Meet the Robinsons plug

A quick break from house blogging to invite you all to go see Disney's Meet the Robinsons, which opens today, March 30th. This is the evil bowler hat named Doris that I rigged -- she's creepy and full of nifty gadgets, and was a ton of fun to build. Her animation (supervised by the awesome Jay Davis) is terrific.

I haven't seen the entire 3D glasses version on a Disney Digital screen yet, but the footage I've seen is amazing. You can search for a local RealD 3D glasses theater here.

Stucco equipment takes over front yard

It's no wonder the kids are going stir crazy -- there's nowhere to play at the Park house. Thankfully, we can all retreat to our personal Virtual Reality immersion chambers when need be. Glad I built those.

Final siding piece goes up

Only moments after this photo was taken, the siding was pronounced done.

Do balconies have floors?

I'm never sure what you call man made underfoot surfaces in outdoor spaces. Nevertheless, here's a picture of ours.

Goodbye fancy

The painters finished the dining room and living room yesterday, and are looking pretty good to finish the kids bedrooms today. They are a great crew -- very nice guys, careful about moving and tarping our stuff, and always clean up the place at the end of the day. I plan to do a full list of sub-contractors later, but for now, if you're looking for a paint crew in Los Angeles give them a call : Mario's Painting Co. Mario Marmol 661-733-8348.

Also, Angel was there today to finish the siding above the balcony and hang doors in the original part of the house. He's getting rid of the old "fancy" door casing and putting in simple, square-cut ones in their place. Goodbye fancy.

Lego sofa

As I've always said: "Lego blocks are several hundred times too small". This problem has been solved with the Bekky Sofa.

t-minus 37 days

erin says:

There are only 37 days until May 1. May 1, which means our 1200 sq. ft. addition will have officially taken over one year. Over one year. I can't think about that too much or I might hyperventilate. Anyone want to wager on whether it'll be done before then? Here's what's left:

tile two bathrooms

install wood floor on stairs and master bedroom

interior painting

sandblast concrete floor

install plumbing fixtures

fix concrete driveway

hang doors

final coat of finish stucco to exterior

(and I'm sure there are other things I don't even know about!)

Anyone want to guess a completion date? Closest guess (without going over) wins a random piece of schwag from Walt Disney Animation Studios! Put your guess and a way to contact you in the comments. (Nod to the Erwins for the idea.)

My parents are visiting on May 5th, and for months I've been convincing myself that we'd have a guest bedroom for them. Sadly, I'm starting to doubt it.

Dreaming of decorating

erin says:
Now that the end seems to be in sight, I'm starting to think about decorating. Our daughter is ten months old and mostly still shares the bed with us, so it's hard for me to take her room seriously. Well, we did pick out a great color (icy lavender from Dunn Edwards). And I may steal an idea from a friend of mine and frame a bunch of family baby photos (grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins) for her room.

For Ronan's room, we ordered these wall decals, although we're painting it a calming sand color.

Solar panels in a holding pattern

Here they waited, moments before they became self-aware, assembled themselves into a larger, more powerful collective panel array, and hovered up to the roof to lie dormant, supplying us with precious energy until the day of their reckoning arrives and they in turn enslave us all. Sorry.

Octavio Primes

Does that post title sound like something from the Transformers, or is it just me? These guys have been fantastic in their attention to detail during prepping and priming. I can't wait for the color to go up.
While walking the kids around the block yesterday we realized that the paint color going over the existing stucco is very similar to our neighbors house two down from us. However, they've got white trim and we'll have the Iron Fixture trim, so the look will probably be very different. I can't wait for this powdery baby blue color to be gone.

Railing being welded

This is also complete, and various layers of noxious smelling sealing gunk have been applied to the floor.

Siding going up

This side is finished now, all that remains is the part over the balcony.

Loads of stuff

There have been lots of things happening at the house over the last few days:

• The painters have primed and prepped the interior of the addition.
• They're sanding window sills and other trim and have been taping off the front porch to prime and paint out there.
• We've finalized the trim color to Dunn Edwards's Iron Fixture:

• The plumber moved the water heater and removed it's housing so the back wall can be stuccoed.
• The siding is almost entirely done, just a small section remains to be done over the balcony.
  
• The railing has been installed on the balcony and looks very cool (despite having changed the design from horizontal to vertical rails to avoid the whole "toddlers think it's a ladder" issue).
• The balcony floor has been sealed with some noxious smelling stuff.
• The solar guys are installing the solar panels. Erin said she took some pictures of the panels before they were hoisted up, so I'll post those later.

It's very exciting to see so much happening all at once.

update:

• Concrete patching to fix a plumbing mistake from eight months ago will happen this week.
• Cleaning, sandblasting, and sealing the interior concrete floor is scheduled to begin next week.
  

Exterior colors

We're trying to choose a trim color: I like the dark one here called "Dark Engine".
The light one, "Porous Stone", is what the smooth stucco on the new part of the house will be.
The original part of the house will be painted with "Drifting", the tannish one.
The siding surrounding the stairwell, and the front door, will be the insane orange "Campfire".
Any thoughts on the trim?

Paint prep has begun

My eyes in the field (OK, my wife) reports that the exterior paint prep has begun. Through some shenanigans involving a recently remedied license situation, J.D. and James got us a very good deal on the paint quote from a top notch crew. Did I mention that the stairwell siding will be orange?! The existing house stucco will be painted a taupe (I think) while the new stucco will have a warmish gray integral color. Interior will mostly be off-white, with possible accents to be painted in the future when we have our wits about us again.