Happily, they got rid of the old ceiling fan. I love having a fan in the bedroom, just not that one! We have picked out a new one that has lights.
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| Doorway into new master bath |
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Framing Bedroom Ceiling
With the upstairs tiling complete (and that equipment out of our master bedroom), they were finally able to make some progress on the framing of the ceiling so that new drywall can go up!
It's been over four weeks that we've been crammed into the boys bedrooms, so I'm excited to see some progress here!
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
New Dining Room- more demo
Since the remainder of the kitchen cabinets couldn't be installed until after the countertops were in, we still had a number of boxes in the old kitchen. We moved these into the hallway, old dining room, and kitchen. This allowed more progress to begin on the new dining room (old kitchen).
The cabinets are now all out (and we're now stove-less & dishwasher-less, with no sink functioning on the first floor)...
Happily, after getting under all the linoleum & plywood, the wood flooring looks good! There are a few areas that could use patching where the pipes came through under the sink.
Of course, there are more heating pipes that will need to be boxed in...
The plaster is in pretty bad shape on the wall between the old & new construction...
The cabinets are now all out (and we're now stove-less & dishwasher-less, with no sink functioning on the first floor)...
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| From the hallway door |
Happily, after getting under all the linoleum & plywood, the wood flooring looks good! There are a few areas that could use patching where the pipes came through under the sink. |
| Reverse- from the window |
The plaster is in pretty bad shape on the wall between the old & new construction...
You can see above that the fridge is missing... that's been moved into the old dining room, where we have our "temporary kitchen" set up.
Monday, November 16, 2015
Fridge Cabinet Dilemma
As mentioned, the wrong cabinet was ordered for above the fridge. It was too deep... the floor plan showed the little alcove for the fridge, but didn't show that there was a framed out box above it. Now we had to come up with a remedy, since we knew we definitely didn't want it sticking out so far (the whole reason behind recessing the wall!)
Our options were...
1-pay over $500 for a new cabinet. We couldn't return the wrong one because it had already been installed (one reason you should be at home when the cabinets are being installed... but unfortunately, neither of us could take off from work that day). They said they could put it on rush order and we could get it in about a week.
2-remove the sheetrock & framing above the fridge and use the "wrong" cabinet, just sliding it back to where it was measured for. I was a little worried that there was a big beam or something behind there, which may have lead to the decision to frame it out that way, but luckily I had photos on the blog I could check! There wasn't a photo of the exact section we were wondering about, but this post had photos of the coat closet that is on the opposite side of the wall. It looked clear of huge beams.
3- not have a cabinet over the fridge at all. This would require not even exploring option 2, or else we'd need to re-sheetrock.
We took the plunge and went with option 2. Mike was able to do this himself. After knocking through a hole underneath, he confirmed that there weren't any big beams. Then he carefully sliced & took away the sheetrock. He needed to put some framing in, so that the cabinet guys would have something to anchor the cabinet to. They would then rip the long sides lengthwise, so they were the right size.
Of course, we discussed all of this with the head cabinet guy before doing anything. He was on board with this, and I'm happy to report that it all worked out really well! We now have a nice deep cabinet above there (that was one of my concerns with ordering a new, more shallow one!)
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| You can see it sticking out on the left side of the photo |
1-pay over $500 for a new cabinet. We couldn't return the wrong one because it had already been installed (one reason you should be at home when the cabinets are being installed... but unfortunately, neither of us could take off from work that day). They said they could put it on rush order and we could get it in about a week.
2-remove the sheetrock & framing above the fridge and use the "wrong" cabinet, just sliding it back to where it was measured for. I was a little worried that there was a big beam or something behind there, which may have lead to the decision to frame it out that way, but luckily I had photos on the blog I could check! There wasn't a photo of the exact section we were wondering about, but this post had photos of the coat closet that is on the opposite side of the wall. It looked clear of huge beams.
3- not have a cabinet over the fridge at all. This would require not even exploring option 2, or else we'd need to re-sheetrock.
We took the plunge and went with option 2. Mike was able to do this himself. After knocking through a hole underneath, he confirmed that there weren't any big beams. Then he carefully sliced & took away the sheetrock. He needed to put some framing in, so that the cabinet guys would have something to anchor the cabinet to. They would then rip the long sides lengthwise, so they were the right size.
Of course, we discussed all of this with the head cabinet guy before doing anything. He was on board with this, and I'm happy to report that it all worked out really well! We now have a nice deep cabinet above there (that was one of my concerns with ordering a new, more shallow one!)
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Countertop Selections
Going to the warehouses to look at the countertop selections was a lot of fun- and a bit overwhelming! We had a pretty good idea of what we were looking for, but I can see that if you were open to anything- you could have a really hard time deciding! There were so many beautiful choices!
We knew that we wanted a dark gray for the outer countertops. I wanted it to look like soapstone. (We had researched doing soapstone, but it sounds like there's more maintenance, and it isn't as durable as granite). We landed on "Absolute Black".
I didn't realize that there are different finishes that you can get- honed, antique, leather! We knew we did not want a shiny finish for the outer counters, since soapstone is typically more of a matte finish.
The leather finish was too much texture... I felt like it would be tricky to clean and grime could get in there.
The antique had a very little bit of texture to it, was a matte finish.
The honed was very smooth, just not shiny. It was also a matte finish.
We took some samples home to decide between the honed and the antique finishes. After some voting with the kids, and test on fingerprint resistance... we decided on the antique finish!
For the island, we were thinking we wanted a marble-look, but again wanted less maintenance and more durability than marble itself (knowing that the island will bear the brunt of the wear & tear of the kitchen!) So, we looked at a lot of white with gray & black stone.
When we saw the "White Forrest" slab, we knew immediately that we loved it! It had the light gray that would go with our cabinets, and streaks of very dark gray that will match the outer countertops.
The day after the main cabinet installation, the granite company came to template for the countertops.
The following evening, we had an appointment to pick out the exact portion of the stone that we wanted for the island. We also could have selected the slabs to use for the outer stone, but "Absolute Black" is so consistent, that we didn't see the need. However, the island had so many variations throughout it, it was hard to decide the section we liked best!
A week later, the countertops were installed! (Yes- I'm still over a week behind in posting the progress. Thankfully, there's a lot getting done in the past two weeks!)
We knew that we wanted a dark gray for the outer countertops. I wanted it to look like soapstone. (We had researched doing soapstone, but it sounds like there's more maintenance, and it isn't as durable as granite). We landed on "Absolute Black".
I didn't realize that there are different finishes that you can get- honed, antique, leather! We knew we did not want a shiny finish for the outer counters, since soapstone is typically more of a matte finish.
The leather finish was too much texture... I felt like it would be tricky to clean and grime could get in there.
The antique had a very little bit of texture to it, was a matte finish.
The honed was very smooth, just not shiny. It was also a matte finish.
We took some samples home to decide between the honed and the antique finishes. After some voting with the kids, and test on fingerprint resistance... we decided on the antique finish!
 |
| Really hard to take a good photo to show the texture of the finish! |
For the island, we were thinking we wanted a marble-look, but again wanted less maintenance and more durability than marble itself (knowing that the island will bear the brunt of the wear & tear of the kitchen!) So, we looked at a lot of white with gray & black stone.
When we saw the "White Forrest" slab, we knew immediately that we loved it! It had the light gray that would go with our cabinets, and streaks of very dark gray that will match the outer countertops.
We knew we did not want any texture to the finish on the island since that's where homework & other writing will likely get done. We went with the usual shiny finish, since it will be an accent piece.
The day after the main cabinet installation, the granite company came to template for the countertops.
The following evening, we had an appointment to pick out the exact portion of the stone that we wanted for the island. We also could have selected the slabs to use for the outer stone, but "Absolute Black" is so consistent, that we didn't see the need. However, the island had so many variations throughout it, it was hard to decide the section we liked best!
We decided to use the bottom right because of the dark gray band that runs through it.
A week later, the countertops were installed! (Yes- I'm still over a week behind in posting the progress. Thankfully, there's a lot getting done in the past two weeks!)
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Master Bathroom Tile & Paint
We left off in the master bathroom with the tiling slowly moving along...
He got the tile in the master closet started as well.
Two days later we were able to get in to prime and paint it! Since our bedroom is gray with purple accents, I decided to reverse the color scheme to have purple with gray accents in the connecting bath.
We're keeping the floor covered in here while they are still working on all the fixtures. They put the toilet in place, but it's not completely hooked up yet. The heating will be going in soon too.
I don't know why, but I love purple walls in bathrooms. We have them in the old master bath (which we'll be re-doing sometime down to road- far down the road!) and even had them in the first floor bathroom in the old house.
He got the tile in the master closet started as well.
Two days later we were able to get in to prime and paint it! Since our bedroom is gray with purple accents, I decided to reverse the color scheme to have purple with gray accents in the connecting bath.
We're keeping the floor covered in here while they are still working on all the fixtures. They put the toilet in place, but it's not completely hooked up yet. The heating will be going in soon too.
I don't know why, but I love purple walls in bathrooms. We have them in the old master bath (which we'll be re-doing sometime down to road- far down the road!) and even had them in the first floor bathroom in the old house.
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