Stops and Starts

I've been traveling for work this past week and haven't been able to post photos from the week before. It's getting really busy at Roadrunner. Last week, Myriam Santos and I went to Seattle to shoot Queensryche. Then I flew to LA to shoot Kenny Wayne Shepherd with Mark Seliger. On Saturday, I met up with Myriam again to make some art with Jenny Owen Youngs in the Valentino Suite at the Hotel Alexandria.
Before I left for Seattle, I got up to the church to see how the floors looked with their first complete sanding. Here's how they looked:

David had taken down the spindles and bannister which made me really happy. He explained that the wood is good wood and was probably installed to be seen. I still think I might paint the risers. We'll see. I'm costing out various railing solutions so that goes under the "We'll See" category as well.
Here's the view from the side:

And this is looking down from my bedroom loft on to the office staircase and beyond to the eventual kitchen.

And this was verrrrrry exciting to me because it looked just like I hoped it would, here's the painted floor in the bedroom loft:

The fact that the tongue and groove on the ceiling did not meet perfectly at the pitch drove David crazy. Frankly, it didn't bother me and I had told him not to spend the extra day that it would take, which totally surprised Deb, who thought I would be all OCD about something like that. Anyway, David can't live with it (and at the moment, it's more HIS house than mine) so he's placing a piece of trim across the length of the pitch.

To take my mind off the spinning wheel of the renovation, Deb and I went to see the Albany Allstars Roller Derby. It was a blast; a really fun family event.

But we had some setbacks as well. Of course. There was a big snowstorm on the day we were supposed to poly the floors so that had to wait for two days, do the second coat the day after, and a third day to cure. Nothing can really happen when that's happening.
This was all going on as I was leaving for Seattle.
While I was away, David and I spoke daily and things were moving along.
When I got back to NYC, I got a call from David: "Gail, do you have a minute?"
This is never a great sign. It turns out that someone dropped a hammer onto the tub just after it was installed. David wanted the model number so he could replace it. If you had to bust something, that was a good one, it's just a run of the mill American Standard White porcelain. If it were the shower doors, it would be painful.
Then, one of David's helpers, who is our tiling guy, had a family crisis. I said to David, "We're human beings here at the church. I don't want to take his work away, so give him a week to get it together and if he can't, then we'll find someone else." This was tough because tiling is the lynchpin to getting closer to running water in the bathroom.
So... when I go up next weekend, I hope to see the following:
MOST OF THE KITCHEN CABINETS AND APPLIANCES INSTALLED!!!!!!!!!
That will be huge, enormous, monumental.
And whatever else gets done will just be icing on the cake.
Oh hey! Here's a photo of Deb showing off Sparky's new little brother, August. We call him Augie. Sparky is traumatized by his presence but I know it will work out.

And finally, the Hudson River.

Stay tuned.