I wish I had more to share with you as far as the remodeling goes. I mean I REALLY wish I had more to share with you. When we started this process, my goal was to move in on June 10. Our builder felt that was doable. Our two adult children, their spouses, and the two granddaughters are coming for the July 4th week, and we won’t be in our new place. We will be sharing this two bedroom apartment. Thankfully, it has a freshly painted and spacious side porch, and we will probably spend a lot of time there. Mike and I will rent an Air B and B room in the neighborhood where we will sleep. It’s much easier for us to get a place to sleep rather than loading up the grands for every nap and night and taking them to another location to sleep.
The reason for our delay in construction was the fabrication of the steel beam that will support the second story when the kitchen/great room addition is built. It’s that red thing at the top of the photo. It took much longer than it should have to make that beam. Those support boards are temporary and will be removed.
Since we have a brick wall between the courtyard and the yard, they had to hire a crane to lift the beam over the wall. However, once the beam was over, that crane couldn’t get close enough to lift the beam into place. 
That meant another crane needed to be scheduled which added another week. Then they had to hire and schedule a third crane to lift a bobcat over the wall to dig out the footers for foundation. They were digging out a brick courtyard and patio which created a lot of dust. That prompted calls from angry neighbors. Oh dear…….That pile of bricks on the left in the first photo is where our Dutch door will be. The cement mixer will be replaced by our fridge.
Meanwhile, the good thing is that the carpenters have been busy adding trim to the other parts of the house, and the painters have even been following right along behind them. I am meeting the plantation shutters representative today to get the windows measured. Most of our shutters should be made by move-in day.
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We selected these Baldwin Brass levers for our doors in a distressed antique nickel finish. A round plate will go behind each lever. Two bathrooms will have pocket doors, and their fittings require special hardware that does not include levers. The hardware for those two doors was about five times more expensive per door. Go figure.
I mentioned in this post that the front door hardware will remain. We are just having it cleaned. It, too, is Baldwin Brass in a brass finish that has aged over the years. It has the patina that is really popular right now. It and the front door are the only things we are keeping from the original house, and it’s our way to give a nod to the past.
Thank you so much for following along on our blog and being the cheerleaders that you are. Your encouraging words are always good to read.
Take care.
