Two steps forward, one step back

I went to see the apartment by myself yesterday, the first time I'd seen it in about two and half weeks.
I was supposed to meet Steve the architect there also but he overslept, must've had a late night.
But it didn't matter because not a lot had been done to the place and it was very upsetting to see it still has a long way to go.
I thought I'd walk in and there would be a lot of progress...no such luck.
While some things did get done (more on that in a minute), a lot did not: the bathroom tiling is only 50% done and there has been NO tiling done in the kitchen. This is bad. The appliances are set to be delivered THIS WEEK. TOMORROW in fact. I suppose they'll just have to sit in the middle of the place till they're ready to be installed. This doesn't worry me too much as this is what happened on my last renovation. But still. Would have been nice to see some advancement.
The biggest worry is that I have booked the move-in date with the moving company for the end of NOVEMBER, the 23rd to be exact. That's less than one month away. I fussed and implored Steve to impress upon the contractor and his project manager that we MUST hit this date. I don't want--nor can I afford--to pay yet another month's rent in December to Tony for his apartment. I need the money!
And the biggest thing yet to be done, the installation of the exterior windows, hasn't even happened yet. The windows are not finished. They don't arrive till the second week of November. This is why my beard is WHITE.
But there is some good news.
The floors have been finished and they look impressive, very happy with them. Here are a few pics of the main hallway to show the color and finish, a medium dark brown. The floors in the main room were done as well but they were covered back up with paper (as well as all the construction mess).

Looking into hallway from main room 

Hallway floor 

Hallway from entry vantage

View of hallway from main room

Finished floors and steps

A lot of pieces of the millwork have been done as well, I saw the drawers for the big hallway closets and the closet doors. I also saw that some of the millwork on the feature wall behind the mantel has been installed, the bottom doors for example.
And here's the bathroom tiling. It's looking okay but not even any grouting has been done!

Bathroom tiling, no grouting has been done

Bathroom floor

Bathroom shower

Bathroom ceiling

That's it. Not a lot of progress for a few weeks' time. Steve keeps assuring me that things will go quickly now but I'm dubious and I'm NOT happy about it :(

Aerial views

Google Maps is an amazing thing.
I wanted to see what my building looked like from a bird's eye view and when I zoomed in closer and closer on it the amount of detail you can see is mind boggling. The lovely roof terrace on the top of my building is clearly visible...and everything on it, down to the landscaping, tables, chairs, and chaise lounges!
In this picture my building is on the left the one with the small red roofed outer building on top; you can see the small park across the street on the right.

And this one looks down more into the inner courtyard between my building and the ones near it...I was hoping to see some of the interior windows so I could spot my apartment but no dice, I'm on the 5th floor and you can't see that far down.

Seeing is believing

I went to the apartment to see the progress IN PERSON, for the first time in many weeks.
I've been satisfied with seeing pictures, mainly because the process is slow and I can see the improvements week to week, I can envision! And also because it's a pain in the arse to get to the new place from my temporary apartment, too many subways in the sweltering NYC heat. But I had nothing to do yesterday and as luck would have it, Steve and Guillermo (the architect and contractor) were having a status meeting anyway.
The good news is that there's nothing like actually seeing the space in person.
'Wow' is all I can say.
I hadn't seen it with all the new walls up...you really get the true feeling of the flow of the design.
I can happily say it's going to be wonderful.
One of the first new things that came up was the interior of the fireplace.
The old firebox had finally been excavated and Steve and I were seeing what was behind it for the first time...the original exposed brick. The depth was much larger than what was there before AND it was much wider and deeper than if we were to go with the smaller tin firebox that came with the marble mantel, the one I found on Craigslist.
Here's that firebox:

Small tin firebox that came with the mantel

And here's the exposed brick interior:

We all decided the the REAL interior was the way to go, it looks more like a working fireplace and the depth makes the wall dimensions look more substantial. Steve suggested we paint the brick a dark charcoal gray, perhaps in a semi-gloss. Another challenge is that the hearthstone was cut to fit the tin firebox, it doesn't meet the interior edges now. So Guillermo said he'll match the stone all the way around inside and patch it; my thinking is that it will look like stone 'molding'. I don't even think you'll notice it once I place my nice andirons and birch logs inside.
Here's a wide shot of the wall, you can see how the depth of the interior looks better than if it would be the shallower firebox:

And because the 'panorama' setting on my iPhone is my new favorite toy, here are 3 pans of the place:

Here's a shot of 3 stain colors we were judging, we all liked the one on the left, a nice midrange (it's darker than appears in this shot). I find that when you go too dark with floors they show every speck of dust and lint, much too hard to keep clean in dirty ol' New York:

We chose the one on the left, it's closest to Steve's sample

Finally here are a bunch of random shots of other things that stood out, nice progress on where things have been:

Marble tiles have begun going up in the bathroom on the curved ceiling

The entryway coat closet

View from the entryway looking into the apartment, wall of closets will be on  the left

View into kitchen; I'm very pleased with how much bigger it is in person

Main hallway closets; the cabinetry inserts are coming soon

View from main room into hallway, dining niche is on the right