CotY Awards

The CotY Awards gala was last night, and Josh and I had been looking forward to it ever since Steve invited us to attend as guests of SAI. There was one small hitch. An unexpected snowstorm dumped 6 inches of snow on us yesterday! Well, we knew we were going to get some snow, but they were originally forecasting less than an inch, so this was quite a bit more snow than we were anticipating.
I checked with Rob, and he said they were still planning to go, and I even called the hotel to confirm that the event had not been canceled (nope!). Josh dug out the car, and I put on my sleeveless evening gown, snow boots, and my longest, warmest coat, and we ventured out into the 19-degree weather. It was still snowing and the roads hadn't been plowed, so our top speed was about 20 mph the entire way to Rockville, MD. It took us about an hour and a half to get there -- normally a 30-minute drive -- but we still made it in time for dinner.

When we arrived, Josh discovered that with all his efforts to dig out the car and make sure we had a shovel, snow chains, and other necessities on hand, he had left his tuxedo jacket at home. D'oh!
It was pretty dark inside the hotel ballroom where they had the event, and my ancient digital camera doesn't do well in low light, so my photos didn't come out too well. [Incidentally, my birthday is coming up soon -- hint, hint...] We sat at a table with Steve W, Steve B, Rob and his wife, Addie, and a couple from another company that had been nominated for an award. Here's Steve B, Addie, Rob, Steve W, me, and Josh in our fancy duds.
We had a nice buffet dinner and then the awards ceremony began. You might recognize Greg Hadley, the awards chairman, as the guy who took all the professional photos of our house. He spoke briefly at the beginning of the event. They gave out awards in about 38 different categories, and both of our categories were at the end, so it seemed to drag on forever.
Sadly, we didn't end up with the trophy in either category, but we were a "Finalist" in the whole house remodel, and came in second ("Merit") for green renovation. The house that won in that category was not very architecturally interesting -- basically a big white box with solar panels on top -- so we figured the judging was based more on 'green' than overall aesthetics. I could tell that Rob and the Steves were disappointed that we didn't come in first, but they still posed graciously with their plaques.
Greg had set up a spot to take professional photos of everyone with their awards, so we had him take several of our little group. He remembered that I had a blog, so he told me I was welcome to post his photos on my blog as well. He'll send them to SAI, so I'll have to wait until they get them and forward them on to me.
Steve W left after the ceremony, but Rob and Steve B posed for a few photos with their plaques.
Then we went back to the ballroom for some dancing. Unfortunately, no one was really dancing, and it sounded like the DJ hadn't bought any new music for at least 20 years, so that was a bit of a disappointment. We hung out a little longer and took some more photos. Here are Rob and Addie, looking both adorable and glamorous in their matching outfits.
And Josh and Rob and me. (And yes, even when he's sitting down, Rob is taller than me!)
We headed home around 11 and made much better time on the drive back as it had mostly stopped snowing and the roads had been plowed. It was nice to slip out of my high heels and back into my warm boots for the drive home. I'm glad no one got a photo of that!

"Oscars of Remodeling"

I got a call from Steve B a couple weeks ago inviting Josh and I to attend the CotY Awards as guests of SAI. 'CotY' stands for Contractor of the Year, and they are awarded annually in several categories -- and regions -- by the National Association of the Remodeling Industry. SAI entered our house in two categories -- whole-house remodel and green remodel -- and was notified in October that they were finalists in both categories for the DC region.

The awards will be presented this Saturday, so I had emailed the Steves to see if we'd be able to attend. I was picturing a bunch of chairs and a podium set up in a hotel ballroom, and maybe a cocktail reception -- a relatively low-key affair. So I was quite surprised when Steve called and told me it was a black-tie gala with cocktails, dinner, and dancing. According to Rob, the CotY Awards are the "Oscars of the remodeling industry." Rob and his wife are going, too, so we're happy to have an opportunity to spend some time with them when none of us is trying to work or give tours of the house at the same time. Apart from the weather forecast for Saturday - high 27, 70% chance of snow - I'm looking forward to it.

I'll make sure to bring my camera so I can document both the awards gala and our contractors dressed in tuxedos. And, of course, I'll let you know whether our house placed first in either category. Fingers crossed!

6-Month Walk-Through

Happy New(ish) Year! I know it's been a while since I posted anything to this blog, but not much has happened with the house. Josh and I both came down with nasty, lingering colds after Christmas, so we haven't had much energy (or time, or money) to do anything.

Believe it or not, it's been six months since we moved back in, so Steve W came by last week to do our 6-month walk-through. We compiled yet another punch list of items that needed repairing or tweaking, and Rob and John came over this morning to take care of them. It was great to see both of them after several months - I had to give myself a time limit to catch up with them so I wouldn't spend the whole time chatting and shirk all the work I needed to get done myself.

John very quickly re-did our pantry cabinets for us. Here's what they originally looked like:
There's one pull-out shelf in the upper cabinet, and two in the lower cabinet. Unfortunately, the upper shelf is so high it nearly clears the top of my head when you pull it out, so it wasn't of much use to me, and the two shelves in the lower cabinet didn't make good use of the space. We ordered a fixed shelf from Cindy, our cabinet lady -- which fortuitously arrived yesterday -- to replace the pull-out shelf in the upper cabinet, which we moved to the lower cabinet. See -- so much better!
Once that was done, John went upstairs to help Rob out in the master bath. They had to pull out Josh's medicine cabinet in order to access the electrical wiring and install a new outlet in the cabinet under the sink.
Now the electrical cord for our grey-water recycling system is neatly hidden under the sink rather then running out to the wall above the toilet.
Rob also re-caulked some spots in the shower where the caulk had come off.
And John tried to fix our front door -- yet again -- so it doesn't need to be slammed shut for the latch to catch.
I also asked them to reinstall the towel rings by the sinks in the two smaller bathrooms. They had originally installed them so low that the hand towels rested on the countertop. Of course, they had to patch up the drywall and repaint the wall before reinstalling them, but they were very efficient about it.
This may not look like much, but anyone who has stayed in our main level guest room -- or even visited our house for any length of time -- will appreciate knowing that we now have a lock on the bathroom door. I had John install it relatively high up on the door so little kids wouldn't lock themselves in.
Rob and John also patched up a few dings in the walls that probably happened when we were moving back in. (Rob thought this was a very artistic shot of him drying a patch on the wall.)
I also had a G.E. repairman come by in the afternoon to fix the excessively noisy fan in our convection oven, so it was quite a busy day. Rob was here until about 4, and John left around 5, but they got an impressive amount of work done in one day.