in other news...

Seamus is the king of the house.

Watching fireworks.

Yeah. This is our view.

Now that's an organized closet.

Alley mural

Closet mishap.

Jeremiah's surprise birthday party

Jeremiah's birthday was a couple weeks ago, but he was out of town when it happened. So it passed kind of quietly. Little did he know that Michelle was planning a surprise party.

We're all kind of stunned that he let the morning and afternoon of the party pass so quietly, what with the rest of us cleaning and organizing the house so frantically. And by helping Brad move stuff to the basement, he was inadvertently helping us prepare.

The two of them went to dinner with Ms. Ray Ray. He didn't suspect a thing. The rest of us ran around like crazy trying to make sure we were ready.

Yeah- cannoli stuffed with cannoli. We don't mess around when it comes to dessert.

The result:

I'm not going to force anyone to watch 5 minutes of nothing, but the silent nervous giggling is pretty amusing. Skip to about 5:05 for the action.

We entertain, therefore we are.

Last night was our first miniature shindig at Hotel Renard. A couple of bags of charcoal, a reused circle grill discovered at the property, a run to Dominick's and Whole Foods, and we were set. Many were invited, only a few showed up, but that's why you invite so many in the first place.

A mixture of vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians and carnivores made it a Chicago experience. Battles on the grill for clean space ("Don't let your lamb touch my meatless sausage!"), a fine time outdoors with a worklight blasting 300 watts at us all, and closing the night with peaches and cream in the hookah.

As people dispersed, we were all impressed with how well everything held up. We still have no kitchen sink (or floor, or upper cabinets). The bathroom has a floor and equipment but is unpainted and has no real lighting. The living room holds more boxes than people, but it all went smoothly.

As things progress in the coming weeks, the sense of dominoes falling will overwhelm all of us as work clutter disappears, leaving real clutter that has to be sorted, stored and shelved. The final step is making the official announcement: "we're home."

Progress, regress, progress: 3 steps forward, 1 step back

We first looked at the space around Valentine's Day.  Less than a month and a half later, progress is finally starting to show (pics to come).

Both bedrooms were primed fully, one bedroom has been painted with bedroom #1 getting its first coat of paint last night.  Bedroom #2 has had some IKEA TUNDRA laminate flooring installed (about 90% complete).  With paint and a floor, it actually looks liveable and serene.

The bathroom plumbers brought a shower pan in (48" unit), and started to move the pedestal sink over.  We're hoping for a working sink and shower by week's end, which leaves us the gritty work of laying down tile to complete it.  We were hoping for a slightly larger shower unit, but every plumber we talked to said avoid the 60" models for fear of cracking them.  Weird how decent plumbers will actually say no to more money if they know things won't work well.

The basement looks great -- all the walls and studs were removed, most of the sewage concerns have been handled by the same plumbers, and powerwashing of the walls continues slowly to remove decades of grime, mold, mildew, and who knows what else.  We found a few minor basement floor water spots where water is coming up from underground.  We're planning on patches these moisture areas ASAP so we can start working out of the space come May 1st.

The plumbers have run the kitchen faucet lines awaiting my purchase of a sink and faucet.  That'll be the last "first step" stage completion for a almost-liveable work-live space: bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen.  We're still unsure what we're doing with the kitchen space (cabinets and appliances aren't cheap), but once we have the bedrooms and bathrooms done, we'll knock the kitchen out in a matter of a week or so.

Now that we're working during the day, the south-facing bedroom sunlight is amazing.  With bedrooms big enough to handle a bed, a couch and work desks for all, we're excited to utilize the space for all our needs: business, lounging and entertainment.  Our hope is to have a grand opening party for friends and family around the second week of June.

Today I'm battling with Comcast to get Internet service installed, but we keep running into problems.  They're saying it's a commercial space (about 3 times as expensive to run Internet to), we're saying it's a live space.  More details to come in a week after their business department reliquishes the space to their residential department.

The printshop business acquired its first two customers last week, and we're hoping to get our first orders this week.  Much excitement there.