FINAL TOUCHES ON HARDWOOD FLOORS

Today we are celebrating the last touches being applied to our hardwood floors.  Every sub contractor has shared that this job has been one of the most difficult because there are very few square rooms in our home.  The lot is a pie shape, with the corner tip of the pie being in our backyard.  The house was constructed to wrap forward as the lot comes out to what would be the crust of the pie.  So basically it's a sub contractor's nightmare and the hardwood floor crew has been quite challenged and it took them a day longer than they anticipated.  But today the finishing touches (all the small, oddly shaped pieces) were completed.

We were also able to get our first glance at one of our kitchen cabinet drawers which was particularly exciting for Kellie

Cabinet installation will begin today and completed tomorrow and once they are installed we will finalize our paint color and hardwood floor stain color selection.

Walls are prepped to be tiled and here is a glance at the master bath shower area and tile that will be installed this week.

The interior doors also arrived and will be installed.  We still need to select an exterior door and decide on paint color for the doors.

This is the french door that will open to the master bath


We are so thankful our project has gone off without a hitch and we have John at Reconstruct to thank for that.

So much to celebrate!

We were at the house yesterday and were thrilled to see that the hardwood floors are nearing completion.  I'm sure when I stop today I will see the whole project done.  We were also thrilled to see our spring flowers popping up in the various flower beds.

Aren't they gorgeous!  Today I'm spending the afternoon at the house, weeding and making sure the beds are ready for more planting.  We think it smart to get in the groove of working in the yard because we will be doing that pretty much non-stop for the next couple of years with a 14,000+ square foot lot.

The cabinets and all of the plumbing fixtures have arrived and are stored in our garage.  We peeked at the cabinets and they are TIGHT!

This is what is sitting on the other side of our garage - something that is foreign to Keith and me.

Thank goodness we found John Cimbura and his company ReConstruct.  The project could not have gone more smoothly, he is a class act and we have not even come close to the 10% contingency budget that all of the experts say you must have at a minimum.  If you ever need a GC, John is your guy.  He estimated the job to be a 4-6 month project.  He shared that in order for it to be a four month project, all of the construction gods would need to be in their very best moods and that everything would need to go according to plan.  So, his recommendation was "plan on six months."  Well, we will likely be moving the first week of May which is four months.  He is THE BEST!!!!!

HARDWOOD FLOORS

This week the hardwood floor installation began.  This is what they accomplished on day one.

John retained the existing hardwood floors wherever possible including in the living room, main floor hallway and two guest bedrooms.  His crew will sand them and match the stain color we choose so it all flows.  Pretty amazing what they can do and their attention to detail.

Master bedroom view from the entrance doorway

Master bedroom view from the bath

Today they are expecting to finish the hardwood floor installation and Monday cabinets will begin.  If all goes according to plan, the amazingly gorgeous and funky red countertops will begin on Friday.  Oh happy day!

Shiny, smooth, primed walls, Oh My!

Who knew that there are five categories of walls.  And it was no shock to Keith that I "needed" category five which are walls as smooth as a baby's butt.  But if you're going to have a contemporary house, no other wall but smooth and shiny will do.  Check it out....

This view is looking up from the foyer and soon there will be a funky chandelier hanging down.  You can't imagine how open and bright it is in this area!

This is another view from the foyer but looking upstairs to the landing.  The door on the left goes to the master and the hallway leads to the laundry room and Keith's office.

The final view from the foyer but looking toward the dining room and kitchen

Next week they will be laying the new hardwood floors.  Decisions that need to be made within the next week include tile, hardwood floor color, paint color, stucco color, interior trim detail and door hardware.

OUR HOUSE LOOKS LIKE A HOUSE AGAIN!

When John told us his drywall crew would knock out our drywall project in a day or two, we weren't sure we believed him.  But one thing we've learned about John is that he's a man of his word.  We actually have walls again and our house looks like a house rather than a construction zone.

The view from the far south kitchen wall looking into dining room, living room and basement stairs

Opposite view looking into the kitchen

And another view from the front door looking into kitchen and dining room

This is our master bathroom wall where you can see the faucets will be for the sinks

A view of our fireplace wall and looking into the bathroom

I can't say for sure but I think this is our laundry room wall

A view from the upstairs landing looking into Keith's office

And here is the van of the crew who did this fabulous work.

And finally our house from the outside.  You can see that addition is all prepped and ready for stucco

WHO KNEW INSULATION COULD LOOK SO GOOD?

Yesterday was a big day.  You see when insulation is installed it means that drywall will be next which means our house interior will actually look like a house.  So yesterday was monumental because insulation began and today it was finished.  Tomorrow we do a walk through and Thursday the drywalling begins!  Oh, and our patio door was installed and we couldn't be more happy with the view to our big beautiful back yard.  Check it out!

Looking up to the open foyer area just as you enter the front door

Looking down the hallway just as you walk upstairs.  The view is looking into Keith's office.

A view facing north in the master bedroom

The south master bath wall

Looking down  to the living room from the upstairs addition

And, of course, our new patio door which faces the east and walks out to our patio which will be delightful to enjoy morning coffee in our private back yard.

THINGS ARE SLOWING DOWN BUT WE HAVE LIGHTING AND A MASTER FIREPLACE!

I haven't posted for a few weeks because we're getting to that project stage where things are moving more slowly.  But we're okay with that because attention to detail is paramount.  Our rough plumbing, electric and mechanical inspection passed this week and on Monday the insulation and drywall installation will start.  Yep, it's getting real exciting now, folks!

Keith has determined the low voltage details which was one part of the project about which I just scratched my head and said, "huh?"  I'm so glad we're opposites - it works nicely for us. I love this first picture.  It's Keith in his office checking out the low voltage that he spent hours determining.

We walked up the staircase to our master suite and were thrilled to see that our master bedroom fireplace was installed.

 And this week the canned lights in the master bath were installed

 As were the canned lights in the kitchen!

It's so exciting to think that in two months (or thereabouts) we'll be cozy in our new forever home!