Renovations Week 5

So this week concludes week 5 of our renovations. Although things are moving only slightly behind schedule Team Liz has officially grown weary of living in a construction site. That being said we know that the end is in sight and so we move forward. Some highlights from this week include the installation of the granite counter tops and kitchen sink! We must wait until next week to get the back-splash installed and then the kitchen will be completed minus a light fixture. We have had some book shelves installed in the bedroom and office - thanks to Liz's mom Marti for donating them to the cause. The towel hooks and shelf in the shower were also installed this week. We also spent most of last weekend putting our closets in order and making large piles of give away stuff in the hopes of creating just a little more room in the apartment. Not so many good pictures from this week so we settle for a photo of the new shelves almost installed in the office.

Dinner with our Cousins

Team Liz spent Saturday evening with Liz's cousins Robert and Tukta. We enjoyed fabulous Thai food, good conversation and we even experienced Wii for the first time. It is a real treat to live so close to Liz's cousins - they live just a couple blocks away from us. Here's a fun photo of Robert and his sons playing Wii.

Purim in New Jersey

In a truly unusual moment in time, Team Liz did not have any work related obligations for Purim, so we hopped on NJ Transit and enjoyed Temple Emanu-El of Livingston NJ's Purim Schpiel (written, directed and produced by Mark Kaiserman). For those of you who don't know, Mark writes and stages a schpiel every year. This is the very first time that Team Liz has been able to enjoy Mark's talents and oh what an evening it was!

Renovations Week 4

Week 4 of the renovations are complete. Amazingly enough most of the big stuff is completed. We have a fully functional bathroom - all we are waiting for is our towel hooks to be installed. The kitchen is also pretty darn close to being completed with our appliances being delivered this week. We had a fun 24 hours after the refrigerator that was initially delivered was found to have a 4 inch wide and 1 inch deep gauge in it (photo below). Thankfully, in the end, everything worked out and we got a brand new refrigerator but it was a bit tense for awhile there.










On Thursday our granite guy came to take a template of the kitchen. This is good since we will not have a kitchen sink until he installs the granite - we are hoping that will happen within about 10 days. Oh yeah, on a not totally renovation related note - our OB told us that the baby was in position and might decide to join this world a bit earlier than our due date! So now we are off and running trying to organize our home so that if the baby decides to come early we have some place to put the kid!

36 Weeks and counting

Liz has arrived at 36 weeks pregnant. Her circumference is 41" - this is shocking to some of us! Here is a 90 second video of the final ultrasound that the Doctor took. Baby is looking good with it's head down and ready to go!

Renovations Week 3

Well this was a big week - things moved forward fast and furious. Team Liz even spent some nights sleeping elsewhere due to a lack of toilet, shower and sink! Here are some of the noteworthy accomplishments from this past week. Beginning and finishing the laying of the kitchen floor (as seen on left). On Wednesday the tiles were removed around the hardware in the shower necessitating Team Liz's departure from the apartment (as seen on right). By Thursday the toilet and sink were gone and the plumber had been and gone and changed the internal fixture for the shower.




Thursday also saw the arrival of the carpenters who installed our kitchen cabinets. I will admit that I nearly cried when I walked into our kitchen on Thursday afternoon to see the new cabinets installed and to know that our goal of a new kitchen was within reach. Finally between Friday and Saturday the bathroom was regrouted. Whew - what a week!

Shabbat Dinner in Brooklyn

Team Liz loves every opportunity to see our friends in Brooklyn, so we hopped on the IRT and spent a wonderful Shabbat evening at Dave and Kristi's house. We even decided to make a mini-vacation out of our time in Brooklyn. We stayed overnight and then spent much of Saturday playing in the 'hood. Here are a couple pictures from Friday night.

Amy and Rob enjoying a quiet moment together - it was raining out and Rob got quite wet trying to get to Dave and Kristi's.




This is what happens to a dinner party when Bob the Builder gets turned on!

Team Liz has Registered...Sort of

While Team Liz remains superstitious and prefers not to get too involved with pre-baby being born gift giving, we have in fact put a couple things on a registry. Our neighborhood baby store called Albee's has an old fashioned registry. What this means is that you can not point and click on the internet but you will have to call them on the telephone and ask them to tell you what is on our registry in order to place an order.

We have asked that nothing be delivered until after the baby is born, both because of our superstitious nature and because we have no room for anything in this apartment until the renovations have been completed!

If you would like to "browse" our starter registry you can reach Albee's at: 877-692-5233 or click here to see their website.

Renovations Week 2

So week two of Team Liz's renovations has been completed. Week two was a little less exciting than week 1 where there were major changes but no less important in the scope of completing this project on time. Things accomplished this week included the completion of all the electrical in the bathroom, the creation of a bigger space for a new medicine cabinet, the patching of the wholes in the closet and the prepping, sanding and priming of the kitchen and both closets and finally on Friday the pre-flooring was put down in the kitchen in preparation for installing the stone floor during week 3. Here are a couple photos from last week.
The picture on the left is of our brand new outlet in the bathroom - this is exciting because up until now we have a dinky outlet attached to the light which was not terribly convenient.
The other picture is of the prepped floor in the kitchen as well as the primed walls ready to be painted.

Finally, I write this because once something is written on the internet it must be true - the contractor still believes we will be completed in a total of 4 weeks (2 more weeks). So we ask all of you to cross your fingers or send your good vibes out into the universe that this schedule is held to.

Team Liz Prepares for Week 2

Well, as many of you know renovations are completed by the sweat of those you hire as well as by the work you need to put in during the off hours to prepare your home for the next wave of destruction! Today Saul spent part of his hard earned day-off doing manual labor in order to prepare the apartment for this next week's renovations. Saul emptied our other hall closet, reorganized the living room storage area (which now is housing all the stuff from the hall closet) as well as took some items to goodwill. Here are two views of our hallway - one earlier in the week with all the boxes and one now with no boxes.

And this third picture is a view of the inside of the hall closet that Saul emptied - including some nice holes in the wall from the electrical work in the kitchen.