Busted!

I wasn't planning to go to the house today, but Rob called this morning and asked if I could come over and show the plumbers where we want all the fixtures to go in the shower in the master bath. Apparently, they can't run pipes through exterior walls because they could potentially freeze, so some things can't be installed exactly as they are drawn on the plans.

This was also an issue with our washer and dryer, and they were initially concerned that if they swapped them around to move the washer next to an interior wall, the dryer door would open the wrong way (towards the washer), which would make it difficult to load. Fortunately, our washer and dryer are still sitting in the basement under a tarp, so Rob just went down to take a look at the dryer and discovered that the door opens down (like an oven door), so it doesn't matter what side of the washer it's on. No problem! I wish all our issues were this easy to solve...

Rob also told me he got an earful from one of the Steves (his boss) first thing this morning because he had read about his eye injury on my blog. I'm not sure what upset Steve more -- that Rob got hurt on the job, or that he only found out about it from reading my blog -- but I felt bad that I had inadvertently gotten Rob in trouble. I had assumed that since Dane knew about my getting hit with an errant screw within an hour of it happening, that they all knew about Rob's near miss with the nail as well. But it turned out that Dane only knew about my incident because he had called Rob right after it happened. Oh dear. Sorry, Rob!

My mom suggested I include some photos of the people working on our renovation, since I frequently mention their names (Dane, Steve, John, Paul, etc.), but so far the only one I've managed to photograph up close is Rob -- and look how that turned out. If I thought everyone avoided my camera before, I'm sure they are going to actively hide from me now! I'll have to bring a Distractor with me sometime...

Anyway, before I left the house, I asked Rob if there was anything new to see. He mentioned that Paul had built temporary stairs to the back porch. I was excited about that until I discovered that the temporary deck of the back porch had been pulled up to build something else, so in order to get in or out of the house through the back door, you had to perform a little balancing act along a 3-foot span of wooden support beam about 2 inches wide (see the bird's-eye view from my previous post). Paul said he'd rotate the remaining piece of plywood so it spanned the length of the porch from the back door to the stairs. Good thinking!
Rob also gave me some hardwood flooring samples to take home. Here are some options for bamboo flooring:

Yes, that sample above on the left is stained green. I'm all for 'green' flooring, but I don't know if I'd literally want my hardwood floors to be green. The bamboo floors come from a company called ecofinishes that specializes in environmentally-friendly flooring. I have mixed feelings about bamboo -- while it is a rapidly-renewable, sustainable resource, it has to be shipped from overseas -- but I don't want to dismiss it entirely. They will be extending and refinishing the existing oak hardwood floors on the main level of the house, so we might prefer to continue with that on the second floor instead of switching to bamboo or another material. Rob gave me some samples of oak and maple flooring as well.
Lots of decisions to make! The big one we need to make ASAP is about the roof, but we are still waiting for SAI to get back to us with samples and pricing for the various options. I'm really hoping we can find an affordable alternative to asphalt shingles. I don't think that would look right...