The Thinking Minority

We hung the mirror in the bathroom, and installed the ceiling light fixtures at the bottom of the stairs.

Mr. B put up the ceiling fan in the office. Just 10 more parts left...

The sofa was delivered (173), and is really comfy...

Where to begin?

They installed the wrong color carpet. Sigh.

BUT, the granite counter is in (167) and looks great, and the mini-fridge (168) and knobs (169) are installed, so the bar is done! Also, the entertainment center is all set up (170), curtains are hung (171), and the plumbing is done - we have running water (172)!

Whew: installed 2 GFCI outlets, 4 more switches, 2 doorknobs, tested all the outlets, put covers on the outlets, hung a curtain rod, touched up the paint, put in the entertainment center components, cleaned the floor. Also: TV delivered, carpet installed.

So close, yet so much more to do...

2 more outlets, 3 doorknobs, grout for the bathroom floor, vinyl tile in the laundry closet, hooked up the washer and dryer, installed 4 speakers, and got rid of a lot of trash.

I think that's it. All the little stuff isn't very exciting, I know.

But we're getting there...

There is tile in the bathroom (115), the trim and doors are painted (116), all of the cable, phone, and internet outlets are done (117), the rest of the outlets are installed (118-128) except for the GFCIs, and we installed 6 sets of recessed light trim (129-134). Also, we bought a sofa (135) and put up blinds in the new office (136).

Part 68: Doors!
Part 69: Trim!
Part 70: Bar cabinets! We chose the same cabinets that we have upstairs, but a slightly darker color, and they look great.



















Part 71: Shelves in the entertainment center!

Also: the laundry light (which comes on automatically when you open the door), 6 switches, 8 electrical outlets, 3 phone jacks, 4 TV jacks, 16 ethernet jacks, 2 speakers, 2 bathroom sconces, and one massive removal of trash.

Part 54: Paint touch-up. It's done, and it's fantastic.

Parts 55-61: Mr. B installed all 7 speaker panels last night.
Also last night, I stripped the ends off all the wires in the electrical outlet boxes (62), cut all the wire into 3.5" pieces to pigtail the outlets (63), and stripped the ends off all the pigtailing wires (64).

Part 65: All of the trim and doors were delivered about an hour ago. Very exciting.

Parts 66 & 67: All of the cabinets for the bar were delivered this afternoon! Also, I've pigtailed all of the outlets.

Sometimes things happen so fast I don't even have time to blog them...

Part 45: Most of the stuff is back under the stairs. Kinda. You can sorta walk through our kitchen now...

Part 46: Priming! Our painter showed back up in town and came out to prime the walls this weekend. It took an hour for the entire thing, using a sprayer...

Parts 47 & 48: Mr. B bought the MDF for the shelves, and our trim guy came and installed the bottom shelves in the entertainment center and on the corner knee walls. I'll post pics at some point to show what the heck I mean by that.

Part 49: Drywall touch-up.

Part 50: The switch for the light under the stairs is installed. We'll probably never use it, since the light has a motion sensor, but it's there. :-)

Part 51: The great returning. We took about $400 worth of stuff back to Lowe's. Cha-ching!

Part 52: All of the trim and doors have been ordered and will delivered on Friday.

Part 53: Paint! We have paint! On the walls! It's painted!!! Our painter and his guys came out today and painted the entire basement. They're coming back tomorrow to touch up, but it's basically done!

Tonight I picked out and bought tile for the bathroom (Part 39). I also bought vinyl tile for under the stairs and under the washer and dryer (40). Then when I got home, I cleaned the area under the stairs (41), laid out the vinyl tile (42), cut the tiles that needed cutting (43), and then stuck down all of the vinyl tile under the stairs (44).


(And you people said I wouldn't have enough Parts...)

So, we have our first floor! Tomorrow I'll be able to move all of the stuff out of our kitchen and dining room and back into storage under the stairs.

Part 37: We picked colors! All from Behr: Waterscape for the living room, Pinedale Shores for the office, and Ocean View for the office.

Part 38: We took a trip to Home Depot tonight and bought all of the primer and paint. Now, if we can just find someone to put it all on the walls...

or, Why I Love Vocelli Pizza

Our friendly electrician turned us on to Vocelli pizza, and we've been ordering from them exclusively ever since - their pizza is really good, AND they have anchovies (which makes Mr. B happy).

Tonight, I placed an order at 6:30, and was told it would be here in 30 minutes. I've had a very bad headache today, so I was dozing and didn't notice the time. At 7:30, the phone rang and I realized I was starving - it was the pizza people, calling to apologize for being so late, letting me know the the delivery guy was 3 minutes away, and that they were sending free cannolis for dessert.

But wait, it gets better. The delivery guy showed up, apologized profusely, gave me my pizza and free cannolis - AND a coupon for a free pizza. He explained that a flyer just went out today and they were swamped, and that they were very sorry and hoped we'd still order from them again.

How awesome is that? I didn't even call to complain, and they took care of me. I'll never order from anyone else ever again. Vocelli rocks.

We installed a light under the stairs! It's very cool; it has a motion sensor.

Reminds me of a song by The Time. This is one of my favorites from Vegas.

We have walls! The basement has been drywalled (Part 33) , mudded (34), and finished (35). Woohoo!

A shameless plug: you can now find the Scott Zetlan Images store online.

More cleaning. Everything is now out of the basement, even the stuff from under the stairs. It's clean, empty and ready for drywall!

WE PASSED THE INSPECTION! WOOHOO!