Happy Burns Supper….

Burns Night has been and gone already.  Where has January gone?  For me it started off pretty poorly, well I was pretty poorly with whatever bug has been going around NYC.  Jon loved the 2nd week of it as I had no voice, actually the team at work was also quite enamored with my quiet state.

Work has been a bit challenging and busy, but keeps me out of trouble.

The apartment, well we are living in it - big picture it is beautiful, but we are still at the finishing stages. 2 weeks ago when I was slightly under the weather had a 2 hour site visit with architects and contractors to go through the minutia and there was a fair bit.  Part of the problem is our project manager ended up in hospital and they really haven't put someone else on to project manage.   So we had a successful meeting and stuck lots of bits of blue masking tape on spots that needed some work.  The laugh of the blue masking tape is that Brian (the site manager) hides it from me as he hates coming into my compulsive obsessive sticking of blue tape!!!  Ah hah, well I got around that and just went to Home Depot and bought some more.

Monday this week we get a note from the owner of the company that we should feel free to unpack. Hmmmmmm, so I set to on the apartment and by the end of Tuesday the apartment had blue masking tape measles!!!  Wednesday's site visit was interesting - the bad cop was Jon and they had not seen Jon as bad cop.  Here's hoping it works  When Nadav said 1 more day I challenged how well it was going to be done given the extent of the measles.

For those of you still reading, the short story is we still have not properly unpacked and so still cannot cook in the new kitchen.

Up in Vermont this weekend, Jon is now struck down with the bug.  I headed out for a ski with Estelle & Henrik in -19 C, brrrrr, but it kept all the punters away and we had the mountain to ourselves.

Burns night at the golf club in the UK - almost scuppered due to the pesky snow.  But sounds as though it was a great success with Mummy doing the "Reply from the Lassies".  Hope they don't mind but have loaded a couple of photos of them looking very glam.

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year

So what has been going on at 62 MOntague Street - who knows for sure.  The week before Christmas was a little stressful sleeping on air beds and seeing very little progress.  The contractor assures us this is usual as they are at the finishing touches.

Jon is over the moon as the B&O TV has at least been installed in the den so we have been able to watch a couple of movies.

Friday last week was somewhat chaotic.  The movers arrived with all our stuff, which doesn't seem that much anymore - not least as they seem to have lost a couple of boxes in the process - it is a nuisance, but to be honest to be expected I suppose.  Overall the movers were fantastic and anyone in NYC reading this I would highly recommend them.  At the same time the stair guys were still trying to finish up the stairs.

A little bit of fun to the day was when Hippo was returned to us from the first floor - because all the front doors were open she took herself on a small perambulation down the internal stairs to the bottom of the building - thankfully the main front door was not open.

Chris also arrived in the midst of everything, so we then packed up our stuff and headed up to Vermont.  Lousy drive on the Friday before Christmas.  Arrived well to meet up with the rest of the Short family.

We asked for a white Christmas and we got it - hurrah - been having a lot of fun on the ski slopes.  Last night braved the elements - 18" of snow in less than 24 hours - to head to SOLO for Chris' birthday celebration.

So no photos of the flat but some of the snow:

Yeah we have our bed back and guess who is on it!!!

Saturday…..

Been an interesting day keeping out of the way of the contractors…. I know everyone says that when the finishing touches are being done you can't really see progress, well they are right.

Anyway had a lovely long walk with Hippo.  Heading off tonight to our GNO (Girls Night Out) Xmas Dinner - spouses invited…

Silence....

For those of you who do follow our blog, sorry for the radio silence.  After being looked after by Conor, Jess and Duke we moved into the apartment on Sunday night - with two air beds (thanks Emma and Leighton) and a couple of suitcases.

First 2 nights were interesting as we could not get up and down the stairs and there was no toilet on the 8th floor.  So we were using the old toilet on the 7th floor, which after 9 months of contractor use was not too pleasant - but Brian bless his heart gave it a good old scrub.  So it was out of 8th floor, down the building stairs into the 7th floor.  Bathroom in 8th floor is now almost done - see picture below.

Today Hippo has a play date with her mate Duke so that they can finish off some stuff in our master bedroom - here's hoping they get it all done today.

So things are moving on.  Couple of not very good pictures.......

Hippo quite at home on the air bed - not a lot of space left for Jon & I

New bathroom

Our temporary home

The railing is going in as promised today

Think they are trying to convince us all is well

Contractor just sent us these pictures of the progress on the stairs…….

Apparently….

We are moving in on Sunday…. Thanks to Conor and Jess we have a roof over our heads this week.

Had a lovely weekend in Vermont which included some very good skiing (limited runs, but good skiing) and my legs are shouting at me now.

Anyway I brought the site visit forward a day to just keep things moving and here are some photos from todays site visit……

Looking from old living room into the new den, which was our master bedroom

Looking back from old master bedroom into our old and new living room

Looking down the hallway

Staircase coming together - treads are on, they need staining now

Kitchen has some appliances - no doors though!!!

Another view from kitchen back towards dining room (where the circular saw is) and the stairs and bookcase

Fireplace and cupboards in our master bedroom

Shelves in our master bedroom

Looking down on stairs from 8th floor

Another view from 8th floor down on stairs and millwork

Site visit who knows what

So had a few words with the architect today during the day as while we were informed that the AC had been signed off by the mechanical engineer the slim slot diffusers that we had thought we were going to have in our master bedroom were now going to become much bigger and more hotel looking….

Anyway, headed over to Montague Street from the city to see what was what.  The contractor is trying to get us into the apartment this Friday but that would be without stairs - not too bad for us, but not such a great idea for poor wee Hippo….  So anyway the latest is that we should be able to get into the apartment next Friday at least with an air bed - left to do should be radiators, perhaps the front door for 7C, which as I am typing this has suddenly made me realize that perhaps things are not going to be ready.  They are working hard and what has been done looks great.

Not sure how well these photos will do the progress justice as was taken with phone as of course forgot my phone.  Will try and walk you through where these photos are taken from.

Not sure where we are staying next week but hopefully Monday the 10th we will be in our own flat

Purpose of this photo (if you enlarge it) is to show the silver pipes - all the steam risers and radiators are going to be painted silver - something we stole from Willow Street

Shower head - nice and large - hope it is not too low for Jon

Staircase coming together - looks a bit rough and ready in this photo, but if you have Jon's skills you can probably see through the design

Looking up from dining room

8th floor bathroom

Fireplace in our bedroom - the fan won't be in there of course

Man and dwarf cave!!!

Looking down at staircase from 8th floor

The fabulous, fabulous window!!!