Remember when this was a house blog?

In non-baby related news, we have a new kitchen floor! Any of you who have been by the house in the past several months may have noticed that the cork in the kitchen was warped and gaps had opened between several of the tiles. This was due to a slow leak in an exterior hose bib caused by a late freeze last spring. We got the leak fixed last summer, and it seemed that the damage was minimal until the heat came on this fall. The cork had apparently absorbed more water than we thought, and as it dried out it shrank. A lot. We had huge (1/2") gaps, and in a few spots the top layer delaminated and chipped off. It was ugly. But I was kind of busy in December & January, and I didn't really think we could afford to replace it, so I put off dealing with it.

One day when my uncle Fred, who is a contractor, was visiting, I asked him what we'd need to do to go about fixing the floor. He knew how to do it, and said he'd be happy to bid the job. I told him I didn't think we could afford it, and he said "Don't you have homeowner's insurance?" Well, of course we do - I just hadn't thought of using it! I didn't have high hopes that they would pay for the job, but lo & behold, when the insurance adjuster came out to check the damage he said yes!

The first step was to strip out the old damaged cork flooring, down to the slab. There was quite a bit of moisture still trapped between the concrete and the vapor barrier, and a bit of mold under the trim in the pantry. Sanford and Marcelles inspect the newly revealed (and very warm) concrete:
Originally the plan was to replace the damaged cork with new cork of the same kind, but when we tried putting the newly purchased cork tiles down we ran into several problems. Despite being the same brand and looking identical, the new tiles are a smidge thinner, an eence wider, and the toungue-and-groove is a little different. In short, they don't fit together. We'd have had to take out the entire floor in the kitchen, living room, and probably office and replace ALL the cork to keep cork in the kitchen. We'd had some reservations about putting cork back in the kitchen anyhow - what if we had another water leak? We couldn't handle the disruption of replacing the entire floor downstairs right now - not with a young baby & going back to work - so we decided to refloor the kitchen with the black slate tile that we had used in the hearth and on the sunporch.

Here are the first tiles being positioned in place:
Note that the fridge is in the living room in the picture above. It made me feel a bit like Homer Simpson to have the fridge right at the end of the couch. In the end though, I prefer it in the kitchen.

Slate has some advantages over the cork - it is more responsive to the radiant heat, and it's very durable: we'll never have to worry about water damage in the kitchen again. However, it has a couple of drawbacks as well - it's hard on our feet, and every future dish we drop is a gonner. Oh well - as Mom pointed out, we have lots of dishes. Below, Iggy inspects the grout:
And here's the finished floor, grouted and sealed. It is so beautiful. It really defines the kitchen as a separate space from the living room, which I think is a good thing. It also ties the black of the island cabinet and the diswasher and refridgerator together. It will take a little getting used to, but I'm really happy with it.

There are still a few finishing touches left to do, like putting the trim back and retouching the paint, but by and large it's finished. It's so nice not to have to see (and feel) big cracks in the floor every time I walk into my kitchen now. Hurrah for insurance coverage! :)

Slate, Beautiful Slate

As I had hoped, Steve layed the slate for the entryway floor yesterday, and it is every bit as lovely as I had hoped. As you can see below, there are a couple peices left to put in place - about 3 tiles worth - right at the border where it meets up with the cork flooring. I'm sure that those last peices will be done today.
I couldn't walk on the floor to really look around the corner at the mudroom, but I held the camera up and this is what it saw:
This "China Multi" slate (so called because it is multi-colored and comes from China - how DO they come up with these crazy names?!?) is just gorgeous stuff. And Steve did a great job of randomizing the colors and textures on the tiles, as well as working with the different thicknesses. I can't wait to walk on it!
Coming up next, aparently, is the tile backsplash in the upstairs bathroom. Robin's idea - which I think is going to work beautifully - was to get these hand-made (thus slightly irregular in shape & color) tiles in each of the most prominent colors of the mexican sink. So I was excited to find the Red, Yellow-orange, Green, Blue and White 4" tiles, layed out and presumably ready to install around the top of the vanity counter. The colors of the tiles really do match well with the colors on the sink. With the navy blue countertop I think the whole assembly is going to really look great.
Robin called today, to let me know that the window washers would be coming soon to do the windows, and that she'd vaccummed the sawdust out of the kitchen cabinets. I was totally stunned, I never even considered that they'd clean the windows - let alone the rest of the house - for me! What a bonus... not only do we get to move into a brand new, perfect house, I don't even have to clean it first! :)

Much Progress

The end of last week (been a while since I posted, huh? oh well...) I mentioned that due to the warm dry weather the painters had gotten out and primered the exterior trim. Well, not only that, but they came back over the weekend and put on the finish coat as well. Boy, does it look SHARP:
Here's a close-up of the porch rafters, you can see the subtle details like the corner blocking/column toppers. Not to mention the clean lines. I had gotten so used to the overspray from when the siding was painted that I stopped really seeing the separations.
Inside, more trim & doors were done. Here is the office door (left) and the bathroom door (right) off the main living space, all trimmed out and with the cork flooring completed as well. The trim isn't painted yet, but doesn't the wall color look nice with the floor? So warm.
And what's this? Steve is using the tile saw... which can only mean...
He's started laying the entryway slate! Pretty nifty.
He expected to finish cutting and laying the rest of the tiles today, so I expect to see a big "don't use this door" sign on the front door when I get out there tonight. I can hardly wait...

Also today, Robin was going to meet with the closet shelving people and measure all the closets & the pantry. We're using the coated wire shelving systems in all the closets, which are nice and utilitarian.

Robin also pointed out that Cary and I need to go pick out & buy our bathroom fixtures, things like TP holders and towel racks and the like. They aren't in the budget for the Schramer's to buy but if we get them they'll install them for us. Which is definately worth making the effort to get out to a hardware store and pick something up later this week.

We're so close to moving in now I can just about taste it!

Carpet! Well, not exactly...

But we have tack strips & rolls of underlayment!
While not as exciting as actual carpet, I'm trying to keep a positive attitude by viewing them as indicators of imminent carpeting. In fact, Jim the flooring guy was there last night when I got out to the house arranging & gluing the tack strips along the base of all the walls upstairs.
He said the carpet would be delivered today, but he didn't think he'd get back to actually lay it in until Thursday. Oh well. I can be patient, if I have to.

Downstairs, the cork floring was finished and several more of the doors were hung. That means that Steve can now finish the trim, not just around the doors but also the baseboards too. My understanding is that once the trim is painted in the bathroom the plumbers will come (nobody wants to try and paint the trim once the bathtub & toilet are sitting in front of it). THat will be a huge milestone, not only in the livability of the house but also because we can then get rid of the port-o-potty!

Near the stack of doors I found a bucket of the oil-rubbed bronze hinges. Aren't they pretty? It's a shame that they will hardly ever really be noticed or looked at.

No slate was laid, but the entryway was cleared out and swept so maybe today. Or maybe something completely different will get done. Either way, it's all good. :)

Clean Slate

Well, the slate's not really clean. But organized, very highly organized. Mark and/or Steve have sorted all the multi-colored slate tiles (for the entry way) into piles by color and by gage (aka thickness) in preparation for laying them. Not only will they be arranged in an asthetically pleasing pattern, but the gages will be matched to avoid noticeable edges between the tiles which could be a trip hazard.
If you click on the picture it will get bigger and easier to read. Below is the extra special category of "Cool Patterns". And yes, they are.

Mark is going to be laying the slate himself, and I am sure that he's going to do an immaculate job. Steve is continuing with the cork flooring installation, I think he will probably finish it today. The kitchen and the living room are already done, so the only area left is the office. It's just turning out beautifully. It feels really good to walk on - it has just the right amount of "give" - and it's really quiet compared to hardwood.

As promised, here are pictures of the finished laminate on the kitchen counters. It's a dark grey base with olive, orangey-pink, and dark grey speckles arranged in overlapping mottled clumps. In this image, the pink seems to really stand out (maybe from the flash?), but the color changes are actually very subtle.

This image of the bar gives a little better idea of how the laminate looks. The overall effect is dark without being cold. It has enough visual texture not to be boring but it's not too strident. It doesn't jump out and make you look at it, or distract the eye from the beautiful wood of the cabinets.
Upstairs, all the scraps and whatnot have been cleared away, the floor has been swept clean, and everything generally looks ready for the carpet installation. Fingers crossed for when I get out there tonight!

December Already

Can you beleive it? Not quite 6 months ago (ground was broken for the driveway June 15th), the house site was just a field:
Today we have windows to look out of, walls to keep the cold out, floors, lights, a roof, trim, and even countertops! It really is amazing what a bunch of people (especially a bunch of pros) can do. I'm thinking of this today, because I just sent the move-out notice for the apartment to the landlord. I've never been this excited about giving notice before...
Friday and Saturday were busy days at the house, the painters finished up all the upstairs trim, and removed the masking leaving the coast clear for the carpet to be installed today or tomorrow. Here's a picture of the doorway trim, it changes from the bedroom trim color (off-white) to the rest-of-the-house trim color (orangy-tan) in the middle.
Here's a shot of the baseboard trim on the stairway, so you can see what the trim looks like against the wall color. Pretty nice, eh?
Down in the kitchen, Al Hale the Laminate guy was working on putting the kitchen countertops down. I'll get some shots of the finished countertops tonight & post them tomorrow.
As you can see, Steve finished laying the cork flooring in the kitchen, and even put the corner trim pieces on the cabinets to cover the end grain. I think all we need is the rest of the drawer pulls and the kick plates, and the cabinets will be done.
Well, except for a thorough dusting. :)

Thawing out & catching up

Temperatures are back in the 40s and the snow is melting away, so last night Cary and I went out to the house to see what was new. It was quite impressive - there were 3 days worth of work we hadn't seen. The biggest, most fun thing to see was the cork flooring in the living room & kitchen:
Isn't it pretty? It goes really nicely with the Cherry cabinets, which I was a little bit worried about. The grain/texture is totally different, but the color tones are similar so it really works. It feels really good to walk on too, it has just the right amount of give to it. In the right forground you can see (under the bucket and stuff) the slate tiles which will be the floor of the hearth.

The painting crew had masked off most of the upstairs trim, ready to paint.
They actually started painting the trim in the bedrooms, but they used the wrong color (they painted it the same color as the walls - it's invisitrim!). They figured it out and were just waiting for it to dry so they could go over it with the correct color today. The masking is what takes all the time anyhow, so it's not too big of a deal.

The painters also brought back all the doors, which they had taken off-site a few days ago so they could paint them in their facility. They'll go back on their hinges after all the trim is painted and the masking is removed.
Steve continued putting up more trim around the interior, including the baseboard trim on the stairs, which is kind of tricky stuff. Exhibit A: the tetris trim...
I don't even want to think about how many cuts that peice took. :)

Today Mark was going to start on the hearth wall tiling. It'll be tiled with the same brazilian black/grey state tiles as under the stove, but going up the walls (mounted to fire-proof cementboard). There'll be an airspace between the cementboard and the sheetrock for additional protection against catching the walls on fire. This air space will also create a small convective heat exchange, which will also be nice.

Also today, Al was hopefully going to come back and finish the laminate on the kitchen countertops, assuming the snow has melted enough for him to get out of his driveway. Fingers crossed!

Last of the Marmoleum

Glue:
Marmoleum:
And about an hour for Jim the Flooring Guy:
And Voila! The floor in the downstairs bathroom is finished. I'd post a picture of the finished floor except that my camera ran out of batteries.

Someone in the comments a while back asked for more information about Marmoleum. Pretty much all you ever wanted to know can be found here.
Basically, it's a more-or-less natural, non-vinyl, durable, water-resistant floor material that comes in a roll and is glued to the subfloor. It's pretty similar to what people used to mean when they said "linoleum", back before that came to mean vinyl. It comes in lots of pretty colors, typically with a "marbled" pattern to them. It is really nice stuff. I first became aware of it after my parent's basement flooded (busted pipe) and they redid the entire basement with marmoleum, replacing the old vinyl flooring that was ruined by the water. It really does have a completely different feel to it than the vinyl - much nicer. Even if you don't know (or care) anything about the totally evil toxicity of vinyl, you would notice the difference!

Stay Off Of Tile.

Just say No! to Tile abuse. (Hahahahaaaa! I made a funny. So why don't I hear you laughing?)

Ok, but seriously, yesterday Mark and Steve cut & laid down all the slate in the sunroom! What a nice surprise - I only expected to see a stack of boxes and some lines drawn on the floor, but they really went all out. The gluey stuff underneath the tile takes some time to dry, and then they'll do the grout in the cracks. Steve had the room well blocked off to keep anyone from walking on the tile before it set:
There's some dust and smears and stuff on the tile, but this is more or less what it will look like. It's really beautiful, not so much black as a really dark gray with lighter speckles and veins subtly running through it.
And zooming in for the ultra-closeup, you can even see the ridges in the glue showing in the crack between the two tiles. The gage (thickness) on these tiles is really nice and uniform, which will make for a nice clean finish and smooth walking surface. There's still some variation of course, because it is a natual material, but these are a good quality tile. A lot of the slate tiles you see on the shelves at, say, Lowes, really have too much variability in the gage to make a safe walking surface.
This same "Brazilian Black" slate tile will be used for the hearth, which they are hopefully going to start on today. It will also be mixed with some of the "China Multi" multi-colored slate tiles for the backsplash along the kitchen counters. I can't wait until I can walk on it!

Counters, marmoleum & trim, oh my!

The counters were put down on top of the kitchen cabinets yesterday. Not the laminate, just the plywood that the laminate will go on top of, I mean. Even though it isn't the finished surface, it ties everything together nicely. Also, I don't think I pointed out before that the back of island was wrapped with a matching black-finished veneer. It's really looking nice.
Here's the workbench in the laundry room, which was started yesterday. Also in this picture you can see the marmoleum which was installed Sunday. This room is always going to feel sunny and cheerful, even on rainy winter days. Or nights, for that matter.
Here's the marmoleum in the upstairs bathroom. It's the same pattern as the laundry room. This pattern is great, not only is it pretty but it will hide all kinds of dirt!
A big stack of trim materials was delivered yesterday and piled up in the living room. It's wierd to think that it takes so much material to trim out a house, but I know that it will. The interior doors and closet doors were also delivered, and are stacked in the mudroom, ready to go.
I spoke to Mark a little bit ago, and he's out with the plumber measuring the height of the feet of the clawfoot tub, and they'll be getting that drain fitting finalized either today or tomorrow. I'll kind of miss being able to tell people that we decided to install an indoor litterbox for the cats when the spacer box with it's pea-gravel fill is removed from the bathroom floor and replaced with a drain and some quickcrete. Oh well. Hardly anybody fell for it anyhow.

Also, the painter is supposed to be on his way out to get started on the exterior! Stay tuned for more on that in the next few days...

Weekend Business

A lot of work got done this weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, Joel and Chris came out and worked on sheathing the treated 4x4 posts as well as the exposed beams on the porch with finish lumber. This is in anticipation of possibly doing the exterior painting this week. Mark says that if it doesn't get done this week we'll probably have to wait until spring, because it's just getting too cold and wet. However, right now the sun is shining and the sky is clear, so maybe we'll be lucky enough to actually get it done this week. Fingers crossed!
On Friday some more of the fancy light fixtures went in. Here's Cary with the main fixture in the living room (affectionatly refered to as the "giant nipple light"):
And these are the pendant lights which hang over the (not yet built) bar countertop:
You can't tell from these pictures because the lights are on, but the shades are shaded from white to a beige/yellow which almost exactly matches the color of the wall. Maybe Robin knew they would be that way, but back when we picked out the lights & shades we hadn't even started to think about the paint color. So in my mind it's just a very happy accident that they coordinate so well. :)

On Sunday, Jim the flooring guy came out and put down the marmoleum in the upstairs bathroom and the laundry room. It looks lovely, but my camera ran out of batteries so no pictures yet. The downstairs bathroom floor still has to be finished where the spacer was left in it to allow for fitting the clawfoot tub drain pipe. You might remeber that when the foundation was poured, we didn't have the exact measurements for the tub (obviously we have them now, see the post below!). The plumbers haven't been back out to finish off the drain, so the floor still has a gravely space. I'm sure that it won't be long before that gets fixed, and Jim'll be back to do the carpet in a couple of weeks so he can put down the marmoleum then.