Smugglers Cove Whidbey Island

There are so many good, good people in this world.  It has been our distinct pleasure to work with amazing poeple on the Island.  Hard-working kind souls.  We appreciate them more than they will ever know.

And so, the re-painting continues at a very steady pace.  The re-taping alone is totally overwhelming.  I would just sob if I was the painter.

If anyone tells me, again, that patience is a virtue, I will remind them that no one ever accused me of being virtuous.  Just sayin’.  But, I cannot fault our crew.  They continue to be wondrous.  Thanks, guys!  The treat box is full (sorry about the rotten stuff)!!!!!

There’s the correct color.  Road Kill Bunny.  This re-paint cannot happen soon enough.

We just received notice “they” want to show the rental on Monday.  Twice.  Really?  I just packed or rather, repacked, 3 boxes and will do more in just a moment.  Maybe this is a good thing.

So, we will re-fill this garage with an assortment of boxes.  We will live with the basics and get ready for the gun to go off that begins the race.  That will be the shot heard ’round the world.  Trust me.

So, what’s all this?  I am certainly not the one to explain.  If you go back a couple of posts, you will see some explanations.  I can tell you that the “32” does not indicate the temperature, wind speed or weight.  Clueless here.  That’s why we hired professionals to install these things.

The tanks hold water.  How’s that for techinal expertise?  There are two water systems for the house.  One to heat the floor and another for personal use.

The heated floor is most excellent.  We are still in the rental and the past couple of days have been chilly.  This house is drafty and cold.  The new house is comfortable.  That’s really the word that descibes it.  It is not hot, just very, very comfortable.  Thanks to the heated floor. We are so ready to be in a cozy home, looking out at the chilly weather and not caring one iota.  Bring it on.

The show is over.  The mud is congealing.  It was a wild, stormy, exciting weekend.  Fabulous people and awards! Now what?

Back up the moving truck?  Ha!  Not so fast.

The trim color was not correct.  Ugh.  However, the paint that was applied had some sort of manufacturer malfunction and it needed to be re-done.  So – roadkill bunny it will be.  That means all the doors need to be taken down.  All the door hardware needs to be taken off.  Everything needs to be re-taped.  Colossal task.  Massive.

We need to go shopping again.  I am not making that up.  Home Depot, here we come, again.

I decided to drag a few boxes out of the rental garage and go through them before we move.  Mainly the boxes that have my clothes inside.  I am not the same person that left Colorado.  The food on the Island is very good and the stress of building a home caused me to develop an overactive fork condition.  This could be an incurable affliction.  I have battled it before and I thought I had it beat.  Que sara.  Anyway, some of those clothes will not be making the trip next week.

BEST KITCHEN!!!!!!

What a terrific team we have!  They earned two awards and our unending  gratitude.  They received a Best Kitchen Award and it is a well-deserved pat on the back!  We have a BEAUTIFUL kitchen.  Let me just boast about those custom concrete counter tops one more time!  Let me just be awestruck by the custom hickory cabinets yet again.  We have the best stove of any of the homes, IMHO.  Ditto refrigerator and sink.  Corbels are a craftsman’s bonus and look at that hood!  Gorgeous back splash and after an amazingly difficult search for lighting, the bar lighting worked out quite well.

BEST MASTER BATH!!!!!!

Let me just spout off about the shower yet again.  The tile is luscious.  The craftsmanship is the best.  Thanks to prodding, and again a great work crew, we ended up with the shower fixtures we wanted.

The shower door is solid and very, very nice. And look at the smooth stone floor.  Oh yeah – I feel dirty.  Time to shower!

Then, my favorite piece of both bathrooms.  The ultra-smooth sided throne.  No hair-catching, nasty tubing running amok along the sides of my throne, thank you very much.  No crawling on the floor to chase nastiness around the curved stupidity of the modern toilet.  And guess what?  Every other home had the aforementioned cylindrical siding nightmare thrown.  Not me!  Who designs toilets?

I personally believe it’s the throne that won the bathroom contest!

The Home Tour runs through Sunday.  On Monday, the crew comes back for the monumental task of taking down all doors, removing hardware, taping the entire house and repainting the trim.  The new color, now lovingly called “roadkill bunny”, will be applied sometime next week.

I look around the rental and the thought of packing drifts into my head.  I am tempted to pile it all up and light a match. Repeat?

That’s the secret treasure spot in the side of the concrete counter top!   Thank you, Mike!  Tonight I gathered a few treasures that will rotate through this mini-gallery.

Today, we made lunch for the crew.  It is such a tiny offering of thanks and they seem to enjoy it!  There was a lot of eating and loads of laughing.

The fact that these fabulous guys will be moving on makes me very, very sad.  I want to turn to them and ask about tiny details on a daily basis!  They have been a wonderful part of this new adventure.

Doesn’t that shower just make you want to get dirty?  Just a thought.

Open space?  Yup.  Inside and outside.  It just doesn’t get better.

There is one solitary piece of leftover chicken in the new frig!  It’s from today’s lunch!

Look at that corbel.  Sturdy.  Made to hold a massive piece of concrete.  Concrete inlaid with beautiful stones.  Concrete that has been poured, hardened, aged, sanded, sanded, sanded and polished and polished and polished.

Today, the house was judged and we will find out tomorrow what the ratings are.  I know who I would vote for.  Not even a whisper of doubt in my mind.

I need to start packing.  I am moving…again…

Rock ‘n roll.  The party has been at warp speed the last couple of weeks.  The house is a cacophany of workers.  You name it, they are doing it.

Painting, welding, counters, carpentry, electric work, heating, cleaning, sweeping, appliances, towel racks, spreading straw – it’s all happening.

The judging for the home show is today.  As we were leaving, the judges were arriving. We came back to the rental to fix lunch for our fabulous workers.

Ladders everywhere.  Paint brushes and buckets.  Hammers and nails.  Screwdrivers, et al.  That was yesterday; today it’s spotless.

The kitchen is extraordinary.  The counters are beyond are wildest dreams.  The lighting is good.  Geez, it’s all so wonderful.

Pinch me.

Crazy town!  The entire house was taped-up on the inside, awaiting the painting of the trim.  The painter said he’d gift-wrapped the house.  I responded that it only needed a bow.

Too bad it isn’t that simple.  Today, we had to do more shopping.  I may never enter a big box store again.  We needed light bulbs, another fixture for the garage, and assorted other items.

The shower fixture turned out to be a bit of a problem.  The hole in the tile was not is the correct spot…oops.  Our wonderful crew got right on it and all is well.

And look at that kitchen!  That was yesterday.  Today it has a refrigerator, overhead cooking vent/light/fan and 3 bar lights.  It is looking quite wonderful.

Last week 750 square feet of 5/8 inch thick strand bamboo flooring was put down upstairs. Our master carpenter Mike and I installed it in 2 1/2 days, it looks really phenomenal and will hopefully stay that way after our dogs start running over it… The old growth bamboo, which is 4 to 5 years for bamboo, has a “janka” (who came up with that hardness scale?!)  rating of 3000, red oak comes in at 1290; which means that the bamboo is 2.3 times as hard.

We purchased it from a national liquidation chain, which had a great price and a wide variation of reviews, both positive and negative.  The materials we purchased turned out to be great, no bad boards and minimal wastage – I ended up with 4 extra boxes. It’s hard to believe that the house will be in a home show tour in 10 days, it has been a long time coming.