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.

 

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.

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!

We have picked our stone!

Hooray! Jeff saw it today and loved it also. The bonus was that we also found a large single hearthstone made from sandstone that is gorgeous too!  Depending on what we end up with as a design, we can use the large single stone or multiples that are from the same material for a beautiful look.

Found it at Blue Max while meeting with George Crump The Stone Man.

Monday they begin opening the ceiling and working on the vault.  Then on Wed. We have a meeting with Michelle, our interior designer, to discuss final dimensions, plans and layout of the fireplace. Can’t wait!!!

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Fireplaces, stone, stone and more stone

Fireplace design is tough! We entered the project thinking that we were going for a stone fireplace on all four sides. Now, I am investigating other options including cast stone, carved antique mantles, and true stone installed by a Scottish stone mason.

Did a search of architectural antique stores in our area to see if we can find a carved wood mantle that reminds us of things we have seen in England, France, or Italy. Not much luck, though Crossland Studios seemed the closest to what we were looking for. When we lived in Atlanta, Red Baron Antiques was amazing! There were also several other businesses that specialized in European antique furniture, room paneling, fireplace surrounds, etc.

Jeff loves the cast stone option but we are not sure if it is the right look for our house. It reminds me of all the gorgeous ornate carved churches we saw on our travels.

 =

I found Todd over at Classic Stone Creations and this beauty this past week. I love it, but it may be a little overpowering. Of course, it is completely custom and we can have a raised heart added.  They make all their products in house. Maybe we should add a ventilation hood in the kitchen to match?  Todd was super helpful in explaining the process to me and it is definitely an option.

The Stone Man is someone that we met at a home show this past Spring. He had the most amazing display that included an outdoor fireplace with a tree that was integrated into it. He specializes in outdoor hardscape and will do an indoor fireplace. We are meeting him at the Blue Max stone yard today to see if we can find a stone we like. We like this picture of the arched firebox.

I previewed Blue Max and saw these samples I really liked.   Click here to see the final choice!

Visited Boral Brick and saw their cultured stone. Lovely samples:

Research – fireplaces and stone

I have been doing a great deal of research for our new home.

I visited the fireplace store to see double sided fireplaces (WOW!) and you can control the fire with a thermostat. It is programmable and has all the bells and whistles. It even can be set to automatically come on and off at different times of the day.

Today I visited Luck Stone in Pineville. That was amazing. I may have found one stone that is about $3 square foot and it’s called Blue Ridge.

Chilton Rustic is another that was gorgeous.

I also saw one called Hickory Lake Ledgestone that is beautiful online, but I have not seen in person.

Click here to see our final stone selection!