The Arch

I've been to the house 3 times since my last post, so there's lots to catch up on. Rob called yesterday morning and asked me to come over and work with John on the arch over the tub in the master bath. He said it would only take 10 minutes, but I don't think I've ever made a trip to the house that lasted less than half an hour, so I told him I'd be there right after lunch. When I arrived, the house looked very different -- they had cut all the window openings and had a crew working on the installation.


I found John upstairs creating a metal framework for the arched ceiling over the tub in the master bath. The top part of the arch is level with the rest of the ceiling, so that wasn't an issue, but there is supposed to be an arched opening to the tub enclosure that drops down from the ceiling, and he wanted to know how high it should be. He marked off different options for me so I could get a sense of where the end points would be, and we ultimately decided to try to line up the bottom of the arch with the top of the shower door, just to the left. See those strips of wood nailed to the middle of the window? It's actually a very large compass! The top piece can be attached anywhere along the bottom piece, and there's a notch at the top to hold a pencil and draw the arc. Cool!
I also discovered some ancient cave paintings in one of the bedrooms upstairs, which is remarkable since the materials are only a few months old.

By the time I left, most of the windows on the main level of the house had been installed. These are actually in the master bedroom upstairs.
The kitchen.
Putting in the large picture window in the living room.
While I was chatting with Rob, water suddenly started raining down into the dining room. He yelled to the plumbers upstairs to let them know there was a leak, and helped them locate a bucket. Hopefully that's been fixed by now -- I'd much rather they discover any leaky spots now while everything is open and easily repaired.
As I was leaving, I caught Rob in the act of soliciting house painters on the street...

After I left the house, I went to Costco for a long overdue shopping trip. Rob called while I was there to tell me that John had marked the dimensions of the arch for us and would like Josh and I to come by the house in the evening to take a look and make sure we liked it before he started building it. I said we'd do that, and then asked if he had any requests for snacks or drinks. I ended up getting some bottled water and OJ, granola bars, goldfish crackers, and Pepperidge Farm cookies, which I dropped off at the house on my way home, with a note that said "Happy Easter!"

Soon after I got home, Josh called to say he was about to leave work, so we agreed to meet at the house so we could take a look at the arch. John had thoughtfully nailed up a piece of sheetrock and drawn the arch on it so we could see where it would go.
Since Josh hadn't been in the house for a week, we toured around so I could point out some of the new stuff. They moved the old tub into its new spot, although it still needs to be cleaned up and reglazed.
Now we know what the back of our chimney looks like. Not great. I hope the stucco guys will take care of that.
Here our are new tankless water heaters. They are installed in the laundry room right next to the shower in the master bath.
The electrician had obviously been working down in the basement. I don't envy him having to sort out that mess of wires!Here's a better photo of the roof tile we decided on -- the same thing that's installed on that ginormous house in Potomac. It's a plastic composite material that is lighter than actual Spanish tile, and is better suited to this climate. I was back at the house for a couple hours today, but I'll have to leave that story for later...