Best. Week. Ever.

We had a great week at the house this past week, which is a huge blessing since we've been bumming about the slow pace lately.  The trim upstairs is all installed (although not filled and painted), so other than carpeting and finishing touches, the upstairs is finished!  We've now moved on to the main floor and some major projects that we've been excited to tackle.

New Front Door!!

It's so nice to not have to kick the door to get it open.  Plus, as much as we loved the peep hole right next to a full glass pane, we're much happier with this simpler (peep hole-less) door style.  And it's a double door which will make moving in a breeze!!

Countertops!!

Aah!!  I've been waiting anxiously for their arrival, and they came on Friday!

As I expected, they look gorgeous.  The templaters and installers did such a good job...the fit is perfect!

Master Shower!

I finished grouting the walls and ceiling this week, and Pete has started pouring the mortar bed for the floor.  Hopefully that will be finished this week.  Then all we'll have to do is caulk, clean, and install the glass door!

Backsplash!!

On Saturday, we installed the backsplash, and I love it!!  I've been waiting for this for months.  This tile is what really pulls the kitchen together and makes it pop.  I love how it looks and it's not even grouted yet!

Built-Ins!

Since he finished the upstairs trim this week, my dad has begun working on the custom built-ins on the first floor.  The first picture is the start of the cabinet and bookshelves next to the fireplace.  The second is the window seat/storage bench in the window bump-out.

 The Pretty!!

I have patiently awaiting buying "pretty things" for the house.  I've picked up a few here and there, but now as we finish rooms, I'm beginning to fill them with more "pretty" things.  Above are the shelves we rigged to fit in the area above the master toilet.  We had to rig them because the space is 35.5 inches and standard length for a floating wall shelf is 36 inches.  My dad shaved some wood off the sides and we squeezed them in.  Let's just say, these shelves are now permanent fixtures.  Anyway, my vision is that these shelves be decorative and functional for storage, so I've started collecting various things to accomplish that vision.

Sadly, these towels are not going to be on those shelves...: (  I've had my eye on them at World Market for a while and have been patiently waiting for a coupon.  I bought them this week (with my newly delivered coupon), but the color is just a little off.  My theory on matching color is that the colors have to be a perfect match or a complete contrast.  Otherwise, it looks like I got close, but not close enough.  These towels were close, but not close enough.  Sad day.

The poor little light was another bummer this week.  After the countertops went in, I was all excited to get the pendants hung over the bar area.  I thought these little buggers were super cute and a bargain at only $8 a piece.  Well, you get what you pay for.  These sad little buddies did not match the quality of the countertops, cabinets and backsplash.  The cord was all crinkly and the shade was smushed.  They had to go.  I bought new ones that were way more expensive, but when I got them home, they didn't look anything like the store display.  So, those went back, too.  We've since bought a third set of pendants....hopefully these will be perfect!

Week in Review

We're continuing to plod along at the house.  This week, we focused on three main projects.  We've been avoiding the shower and floorboard projects for awhile now, but this week we attacked!  Here are the pics:

FINISHING TOUCHES:

Mirrors, trim, towel bars, door handles...all that good stuff. 

The master bathroom and second full bath are the two rooms that are the closest to finished.

MASTER SHOWER:

On Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, I tiled the shower ceiling and door frame.

Today we tackled the walls.  Let's just say that, when tiling, gravity is not your friend.  We had to get creative in setting the first row, but it got better from there.  We made our own shampoo shelves by cutting two tiles into triangles and mortaring them together.  Ours were waaaay cheaper than buying shelves, plus they match perfectly. 

I am not a neat tiler.  Who needs rags when you've got jeans on? 

This was only about half-way through the day...they got much worse... : )

And about 10 hours later, the walls were finished!!  We hope all those tiles are still in place tomorrow...and ten years from now.  This is one thing I don't want to have to redo!!  It was a lot of work!

FLOORBOARD REPLACEMENT:

My dad's been working on replacing the floorboards in the entry way so we can re-tile.  You may remember that we had to tear up the old tile because we're changing out the stair railing and front door, and when we tore up the old tile, the floorboards underneath were in rough shape.  Now that the floorboards are replaced, those projects can move ahead!

Losing Momentum

It feels like the brakes have been put on.  Between my dad's vacation, Pete's out of town & overtime work requirements and our builder's other jobs, not much has been done at the house lately.  It's looking less and less likely that we'll make our end of March move in goal.  Oh well...all projects take more time and money than expected right?
Here are a few pictures of what we've accomplished in the past week:

While Pete was out of state for work, I laid and grouted the 2nd bathroom floor.  Practice makes perfect - this was my best tile job yet. : )

I also "red guarded" the master shower.  Red Guard is a water proofing product that applies like paint on cement board.  It's in place of a plastic liner.

We finally pulled the trigger on tile for the master shower.  The white tiles are rectangular and will be on the walls.  The square brown tiles are for the floor, ceiling, curb and threshold.  The greenish glass tile will wrap around as an accent.

We have two working toilets!!  (And one shower curtain : )

The 2nd bathroom vanity, top, faucet and hardware have been set.

Pete replaced the 2nd bath light fixture.

Some of the doors are trimmed and the trim is painted.  This view is looking into the master bedroom.  The first door on the right is the master bath and the second door is the master closet.

The wine rack has arrived!!  (You have to picture this slid up into the hole directly above it.)

More Progress

We're back to work at the house.  Nothing majorly exciting happened yesterday, but lots of little things are being done that are putting us steps closer to moving in.  Here are a few pictures from this past week...

On Monday, we picked out granite for the kitchen countertops.  Here is is against the tile that will be the backsplash.  (Granite is Silver Cloud from Great Lakes Granite & the backsplash is from Lowes)

We hope to have the countertops installed in the next few weeks with the backsplash install to follow.

Speaking of the kitchen, here it is!  We're not actually doing the cabinet work ourselves and the they're not completely finished yet, but we're getting closer!  (White, shaker style Armstrong Cabinets)

 

My dad installed all (except one) the doors on the second floor yesterady!  Yay!!  Doors go a long way in making a house look finished.  Now we have to paint them.  Boo.  Remember back at the beginning when I said I loved everything about my last remodel?  Well, I lied.  I hated painting doors.  And door frames.  And trim.  Guess what?  I still hate it.  Bleck.  Anyway, these doors are three-panel primed doors that we got at Menards for $40-50/each!  Next steps in this department are to trim out the doors, add baseboards to the floor and start on the built-in projects.  After that....?  Flooring!!

 

Detail time!!  We now have cabinet hardware and a toilet paper holder in the master bathroom.  Right now, this room is the closest to completion, but the master shower is not finished yet.  We're getting it ready to tile.  The Hardie Backer is up and mudded.  This week, I hope to apply the waterproofing redguard and then we can get going on tile.

We painted, replaced the light fixture, and set the vanity in the 2nd upstairs bathroom.  I got this vanity and the one in the master bathroom from the Williams Outlet on Richmond.  Nothing fancy, but it does the job.  Also, we laid hardie backer on the floor so it's all ready to tile - my objective this week. 

Thanks, Lisa for painting all this trim (this picture represents maybe a tenth of the trim that will be painted)!!  As previously mentioned, I hate this job!!

People have been asking when we think we'll be able to move in.  Answer...we don't know!  We're still hoping to be in by Pete's birthday at the end of March, but we'll see.  Several of the project timelines are out of our hands, but we are still optimistic that we'll meet our goal!