Final Week in the project before we move in!

Here is what is a bit of what is happening this week:

Monday – final inspection of fireplace & stone arrives for fireplace veneer and stonemason begins our fireplace project! This is scheduled to be a three day project and we’ll keep our fingers crossed that it is! We still do not have a hearth stone yet, but I understand it can be added later. We also have been investigating installing an electric gate. There is a lovely brick fence around the property with a double black iron gate. It’s currently a manual operation, and we want to find out what we can do to make it more like a garage door opener!

Tuesday – electrical final with all lights installed. It will be amazing to go from 2 light bulbs per area to full wattage! We will put dimmers on as soon as we see where we need them! In the Great Room ceiling we have at least 20 recessed can lights,  a large chandelier over the seating area, a chandelier over the dining area, and two lights that skim the stone fireplace. That does not include the kitchen lighting where we have three recessed cans over the sink area, two chandeliers over the ends of the island, small cans around the perimeter of the tray ceiling, LED uplighting in the crown molding of the tray, three pendant lights over my desk and one over the vegetable sink. Whew. I am starting to get worried about our electric bill.

Wednesday – Claude Morgan of Morgan’s Cabinets comes to finish up the cabinets and put the doors and drawers in place.

Thursday – carpet installed in back half of the house, rubber flooring installed in the theater, tiger carpet installed in theater on riser platform! Final polyurethane coat goes on the wood floors.

Friday – ?

Saturday – we move!

I am definitely skipping some painting and other steps. For example, I don’t know exactly when the appliances will be put in place, or the other rooms will be painted. There are closets that need shelves and rods, speakers that will be installed in the ceilings, faucets installed in the kitchen, and a new door going in at the carport area.

Somehow, it is all going to be ok.

This afternoon I took a few pictures of the house to show you the hall bathroom progress and the theater.

I have painted the hall bathroom cabinets a lovely chocolate color, and installed the new hardware yesterday. Mike added the wide trim above and below the mirror to camouflage the do hickey holes. I am eager to see the walls painted with the dark brown wall color.

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The theater ceiling has been painted black! It is an open concept since the area above this room is going to be changed into a master bedroom and bathroom. That will require access to the plumbing to run new lines in that area, and we’d really hate to tear up any ceiling we’d install right now. So, we’ll paint it black and wait for the update. Here are a few pictures from different angles. In the second photo, you can see the area where the screen will be and the two side niches.

The support beams are still not in yet, and the vertical posts will be removed when they are installed.

Granite Installation

Man, it is almost here!

This week has been a busy week at the house with painting, granite counter tops, appliances finally arriving that are not scratched! We still think our general contractor, Mike McAllister, is the best!

We were excited when the granite arrived on Thursday.

 

Utterly gorgeous! They scheduled 6 men to bring it inside and maneuver it into place. Underneath the window sills and the appliance garages were a challenge, but they figured it out. Mike Fox, the owner of Fox Tops All, was present during the first part of the installation.  Casey spent the entire day working on seams, faucet cut outs, and sink installation.  He was patient and really wanted my opinions on the faucet placement.

Claude Morgan, our cabinet maker, included several bump out locations to give long runs of cabinets more interest. For example, in the picture above you can see the slight bump out in the front of the cooktop. We also used a large ogee edge which turned out beautifully and will really enhance that bump out look. On the island we have the bump out on all four corners.

The picture above is my desk area and the window overlooks the front yard. See all the gorgeous color in the granite?

I had the granite fabricator make Jeff’s Christmas present! The lazy susan is made from the granite we used in our kitchen and was some of the extra left over.

 

17 days until we move! Appliances are delivered!

Ok, time is rushing by!  There are only 18 days left until MOVING DAY!  Thankfully we have selected our mover – China Cat Movers, and I started packing things last week. We are moving the 19th and have until the end of the month to complete the move process. I think we’ll leave all the art on the walls until we have moved then shift it to the new place.

Our appliances were delivered today!

We went with stainless steel and a mix of brands. We wanted to pick the one we liked best in each category. One of our favorites is the Electrolux Icon Refrigerator and Freezer. These are gorgeous and I hope will eliminate the need for a separate freezer out in the workshop!  They are counter depth so they do not stick out into our space like most refrigerators do. Here is a promotional picture of how they look installed. The left door is the freezer and the fight  door is the refrigerator.

We also chose a Wolf gas cooktop. Enough said: Love gas & love Wolf’s reputation.

The Electrolux double ovens are going to be wonderful! They are both convection and there is something called a “perfect turkey” button! I hear it works every time!

Another of my favorite things is the Delta Pilar Touch 2o faucet we chose. I really really hope it works!

Unfortunately, two of the appliances were damaged and had to be reordered. The double ovens and the refrigerator were scratched. The sales person said they would be immediately re-ordered and he’ll let me know on Friday when they will be in.

Miscellaneous stuff going on while the contractor is out of town

Yes, Mike had a family vacation scheduled before taking this job, so he’s off in the islands somewhere having a great time! At least, I HOPE he’s having a great time.

25 days until we move!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch….  (10 points to the first person to tell me where that line is from!)

I got busy and painted the bathroom cabinets in the hall bathroom a lovely chocolate brown. Remember how much I hated that bathroom?  well, now I think of chocolate when I look in there and that is not all bad, is it? In fact, I think I may end up actually liking this bathroom by the time we are done!

Pictures will be soon, I promise!

Bob, our second in command, is also busy with repairing the outside wood siding we ripped through to move the kitchen door.  There was white vinyl siding up all across the back.

We moved the door closer to the bay windows, and we saw that it had the original boards underneath.

 Brick red paint!

So, we decided to have them make it look like it did originally. It will also match the workshop are a bit better.

Here is what it looks like now…

I am really at a loss about how to hide that giant gray electrical box we had to put outside to the right of the carport door.

Right now our plans are to replace the door with one that has more glass and is without dividers. We’ll also be adding a third pane of glass from to the slider from floor to ceiling to let more light in that room. The siding will be painted for sure, probably in a neutral gray, taupe, beige-type tone? We’ll paint the trim white to continue what is going on elsewhere on the house. The workshop should be painted to match too. The brick area is a 5 foot wide strip from the side yard to where the sliding door opens. I think the grill will end up living there.

Other things happening…

Motion sensing flood lights went in!

The electrical work for running power to our gate started.

The fireplace was starting to be covered in durock in prepration for the stone!

Starting to feel more like an entry now.

I know you really want to see pictures of the chocolate cabinets, and I promise….I will get some pictures for tomorrow’s post.

Mantel for the Stone Fireplace

What an amazing project! I am so happy that John was able to work with us on this critical piece of our renovation. He really knows his wood.

Here is the raw red oak beam we purchased from a reclaimed wood dealer in SC. Oak beams are NOT common in the area since pine was most abundant. John went down to check it out.

Close up of the end.

Then John got to work on the beam. It is about 12 feet long. Our mantel will be 7 feet wide  7.5″ high and 12″ deep.  John will also make some corbels for us.  Hi John!

Look at the wood curls!

 

Here is where the mantel will be installed! It is framed and ready for the inspections. Next, it will get a stone veneer. Seems like years ago that we picked out the stone that is being used on it.

Before and Current Picture of Great Room

35 days until we move.

Before we started construction, we had multiple rooms. We had a living room, dining room, kitchen and family room.

Now, we have one large space that will contain the same rooms. We will not have a formal dining room, just a single large table overlooking the backyard window.

Drywall is up in the Great Room & Theater!

What an amazing feeling to walk in and see the drywall up on the ceiling and in the new tray ceiling of the kitchen! I had to walk outside and cry! You know how it is to have a dream of what something could be like, but not sure if it really will live up to your expectations? What a relief to see it actually happen.

Here is the theater! The support beams are still to go in and the brownish red metal poles will be removed then. We also are having the heating ductwork relocated behind the wall.

A video really helps you get the feel for the space. Hope you don’t get dizzy!

Ceiling Work

I find the ceiling in our new house completely amazing. The way that the baffles are going in to direct the hot air up and out of our home, wiring the lights and speakers for the sound system, and supporting it with steel beams…just awe inspiring!

Here are a few pictures showing the various stages.

The tan baffles lead hot air up and to the ridge vent on the top of hte roof.

Insulation covers these. It’s already much more comfortable in this part of the home! We were able to use loads of the old insulation, so we felt good about recycling. We did have to purchase a limited quantity of new insulation too.

46 days until the move….

Started talking to the moving companies yesterday to see about quotes and pricing. So far, I have been pleasantly surprised. I know that we’ll handle most of the moving of pictures, lamps, china, clothing, and valuables. The builder says we are still on schedule, though there may be a few things outside that are not complete.

Yesterday we saw the insulation going in, which we were able to save from the previous ceiling, and it seemed cooler in that Great Room already! Very green, re-using the insulation.  Mike moved the carport door, and the HVAC folks were there moving the vents from the middle of the floor to new locations.

Lots of electrical has been run. One problem we didn’t consider was that when you remove all the walls… where do the light switches go? I had no idea we had so many! There are ten light switches in this location.

The Great Room is finally a GREAT big room!

Last night Jeff and I stopped by and saw that the roof was supported and that all the temporary supports had been removed. It was so exciting to see the space at last!

The electrical had begun in the kitchen and there were a few questions we had about it. Tomorrow we’ll be discussing the decorative beam placement in the vaulted area because the original plan interferes with the lighting.