Getting Started on the Finishes

Well, in spite of many bumps in the road, we are almost done with the tile. The shower in our bedroom looks great. I love the cool border tile that the designer helped us pick out. I think it has a great arts and crafts look to it, and it goes really well with the field tile. The border tile is also going to be the backsplash of the bathroom vanity, with a border around it of the field tile in the shower. The shower enclosure guy also came to take the measurements of the shower to build the glass shower enclosure. You can see in the picture above how beautiful the master shower is going to be -- the tile is in but it is not grouted yet.



The tile guys, Richard and Aaron, also did a great job on the bathroom in the casita. The field tile in the shower is the color of Crema Marfield marble, which is going to be the surface of the vanity in the master bathroom, as well as the tile on the floor in the master bath. There is a darker tile on the floor of the casita bathroom, which is on the floor both of the bathroom and the shower, to make the bathroom feel bigger. (We did the same thing in the master bathroom.) I really like the border mosaic tile in the casita bathroom as well. The above picture shows the casita bathroom -- everything has been grouted but the mosaic tile in the border.



Richard also installed the tile backsplash in the kitchen, as you can see in the above picture. The tile is 3x6 crackle finish in an off white. The problem is that you can't see the crackle from a distance, but up close it looks great. We were trying to get tile that had a different dimension (3 x 9) which would have looked different and cool, but it was completely out of stock. I do like the way the backsplash looks -- and it will look even better once it has been grouted and all the stuff is off the countertops.

In addition to the tile guys, the floor guys have been hard at work. The house looks so much more finished with the wood floor in. They haven't finished it yet, but even unfinished it looks awesome! They are going to sand all the old floor and refinish it too, so the whole thing will be the same color. I think we are going to go a little darker on the floor, to give it a more modern feel. The picture right below shows the great room with the new wood floor.


We paid extra to have the floor in all the rooms given a wood border to match the rooms in the old part of the house. You can see in the picture below how great the borders look. They had to go around the island, the banquette and all around the hall, but it looks so good. I am really glad that we decided to do the border.

Color Anyone?

We have been working overtime to paint the house, along side our painters. After much angst, we painted the front two rooms two shades of green -- the dining room is a dark green and the living room is a medium green. You can see the two shades in this picture:


The painters painted the new part of the house. After about 12 samples of color, I finally chose a yellowish color. Every time I go into the house I like it more. I think it is bright and really makes the family room and kitchen look nice. It goes quite well with the cabinet color as well. You can see the color against the cabinets here:


Our latest color issue is the color of the trellises. As you can see in the pictures below, they are next to the green and brown of the porches. So, should be paint them green or brown? If you have an opinion, just email me so that I can add your input to my continuing obsession over color. Next week, obsessing over the color of grout!

Trellises

Todd, Matt and Jim worked together on Thursday and Friday to build the trellises over the kitchen window and the windows and doors in the master bedroom. They add some nice character to the house -- they are very in keeping with the style and do in fact help shade the windows. Of course, now I have to paint them, which will take awhile since they have so many nooks and crannies. I will definitely have lots of practice painting when this remodel is over!

A Very Laborious Labor Day

Obviously we didn't get the memo that Labor Day was supposed to be a day off. We spent the whole weekend working on the front two rooms. On Saturday, we fixed all the holes, sanded the spackle, tsped the walls and got it all ready to paint. We then spent the next two days painting the walls and ceilings. The painter told us to put 25% of the color that is going on the walls on the ceiling, so Saturday we painted the ceilings light green. I have to admit that I was totally freaking out at how green the ceilings looked when we went home on Saturday night. It was totally awesome how once we painted the walls, the ceilings looked white! We are going to do that in the rest of the house too, because adding a little color to the ceiling makes it look much less stark against the walls and gives the optical illusion of white ceilings. By the end of the weekend, we got both the dining room and the living room painted -- both of them are green, with the dining room really dark. The best part is that the whole family worked on the paint! The girls were actually a really big help.

It's Starting to Look Like a Kitchen!

We started with our great wood cabinets, which you can see in the picture above.

The painters have been working hard on the cabinets, staining and clear coating them, and they look fabulous. They had to take off all the doors, pull out all the shelves, and get all the shelves together, before taping off the insides of the cabinets. It took them an entire week to prep the cabinets, stain them, coat them, sand them, and then coat them again. You don't realize how many pieces there are in the cabinets until they are all spread out. When they were working on the doors, they hung them all up individually so that they could dry without touching anything. Molly said that her room looked like the big store room of closet doors in Monsters, Inc. You can see what she means in the picture below:


The other exciting thing that happened last week was the installation of the soapstone counter tops. They are so cool! We had this huge slab for the island, so it took three guys to bring it in and lift it up.



Now, it has all come together and looks like this:



Next stop, interior paint!

A New Sewer Line

Finally, the big thing on Jake's list is under way. We desperately needed a new sewer line -- the old one was getting crushed by the roots of a big tree and had almost completely collapsed in the street. It is not cheap, however, since they need to dig up most of the street to get to the main sewer line and then repave 5 feet in each direction. Of course, we have had the mildest summer on record and they chose today -- the hottest day of the entire year with temperatures in the high 90s -- to start digging up the street. Equally painfully, they waited until the first day of school to block off the street and make a big mess. All we really care about, though, is that they get it done! We can't wait to not need to rout out our sewer line every 2-3 months, usually at 10 o'clock at night!

By the Sweat of Our Brows

The exterior of the casita is all painted by the sweat of our brows. My mom came out and stayed with us for a week to help me by taking care of the kids and running errands and stuff, but she went above and beyond the call of duty by helping to paint too. The regular painters are there right now and they couldn't believe my mom out there painting -- our work got their seal of approval.

The building looks really nice. The exterior is the same color as the house. I painted most of it with a roller and brush, so I am now intimately acquainted with it. The underside of the eaves is the same as the trim color on the main house, and the green and brown will be the same on the main house as well. It took forever to do that green and brown trim -- the darker colors just don't cover as well. We all think it looks really great, however. The brown posts and beams really look sharp. My painting clothes now have many colors of paint on them!