The New Year

My number one resolution is to get the Church to a place where I can live comfortably.
I took the train up on Thursday night and my 24 year old Bimmer started right up after sitting in the snow for over 10 days. I headed over to the church to see what had happened over the last couple of weeks. The most noticeable was the new door. It went from this:

To this:

And now you can see the large beam has gone up and all the walls come down.

I also saw that the dining room ceiling had been sheet rocked and they were starting to work on the living room ceiling. Here's the cool tool they use to sheet rock ceilings.

Now is the time that things are starting to move quickly in terms of making design decisions. You have to get all the electrical sorted out before you can sheet rock the walls. I also had to start ordering bathroom stuff as I'm really aching to get running hot water and a fully functional bathroom.

Here's the vanity:

This is the vanity space right now:

And here are the bathtub/shower doors:

This is the tub space right now:

I also made a change order. I should have done this in the first place at the suggestion of William, my architect but I felt, at the time, that the dining room seemed a little dark. But now with the new front door installed  and the walls down, there's much more light. Soooo... I am removing a odd duckling window in the dining room here:

See, the church has this beautiful symmetry and that window mucks it up. Here's a photo of the north side of the church with it's five large windows. The south side has the exact same five large windows and this strange and cheap addition. Even though it now requires getting more new siding, therefore more expense, I knew it was now or never.

See how much more light the new door and sidelights let in?

So David will remove it and I'll have a nice new wall space for some art.

I've also ordered the kitchen appliances. The kitchen cabinets and counter tops are ready to be delivered and I've got the kitchen sink and faucet on order as well. Finally, I have 20 boxes of white ceramic tile coming so we can start to tile the shower walls and bathroom floor. I am looking into some type of electric radiant heating pad or the bathroom floor that you can put on the subfloor and then tile over it (another change order!). It sounds cool but I just want to check on how much electric a thing like that needs. The church has 100 amps; not the most robust, but then again, it's just me mostly on the weekends so the electrician felt it would be fine to keep it as is for now.

I did get to celebrate New Years with the Parker-Thomassons. Here's Deb masquerading as Commander Santa marshaling the troops.

I also got a glimpse of the church from the east when I was down on the corner of New Street and Main Street looking up toward Ely Street. It looked so great, I can only imagine what it will look like when we finally get to redo the decking.

And here she is from Ely Street with her new front door.

It's exciting times at the church right now.

Finally, I cannot stop taking pictures of the beautiful Hudson River. Here's some Hudson River photos I took on my train ride to and from the church this New Year's weekend.

Happy New Year, everyone.