver. The electrician failed to obtain the signatures during the (actual) construction phase so Mr. C asked that we get involved and be "neighborly". Unfortunately, the task wasn't as simple as knocking on the door and asking for a cup of sugar. Both houses are rented out so tracking down the owners was our first hurdle. (Thank goodness for the internet and a girlfriend who knows her way around it.) Getting the owners to return a phone call or respond to a letter was a whole other saga and physically obtaining the signatures was the worst. One out of three of the property owners was particularly awful to deal with. But, after I established contact and after Mr. C bribed each and every one of them (seriously! this is what our world has come to?!) we finally were free and clear to have the electrical company, BGE, come out and do the install. 

Here is an old picture of  what the wires looked like for the past 6 months. 

Now, the view looks a little more like this. 

Wait. Where'd the wires go? Confused? Yeah, well, apparently the wires were installed on the "wrong" (South) side of the house because the signatures that we received were from the neighbors on the North side. 

So BGE came, scoped the scene, said "nope", and left. The electrician had to come back to move the wires from one side of the house to the other. 

Another request that BGE made was to make provisions so they could get their 25ft ladder out the back of our house. With the tiny back patio and a fence something creative had to be done. So Mr. C cut out a gate in the (once solid) privacy fence.

The gate opens up into the neighbor's back patio. No need to ever open that thing again so we have since put locks on it. It's not exactly what we wanted but, hey, it got the job done. 

Not only did the wires near the roof have to be moved but so did the electrical box.

After this mess...

... was all cleaned up.

And moved over.

BGE was asked back out to the house and the wires (finally) were installed.

Three cheers now, HIP HIP HURRAY!

It is hard to believe that this seemingly simple task could've been so drawn out and frustrating. 

If I were to share any advise to fellow renovating, home owners, I would say to get going on projects that involve neighbors, city permits, electrical companies in the beginning of the renovation process, (& by get going, I mean full court press). You never know what kind of snags you may end up with along the way.

Never thought we'd be so happy to see some wires in the air.  

 

 After all, where else are the birds supposed to sit in Charm City?

Tying Up The Loose Ends

It's been a while since I've talked about the house so, you probably think that chapter of this book is closed. But, there are still some loose ends around here that need to be tied up before the house is 100% completed.

We're still having the issue with the power as you read about here. 

We currently have one out of two signatures needed in order for our neighbors to grant us an easement to run the power lines over their property. The problem being that none of the residents in the homes on our side of the street are the owners. So, getting ahold of the property owner is proving quite complicated. Getting them to sign this d*mn piece of paper is even harder. 

What is a priority to us is not to these people. 

Those wires hanging off of the side of our house...

... need to be hooked up to this utility pole.

Once that final signature has been obtained then the local power company, BGE, can come hook up our "for real" power. Currently, we are using some "not for real" power -huh? Yeah, I'm not sure either. All I know is that Mr. C suggested for us not to run every appliance at once while every light is on for an extended period of time.

Some of the other things that needed to be completed include:

• Install our address on the transom above the front door. (so, none of you get lost trying to find our house when you come visit) 

• Install the remaining light fixtures; the bathrooms have temporary lights. This is because our permanent fixtures weren't on site yet and we needed to pass an inspection to live here.

• Ensure Charm City converts our property from 2 to 1. (so we only pay taxes on ONE!)
• Appraisal
• Convert to our permanent loan

Things once happened so quickly around here, now they seem to be moving much slowwwer. We're hoping to be finished with this whole shebang by the end of the month. But, I am losing that faith as this month seems to be flying by. Maybe November will bring us a little luck. 

Regardless, my fingers are crossed that it's soon!


Despite this frustrating last leg of the project, we still love this sweet lil brick row house of ours.

The Skinny

Before I get to the juicy news I wanted to share with you some of Week 17's progress.

The updated TBC list:

TBC

✓  Paint

✓  Flooring

✓  Cabinets

✓  Posts and rails for internal staircase

✓  Plumbing fixtures

✓  Appliances

✓  Countertops 

✓  Fence

     Stairs to RTD

     Garage door 

     Permit

Plumbing fixtures are in. Here is our kitchen sink, well the faucet at least. 

The crew is protecting the countertops beneath as to why I don't have a "money" kitchen shot.


Countertops you say? I am so spoiled lucky! The countertops I have dreamed of are now my own little reality! They are Carrara marble and the island is butchers block. 

The fence in the back of the house was completed. Hadyn's mother suggested we put up rod iron to ensure our safety or possibly glue down broken glass. Depending how some of these neighbors behave we may entertain those options.

Lighting fixtures are up (not all of them)

Here is our little powder room.

The posts and rails were built for the internal staircase. 

The stairs were being stained over the weekend to match the dark wood floors. 

The laundry closet complete with full size, spiffy washer/dryer we pretty much stole got for cost from the appliance store, HHGreg. Washer/dryer : me :: SuperFridge : H

Now where on earth do I keep the laundry supplies?! (soap, fabric softener, etc)


The second bath.

This weekend H's family visited to celebrate our sweet, nephew Charlie's baptism and middle brother/uncle/Godfather/DDS extraordinaire's birthday.


Said BIL (brother in law), James was busy scaling the walls to the RTD while I snapped this FFF (forced family fun) photo of H and his 'Papa Bear' in our master closet. I was trying to show just how large the closet is.

All in all the house is looking pretty ready to move into. 

But, alas, it is not. 

Here's the skinny on why:

The house is VERY close to done. As in, Mr. C says he will be 99% complete (excluding the final punch-list) on Tuesday (tomorrow!). 

However, the house has to be inspected and we have to receive an Occupancy Permit from the City before we can legally move in. The permit will likely NOT be granted if we cannot get the power on. As in this is still tied into the power-line dilemma I told you about here. 

It is my understanding that the permits have to be signed and processed through the local power company, BGE.
Once approved, the power has to be hooked up and turned on by BGE. 
Then the inspection for our Occupancy Permit will happen. 
THEN we can move in. 

All in all, the BEST case scenario we will move in by August 1. WORST case scenario we will move in by August 16. 

We have to move out of our rental house by the morning of August 1. (I didn't plan that - it just worked out that the owner of our rental is moving back in and needs it by that date.)

Please say a little prayer, meditate on it, send positive energy, or just think happy thoughts for us! 

I'm Wired

Last week (eleven!) I wrote Mr. Contractor another BIG check. 


It may surprise most of you to know that H and I do not have lots of extra zeros in our bank account. This means that when Mr. Contractor requests a "draw" from us, our bank first sends someone over to inspect the work he has completed. Once the work passes inspection we receive the transfer of funds which, allows us to write these BIG checks. This whole process shaves a couple of days off of active construction. 


What I'm getting at is... nothing too crazy happened over there last week.


But, other than the draw request, inspection, transfer of funds, and writing of the check; we did get WIRED. 

The electrical boxes that looked like this last week.

Now look like this.


Now that Mr. C has his mula some really, really exciting stuff is happening at the house this week!


Hint: this is the last time we will be able to see through these walls. Unless of course someone develops xray vision & at this point, I am almost positive I did not marry Superman.