Moving Along!

So things are flying along at the house. This picture above is to prove that not all the work has been done by our dedicated subs. Amanda and I were at the house Sunday putting together some closets. This is in Teagan's room. Special thanks to the Belgeri's for watching the kids and the Baum's for recharging us with refreshments.
Today the plumbers put in their final fixtures, the kitchen faucet and garbage disposal. They also had their final inspection and passed.
Sergei, the finish carpenter, was in the garage putting together our bench and lockers for the mudroom. This is the base of the lockers. Above will have an area for hooks and some storage.

The big ka-pow today was the glass tile back splash. It looks amazing. It does a great job pulling the countertops and moss cabinets together. It should only need grout tomorrow and the kitchen will be nearly complete.

Painting was nearly finished inside when we were there at lunch. It looked like the inside should be done except some touch ups. Rain is predicted most of the week so I am not sure when the exterior will be painted. The electricians were putting the finishing touches on their work too. They need to hook up the appliances in the kitchen and get their inspection tomorrow or Wednesday. Our site superintendent Jim is working his tail off getting everything in place for the tradesmen and doing things around the house like hang towel bars and re-assemble vanity doors. It is a lot of work but it seems like it is all coming together quite nicely!

Other updates from Friday

The driveway was finished today.
So was the walkway and sidewalk. The rounded walkway was a nice surprise for us. We were not sure how that was going to turn out and we are really happy with it.

The guest shower in the basement is nearly complete. When we have guests it will be nice for them to have their own quarters in the basement. They will just have to get around without stepping on the large number of toys that are going to be down there!

The study, living and dining rooms were painted. The red you see is the study and we absolutely love it. The living room color is hard to see but it is a light grey/tan. The colors all work so well together. We could not be happier with them. The interior is supposed to be all painted by Monday. They had to wait for the carpet to be done before starting on the stair area.

Amanda and I are planning on going to the house Sunday to start putting together some closets and determine where mirrors and stuff are going to go. Our good friends the Belgeri family are helping us out by watching the kiddos for a while so we can be as productive as possible!

Carpet and Counter Tops!

Big day at the house on Friday. Amanda and I went two separate times to check out the progress. Amanda was there when they were installing the Cambria Quartz counter tops. They look better than we could imagine.
This is the island where our cook top is going to be. This color does not show very well in the picture but is a grey/green color. The green goes great with the moss color cabinets and will tie in perfectly with the tile back splash going in today.

Around the outside of the kitchen is a speckled gray color counter. It pulls the grey from the island counter. Again it looks better in person. They guys installing asked Amanda how much we liked the sink you can see on the left. That is because it is huge and weighs about 120 pounds! We do not plan to remodel this anytime soon.

Then upstairs and in the basement the carpet was installed. We purchased a "green" carpet from Shaw. Here is a link outlining their commitment to environmental sustainability, http://www.shawfloors.com/Cms/Home.aspx?DN=304350a3-77f6-4118-96db-775897b579cc. Our carpet was made using recycled materials. It looks great. This is from our bedroom.

This is in John's room. We picked this carpet so long ago we were not sure how it was going to look in place. We really like it.

Plumbing Fixtures Installed

The plumbing fixtures were delivered Monday and they did not waste any time getting things put in place. This is a shot of the powder room on the first floor. We used all low flow plumbing fixtures. The Kohler toilet uses only 1.28 gallons per flush, http://www.us.kohler.com/pr/pressrelease.jsp?aid=1176777713648&prdaterange=&prsubject=&prcategory=. The faucets by Delta (http://www.deltafaucet.com/smarttechnology/watersense.html?filter=all) are also water sense rated.
This is the water heater for the house. It is made by Rinnai (http://www.rinnai.us/tankless-water-heaters/r94lsi/ ) and instantly heats up hot water when needed. This is more efficient since a heating element does not need to keep a bunch of water hot all the time.

The master shower has it's final touches put in. This is Amanda's side with an adjustable hand held sprayer with two body jets.

This is my side, one fixed shower head (mounted high to accommodate my stature) and three body sprays. You can see the water running down the tile...I could not help myself and needed to try it out.

I will have a lot more pictures tomorrow. The counter tops and carpet are installed. The concrete walkways will be done and maybe a little more finish work inside. The first floor should have most of the painting done too!

The Driveway!

I probably should not be so excited about a non-porous surface but I am. We have looked at dirt for so long it is refreshing to see the driveway poured today. We flirted with doing a grass driveway early in the project to be more green but that was one of the first budget cuts.
This is a shot from the back of the garage showing the 6' extension we need to pull in and out of the garage.

The view from the front yard looking back. Each side of the driveway has a gravel drainage area for rain runoff.

This was taken from the breakfast nook. I can see us keeping an eye on the kids playing from this spot quite a bit in the future.

Front porch almost done

It has been a while so we have a lot to catch everyone up on. First off the crews are working really hard to get our house done by next Thursday. That's right we should be moving our stuff into the house in a week. Very exciting. Above is the view from the street. All of the rails are up and the posts are finished being built.
Here is a view of the post close up. You may remember a previous blog post showing the posts looking different. Our architect, Jeff Day, did not like how the posts went into the house and did not show from the street...curbside appeal and all. We think he was right on.

Another view of the posts.

Many a trick or treater will be using this railing to climb our steps for candy in the near future.

That is just the front of the house. I have a couple more posts on the rest of the progress.

Shower tile done and paint upstairs

The upstairs is almost completely painted. This is the yellow for the kids jack and jill bath. It is hard to pick a color that suits both a boy and girl. We think this works pretty well for the space.
The blue is John's pick for his room. Of all the colors we chose we were the most iffy on this one. Now that it is up we think it is pretty cool.

The picture of Teagan's room is very hard to see the color, but it is a very pale yellow...I swear. Amanda says it is the perfect color for a little girls room. Since she was a little girl once she should know.

This is the master bedroom. A grey/brown color really pops with the trim. As we posted before, the colors are all from the arts and crafts collection from Sherman Williams. It is one thing to see the paint chips but quite another to see them on the wall. We are very happy so far.

The grout in the master shower is now done and it looks amazing. The camera does not do it justice. Now all it needs is some plumbing fixtures and we are set!

Believe it or not we have been told that we should be done on April 30th. We are very excited to finally get into the house. A lot of work still needs to be done but we are confident the guys can do it!

Railings and gutters

Things are moving along outside. The railings on the front porch are almost done. We were short a bit of material for the right stair railing.
Another shot of the front of the house.

The gutters were also put up today. With all the rain we are expecting this weekend they will be tested very soon.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all of our family and friends. We hope the Easter Bunny delivered lots of candy to everyone!

We went by the house yesterday after a day at the zoo. Everything is coming along nicely. Above is a shot of the fireplace area without a big door in the way.

In our basement there is a graveyard of interior doors getting painted.
Outside the AC unit has been delivered and hooked up.

Up in the master shower we are finally able to get a good idea of how everything is tying together. The guys with Innovative Tile Pros are prepping the area for grouting so they took all the protective cardboard off.

Another shot of the shower. I stepped into it this week and there will be no claustrophobia issues when cleaning ourselves. Big yes...but I am a pretty big dude that needs his space!

Upstairs update

The glass tile in the master shower is almost done. It has been a tedious job for the tile guys but the results are incredible. Each square foot is put up on the mortar, left to set for a while, then the piece of paper keeping the tiles together is wet down and taken off...hopefully without taking many small tiles with it.
Here you can see the corner. Originally we had square corners. The tile installers recommended a rounded corner and boy are we glad they did. It really makes it look cool.

The bathroom vanities are being set in place. This one is going to be Amanda's sink in the master bath.

And I finish this post with a very exciting ceiling fan and light in John's room. The upstairs does not have much left to do before carpet is put down and paint applied to the walls. Finishing the tile in the master shower, a couple of lights in the master, and a cabinet in the laundry room will be set in place.

Stay tuned for updates later this week!

On the first floor

There has been a lot of progress inside the house too. The slate fireplace has been completed and sealed with a color enhancer. Looks fantastic. Sorry the door is in the way of the view!
The light fixtures are being installed around the house too. Here is the main light in the dining room. It has a really cool granite shade on it. Can't wait to see it lit up.
This is a late addition to the plans. We decided to put up a chalkboard in the kitchen. Thought it would be fun for the kids, good at relaying reminders, and displaying menus for parties. We are going to paint the inside with chalkboard paint.

Here you see the kitchen lights. We love the pendant lights over the island. There are two matching lights over the sink and nook. They all look awesome together.

Outside posts are going up!

On Tuesday we went by the house to look at the posts going up on the porch. We like how they look.
The detail at the top on the inside is pretty cool.

A view from the front of the house. The rest of them should be done by Thursday or Friday. Hopefully the rails and spindles will be done then too!