I am homeless.

[info]coco_b and I woke up this morning, packed the rest of our crap into Hawkeye, and said goodbye to our Comm. Ave apartment for the last time.  I think it was more bittersweet for her than it was for me, being her “first home” and all…  I liked the place, but we’ve been talking about selling it and getting a new place for so long I just think I’ve lost all perspective on the matter.

Corinna called around 12:30 to tell me that the closing on the old place was done, so all that is left is for us to drive out to Needham and close on the new place…  But for the intervening time, I’m homeless….

Steve is Gay


Steve is Gay
Originally uploaded by seangraham.

Corinna and I pass by this sidewalk almost every Saturday on our walk to breakfast at Moogy’s. Every week I laugh my ass off at the thought of Steve, who (in my imagination) lives in the home directly behind this sidewalk, leaving his home every day and pumping his fists in the air at the kids who mock him. I doubt whoever wrote this in the concrete had any idea of the laughs they created…

One day I will pass another piece of freshly-poured sidewalk and have the balls to put "Steve is Still Gay" into it.

The god of renovations finally smiles

The bathroom is finished! Well, the contractor is finished, at least. and I have some small work to do ourselves (like baseboard and door trim, painting, light sanding, etc. — stuff that is easy for us to do but would have cost alot to have them do). Anyway, I took a shower in my own home this morning as opposed to having to shower at work, so I’m a much happier camper.

Anyone know what’s going on with the CSH systems? I can’t connect to anything, and really need to check my mail, I’m expecting a very exciting message.

Bathroom Update

got a call from the contractor a few days ago asking her to be home at 3pm yesterday to sign off on the bathroom. Corinna and I called bullshit on this right away, looking at the work left to be done in the bathroom. I advised her to call the company before she left work so she didn’t waste any of her time. When she did, they were “running behind, but should be done around 6pm”. I left work a little early so I could be home at ~5pm to have a word with the contractors. When I got home, the owner, site manager, and plumber were there, surprised that I came home.

They started off saying they hadn’t finished, and that they’d have to come back to finish the access panel for the water shutoff as well as the radiator. I took this opportunity to add the chase they were on contract to install to box out the steam main. They looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears. My temper flared instantly, as I knew they had convieniently forgotten about this work. I calmed myself down (“He took a duck in the face at two hundred and fifty knots”) and pointed them to the original sales agreement which specifically mentioned either moving the steam main into the wall or boxing it out. I was originally concerned when I saw the plaster guy doing the walls but not boxing in the pipe, but I remembered someone mentioned they usually use some kind of panelling for those tasks. But I honestly think they were trying to not do the work, which pisses me off.

I’ve continued to updated the photos of the job, but don’t be fooled by the titles, “Day 15” is not elapsed time, but worked time. This wednesday will be the 4 week mark since the beginning of this job. “Day 15” doesn’t count weekends or the several days (one stretch was 4 days in a row) that they didn’t do a god-damned thing.

Renovations Fun

So the contractor eventually showed up yesterday and begun demolition of our bathroom. Corinna waited around all morning for them to come, they were supposed to show between 8 and 9am, but didn’t show until 2pm… The guy doing the demolition got most of the wall down (which is a tall order since it is all steel-backed plaster) and came back today to finish the job. I will be taking pictures each day as I did for my parents’ renovations. I will also be showering each day at work, which should be interesting.. Fortunately I won’t be spending the next two weekends in Boston, so I don’t have to figure out a showering procedure for when I’m not at work.

Attended a great lecture today on some interesting image processing algorithms developed by a colleague at our parent division (Goodrich Optical & Space Systems).

Another shot of the finished shelves

Corinna just put the finishing touches on our big project for last weekend. We built some open cabinets/shelves from scratch for a space in our kitchen. Our goal was to make them look like they fit in with the existing work in the apartment, and I believe we were successful. Check out this set over on Flickr to see the project from start to finish.