In April, Stacy had placed our order from Costco.com for a sectional to be used on our upper deck. She had spent a fair amount of time looking for one that would not only look good, be durable but also not cost a fortune. The sectional was scheduled to be delivered in 4 to 6 weeks from the time of order but this was not the case. In mid May, when the first delivery date was anticipated, but the furniture had not arrived Stacy called to locate it. They gave her a scheduled delivery date for the following week, this would prove to be 1 of 5 delivery dates that we would receive over the next 4 weeks.

During one of the calls that followed yet another false delivery date, Costco actually told Stacy that she should call the delivery company herself since they were a subcontractor of Costco. After a long and frustrating series of calls and scheduled delivery dates, Stacy finally received a call back from the delivery company, only to say they would not be delivering the furniture that Friday after all, but that it was being shipped to another delivery company because they would no longer be handling this business. Back to square one. The series of continued exchanges grew very frustrating as we couldn’t get an answer out of either Costco, the manufactuer (Soma International,who Costco again told us to deal with) or the finally identified “new” delivery company. After waiting at this point 9 weeks, we were afraid to cancel our order as the other sectional options we had looked at, were either sold out for the season or meant an additional 4 to 6 weeks delivery, putting us at the end of summer. Finally, after we received the 5th false delivery date and no call explanation from Costco as to what was going on, we canceled our order and membership. Then miraculously, the next day, we received another call, this time the delivery person was very helpful. He told us he wants to schedule a delivery for the next day, however he didn’t feel comfortable doing so since he didn’t actually have the piece at this time and this was not the normal procedure (since it might require that we take off from work to be there to receive it). However, he was finally able to tell us the location of our sectional and promised that it would be in his hands in the next few days, at which time he would schedule an actual delivery date. Ironically it seems our canceling the order is what prompted it’s delivery. Maybe we should have done that the same day we ordered it.

Ultimately the sectional has proved to be of really nice quality and to our surprise, arrived in fairly good shape, less a couple of scrunched pillows. I can’t say I’m impressed with my first Costco experience and will have to think long and hard before I make any other Costco purchases.

The blue colored glass that we thought needed to be replaced turns out to be the color that the majority of the other windows should have been.

If you’ve looked at the exterior photos of our house you will note that on the second floor, two of the large windows are a different color from the rest. This was an issue we had noticed immediately after the glass was installed and had pointed it out to our Accurate Drowin Window rep (Above and Beyond Construction) and our General Contractor. They had already made note of this between the two of them and agreed that we would need to change the glass on those windows to match the rest of the house. We decided that based on the extremely cold temperatures at the time we would wait until spring before we tried to replace these pieces and decrease the risk of them shattering.

Over the past several months I have been in contact with my rep about the windows as well as to inform him of some issues that we have had with several of our doors. In the meantime Above and Beyond Construction and Accurate Dorwin have fallen into a bit of a legal battle, that I wish to stay as clear of as possible. However, their strained relationship has meant that we have had to wait to get the correct glass for our windows until now. Our local rep from Above and Beyond has kept us informed that there was going to be some delays in the process and we have appreciated that but it still has been frustrating.

Our glass arrived on Monday of this past week, after our local reps made a personal audit of all our glass and got in contact with the glass manufacturer from our original order who then did a second audit of our glass. As it turns out it wasn’t just a few windows that were incorrect. Almost all the windows on the front of our house should have been a blue tinted Low-e, suncoat glass. The tan glass that made-up the majority of our south facing windows was of a lessor quality than we had ordered and it was the blue glass that was in the minority, that was the correct glass. The installers from Above and Beyond came out on Thursday and began to replace this glass on the big sections of our windows. They will return this week to complete that glass replacement. I am sick to my stomach to see the glass going to waste, as apparently Accurate Dorwin does not want it back. Stacy and I spent much of the weekend trying to figure out where or how we could salvage the glass, but we really don’t have the space and or use for it now.

The doors are a completely different story. Our three panel sliding glass door came and looked great, however it had a very unique feature, it has two operating sides to it. Almost imedialtey we were displeased with how it operated. I am 6′ tall 215lb. former bodybuilder and this door is hard for me to operate, let alone my wife and kids, who are fraction of my size. Additionally this door had issues with water infiltration along the frame in some places and the track froze up as a result. We also have had issues with the front door and the upstairs deck access doors that appear to have warped. Neither of these doors closes correctly and the upstairs door has is warped so that it is almost impossible to close—UGGH. Above and Beyond construction has offered to replace these doors for us with a door from another High-end Fiberglass window and door manufacturer that they now rep. I’m pleased that they are willing to do this, since from my understanding Accurate Dorwin doesn’t appear to be willing to make this right. The biggest frustration with this is that the doors are framed in by our finished siding material which means that we will again have workers at the house replacing this material as well, what an ugly cycle.

As it stands now I feel like our reps from Above and Beyond Construction are doing the honorable thing and replacing everything and anything that is incorrect, and right now at their expense. Accurate Dorwin in my opinion makes a great window (our energy tests showed this) but seems to greatly lack on the quality control and customer service end. I’m glad to be getting our issues taken care of but at the same time I am frustrated that this is the process that has taken place in order for us to get it done. Additionally I can only hope that anyone else who may have taken my research into consideration when selecting their windows and purchased products from Accurate Drowin does not have any of the same issues.

The International Interior Design Association is offering a version of this years NeoCon event in Chicago called Minne-Con. The event will be held at the super cool Chambers Hotel from 8a.m. to 4p.m. on June 26th and feature over 30 vendors showcasing a wide variety of new and hot products. There will also be a happy hour from 4p.m. to 6p.m. so you can rub elbows with the interior design fashionista of the Twin Cities. For more details check out the event site at iida-northland.org.

Early last fall (before it became apparent that we weren’t going to get our house completed in time to do the landscaping) we had spent some time looking for modern solar lights for our landscaping. We were quickly frustrated by the options that were available largely online and at most of the big box stores. Almost all of them were made out of plastic and feature a shade style design that looks like it was pulled from a little English garden, just like solar landscape lights must have looked like 100 years ago, except solar lights weren’t around 100 years. Needless to say these lights didn’t really fit our taste or the style of our house, so we were forced to look elsewhere. Unfortunately the ones we found, seemed to fall into a different tax bracket and we weren’t about fork over several hundred dollars per light. So this evening I was really excited when one of the friends we’ve made through our blog (Jeff Gallo from the 5ive house) sent us an email sharing the link to these great solar LED lights from westinghouse. They’re not only simple and modern looking but they’re made of stainless steel and best of all, affordable. They come in several different finishes along with a couple of options of height so you can utilize them in different areas around your yard to cast a variety of lighting effects. I’m thinking we’ll wait to see how our finished landscaping turns out a and then order a few sets to strategically light the yard.

Working in the mudd.

A narrow passage to the side yard.

Dustin Halveson sites the area to make sure we’re getting everything at the correct elevation.

A good trench and a solid base are key. We’ll also utilize this area to run some drain tile to channel the water from the hillside away from the house and into one of the rain gardens.

The first row of timbers go down.

A good start to our plan considering the wet conditions.

The stairs start to take their shape by the end of day on Sunday.

The east side of our house presents a significant challenge for our landscapers. We have a rather narrow walk way between the house and the small sloping hill on the east. Additionally the entire north side of the yard has a rather steep slope to it (one of the things that made many people think our lot was not suitable for a house). The solution was to build a set of stairs out of timbers that would work to provide access to the backyard while managing some of the rainwater run-off from the hillside behind the house.

Saturday morning Dustin Halverson from Village Green and a few of his workers arrived to dig around in the mud and get our landscaping going. I was pretty excited about seeing the landscaping getting done, so I was more than anxious to get my hands dirty and join in on the fun. If there was one good thing to say about all the rain we have had as of late, it certainly helped to make the ground a lot softer for digging. After about 5 hours of work we had cut our way into the hillside and laid down the groundwork for what would be the stairs and retaining wall. On Sunday Dustin and I put in another 5 hours of work and pulled together the rest of the wall, except the last few timbers that created the stairs.

I can say for certain that I am glad I wasn’y trying to do this as a do-it-yourselfer project. This was labor intensive and really pretty intricate work. Making sure everything was properly leveled and that we had the correct elevations before we started are just things that the average home owner couldn’t or wouldn’t do. Even little things like using a good base layer of class-5 gravel to set the timbers on really makes a big difference in how well the whole project pulls together and ultimately how it stands up to the test of time. It was also really nice to see that the walls were tied together with huge screws rather than the old pins that had to be pounded into place. I hope this is never the case but if we were to have to pull a section down for some reason, this certainly would make it a lot easier.

Blame it on global warming, dramatic climate shift or whatever you may but for some reason this year, spring and summer are having a heck of a time getting here. As another day of snowy rain approaches tomorrow, I am longing to sit on my new deck with an ice cold beverage and enjoy the view of our new lot and the various creatures that inhabit it. Maybe that’s why both Stacy and I have spent the last couple of weeks thinking, and talking about outside projects and products to fit into our new spaces. Although, we have a nice collection of Michael Graves furniture (that Stacy bought at Target a few years back) that will be used on our lower patio, our upper deck is void of any sort of seating.

The elevated view from our upper deck has the feeling of a rooftop patio at some cool summer hot spot in any one of a number of cities across the country. In my head I imagine low, simple, yet comfortable furniture made for groups to gather and socialize. Small high-top style tables, surrounded by sleek but comfortable bar stools serve as a resting place for peoples favorite summertime drinks. The only problem, is generally the furniture I am picturing in my head comes from the pages of design magazines like Metropolis with price tags that come as shock to my system. So with that said I have to give great credit to Stacy for doing the due diligence and putting in the research to find some really nice, modern furniture options that work to meet our goal of a nice little summertime retreat without breaking the bank.

available at Costco.com

available at Costco.com  I think this is my favorite one. I think we might want to die the cushions on these to something that will hold up a little better to wear and tear (maybe a nice orange or an apple green).

available at walmart.com

available at outdoorgardenfurniture.net   this one was also available at overstock.com in a great orange color but was only there for “about 5 minutes” before it sold out right before our eyes.

available at overstock.com