Arr Haus

I feel like I’ve been taking a crash course in home renovations. There’s always more to learn. This week, Renaldo and his assistants are hard at work on doing the finish electrical work. And so, I learned yesterday that the 2008 National Electrical Code, which Massachusetts has adopted as law, requires that new residential outlets be “tamper resistant.”

Being the nerd that I am, I of course had to read Leviton’s marketing materials about what these plugs are and how they work. Basically, they’re mandated by the 2008 NEC because they reduce the risk of electrocution to children. There’s some kind of internal blocking of the receptacle that’s only released by the insertion of two prongs simultaneously – meaning that a kid can’t jam a pin or coat hanger in and get electrocuted. That’s a good thing, but Leviton’s guilt-inducing marketing materials (PDF) don’t make it any easier to swallow:

Q.Will the new TR receptacles cost more than standard residential receptacles?

A. There will be an increase in cost per product, but it is negligible compared to the value of protecting children and reducing injuries due to electrical shock.

More adventures in home renovations!

The team from World Marble and Granite showed up just shy of 7:00 pm (for their 4:00 pm scheduled installation) – *sigh*. They got right to work moving huge slabs of rock into my house:

Bringing in the sink countertop

Installing the bar top

They had a cool hand-held tool that drills a hole for the faucet – I hope it’s the right size!

Drilling the faucet hole

The “finished” granite bar top and countertop around the sink… pretty shiny!

The sink countertop and bar top

I realized I never got around to posting our paint colors, so here they are.

We decided to do warm colors downstairs and cool colors upstairs. Fabio, our contractor, said our colors remind him of Brazil.

They started sanding upstairs!

I just couldn’t resist a close-up photo of the Silver Line floor sanding machine!

Another happy, happy sight: our second Dumpster load of debris being carted away:

Well… on second thought, not unreservedly happy; it’s a shame to see so much crap headed for a landfill. We probably should have tried harder to see that this stuff was going to get reused as much as possible… *sigh*

Beyond rearranging the kitchen from its previous layout, the biggest change there will be new granite counter tops. Yes, it’s hackneyed, trite, commonplace – in a word, cliché – but darn it, they’re so shiny! How can I resist?

It’s so shiny you can see the reflection of me & John the Granite Guy. I also asked him to pose next to the slab so you get a sense of scale:

I visited him at his shop in Franklin, MA and got to see the giant water-cooled blade that slices through granite more easily than I can cut through the aged Gouda:

Can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s in my kitchen!

There were great leaps forward in the appearance of Steve’s apartment this week. They started working on refinishing the floors!

The transformation is incredible. Even though the floorboards are over 100 years old, when sanded they smell piney and fresh.

This guy uses the big sander for the main floor areas.

And this guy goes around the edges with the small sander.

Pretty grain on the naked wood. We’re pretty sure it’s “heart pine.” The wood of the Longleaf forests was the flooring of choice until they were depleted around 1900, during the building boom that produced our house and most of the others in Boston.

Several different phases of floor renovation, all visible in one image. Starting in the foreground we have the old subfloor. Behind that is the brand new oak flooring for Steve’s bar area, then the sanded dining room floor. The interior of the “picture frame” design there is in the process of getting stained darker. Then way in the background is the shiny, freshly finished living room floor.

Update: apparently, the floor guys screwed up which part was supposed to be stained dark. This picture shows them today doing the correct dark/light staining. Doesn’t that wood look great?

Peeking through the dusty front door window we can see how beautiful the front hall and bedroom look!