The Brandt Blog

No cleaning person on earth can rival Anne’s vigor, vigilance and validation in keeping our house tidied. Small detail that we’re not yet moved in; but Anne sleeps better knowing that her small piles of dust and debris properly deposited in the trashcan will not be later mobilized against her from the bottoms of the tradesmen’s boots.

There are still plenty of the skilled tradesmen working on their respective last details of the construction project – but none have been so welcome a sight (at least since Ted and the guys started framing) as was the cleaning crew today at work on the windows.  They represent the final step before we move […]

The painters, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, ironworkers, A/V guys, cabinet installers, carpet installers and fireplace installers continue racing to finish all the remaining details before next week…and seeing all of the pieces come together is a lot of fun. It’s all running pretty smoothly except the two doofus’ (doofi?) responsible for ordering the plumbing and electrical fixtures […]

We are Blogging for the first time while knowing the move-in date.  February 2…well…sort of, because Anne and I will over that weekend be carrying over the artwork, the kitchenware (to avoid packing) and some other stuff we’re not leaving to the movers.  There is a lot of work on the house that still needs to […]

We might have a light at the end of this 6-year tunnel…but so as not to jinx anything, we won’t mention what that potential move-in date might be.  There’s a lot of work yet to be done. For starters, the cabinet guy has been mysteriously MIA for the past few days…the painters are juggling us […]

With the holidays firmly behind us there should be no further delays in the house, right? If only… This weekend was a great start…we had carpenters, painters and the fireplace masons all working on Saturday.  Their reward – lunch from The Picnic Basket.  The masons were so inspired that they came back on Sunday! On Monday, all […]

The flooring guys used the Christmas week time-warp to their advantage and sanded/stained/varnished the floors while the other trades were all at home snug in their beds.  Besides, the main flooring guy, Jim forbade entry of anyone to the house. The results were phenomenal!  And despite all of the “DO NOT ENTER” signs, we snuck around the […]

Anne and I met Ryan – the floor finishing expert to select the stains for the floors.  Like so many of our previous meetings…the process when quickly and smoothly because of the experienced and talented people that Rick brings in and because Anne and I don’t have much trouble making a decision…for fear of delaying our […]

Now…we’re really getting excited.  With practically nothing left in our ‘creative’ tanks for additional architectural flourishes and no patience remaining for additional ‘changes’ our minds have turned to the finishing touches the guys have all been working on.  Well, that AND the small matter of preparing to pack-move-unpack and settle into our new home. Anne said […]

Looking strictly out for the welfare of the electricians…Anne advised Rick about six weeks ago to have Dan and Al install the exterior coach lights.  Thirty degrees and fifty days later Rick acted on Anne’s sage advice and, voila – we have working coach lights.  In addition to the electrical kind…we also had dug (AFTER the […]