Interior photos: The Guest Bathroom

Hubby and I are rapidly coming to the conclusion that, having made the house much bigger, we're going to be spending all our time in the new office. Indeed, over the weekend, all four members of our family crammed into the office for various reasons for extended periods of time! The only issue we have is that it gets a bit hot in the later afternoon - so I shall be heading out to a window coverings provider very soon to fix that.

The thing that might tempt us out of the office is the new bathroom. Wow, so glitzy. Azmir installed the fixtures I purchased at Restoration Hardware, and it looks fab. See the photos, including the close up of the Vetrazzo. We can't get enough of that, it looks so stylish.

Views of the Kitchen/Office

Note the frosted glass sliding doors dividing the new office from the kitchen.

Wet Weekend Round Up

So little seemed to happen last week that I gave up writing the daily blog. So here's a brief summary of action:

- wood floors went into the bedroom, office, and the base of Little Starlet's closet, and each received their sanding and first two coats of varnishy stuff;
- the gimble mounted lights went into the bedroom and office ceilings;
- the snap-on outlet plates were installed in the kitchen (mostly);
- the baseboard and crown molding were painted in the master bedroom;
- the tile was almost finished in the guest bathroom, except for a small area around the toilet sewer pipe;
- the tub deck in the guest bathroom had the corner rounded to eliminate potentially injurious point;
- some of the cabinets in the kitchen were adjusted (again);
- the shelf inserts inside the main food pantry were installed - but they have to be removed because now the rolling shelves have no way to come out.
- the door bell was repaired, and now plays the first couple of bars of the 1812 overture (not sure this is a big improvement on the last tune).
- wood siding installation began on the exterior of the bedroom/bathroom
- the "scratch" coat for the stucco was installed on the office/laundry and the rear main wall.

That may sound like a lot, but is actually not a great deal. Most days we only had one or two guys here, which is a big difference. There was no action in the landscaping at all, as our stone layer was off with family issues.

In other news, I had a bit of taxpayer triumph. A couple of months ago, Site Supervisor II spoke with the City about repairing our sidewalk and road. The City told him that it would be ten years before they were back on our street, and that we were essentially out of luck. Last week I took matters into my own hands - inspired by new puddled formed by new rain - and contacted the Public Works Department. Long story short, they came to inspect and agreed to add our section to their repair schedule for 2010. In fact they said there were 20 places on our street that needed repair, so they'd be repairing the whole block! Hubby says, maybe they checked the computer to see how much property tax we pay....

Trying to Get Beyond 80% Done

The frustrating thing about the remodel now is that lots of things are almost finished; but not many things are actually finished.

The kitchen floor is complete, but the wine fridges can't go in because the walls haven't been painted. The kitchen cabinets still need adjustment. The office is ready to have the floor installed and the walls painted. The light fittings also need to go in. The exterior lights are here, but awaiting installation. The laundry is awaiting cabinet pulls and painting. (We're also waiting for the correct top half of the dutch door to come.) The interior doors are in and painted, but still need the correct hardware (handles, hinges etc). The family room floor is complete and the window bench is in, but the TV cabinet is having to be remade (see earlier post about how it was made up in the wrong material). The guest bathroom tile is half done. The window frames have all been painted, but the glass needs cleaning up.

The guys from Jim's Bunch have been installing the closet doors in our bedroom since yesterday. California Closets will be coming on Friday to install the innards.

I could go on. All this is not to say that work is slowing down, or that the guys aren't working hard, because it isn't and they are. It's just that it would be nice to see something actually 100% complete because every room in the house is currently impacted by the remodel.

Catch up post

I can't believe I haven't posted since Wednesday. Blame it on the children who were off school on Thursday and Friday. When they're here, it's hard to get onto the computer.

The dishwasher went into gush-mode on Thursday during our weekly site meeting, which was handy as Jim himself was able to witness the food particles spurting out of the sink. A plumber was called (the third time the dishwasher has needed TLC since reinstallation). Speaking of sinks, the laundry sink and countertop was ready for installation, but before cutting the hole, the granite guy called Site Supervisor II and explained that there wouldn't be space for the faucet at the back of the sink - it was too big. We gathered in the laundry to watch SS2 draw the sink on the hardboard top and agreed that, yes, it was too big. A new sink is being ordered. This will delay the completion of the laundry.

In the office, Hubby noticed that the wire management trays do not run behind the upper drawers in the cabinets, which seems to defeat the purpose of having them. Appropriately sized holes are there - the top drawers are not as deep as the bottom ones - so it looks like something has simply not been installed.

In the guest bathroom, the tile is going into the shower, and it looks really splendid. I'll try to grab a photo tomorrow.

In the guest bedroom, nothing has happened recently except the addition of handles to the dresser drawers. This room has become a storage area to keep things out of the rain.

We do, alas, have a problem in the family room. The cabinets which have been built for the TV cabinet have been put together in alder instead of paint grade wood. This turns out to be our architect's fault, for not properly communicating the wood choice (which I was able to demonstrate we decided in November). So she is offering to suck up any additional cost to change the cabinets. Fortunately (though it didn't seem so at the time) last week it turned out that the cabinets had been made too large anyway. Site Supervisor II was onto the cabinet makers to replace some of the units they had brought over. I am hopeful that they haven't started remaking them and perhaps at least some of the units can be changed at no additional cost to anyone (except the cabinet guys who got the measurements wrong in the first place).

Lastly we have selected paint for the new rooms: Grant Beige (warm grey) for the family room, Engish Hyacinth (lavender) for the guest bedroom, and White Mist (off white) for the bathroom. We're going to repaint the exterior grey-blue but can't yet decide on the shade. SS2 is asking the painting subcontractor to paint out tester panels in our top three picks.

Good weather Thursday, rain on Friday, nice this weekend. Our concrete is officially dry and walkable.

Properly Appraised and Making Progress: It's Official

Mysterious activity outside the house today by a bunch of Spanish speaking guys I've not seen before. They seem to be trimming the stucco back from the exciting shiney flashing. Well...ok.

Damien the Irish Concrete Guy has been here with his crew reforming around the walkways in the front yard. They demolished the incorrect concrete yesterday and cleared up today, new rebars, new forms, touching up and tweaking. Damien spent twenty minutes with a leaf blower - no exaggeration - creating a big cloud of dust, apparently making sure that the front door step is completely clean. I now hesitate to step on it at all. Damien tells me that the concrete will be poured for sure tomorrow (unless it rains, which it is not forecast to do). By the time Hubby returns from his trip to Baltimore, there should be hard concrete upon which to walk to the front door. Whoopee doo!



Inside, the office is really starting to take shape. Two of Jim's Bunch have been working all day installing the cabinets. We have four cabinets with lateral files, the desk tops, and book cases. It's actually looking like a room at last. We also had two people over today to give quotes on the wood floor for the office and the bedroom.



At lunchtime the appraiser from our insurance company popped by to have a look. I got a call yesterday to say he was coming, so I was able to ask Site Supervisor II to make sure that the fire extinguishers were in the right places. The fence that the appraiser had asked to be erected between the front and back yards was not there, but he could clearly see the men working away on the concrete forming in exactly that place, so that did not create any issue. My only worry is that when the job is finished, the appraiser will insist on pushing our house rebuild value over the magic threshold ($1.5 million) at which the insurance company will require us to install sprinklers and an alarm system. When he came out to do the appraisal in September, before our work started, he valued the rebuild at $1.45 million.... That was before we added the kitchen remodel and a bunch of other stuff. Luckily, this figure doesn't include the pool or any of the hardscape.

Writing another check for the house remodel work today. So far we've paid just over $400,000. This time round, we even have the money in the back account already! Nice.

Goodbye to the Closet, Hello More Cabinets

I can hardly contain my excitement about the progress in the landscaping, so I could go on and on about that; but I'll mention the wonderful progress inside the house too.

The pocket door is completed in the kitchen/study (except for the insertion of the actual doors, which haven't arrived yet). Since the drywall has been done, we are now in position to complete the kitchen floor tile and install the cabinets for the wine fridges (which have been living in our dining room in huge boxes for over a month.) Lots of cabinets have arrived and the slow process of installing them all has begun. Photo here of the cabinet that fits between the wine fridges going in. Also a big heap of drawer units and bookcases in the office.

As it was our weekly site meeting today, I got a peek at the bedroom/bathroom addition. (We may get more than a peek soon, as Site Supervisor II says that the dust wall will be coming down in a day or two.) The inside of the shower has been prepared by the tiler and is currently drying. I was hoping that some of the mosaic tile would have been installed so I could get a look with the paint in mind, but no luck. Well, you can't have everything. The valves for the tub faucets are in. The cabinets have also been installed in the bathroom and are looking good. We had a fairly detailed conversation about where the handles and pulls should go on the cabinets. It's amazing how much time you can spend on an item like that.

In the master bedroom, there has also been progress on the closet reworking. The drywall and "mud" has been completed. When we started on the closet, I assumed that the interior - the hanging space and shelves - would be ripped out. Then I had a conversation with SS2 who said we should keep them till we had chosen our new layout. Well, the net result of the reframing and drywalling is that the closet interior has been wrecked. (I never really expected anything else.) I told SS2 that they might as well rip it out and dispose of it for us. The doors for the closet have not yet arrived on site. I guess we'll be living with our clothes on wonky IKEA hanging racks for a while longer.



Time to call California Closets?

Have you been paying attention? Finish this sentence: "Another Day..."

It is Monday. Welcome to week 21 of the remodel. Guess what joyful occurrence has gladdened the hearts of the Cardboard Box dwellers today? Yes, a new hole in the front yard. In fact, to be specific, two holes. The first hole is involved in a sewer relocation connected to the "outdoor kitchen" we are building in the back yard. The second hole is to accommodate a pipe that was the subject of installation in a previous hole. This landscaping crew is worthy of employment with BT or British Gas or one of those wretched utility companies. Site Supervisor II says he tried not to notice what they were doing, it was too painful to watch.

Inside the Cardboard Box, the dishwasher finally came back to life today. Unfortunately it leaked into the cabinet under the sink. Turned out to be something to do with gravity and one of the pipes having a dip in it. Anyway, SS2 called the plumber in to fix it and told him very sternly that the whole kitchen remodel was predicated on eliminating the leaking faucet and water damaged sink cabinet, so it had better get put right. SS2 is a pretty mild mannered guy, so it's easy to see when he's not tremendously impressed. While he was here, the plumber also swapped the Insinkerator (garbage disposal) around from the big sink to the small sink, and installed the second Insinkerator in the vegetable sink. Houston, we now have total sink capability.

We've spotted various little fixes that are needed around the kitchen, but we've decided not to moan on about them just now. We'd rather the guys get on with some of the remaining big stuff than spend their time fiddling with the little stuff. That can wait for the punch list at the end, if necessary.

Our whole house fan was working over the weekend, but isn't now. We discovered that the attic fans had been left switched on, so we turned them off at the subpanel. SS2 said that the thermostatic controls for the attic fans would be installed today. Quite what actually happened I'm not sure: The attic fans are still permanently on, while the whole house fan is no longer working. It seems like that with all our electrical work: One thing gets fixed and another stops working. The electicians claim that we have funky wiring (and I can believe that) but even so, surely this isn't absolutely necessary.

The carpenters continued working on the windows today and seem to be close to finishing.



In other big news, the pocket doors for the kitchen/study wall have arrived. Yay! A couple of the guys from Jim's Bunch started to install the pockets this afternoon. This is arguably the last big piece of actual construction needing to be done. When the pocket doors are in, they'll be able to finish the drywall in the kitchen, the tile floor, install the last cabinet, and take the blessed wine fridges out of the dining room at last. All good stuff.

Now, to return to yesterday's important question about the light switch in the living room, here is a photo of it. Would you have it moved or not?

Welcome to Week 18

Week 18 of the remodel. The sheetrock guys were here the whole of Saturday putting the walls up in the kitchen, laundry and office. They are here this morning putting the sheet rock up in the bedroom/bathroom/family room. Lots of drilling. Here are a couple of photos of the bedroom with blown-in cellulose insulation on the walls and ceiling, pre-sheetrock; and the laundry post-sheetrock. You can see the new electricity subpanel at the right in the laundry.




Work continues in the kitchen. The countertop guy is here this morning. We've just had "one of those conversations" about the location of the main sink, where I'm being asked to say if I want the sink two inches to the right or the left on the basis of something I can't see. I'm sure it'll be fine....

Here is a photo of the kitchen as it stood on Sunday, and also the office. Kinda looks like a room now, doesn't it?




The electricians are whirring away behind me as I speak. I think they're trying to fix the outlet that has never worked in the dining room. Maybe they'll even get to fixing the outlet boxes in the living room floor today - Deep Thought bruised her foot on one last week, so we're keen to see them put right.

Finally, the landscaping crew is outside in their digger removing the final bit of concrete in the area where the outdoor kitchen will be. What a job, digging holes for a living.

Kitchen again

The cabinet guys left the stain samples on our doorstep today, while we were out, so late in the afternoon. They were supposed to have left them yesterday around that time. I think they must be in a different part of the space-time continuum, because they seem to deliver everything precisely one day later than they were asked to.

Hubby is in a huff about the kitchen situation and refusing to look at the colors today. He has moved onto grommets, the all important question of where the wire management holes will be in our office desk tops and what color the inserts will be.

Outside it is raining gently.

Inside we are worn out from a two hour shift wrapping gifts in the warehouse of the local Family Giving Tree charity. They distribute gifts to 75,000 children for Christmas. I bet we only wrapped about 25 each, but it felt like many more!

Tomorrow the arborist is due to be here with his crane to dispose of the Monterey Pine.

Still no sign of any neighbors in the house next door.