Weathered the Storm

The house didn't sustain any damage from Hurricane Irene, but the people who have been building it would have told you that. All along they have been telling us that this house is built like a fortress. We experienced high winds, downed trees and power outages but curiously no rain. As a result the house is covered with salt spray and dust.  The trees and bushes were covered with the same and any foliage brushed by the wind has turned an ugly brown. We won't have a colorful autumn on the Centerville River. But the marsh will turn a lovely tawny shade as Indian summer returns.

We have had Jack O'Connor and his assistant Chris on board for about a week working on the plumbing.  Red and blue PEX water pipes are running along the ceiling from the manifold in the mechanical room in the hallway to the bathroom and the kitchen. Now a days there are only a few copper pipe joints to solder while the rest are joined with a noxious adhesive. They are also installing the rough plumbing for the kitchen appliances and the bathroom fixtures. Now we can see where the sink and the shower will be instead of just trying to envision the layout. It dawned on me in the middle of the night that I forgot to ask Jack about a  hot water distribution system that recirculates the ambient temperature water . So I rushed over to the house to discuss it with him only to discover that it was already in the plan.  Good, another energy saving design.

In the meantime, Paul has marked out  the kitchen design on the plywood floor. We are very excited about the current plan, cabinets and range along the east side, corner sink with windows looking out over the river, dishwasher and refrigerator on the south wall.  People will be able to walk in from the porch, open the refrigerator door and grab a cold one without crossing the kitchen and disturbing the cook.  And Paul is building a large pantry for food and appliances on the west wall. An island with seating for four is also planned for the center of the room.

We have been working with 3 different kitchen designers trying to stay within our budget and satisfy my desire for urea formaldehyde free cabinetry. I have done a lot of research on this and want to do everything I can to ensure a healthy indoor environment. After much deliberation we have finally decided on countertops, absolute black leather honed granite. I have heard so many arguments for and against carrera marble that I am giving up on it.  So I have chosen to go with the look that my son Mark loves.  He assures me that I will love it too; classic black and white that will reflect our windows.

We also spent about three hours with our electrician, Rick Rooney going from room to room discussing what we would like for lighting, switches and outlets. No more unplugging the vacuum cleaner after a couple of swipes and moving it because there aren't enough outlets . With Paul's help we have decided on 22 LED recessed lights for the downstairs. I have never had good light in a kitchen so I am ecstatic about being all lit up. The LED lights only use 10.8 watts as opposed to 60 or 70 in incandescent bulbs. And we won't be changing light bulbs any time soon because they will probably last  as long as the house, 36,000 hours.

Four Seas Ice Cream has put out their end of the season sale sign, " Order your pints and quarts now, closing next Sunday". There's always this feeling of panic about no "Four Seas" until next summer. So hordes of people cram into the little building and stock up. My brother, Peter has requested blueberry and coconut. I hope they still have a quart of my favorite cranberry.