Moving day! (part 1)

I can't believe it's finally here

Well the day I've been waiting for has finally come. I moved in the furniture today!
But don't light the Roman candles in celebration just yet.
The latest we heard from that damn shipping company is that the windows are now not arriving til TODAY at 5:00. If you remember they were supposed to arrive YESTERDAY at the same time. We think this means they don't arrive at the apartment til Friday...but when on Friday we can't pinpoint. Again, this all FUBARS the whole finishing schedule. Carina, the contractor's Project Manager, and Steve, my architect, are trying to resolve a better solution today with the shippers. Not sure what the outcome will be but stay tuned...BIG SIGH...
Now, the good news: I got up super early this morning* and got to the apartment to see how the cleanup went from yesterday. The place looks GREAT. 90% if the construction paraphernalia is out of there and aside from the windows, there's not much left to finish.
Here's the major punch list:
--the mantel wall needs to be painted the high gloss finish but we don't want to do this while there's still the potential for dust in the air, this will be done last
--still need to install a lot of attached lighting fixtures (dining niche, bedside, above mantel)
--all hallway closet hardware, knobs and pulls, need to be attached
--shower head fixture still needs installing
--same for medicine chest
--toilet needs to be turned on, it's in place
--some miscellaneous hardware in kitchen to be attached
--some finishing millwork trim (under wood veneer wall for instance)
--mantel needs to be polishing and final seal
The Oz Moving guys were a little late because there was a building a few blocks up from my place that had BRICKS falling off it, enperiling pedestrians on the street. 1st Avenue was closed so they were diverting a lot of traffic to Sutton Place. Of course. On the day I wanted the movers to arrive on time...whatever. They were only 30 minutes late. And they couldn't have been nicer. I got up on the truck to show them what pieces went into the apartment and which would stay on the van and come out to the house in Sag Harbor. That's where I am as I write this. I rented a car to beat them out here. They're due to arrive shortly. I just had too much furniture for that little apartment. A lot of big things (a wardrobe, a bed frame, some end tables, some chairs) all had to travel out here. I guess I'll store it in the basement and/or sell it on Craigslist. I hope they don't get lost...

*I went to breakfast at a little diner that's a block from the new apartment. Now, this place is nothing special. As NY diners go it's very average, but in walks this officious looking woman. She presumes to take a 4-top table all to herself, then takes off her expensive looking camel coat and throws it on a chair, throws down her even more expensive Berkin-looking bag in another chair, then starts hammering away at her cell phone with the nastiest looking RBF (Resting Bitch Face) I've seen in quite a while. Who was it? None other than Tina Brown. The waiter brings her a tea and a grapefruit already cut from he rind. She never looked up from that phone, pecking away the whole time. I wanted to say "smile, it won't hurt a bit!"

Ms. Brown

Let there be (recessed) light

Guillermo the contractor emailed me these new pics today. He wanted to show me the recessed lighting at the top of the wood veneer wall. These will of course be on dimmer switches, they're a little bright shown here, but you can see the idea.

Inside kitchen looking out

Inside kitchen, washer/dryer closet on right

Somebody get me a Valium

I dropped by the apartment this afternoon with some more clothes.
It's a Mad House.
All kinds of workers trying to finish last minute stuff...and a cleaning lady bossing everyone around yelling "Hurry up! We've only got 2 HOURS left! Keep moving!".
Of course, still no sign of the windows...but we were told they'd arrive today at 5:00 to some warehouse in NY. Who knows? I'm taking a Zen attitude at this point, it's gonna be what it's gonna be. I sincerely doubt they'll come first thing in the morning now, coinciding with the furniture movers. They've never shown up on time up until now, NOTHING indicates that tomorrow will be any different...which is probably for the best.
I finally met my building's Super, Gerry, in person for the first time...he's a character.
And the daytime doorman is one for the books too. He's one of those wise crackers.
HIM: "Aren't there two of you?" (I think he was referring to Steve, the architect, maybe he thought we were a couple?)
ME: "No, just one of me...unless I have a long lost twin."
"How's it lookin' up there?"
"Great. It's getting there. And looks a helluva lot better than it did. You ever see that old lady's apartment?"
"Yeesh. I don't know how she lived like that."
"Yeah, with the ghost of Marilyn walking around."
"Oh yeah, I think they was friends! She was always talkin' about her. I think they was showgirls together or sumpin".
And if that wasn't crazy enough, they're decorating the lobby of my building like it's the Macy's Parade...more Christmas lights, poinsettias, and garland than you can imagine...and a real tree that must be 15 feet tall. They're having the building's Holiday party tomorrow night, and I can just see the damn window movers trying to bring in those big crates right thru all those revelers. The Board is gonna have me thrown out before I can even move in!! I need to be medicated. Pronto.

Today's mood

Highs & (very low) lows

We had been told that the windows would arrive this past Friday (this was a delay from being told we'd first get them Thursday).

We didn't get them Friday.

We thought they'd come today, our fingers were crossed.

Well...not only did they not come today, we were told by the shipping company that that wouldn't arrive until TOMORROW AT 5PM! 

This is when I wanted to turn on the gas in my gorgeous Wolf oven, turn on the gas, and stick my head in.

I was SO depressed. If only because the furniture IS DUE TO BE DELIVERED THIS WEDNESDAY! 

I'm starting to worry that I'm going to get a brain aneurysm because of all these delays.
There is some cosmic joke being played on me that this all happened on PEARL HARBOR DAY.

So net/net here's the deal: 

the furniture and the windows are both arriving Wednesday morning. It may be a 3 ring circus with all that activity but I've decided it is what it is...BRING IT ALL ON. The workers will have to install the windows around the moving boxes and the movers will have to deliver the furniture around the window workers. 

So that was today's Bad News.

But there was some Good News (Yay).

I brought a couple of bags of clothes to the apartment late today, mostly because I wanted to see the progress (my friend Tony helped me deliver TWO CAR LOADS of clothes yesterday, btw).

The curved wood veneer wall was fully installed and it looks terrific, really sharp. VERY happy with this design choice. Steve's idea really makes the space look special and is a lovely visual focal point when you're in the main room and look into the hallway. There will be small track lighting hidden along the ceiling line above this wood wall that will 'bathe' it in downcast light...I think it will be quite dramatic. Here's a series of new pictures:

Those are drawers below and a cabinet above, the blue tape is temporary until the handles arrive

Another view

Recessed lights will be hidden up in that space at the ceiling line

View into hallway

Another view toward hallway

Kitchen entryway

Kitchen entry, refrigerator

Entryway coat closet

And here's a couple of new kitchen pictures...a closeup of the faucet (I love the aged bronze finish we chose for all the apartment's fixtures), and the new microwave.

One more piece of very good news: remember the wacky shower head installation, the one where the shower head came off the wall instead of being overhead?

The crazy wrong shower head installation, LOL

It's getting fixed. But I was wrong about it being overhead...it does belong on the wall but there is a long bar attachment that is missing, it allows the shower head to be raised and lowered depending on how high the showering person wants it. So all good here, it's an easy fix to add the bar, no need to uproot all those tiles! Whew. 

Watch this space for new developments..a LOT is going to happen this week!

Murphy's law

Of course there had to be at least one major screw up (I'm not talking about scheduling delays, etc), but just plain dumb design mistakes.
I went to look at the progress this morning and--POW--it hit me right in the face when I saw the bathroom: the showerhead was in the completely wrong place! It's supposed to be an OVERHEAD rain shower fixture, NOT a normal sidewall showerhead. Big mistake. I have no idea if this is easy to fix or not. I do know that it will require running a pipe to the overhead position and retiling all those tiles along the way. UGH. But it has to be done, this is just plain silly. As the saying goes, "what were they thinking?"

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Otherwise more progress to report: Things are still not moving as fast as I would like (they never do), but it IS moving ahead. They have a LOT to do next week before the furniture arrives but I'm trying not to worry about it at this point. Something tells me though that I will have moved in but there will still be workers coming in and out the first week or so. Sigh.

Dining niche

Dining niche, another angle

View from main room into hallway, dining niche on right

Kitchen hood, new cabinets above installed

Laundry closet doors painted

Washer/dryer installed in laundry closet

View into bathroom

Sink

Light fixture above sink; medicine chest door won't hit the light (I asked), door is below light level

I love the square toilet!

Linen closet in bathroom

Bad picture, but view into hallway from main room

Wood veneer wall going into place

Wood veneer wall, another angle

View into main room

Mantel wall bookshelves primed, ready to be painted next week

Bed niche; captain's bed still to come

Mantel; millwork around TV area done

AC unit was installed

Entry way/front door; the dark gray paint idea worked, love it!

View of entryway from kitchen 

One of the main closets, door open

Getting closer...

My contractor sent me some photos of this week's progress last night...IT'S LOOKING REALLY GOOD, THANK GOD. But then, it should--we're only TWO MONTHS behind schedule. AARGH.
Anyway, I should be happy that there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
The windows are to arrive TODAY (?)...at least that's the plan. The window company wanted to delay ANOTHER day earlier in the week, so it's a good thing I pushed back the move-in date to next Wednesday. That will hopefully give us time to install the windows and finish off the trim and tiling around them.
Here's the latest update photos...a lot of fixtures and shower door were installed in bathroom...radiator in living room is in place...kitchen appliances are in place too. Other than the toilet and medicine cabinet the two big major things left are the windows (of course) and the curved wall in the hallway. We're holding off on that til after the windows arrive so that it won't get banged up bringing in those big things.

Shower doors

Shower floor

Sink; radiator needs stripping; medicine chest to come

Hall drawers; curved wall to be installed next week

Floor in front of stone hearth

Living room radiator; that's an electrical outlet, plate coming

Kitchen

Kitchen

Stove/oven/hood