Getting closer!

So much is happening very quickly each day! Lighting, stone work on the fireplace, carpeting…

Here are some pictures from this morning.

This is day four for the stonemasons. Are those beams gorgeous?!  Mike and Bob did an amazing job on them and we absolutely love them.

The kitchen still needs its final touch-ups which happen tomorrow. It also needs to be cleaned.

Lighting was installed this morning in the bathrooms!

Yes, the laundry room is rather bright, even at night.  Just wait until the curtain and furniture are in!

Nathan’s room is painted and the bedding he picket out looks awesome!

I will be adding some decorative horizontal stripes like in the picture below. That will probably happen over the next few weeks.  I used a program on the Shewin-Williams website and worked with Nathan to create the mock-up below. I uploaded a picture then drew in what I wanted! Pretty cool, isn’t it?

Also this weekend the carpeting was installed! We were super excited about that. The boys all love it.

Here is Jeff’s office.

Well, Wednesday is the big Moving Day! I better get back to packing things up!

Thursday’s projects

Exciting things happening!  The stone arrived and the fireplace was begun. The decorative faux beams started going up in the Great Room. What a difference it makes! Lighting continues to be installed and the painting is looking great!

Here is a picture from the hallway looking towards the kitchen from last night.

The stone mason arrived with two assistants and what a major production this is!

There is a real skill in laying the stone so it is level and looks right with the seams. We are so happy with this stone because it looks like we wanted: lots of variation in size both width and height. This is real stone from a quarry in Crossville, TN. When it arrived some boxes were soaking wet from the rain and the color of the stone was very dark. Others were almost white like the photo above in the wheelbarrow. Whew.

Other things were going on too with painting. We changed the trim color in Ben’s room to a darker version. The guest bedroom was started and the theater as well.

The theater was completed last night and the carpet and rubber exercise flooring is going in on Monday. I can’t wait to see the tiger stripe carpet on the platform!

We decided to change our move date to Wednesday next week. That way we give the team another weekend and a few more days. It will make our move in much more comfortable! I think everyone was happy with that change.

 

Random pieces from today….

Another big day at “the ranch” with lighting and plumbing going in. Loads of painting going on also.

One thing that Mike did that made a HUGE difference was to remove the iron fence that was outside the main windows overlooking the rear yard. Here is the gate in it’s new location.

Now if feels much more spacious!

He started working on the faux wood beams for the Great Room and did a mock up of the size. The stain will be darker.

Lighting was really getting going today too! Ceiling fans were also installed.

These pendants are the ones we will use for our island

 

Yes, the master bedroom has a gold ceiling.

Be sure to put your sunglasses on to see the laundry room! It is a bright coral color. I think it will look great when the lighting and table are in place.

(I don’t know why spots are showing up on my camera lens sometimes!) It is a solid color, I promise.

Bob painted miles of crown molding today!

Ben’s Gray bedroom. The trim is painted a darker gray now and I will get a better picture tomorrow!

I was super excited to see the faucets going in place. This faucet is the Delta Touch 20 where you can touch it anywhere on the handle or spout to make the water stop or start!

Tomorrow the cabinet folks come and will put the doors and drawers and make it really look like a kitchen! The electricians will continue to install light fixtures and the appliances too.

Counting the days now!

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.

 

Painting and Mantel Installation

The painting has begun! We love the Balanced Beige color from Sherwin Williams and it turned out just perfect!

The ceiling and walls will be painted the same color. In a couple of days the decorative faux beams will be installed on the ceiling.  The beams will be stained the same color as the floors.

This afternoon I stopped by and got my first look at the mantel! It is perfect! Awesome! Great in proportion to the room and the fireplace. It just feels “right.”

You can even see the special grooves that John put in it for us to give it that old world scraped look.

The stone will be installed beginning on Monday. What an amazing sight that will be! Remember the stone? It looks like this:

We are still working on the hearth stone.

16 days until we move: Mantel delivered and modified

The fireplace mantel and corbels were delivered and John did a wonderful job! He did some tweaking on site too so that the electrical box can be inserted in the middle of the top of the mantel.

John uses chemicals to stain the wood. He showed me an example of the crazy color that was used on our mantel. It oxides the wood and starts out as a reddish pomegranate color then turns brown in 5 minutes.

Here we are looking at the placement on the fireplace. We decided the corbels were too long, so John took them back to his shop so he could use his band saw to remove the bottom portion.

We also found out that the stone is not a 4 inch depth. This impacts the design in a couple of ways. The electrical boxes on the side stick out too far, the overall size of the fireplace will now be 4 inches narrower than planned, and the mantel is more wide than anticipated. I think we can fix the electrical outlet boxes and live with the width of the mantel.

We worked with Brian at Old American Lumber.  He worked so hard to find exactly what I wanted and really was easy to work with. He responded quickly to my questions and emails.  You can call Brian at:

Old American Lumber

864-427-3193

864-541-8111

1218 S Duncan Bypass

Union, SC 29379

They have gorgeous reclaimed wood from old barns and NC mills that can be used for ceilings and floors. Be sure to look at the gallery on his website for some wonderful inspiration pictures!

Cabinets are in and Granite is underway!

Whoopee! Things are really hopping this week! Yesterday the cabinets were installed. Got the base cabinets and uppers installed. The doors and drawers will be next. Can’t wait to see them. The color is so pretty. Tomorrow the appliances are scheduled to be delivered.

Aren’t they gorgeous? We love the way the color turned out. We have a bit of tweaking to do to finish up the cabinetry, and Claude and Lori Morgan of Morgan’s Cabinets have done a fantastic job! They look awesome with the floors too, don’t they?

You can see the guys starting the granite template process. Casey and Chris worked very hard creating a custom template so the granite will fit perfectly in the space.

After the templates were created, we all headed up to Fox Tops in Mooresville. Fox Tops is the fabricator we have used several times in the past and they always do an excellent job. They also sell remnants, so if you are looking for a smaller piece at a good price, check them out! Elaine is just super to work with and very competitively priced. Call her at 704-799-7007.

It took four pieces of granite and lots of patience to figure out how lay out the pattern and avoid the big green spot on the lower left corner of the first picture.

Casey and Chris were very careful and professional in determining the layout for cutting the seams and making sure that they will flow smoothly. Because the granite we chose shows quite a bit of movement and flow in the pattern, it is especially important to make sure the pattern flows across the seams.

After we completed the templating process, Elaine and Casey gave me a tour of the fabrication plant. It was really amazing. Computers run some of the equipment and they have a water recycling system that is very environmentally friendly!   Plus, it enabled their fabrication plant to continue operating when we had a severe drought and there were water restrictions in place. Many other fabrication facilities were unable to operate. They also save a significant amount of money by recycling the water because they use so much to cool the blades during the process.

Here is the tool that cuts the large pieces of granite and the crane that moves the cut pieces to the next area. The piece with the word YUKON on itis the blade. The horizontal cutting surface has stones in it that actually sharpen the blade as it is used. Elaine is in the picture with the crane. Hi Elaine!

Suction cups are used (near Casey’s hand) to hold the cut stone and move it to the next area.

This area is where the hole for the sinks are cut and edge profiles are created. I understand that it will take 9  hours to do the large ogee edge we selected for our granite edging. Whew!

Elaine will send me some pictures of our granite going through the process and I can’t wait to see them!

Below is a picture of the water recycling system.

Holes will be drilled for the water faucet, filtered water dispenser, and soap dispensers.  Some holes are drilled at the shop and some are drilled at the site. I provided the sinks and faucets for them to review and we discussed placement.

Casey is the shop manager and will actually be doing most of the cutting and also the installation on Friday!

Thanks Elaine, Casey and Chris for all your hard work! We are going to have an amazing kitchen thanks to you and Fox Tops!

Look what I saw in the front yard!

It was a gorgeous lovely Fall type of day today. This is what I saw when I pulled up to meet with the flooring company about the final stain color choice at 11 am.

This photo is just as it was taken, no enhancements! Lovely!

Then I went inside to meet with Randee, owner of Carolina Flooring & Carpet. She has been very responsive to my questions, priced fairly, and was my contractor’s recomendation. She met with us earlier to show us a color of the stain (Special Walnut) and we liked it but felt it might be just  a bit dull. So, Mike, our contractor, put down some English Chestnut and it was great! She wanted to be certain that was the color we liked best, so we met today to do a final consult. The floor team was there working on filling cracks and pushing nails down, and sanding. Talk about a LOUD machine!

The English Chestnut was gorgeous! They even put a coat of the satin poly on top so I could see the slight ambering of the color when it is on. I had taken my cabinet sample with me to test it with the floor to make sure it wasn’t matchy-matchy and that it also didn’t clash. It was a winner!

This picture just doesn’t do it justice! It will be gorgeous without being too red or too gold. Actually, the kitchen cabinet color is the darkest shade of the grain in the floor.

The electricians were there working outside again and they were able to get many of the exterior lights in place. They continued to work on the electricity for the gate and landscaping too.

See the new lights? The criss cross pattern was based on the original light that was hanging in the front. I will get a picture of it next week.

I spent some time prepping the Pool Bathroom cabinets for painting and then painted the first coat of Dover White. Sherwin Williams has the best paint! The coverage is superb. I painted the hall bathroom cabinets the final coat today. Probably didn’t need it, but since I have been painting in the dark, I felt it was better safe than sorry. I am also planning on adding another coat if it needs it when we have light again.  I just love that Brevity Brown! Looks just like chocolate.

I stopped by to pick up the paint for the Pool Bathroom cabinets. I have been working with the Selwyn Ave. location of Sherwin Williams.  I wanted to tell the folks who have been working with me there how much I love using it! The coverage was amazing! I thought I might need a couple of quarts for the hall bathroom cabinets because I was going from white to dark brown. Nope, two would have done it. Plus, I used only half a quart. Mind boggling. This paint was so thick and creamy.

Pictures soon, it is just hard without lights. Speaking of lights, I asked when we’d get some turned back on. They are all in place in the ceilings but no bulbs. Dave, the electrician, said that it would be after they paint the ceilings. Argh….

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.