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.

 

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….

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.

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.

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!

Home Theater is begun!

Wow, it was exciting to see it all start to come together in our home theater. Last night, Jeff and Nathan went over to inspect the progress, and returned home very excited about the home theater. This morning I stopped by to see why, and totally agree! It is going to look amazing!

We had a home theater in a previous home and are using as many of the components as possible: drapery, light fixtures, screen & speakers, and some other things I am probably forgetting at the moment. Very green!

The  new part of this plan is that it is also an exercise room. We are planning on using exercise flooring material similar to what you see at the gym on the main floor in there. I found this great rubber flooring company online that will send you samples for free, then extras cost a bit for postage.  It will look black but have tiny flecks of color like this:

We have a treadmill we want to include and a set of weights. The boys also will have a pull up bar installed in the ceiling somewhere. Last I heard, there were plans for 3 pull up bars – so they can all do pull ups at the same time!

Here are a few “before” pictures when it was still the original workshop space. This area is part of the addition that was built in 1981.

Now, in the framing phase:

You can see the elevated seating platform on the right. The two  metal posts will be removed and the heating duct work will be re-routed.

Our plan is to leave the ceiling unfinished for now, but painted black as you see in many restaurants. We will be converting the space above this area into a master bedroom & bathroom suite and want to have easy access to the plumbing and electrical at that time. So, we don’t want to drywall and then have to remove it in a few years.

The screen will be on the left side of the picture where Jeff, my patient husband, is measuring.

Our hot water heater challenge has been resolved. Mike moved it closer to the stairs, and we can now contain it in its own room!

Just to the left of the hot water heater closet is the seating platform. We will have elevated seating and the first step is also the platform for a short bar area. Mike plans on putting some small low voltage lights on the steps. Won’t that be super? I applaud Mike’s angled step idea!!! It really takes this this space into a “high end” feeling.

Here is a view of the screen area. The screen is going to be recessed in the middle.

I think we’ll have a million light switches down here! You can see we are still using our post-it note method of switch placement. I have also started drawing on the walls! Top view and front view of the platform design! Someone asked me what our process is, and here is what we generally do:

• I draw what we want.
• Jeff helps figure out the measurements and we discuss the reality of it actually working and if the design/space will function and look the way we want.
• We give the drawing to Mike and he builds it. He does make suggestions (really good ones!) and we incorporate those too!

Check back to see the progress!