Long time

Sorry it's been such a long time. Things came to a boring halt when everything got taped and covered for painting. Not a lot else was going on while the paint was happening, except they cleaned and re-sealed our roof, and started some of the outside landscape work.

Then I blinked. All the painting was done and things jumped back in gear. 2 weeks later everything had changed, so I have lots of updates.

Lets start with that landscaping. We had some drainage issues when we were buying the house. Most of the issues had been fixed before we even closed on the house, but we still had to do some grading of the land, drainage pipe replacement, and we needed to have a pad put in for our hot tub.

Here's an "almost before" picture. They haven't done much work yet, just loaded some materials. Notice the slope kind of heads towards the house at the bottom of the slope. And you can't really see it, but the dirt actually touches the siding, which makes rot more likely. This pic is looking up the slope next to our house.

This pic is taken after the hot tub pad was put in, and it's taken from the pad looking down the slope. Notice the slope has been changed, and river rock has been put in to move water away from the house, and to displace the dirt that causes rot. Also, it looks really cool!

And finally, here's the pad on which the hot tub will sit. There's still some work to be done here, we aren't fans of the wall on the left. It just looks like a pile of blocks.

OK, and now on to the inside. The biggest changes are the floor going in and the kitchen getting closer to finished. First the floor.

Here's the living room.



And a close up of the flooring.

Here's a view from the dining room out to the living room.

The flooring looks so awesome! I really love the bamboo, but as you can see it's not typical bamboo. It's woven bamboo, so it doesn't look like stalks, it's more random. Having the flooring in makes the house look so much more complete. And it's "green" too!

And now, the kitchen.

Here it is covered up for painting.

Here's the dishwasher in, but still covered up.


And here is the kitchen uncovered. Notice the trim around the windows is painted white now. And you can see the handles are all on the cabinets.


And here's the countertop installed! This was one of the biggest expenses in the house, so we were SO excited to see it go in. And we LOVE it. The installers (Nuance Stoneworks) did such an awesome job matching the one seam we have. They connected two veins of quartz together, you almost can't tell it's two different slabs.


Here's the dishwasher installed with the countertop on top.


Here's another view of the countertop. The seam is just to the right of the sink.


And a close up of all the veining.


Here's the new stove going in. It's dual fuel, gas on top and electric oven.

And, the painting is mostly done. Here's the house getting ready to be painted.

Here's the house covered and taped for painting. Plus it has some primer.


Here's Jessi playing the painted trim Xlyophone.


Here's the house after painting. Notice all the trim around the doors upstairs, and the railing caps, and the closet trim is all white now. We decided to leave all of the exposed beams and posts their natural color. It adds some more warmth, and since they are natural wood, they look good.

And finally some more details.

The toilets are all in. Here's the main bathroom toilet. It's an ultra low flush, ADA height, Toto EcoDrake. At first I was a little scared of the Ultra Low flow, but since we are trying to be "green" we decided to go for it. I tell you, this thing flushes like a jet and only uses 1.28 gallons per flush! Also you can see the sink sitting on the floor waiting for the countertops.

And our master closet built in has been built in. Here it is. It's pretty simple, but it really gives the closet a walk in feel.

Whew.

Well, there you have it. The major things left are the bathroom countertops, the master bath shower glass, the wood burning stove, the bannister, hanging the doors, the new front door, the new stairs... I think two to three weeks and we'll be moving in!

-Tom

More Progress

Here's another update on the home remodel front:

The kitchen is beginning to come together. The cabinets are in...










Also the fixtures are beginning to go in everywhere.

The main bath light.


The new bath shower fixtures and sink.




The Master bath lights and shower fixtures.



The master fan. It turns out none of the bath fans vented anywhere. They just blew into the ceiling. So our contractors put ducting and vents to outside. Hooray!


And on every fan we put a timer. Supposedly it's a lot better for mold and mildew control to run a fan for a while after you shower, so we added these to make it easier.


Also we've put down more slate.

In the front entry way


And in the garage entryway. This picture is taken from the main entry landing looking down the stairs.

Supposedly soon all the cabinet handles will go on, and after the trim gets painted our Bamboo floors start going in. So exciting!!!

-Tom

I Can't Leave

So, I go to the house probably 4 times a week on average. Sometimes I go to answer questions about what goes where, or ask questions about what's next... sometimes I just go to soak it all in. It doesn't matter if I go to the house for a couple quick questions or just for a quick peak, but I end up staying for half an hour or an hour. I walk from one room to the next, and back again. I'll just stand in the Master Bath with a huge grin on my face. I tell myself, "OK gotta go now" Then I end up standing in the main bath for 15 minutes. I'll stare at the slate, trying to find my favorite pieces, or just open and close the cabinet drawers. Then I'll shake myself free and say, "OK gotta go now." But I'll end up in the new bathroom upstairs touching the tiles...

I just can't leave. Good thing, cause we're moving there in a month!

OK, so here's an update since the last post. Most of the tile is in now, the bath vanities are in and there's paint going onto the doors and walls. Here's the pictorial history.

The master.

First, here's the floor tile. Still kind of messy with all the install dust.


Now it's cleaned up a little and the cabinets are installed. Also, the shower pan and curb is all tiled.

Here it is with the shower surround all complete. The accent tile will continue over the cabinets as the backsplash. All we need are countertops.


Here is a close up of the accent tile in the shower.


The new bath

First here's the floor tile. Again, it's messy due to being early in the process.



And here's a closer look.


Here's Chris the tile guy putting in the shower surround and accent.


And finally here's the tile all done. Still needs to be cleaned up a bit. But it gives a good idea of what the New Bathroom looks like.


Main Level Bath

They started here by putting up the shower surround.


Here's a close up. See the variation in the slate? We love our slate! See why I end up standing around choosing my favorite pieces... Also I love that Damon, our contractor, knows that we like unique tiles and tries to use the cool ones in highly visible places. Thanks!


Then they moved onto the floors. And dropped in the cabinets.


Then they did the grout and put all of the drawers and doors on the cabinets. Can't wait to see this one all done.


So this is really hard to describe, but here's a picture of where we are going to do a little tile inlay. See the "missing" tiles? There will be bamboo flooring there, and the tiles that are "supposed" to be there will be "drifting" away - inlaid into the bamboo down the hall towards the camera a little. If this doesn't make sense, just wait a few weeks and we'll show you the finished product.


OK, so that's all for now. More soon.

Tom

More Stuff!

So, they've basically finished all the drywall, taping and mudding now. And as the title indicates, we have received more stuff. Hooray! Here are our appliances...

OK, fine they are still in boxes so it's not THAT exciting... but it IS really exciting that the construction is pretty much done, and all the finishing touches are starting to arrive. Like our cabinets...



And our kitchen sink...



And some of our tiles...

Oh alright, so boxes really aren't that exciting. I'll give a you a peek inside. These are going in the master bath...


Since they are still in a construction zone I didn't want to totally take them out of the boxes, so please excuse the plastic and cardboard. But notice the silver trim that surrounds the "tigerwood" faces.

And then these go in the kitchen...


That's Alder Wood with an Autumn finish. And they haven't been field adjusted yet, so those doors will line up when done.

And these go in the main floor guest bath...


Sorry that's not the best pic. There's a lot of dust still in the air. They are the same style of cabinet as the kitchen, only much, much darker.

And then, not all the tiles got deliverd, but we do have the tiles for the new bath...


Now that was a really hard one to get a picture of. You can almost sort of tell, but that's a linen pattern on the tile. And here's the accent tile that's going with it...


Again, ignore the plastic. We will be using thin stripes of this to accent the new bath.

And finally, this combo will go in the master bath...


Again, we'll use small stripes of the mosaic tile. And the larger grey tile will be on the floor and shower surround, and the smaller darker tiles will be on the shower floor. The colors didn't quite come out right in the pic, but it looks really cool in person. Trust me.

Oh and perhaps the most exciting thing is that they will start laying this tile down later this week!!! Man it's going fast.

Tom