Well, this is likely the last post of the year. The guys from Ideal Building have been doing their best to get the kitchen put back into working shape, but we aren't going to make it before the first of the year -- or at least before we leave for Salt Lake City on Friday. They will be taking off the same week we are in SLC and not doing any work, so what they do on Friday after we leave will be the last before we get back to work and so do they on Jan 3. There is a slim chance the electrical cut-over and the driveway paving will happen over X-mas week -- and if so, the contractors will come over and get it done, but otherwise they are taking a vacation week along with us.

The stone people from Paramatrix came back to drill the holes for the new faucet in the kitchen, attach the bar top, and drill the drain and faucet holes for the bathroom sinks.

As you can see here, the bar has a nice curve to it, a chisled edge, and is a black somewhat "unfinished" granite. We used this same stone on the kitchen window box and on the upstairs bath vanity. The brace is to hold it while the adhesive dries, and then Rob will mount some corbells for additional support underneath. He also got the backing on the bar attached so it has a more finished look as well.

The upstairs bath vanity now has a backsplash, as well as the holes for the two sinks -- which we are taking to calling dinasour eggs. The faucets will mount at 10am position on the left sink and 2pm on the right -- and you can see how they fit in this picture.

Finally, Rob spent a good chunk of Wed. under the house doing the vent for the stove's downdraft venting system, routing the vent pipe and finding an exit which he hid underneath the patio stairs. Some very nice work. The downdraft is activated by a button on the stove so that when you need it, it levitates and turns on, and when you don't need it, it slides down and is hidden. Here it is in the "up" position. The stove is not yet hooked up to the gas line so we can't use it yet.

There is still quite a bit of work to be done in the garage to get it finished, including sheet rock, electrical, door, door opener, cement finishing, final painting, along with all the electrical work, tiling the shower, all the plumbing, painting touch ups, moulding, kick plates inside. The legislative session starts on January 8 so Gary moves to Olympia, and we expect that this project won't get finally done until sometime in February, or later if we include the new fireplace and painting the dining room and formal living room. Looks like we'll be writing this blog for some time to come. This is almost turning into the old TV serries "Murphy Brown" with the permanent live in painter Eldon. We have our own Eldon's in Robert, Rob, Bill, and Travis -- and like Murphy, we like them a lot and don't mind that they keep working.

Happy holidays!