Tile work is in the home stretch

Out at the house today there was a lot of progress to report on the tile work. The fireplace has the grout put in and the slate looks great.
Another shot of the slate.

The tile in the Jack and Jill bath is done too. Looks great. I hope that tile can hold up to bath finger paints!

And last but not least the master shower is well on its way. The floor and the bench have been done.

This is a shot of the floor, that is protected by a bunch of cardboard right now. The bus stop shower will have the maple colored tile put on the walls, the same as the light brown above. It will definitely be a neat look. Can't wait to see it all complete!

Trim Work Update

I have a couple of posts for tonight. First a couple of pictures of the final posts. We decided on some smaller posts than the original plans.
Another shot. They will be painted white to match the rest of the trim in the house. The guys did a real nice job on them.
The cabinets are ready for the counter top templating. Although dusty, they look awesome.

The green paneling has been put on the island. It really looks like a piece of furniture now. This paneling really ties in the ...

Breakfast nook. I can see a lot of meals and homework being done in this area. It has come together better than we could imagine.

I need to thank Bruce and Sergei for all their help today moving the bathroom vanities and appliances today. They took some time out of their day to get some heavy pieces into the house.

Kitchen Cabinets!!

This afternoon I went with the kids to the house again to look at what had gone on this afternoon. The guys let me know that the cabinets were going to start today. Above is the view from the breakfast nook. (not all the cabinets have been put in their permanent home yet!)
The green cabinets for the island. The cooktop and ventilation will be on the middle cabinet.

The corner cabinets.

Looking from the stair area. Can finally see where the fridge will go.

This is a good shot of the wall cabinets. The oven will be put in the base cabinet closest to us. The carpenters said they should all be in place by the end of the day Friday. We should post final pictures this weekend!

Also today I finally met our future neighbor Melissa. She was moving a few things into their house. They only have painting left to do on the inside. The Baum family should be in their beautiful new home the middle of next week. We can't wait to join them next door!

Tile and column update

A lot going on today. All the tile floors have grout in them now and they look real nice. This is in the master bath.
Jason with Innovative Tile Pros (www.innovativetilepros.com) was finishing up the slate tile on the fireplace. It is quite a sight in my opinion seeing it when you walk in the house. The colors on the slate are outstanding.

Our last post talked a little about our post quandary. Bruce and Sergei put together a new post for us to look at. It is a couple of inches smaller all the way up and is the better look for the spot. The one on the left is the smaller post.

Another shot of the post. You can also see a little of how it will be trimmed out when done. They are going to try and knock the other 3 out tomorrow or Monday.

Just Some Pictures!

Progress, progress, progress! Here you'll see some shots of the built-ins, along with some great shots of the kids discovering their new home. More later this week, I'm sure! Enjoy.

The kids are hamming it up in the basement...

Here's a shot of the built-ins around the fireplace... love it!!! These will be painted white with the rest of the trim.

These built-ins will separate the space between the family room and the dining room. The shelves look fantastic! (We think the columns are kinda big, so they'll probably be making them smaller for us.)

This is the back side of the shelving, facing the dining room.

And Teagan, ready for the camera...

Three at once!

So when I went by today we had 3 different crews working at once. Outside the brick team was back putting brick on the front of the porch and columns. If the weather holds out it should be completed by mid-week. All they will have to do is the side of the house after the driveway is poured. It is really starting to look complete on the outside.
Inside I met with the finish carpenters to go over the built in bookcases. They are really making a lot of progress. Each doorway has 6 different pieces to it. I am sure it is a very time consuming process. The plan is for them to start the kitchen cabinets soon.

The master shower is moving along. They are finishing up the mudding of the wall for the glass tile. The tile installers recommended rounding the corners of the shower. It will really look cool.

Videos of the Progress!

The family took a field trip on Sunday to visit the house, and we didn't want to leave! It is looking absolutely amazing. We are in awe that it's our house.

Rather than pictures, we're trying something different this time... videos. We tried this once before and the file was too large to upload. These videos are about a minute each... Hope you enjoy them!

Starting with the basement:

Next, the first (main) floor:

And finally, the upstairs:

We have a very busy week... The trim carpenters are in working on doors, window casings, and built-in shelves. The kitchen cabinets will start to go up. The bricklayers are back, finishing the porch brickwork and columns. The tile guys continue to do an amazing job - this week, working on the master shower (the bus stop), and finishing up the fireplace & grout work. Busy, busy, busy! One thing is quite clear: Sage doesn't cut corners, and they pick subs that don't cut corners either. We continue to be amazed at the quality of work going into our home.

Adam went out during lunch today and took more pictures so stay tuned...

Speaking of Adam - since I hijacked his blog again... Adam could be the single greatest person in the entire world. And I'm not even exaggerating. Today I am 10 days post surgery. In the past 10 days, Adam has taken EXCELLENT care of me. He's been pretty much the sole caregiver for our two wonderful children, he's run the household, and he's kept tabs on the progress of our new home. All while still checking in at work and getting paid! He's my rock. Thank you Adam. I love you!!

Outside...

The front porch columns have started! It may not look like much now but they will be looking great in a week or so. The bottom will have the same brick as the rest of the house. On top of that will be tapered columns.
Side view.

They also put the beadboard on the ceiling of the porch. This will be painted white to match the rest of the trim on the outside. We can't wait to put a couple of chairs or a porch swing on it and hang out.

Inside..

The crew is making quite a bit of progress. Most of the windows have been framed out.
I had to include another picture of our newel posts. Love them... They are made of reclaimed lumber from a school house. They look great.

Tile is going in the jack and jill bath for the kids.

The floor in the master bath is in. On it you can see the tile for the master shower.

A lot of trim work is going on right now including the doors.

The Wood Floors and Stairs are Finished!

Stopped by the house this morning on my way back west to check out the finished wood floors. To my surprise, you can see, they started putting up the slate tile around the fireplace. It looks awesome in our humble opinion. We spoke to Bill Newberry about a mantle. He has some reclaimed lumber that we can use for a very simple mantle above the fireplace. I hope to go by and pick out a neat piece for that spot.
There were big signs saying to stay off the floors until Monday. It was killing us this weekend not knowing how they were turning out. My first impression was WOW! Above is a close shot of the finished newel post and stairs. They are exactly what we were looking for.

This is looking at the dining room area from by the fireplace.

Close up shot of the finished oak floors. Patrick O'Brian with O'Brian Construction and Flooring
(314-223-4691)was in during the weekend sealing the floors. He used a low VOC product from Minwax (http://www.minwax.com/products/hardwood_floor_finishing/super_fast_drying_polyurethane350.html). It was something I noticed when I walked in...the lack of smell from the floor.

This is a far shot of the stairs. They used two differnt types of wood for the stairs. The risers and spindles are poplar and the rest is oak. After agonizing over the decision we decided to just seal both types of wood even though they would look different. Patrick and Jim told us it was worth a try since we could easily paint them later if we did not like how it turned out...easier to go that way than take off paint to stain later. As of right now we dig how it is looking.

Should have some trim work, cabinets, outside posts starting and more tile work done this week. Every day is one day closer to us finally moving in!

Floors and Doors!

So the wood floors are coming along beautifully. Above you can see the integrated vent covers being put in on the first floor. We are excited to not hear the banging of hot wheels cars being dropped down the vent supply lines.
This is a shot of the kitchen looking towards the front of the house.

This is the view from the dining room looking into the living room. The big stack of wood is for the staircase. They are slated to start putting them together on Tuesday. The newel posts outlined on a previous post should be ready then too! The crew was hoping to finish laying the floor today. They are then going to come back and start the finishing process next Thursday.

Looking out at the garage we see all the doors have been delivered. They are solid core MDF doors. Jim, our site supervisor, was moving them while Amanda was there Thursday. He was getting quite a workout since they are so heavy. They are really cool and just what we had in mind.

Upstairs the tile installer started putting down the subfloor for our bathroom. We are meeting him on Saturday to go over grout colors.

It should be a busy week of stairs, tile, wood floor finishing, and a little trim work.

The flooring has started!

Amanda and I went to the house today to meet with our landscape designer and see the progress inside the house. We hope to have an update on the landscaping soon. There is a lot of movement inside. Most of our tile has been delivered (see the Modwalls boxes above) and hopefully will start to be put in this week. The boxes contain the glass tiles for the "bus stop", otherwise known as the master shower. We've gone with Backgammon for the floors and bench, and Maple for the shower walls.

We also had the kitchen cabinets delivered from Capitol Group. Can't see much of them right now but they will be out of the boxes soon enough!

The most exciting part of the visit was seeing the first part of our hardwood flooring being put in. We decided on unfinished wide plank oak hardwood floor. Even unfinished they look awesome. This is in the dining room.

This is a view from the dining room into the kitchen. The crew was very nice and talked to us about colors of stain. We are leaning towards keeping them in their natural color since they are so beautiful as is - which would mean, no stain, just a poly seal. If we go this route we will lower the amount of VOC's potentially released in the process. Evidently manufacturers haven't mastered a low-VOC staining product, but the polyurethane seal is low VOC.

It's definitely an exciting week!!! Stay tuned!