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!

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.

38 days until we move

I have been interviewing moving companies. What a wide range of pricing! Hopefully, this move will be less painful than the last. Of course, we all hope that don’t we?

I saw a neat article that talks about the housing trends of the future – 2015 to be exact!  The interesting thing is that we are incorporating many of the ideas that are in the article:

• A combined great room that includes kitchen, family room, and eating area
• No formal dining room
• Green concepts
• Larger laundry room

You can read the article here:  A Look Ahead

Lighting

60 days until we move! Selling furniture and appliances on Craigslist! If you need something, let me know…I may have it for sale!

Lighting plays a huge part in the comfort of a space, and we are making sure that we are adding enough can lights to illuminate Fort Knox. Thank heavens for dimmers!  Plus, the atmosphere is really determined by the various levels of lighting – upper/mid/lower.

Most of the lighting we have on hand, though we are being temped by some of the new trendy looks such as the rectangular lamp shade for over our dining table!

Of course the prices are just not something I can consider….so, I am thinking of jazzing up this 42x10x10 fixture!

It’s the same shape, much more reasonable price!  I think it would look so cool covered in a natural fabric to let some light in, don’t you? Here is an example of of the look from Lampsplus.

I saw a cool post yesterday about how to cover a lampshade with fabric, and I think I can do it. Took about a million clothespins to hold it while the glue dried, but that is probably a small price to pay for sanity. I am off to the fabric store to look at burlap and price clothespins!

Update: I went by Lighting Outlet and it was awesome! I explained what I was looking for to Mr. Blankenship, the owner, and immediately found me a light I love and can buy for $149! Wow! No website, but here is the contact info:

Light Fixture Outlet

4637 Nations Crossing Road

Charlotte, NC 28217-1813

Phone:(704) 523-6462

Now, isn’t that a coooooool light? I didn’t like the wobbly wires and talked to The Lamp Place today and Octavia was incredibly helpful! She suggested I purchase the light since it was a great price and then bring it to them to put rods on and make sure it will work with the angled ceiling. Plus, the wiring it comes with is not long enough and they can correct that at the same time. Thanks Octavia!!!! They don’t seem to have a website so here is their contact info!

The Lamp Place

3108 South Blvd
Charlotte, NC 28209

(704) 523-4339

Also, one has to consider the other lighting that is happening in the same space. We have a large chandelier (36″) that we’ll be hanging in the middle of the seating area centered on the new fireplace. Sadly, I don’t have a picture of it. It’s a pretty iron and a bowl type with candelabras around the edge. Light will go up to illuminate the beams and ceiling and softly down.

The kitchen area will have two pendant/chandeliers with one on each end. The center area where the sink is located will have strong task lighting from above. The chandeliers may be what we already own:

I love these. Lots of light too.

The desk/office area will have three tiny pendants. Those we’ll select last since we want everything else to work together. There are loads of options for pendants. Here are a couple of my favorites!

Wood Mantels

Today I got the great news that we may have found someone to make our mantel! Remember we are using stone as the veneer…

We want a big substantial wood beam for a mantel. The size is 8 feet for our fireplace. We want the mantel to be slightly narrower – say 80″ with a smooth surface that looks hand scraped.

Here is some wood flooring that has the look…

We love the color of the darker stain, the grain showing, and no knots or cracks. The ridges are soooooo cool.

I found a few pictures that are sort of what we like, but they are not exactly the look for one reason or another.

Here are a few…

The one below is too narrow to put anything on top of it. Plus, I love putting Christmas garland with LIGHTS on my mantel which means I need electricity.  So, the best thing would be a thicker mantel that allows me to plug my lights in on the top!

According to the article where I found this, this mantel is a 10×10, but looks really dried out and is too close to the ends.

This one looks pretty close, but seems to stick out too far from the fireplace and looks like it has pretty deep indentions.

Of course the stone veneer will be about 4 inches thick (real stone) and so you install the mantel then stone around it. The mantel will be embedded 4 inches in the stone on one side, right?  So if you use a 10x 10 beam, it will be only 6 inches sticking out. Do I need a thicker beam? Maybe a 14×10? Do they make such a thing?

This one is a little to rough for us…

Here are a few more…
 

More like this texture…

Not like these:

Well, we shall see! Hope to meet with John, of www.johnpingpong.com this weekend and figure out the details!

We are also being GREEN by using an existing beam from somewhere!