Ahhhhh, I'm feeling much better now.

Now it's time to check out angieslist.com.

Did someone pick up my microwave tattoo warning? Or maybe my ways to improve America essay?

Okay, we're almost there. All we have left is:

1. Adding the knobs and pulls to the kitchen cabinets.

2. Replacing three doors.

3. Putting in the dining room chandelier.

4. Installing the TV in the kitchen.

5. Installing a big closet thingie in its opening in the kitchen.

The dining room also has a weird pattern showing up in the ceiling, which is the outline of a 4'x8' piece of drywall. The odd thing is that it wasn't there before and they didn't really do much in the dining room. We're not sure if we should do something about it or not, because it's invisible from some angles and very prominent from one angle. Odd.


Oh, and Granite Depot has retained their place in the hellish blackness of my hatred.

Ceiling Drywall with all the construction has likely moved. Nailed or screwed? Textured ceiling?
Have contractor look into it. May need to be renailed and taped/painted....

It should've been screwed, but we don't see any nails or screws popping out - just an outline of a 4x8 piece.

It's killing us, because we've already moved all of the furniture back in, and we don't want to cover everything with drywall dust again. If we were sure it wasn't about to fall, we'd probably just live with it. Or maybe if we're lucky they can just pound a few nails and do a little patching.

How far is the outline? Is it like when light hits across the surface, you see it? It could be a bad taping job. If they didn;t taper the mud out far enough, a hump around the rim will show (stop snickering). Is this a newly installed ceiling? or was the drywall always there and the outline just appeared?

It's weird. We first saw it in the evening, and we were all like "Holy cow! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" because it looked like a whole sheet had dropped a quarter-inch, and there was no work being done in that area. (It's in the middle of the room, and surrounds the old light fixture that has been taken out. That's the only work in that general area, but it is in that sheet.)

Then, the next morning, we came in, and we were in different lighting at a different angle and it was all but invisible unless we really looked for it. You would never have noticed it in that lighting. That tells me it's shallow, but it's quite noticeable in the evenings when you're walking in from the kitchen.

The ceiling was installed about seven years ago, and has always looked perfect, so we know that something has changed, but it's weird that we aren't seeing any popped screws or nails. We're half-wondering if the drywaller back then (who was not the most stable of individuals) merely taped it up, but I can't imagine that it would've lasted seven years if that had happened.

Sounds to me like the old like fixture was holding it up.

I was about to laugh and make fun of you like usual, but actually, you may have something. The light fixture is right in the middle of that sheet, and perhaps the little frame thingie on it was providing support.

Its also possible that the NEW fixture is heavier or mounted different that is adding a load to the piece of drywall...OR....I know this is outragious, but maybe it was there the entire time, but the way the previous light lit your room, "hid" this the entire time, or this new light maginfies a pre-existing condition.

Another thing that might have happened, only if the previous fixture was hanging, and the new one is mounted close to or on the ceiling, the light is now going across the surface, magnifying surface defects, while the old one threw light more towards the ceiling hiding elevation changes.

In case you missed it...
But you both have a point. Since the lighting has changed in the room, what was possibly never noticed before sticks out like a sore thumb now.

We've been musing over that, too. The other complicating factor is that we moved the door to the room, so we're seeing the ceiling from the north now, whereas we used to see it from the south. It may show up at this angle, but not at the other (though that seems odd).

It is conceivable that it's been there the whole time, but I'd be surprised. My wife notices things like that so well that she calls Encyclopedia Brown a slacker. I don't think it would have gone unnoticed for seven years.

I'm leaning toward dartgod's theory that the light fixture was supporting it to some extent, and it's now sagging since the light's not there. Even that seems a little odd, though, because I'd expect either a bowing in the middle or a total collapse, as opposed to the whole thing coming down a quarter-inch.

The ceiling is supported not by the joists, but by little metal studs that are hooked to joists. This was done to level out the ceiling. I keep wondering if that could have anything to do with it, but can't see any reason for it.

The ceiling outlet is NOT on a stud or hanger between studs? Heavier fixture cause the whole sheet to drop???? Wierd.

Put up a big ceiling Medallion?

The light fixture was indeed attached to a joist. The new one's not up yet, so we've just got a little bare light bulb in there now. The old fixture was glass and probably weighed 15 pounds.

Silly question... Have you stood on a chair and tried to push up on the ceiling in various parts of said sagging area to see if there's movement? That would tell you if the sag is new (note: do not try on parts of your spouse! Unless you look good with a black eye)

Okay, on the $455 to the granite co. just send the hilarious post you did on the conversations with the sales lady and the granite co. to sat night live or mad tv and charge them a couple thousand for the skit and you come out ahead. I worked for a company that sold granite counter tops and I cant tell you how many times this type of thing occurs and the salesperson charges the customer for their own screw up to save their commission.

Alright, already, cut out the chatter.....recent pics would be nice Mr. Rainman. Our expectations are elevated beyond what you anticipated when the thread was started. Comeon, pics, pics, pics, the suspense is difficult to take.

Yes, yes. All these words are driving me crazy. We need pictures.

Okay, it's done. Done, done, done. No more hammers, no more hooks. No more plumbers' dirty looks.

Pictures will be arriving soon.

The new chandelier is installed, and it is amazing. I've damaged my corneas staring at it with the lights on.

Just in time for Christmas. Nice job.

Yeah, we overshot the original finish date of September 13th.

Even in the film age they had 1-hour development. What, on Earth, is taking SO LONG!!!! ;)

I hope you are thrilled with the way things have turned out. I'm sure you're thrilled that it's all finished now. Congrats!

Okey-dokey. This isn't the full complement of pictures, but it's a good overview.

This is the new third-floor bedroom, facing the front of the house.
This used to be the old "map room."

Here's the same room, but facing the opposite direction. You can see the new closets, for which we used bamboo curtains instead of closet doors, and you can also see one of the octagonal windows that overlooks the new third-floor balcony. You can also see my pants.

This post is useless without pics.

Just get to the kitchen. Nobody wants to see your bedroom.

Check out the awesome ceiling fan. I love this ceiling fan. It's very Sputnikish.

And by the way, my wife and I are the beautiful people in the baby pictures on the dresser.

Man, if I had a dollar for every time I heard that sentence...

Here's the view of the new balcony, kind of. The rails were the last part of the entire remodel.

Here's what the balcony looks like from the back alley. Those aren't my shoes.

Here's a better view. Note the apricot garage. That was actually my wife's idea.

Here's the third-floor bathroom, which we did in jetstream blue with white trim.

We got some amazing lights on the third floor. You can see a couple of them in the alcove in the very first picture, and they're also our stairwell lights. Here's what they look like when they're off.

But then when you turn them on....voila! They turn all the colors of the rainbow, in brilliant neon hues. This photo doesn't do them justice.

And now we go down to the second floor. Here's the stairwell. I gotta get that picture hung.

The stairwells on the back of the house are kind of cool, because they all do a 180 turn. From the basement to the first floor, first to second, and second to third, it's a pretty big run of stairs that makes you do three 360s.

How do you get to the balcony? I can't remember how that third floor was laid out before.

I can see your reflection on the shade. Thank God you had clothes on.

Do the windows in the first picture face the street?

Wow, your picture looks like it was taken about 50 years ago. Your wife's looks more recent.

When you went up the back steps, the old layout had the blue bathroom on the right, and then there was a closet and a wall to the left. The closet and wall are now gone, replaced by a glass door and two octagonal windows. It worked out very nice.

Man, what are the odds of that?

Yup.

43! I'm 43! And a young and vital 43!

I see, so the doors to the balcony are at the top of the stairs. Very nice Kevin! When do we get to see the kitchen?

The main room on the second floor is the new TV room, formerly the master bedroom. Here's the view facing west, toward the front of the house. (This room is actually on the back of the house.)

Exactly.

I'm working my way down the stairs.

Here's a view the other way. This room was once two rooms, a bedroom and maid's quarters, so it's pretty good-sized.

Are your legs really that short? OR are your pants folded up? Sorry, I'll try to stay focused. More pics please.

At some point, we'll do the big-screen TV in this room, but I'm in no hurry at the moment.

Here's some art in the back of the room, a painting by a fun local artist and a symbolic representation of our cats leaping onto their cat tree.

I usually go with knickers.

Here's the main bathroom. I love this sink. Love it. The lights are reproduction antiques, and tub (not shown) is an actual antique that we bought for the house.

Hot damn...I wonder if I'll get to 500 posts before January? When I signed up for the Chiefs Planet, I made myself promise that I wouldn't be a post whore. I'm starting to wonder now.

You had a maid?

Someone had a maid. I have cats.

Now we're talking. That's a nice bathroom. I like the built-in shelves and the elevated sink thingy.

Here's a peek into my home office, which isn't yet completely unpacked. Any time I go overseas, I put a photo from the trip up on that ring of photos near the ceiling. (In one case, I count Texas as a foreign country, though.) The walls are Stuart Gold, as befits my dignity.

Do you love the sink for its functionality or its appearance? I like the way those sinks look, but I didn't know if I'd like to use one like that.

The shelves and whole sink area were once parts of two closet, but the shelf area was an odd small walk-in closet with a door that opened in, so you couldn't put anything in it. We tore it out and put the sink back there, and after a lot of puzzling about what to do about the area next to the chimney, we discovered that shelves would work perfectly.

It's actually pretty nice to use, but the only problem is that you have to have a tall faucet to make it work. The faucet we bought is actually a kitchen faucet, and since it swivels, you can actually swivel it too far and start letting water flow directly onto the countertop. As adults, we don't really have a problem with that, but it could be a disaster with kids.

The sink is durable, too. We bought it about 7 years ago when it was one of the first of its kind on the market, and it looks just as good today as when we bought it.

This used to be our TV room, and is now our guest room. Color: adobe dust.

There's supposed to be a sleeper sofa in here, but it was delivered last Sunday and they couldn't fit it through the doorway. So it's empty at the moment.

Looks like that ceiling is all jacked up.

Here's the hallway that links all of the second-floor rooms. It's a key lime pie green, albeit a shade or two lighter. We just put in the track lights, which are quite cool in my opinion.

The photos are our ancestor wall. We started with our wedding photo in the middle of the wall and then started adding photos of direct ancestors in all directions. The longest unbroken string is six generations, from me to two of my great-great-great grandfathers.

Dear lord, don't say anything to my wife or I'll have to move all that furniture out again.

Okay, and now down to the first floor. Here's the view if you look straight in from the front door. We had to take the staircase completely apart about 7 years ago to remove the paint from it. Every piece of wood on the first floor was painted other than the floor and the stair pads. We've brought it all back to wood.

We found the Egyptian guy at an antique store. We've named him Roy, the God of Commerce.

Uh-oh. The wife wants to shut down the office and go home. There's a blizzard here, and nothing's going on.

Thirty minute commute-through-the-blizzard break, and then I'll continue posting the rest of the first floor.

Its been 30 minutes. I wonder if Kevin is still alive?

Okay, the blizzard break is over. Here's our living room as viewed from the front door.

And here's the living room viewed toward the front door (which is to the left). You can see in the upper left an unusual design feature: the room above the entryway is partially cantilevered. There's no support for the back corner of it. The structural engineer on one of the remodel projects found that quite interesting.

At one point in the house's history when stained-glass wasn't popular, someone actually drywalled over the stained-glass window at the foot of the stairs. We had to have new framing made for it.

I have a burnt-out light in the foyer. Darn it.

The front wall of the living room, just so people know that we do have a couch.

And now we head into the dining room. Here's the view from the living room. The new chandelier, which is quite bitchin', is seen. It's not really gold - it's a bright, bright white, but I've got the dimmer on in this picture to keep it from messing up the photo.

I've always wanted one of those little rooms under the stairs. Must be very convenient for storing runaways.

Here's another view with the light cranked up.

It's a good short-term solution. Long-term, I use the old photographic dark room in the basement.

Rain Man's house sort of reminds me of Myst.

Here's a closeup of the light. This thing was worth the wait. It's astounding.

Excellent! Does it have one of those sliding circular doors like some darkrooms? That would confuse them even more. That would help getting the gruel in, too.

Is that good or bad? I've never played it.

I wish.

And I deliver...

http://www.pnwx.com/Accessories/Dark...FRGASAodgGByMQ