More Railing pics

I can't believe how beautifully everything is coming together on this house...

Oh my goodness, dining room view

Hmmm... Guess I'll have to spruce up the 'flower' bed in front after the house is done. I have dozens of different irises out there that haven't bloomed in years because they've been neglected. It will make for a nice spring view from this window.

Sealing grout, day 1

Kitchen and nook sealed:

Master bath lights

While it will be more impressive with cabinets, counters and mirrors, it is progress and I like it!

Weekend update:

Grout in entry, girls' bath and laundry room is done. Hailey and I finished them up. The den will be the last room to do for now until we get to the showers.

Weekend progress

Cabinets have been re-scheduled for Thursday of this week and tile/grout has been my main focus. Tom's job has been to fill all the holes still left in the walls and ceiling.  Thus, the hanging of the pendant lights in the kitchen. He's actually making good progress.

Cousin Matt came over yesterday and got the den floor 95% complete.

He would have had it 100% done if we weren't THREE TILES SHORT! It turned out kinda nice, though...

I got up early on Saturday and grouted the master bathroom:

When the girls got up they came out and wiped it down and we dove into grouting the rest of the kitchen nook and walkway:

Then yesterday, we grouted the dining room:

We have the entry, den and laundry rooms still to grout. And Tom needs to do the shower pan in the guest bath before we can lay the tile in there.

Kitchen pendants

Tom and Amanda seem to think the kitchen lighting is over-kill but I disagree. I think they're beautiful and can't wait to see them with cabinets!

Granite shopping, round 2

I'm glad we have the luxury of time on our side during this build. I picked up a sample of the cabinet material and picked out a couple different granite samples to look at in their respective rooms...

This is definitely the stone for the master bathroom:

And this is the granite I would like in the kitchen/buffet/fireplace hearth:

Oh, and the girls didn't like the dark countertop despite the beautiful sparkles so I think we will go with a more alabaster counter in their bathroom. There were two remnants that I liked but I only have a pic of one:

The other one was mostly alabaster with a few gray spots/streaks. I think I like the gray stripes in this one though...

And yes, I realize thatI have changed EVERY granite choice from my original picks... don't judge me.

Shopping trip

So I have a new favorite pass time. Shopping for granite countertops. We met with a guy tonight at his shop. Oh my goodness, this is the fun stuff I've waited sooooo long to do! 

I brought this sample home with the master bath in mind, but it is just too beige. I want something with a bit more 'pop' so guess I have to shop some more!

It's really hard to convey in pictures the depth of this stone. It has blue sparkly facets that I just can't do justice to with my phone's camera but I think this will look very nice in the girls' bathroom.

And this is the granite I would like to do in the kitchen, dining room buffet and the fireplace hearth.

I think we have tentatively decided on doing a flagstone with the shale rock that Tom and Scott have been bringing back from Montana each trip on the fireplace surround. I think this granite will tie it all together nicely.

The fun part was shopping for it. Now we wait for the quote to come...

Master Bath Tile

Here is the master bathroom with spacers:

And here it is without spacers:

There will be a drawer/shelving unit in this alcove. Still trying to figure out how we're going to finish the shower floor...

Grout is the theme of this coming weekend...

Hardware...

This is the hardware I've decided on for the kitchen/dining/laundry cabinets:

And for the girls' bathroom:

Nothing over-the-top fabulous but I like them. :-)

Hope to have pics of them attached to ACTUAL INSTALLED CABINETS next week...

Master bath tile

Here is the master bath floor that Zack & Matt laid yesterday with spacers still in place. I'm really happy I was able to exchange it for what I really wanted. Now to figure out what to do with the tub surround and shower... :-)

Tile issue conclusion

I am pleased to say that the tile place is going to exchange the 'off' tiles (on the left) for the master bath straight across even though the tile I want (on the right) is about $1.50/sf more and is only available via special order. Tom will be picking it up on Wednesday. :-)

Grout, next day

No grout:

Grout:

Pretty flippin' subtle, eh? That's what you get when you go with 3/32" grout lines.

Happy Mother's Day! I got up early to check out the grout color and had to start scraping the excess thinset for the next round of grout.

Heating, again?

It's been awhile since I've made a posting here. I don't like tapping it out with my thumb and seem to have misplaced my laptop....

I have a systems report for you tonight. 

The heat is working well, albeit unregulated save for the storage tank temp and the living room. The last two nights have seen me adding the valve   actuators onto manifolds in preparation for switching to the intelligent control system that will run it by zone, of which there are seven.

The heat pump problem previously discussed has not reoccurred, thankfully. 

Ciao

Starting the grout

I thought I'd just start with a smallish amount of grout and see how far I get...

Since Hailey had a friend over, I put them all to work!

I spread the grout in the joints. One kid followed behind and sponged the excess off the tiles. Another filled buckets with clean water and a third ran buckets back and forth. Worked out quite well.

I don't care what they say... Child labor is AWESOME! Oh wait... That would imply that they got paid...

Railing

Ok, no more progress on the tile so how about a cool shot of the railing that makes me so happy...

Kids' bath - w/o spacers