Laying Pipe

Saturday morning was interupted, at 7:30 am precisely, by the melodic chimes of the gentle jackhammer in action by the corner of our building. Busy Walnut Street was closed to traffic all day while the street was cut open and some pipe was replaced. It was very unusual to have closed a major street like this at a busy intersection.


Cutting across Walnut Street at 19th St..




The pipeline cutout continued down 19th St. to the entrance of our building.



Here you can see the work stopping at the awning to the entrance of our building creating a bit of a detour.



Friday Night Lights




Rittenhouse Square at night taken from the master bedroom window.

 

Kitchen Renovations: Granite Countertops

As we have new kitchen appliances, it was time to replace the faux granite laminate counter tops with the real thing. We selected a unique slab harvested from a Brazilian quarry called Magic White. It has a distinctive blend of white, rock salt gray and random swirls of black with an added touch of oyster shell sparkle. It was a color that worked well with the white cabinets, the black and white block floor and the stainless steel appliances.

The old laminate with the stripdown of the backsplash already in progress.

Technician using a computer to create a template for the granite.

The just laid Magic White.



A close up section.



The Day After...

Quirky scenes of Rittenhouse Square the day after the big (for us) snowstorm.



A snoctopus

 

A curiously happy snowman.




Another Big Snow

Today started with a modest coating of snow that was followed by light rain then granular sleet that made footing trecerous in the city. The sleet suddenly turned to dense snow with an accumilation of about eight inches.



The combination of ice and snow made the trees in Rittenhouse Square
look nice, but also snapped some branches



Looking north up 19th Street at Sansom St



Same shot of 19th St as above, but the flash shows the density of the snow.

Again, looking north up 19th St with the Independence Blue Cross building on the left.

Looking north-west at the banner sign on the PECO building during the storm.

A New Kitchen

Today, we had the kitchen appliances replaced with new stainless steel items from Bosch. These replaced the one we had installed when we moved in to Rittenhouse Plaza in 1994. Old items are on the left and the new one are on the right.

Twice the BTU's of the old range equals crispy critters.

Carriage Ride on the Square

While sitting in the living room on new years day, I could hear the sound of a horse, its hooves on the pavement, exactly. A look out the window revealed that a carriage driver had uncharacteristically brought his vehicle down to Rittenhouse Square. Not sure if we have ever seen one recently.

Snow on Christmas Day

A gentle and light snow coated the ground on Christmas Day, adding to the day.

Christmas on the Square

It's a few days until Xams on Rittenhouse Square and here are a few photos of the decor.

The lobby of the building.

A light coating of the first snow of the season.

Window Cleaning Day

Due to some long overdue rehab work on the building rooftop anchors, Rittenhouse Plaza had not had an exterior window cleaning in about three years. In our own unit, we were able to open the windows from the interior for cleaning. It is quite striking to watch the window cleaners at work, dangling from the roof. It can be even more daunting to open the blinds and find and window cleaner facing you from thirteen floors up.

Because of high winds, the cleaners had to stop and pospone their work for a few weeks.