The day before the big event... and all is well!!

It has been a few days since we've had a post as we have been busy during the week leading up to the wedding. 

The last major renovation task was completed this week.  The patio has been extended.  In the last post there was a picture showing where they removed the bushes next to the house.  That by itself absolutely transformed the feel of the backyard giving it a bigger, more open feeling.  This week they finished the concrete work and we now have a new patio area to replace the old one.

The new patio.  You can see where the new patio was poured as it is lighter in color.  That window A/C unit will be taken out, the grill will be placed at the far end and some of the of the patio furniture will be arranged here and along the new addition..

The electrician came back and installed under-counter lighting, an outlet for the range hood and uncovered an outlet that was covered up by sheetrock.  There are just a few minor items left for RHD and some major items for Andy left to do but now we have the luxury of not having a really hard deadline.

Of course, the reason that drove the timing of the renovation is Anna's big wedding and the invasion from Switzerland.  The first wave arrived last Saturday with Monica's dad and his wife.  The two nephew's, Marco and Angelo, and their significant others arrived on Thursday.  It has been about 20 years since we seen these folks.  Marco and Angelo were young boys at the time.  Even though they were extremely tired from the flight, we had a big spaghetti dinner and consumed just a "few" beverages in celebration of their arrival.

Anna, Marco, Hans, Debra and Angelo partaking of the makeshift spagehetti buffet.

Marco and Corinne loading up their plates while Hans and Leila get in line.

This weekend is for enjoyment and celebration.  Then it's back to working on the house the following weekend after the wedding and departure of the Swiss.  We'll have a wedding posting early next week once we recover from the party.

Day 45 & 46 - 10/22 10/23/2010

Whew!!  We've been running around like crazy on Friday and Saturday trying to get all the last minute items done before out guests arrive.

Andy, Kip and Miquel, the hired gun, finished hanging, installing and adding trim to the kitchen cabinets completing the work started on Thursday.  The insulation crew came to add the blow-in insulation to the new area and additional insulation was added to the old area as well.  Since all of the new roof decking had radiant barrier foil on the back, we had them add spray-on radiant barrier to the old parts of the roof as well.

While there was still work going on in the kitchen, the cleaning crew came and worked on de-dusting the house.  Things have more color without that thin layer of dust.  We expect that we haven't gotten all of the dust yet though. 

On Saturday, Andy and Kip created some temporary counter tops to do until we get the granite installed.  So we have fancy 3/4 plywood counters now.  They cut a hole and installed the sink and the new fancy touch activated faucet.  They also installed the dishwasher, range and refrigerator.  Andy had a bit of an issue with the dishwasher with no water filling into it.  He was extremely puzzled.  Finally, by chance, he noticed that the water feed has a special flowsafe feature where it will stop the water flow if it detects a leak.  In the instructions, it mentioned to turn the water on SLOWLY... well, once Andy did that, the dishwasher worked like a charm.

Andy also had to put away his tools and clean up the kitchen.  He also assembled the table and got in the shower just about time that the first Swiss guests were arriving at DFW airport.  That is what we call just-in-time.  But that was only because of the delays caused by bad weather in Dallas!!

Yeay.. the fridge is back in it's home with working ice maker and water.

The range is installed and working.  Above the range is the range hood.  Still need the electrician to add an outlet and the HVAC crew to run the exhaust vent.  Anna was so happy to see the range she gave it a big hug.

The fancy plywood counter top isn't much to look at but we do have a working faucet, sink and dishwasher.  Miquel did a fantastic job with the trim work at the type of the cabinets.

We even have a place to eat again! 

Of course, there is still a lot of work to do as you can tell.  There are no shelves, drawers or doors on the cabinets and there is just bare concrete for floors.  But, everything is functional.  Andy will be taking a couple of weeks off from his second job as a construction worker to enjoy the wedding and the Swiss guests.  Unfortunately, he burned the last two weeks of his vacation and has to go back to his day job on Monday.

Anna and Courts gave up their bedroom for our first two guests and will use the upstairs office as their bedrooms.

At the beginning of the project, we were just hoping that we would have some type of functional kitchen by the time our Swiss guests arrived.  We had just a faint hope to have enough finished space to house our guests instead of having to put them up at hotels.  Well, those hopes were greatly exceeded.  RHD did a fantastic job in getting up to this point. Hats of to Pat, Joseph and their sub-contractors and crews.

There are still a few items for RHD to do and a LOT of items for Andy to do but the primary pressure is over.  Everything else can be accomplished over time.

There may not be many updates to the blog for a couple of weeks due to the wedding..  And if we post, the topics will be centered on the wedding and our visitors.  Maybe you will find that interesting as well.

Day 44 - 10/21/2010

Thursday was a busy day at the house as we sprint toward getting ready for the arrival of our Swiss guests coming for the wedding.

The painters put the final touches on the outside paint job.  They went the extra mile doing little repairs to the wood as needed.  For example, they fixed a split in the front door frame and you can't even tell that it had split.  In addition, on Wed, Andy asked for a quote on staining and finishing the stairs.  They were actually able to get right on that and did that on Thursday as well. 

Not a great photo but you can see the nice job Oscar and his crew did.  Andy will add tiles on the risers.

The concrete crew was at the house working on the pool deck extension and doing some finishing touches to the concrete inside.  Outside, the removed the bushes along the back of the house and it really opened up the area.  Andy absolutely hated those bushes anyway.  Inside they chipped away at various high spots in the foundation and will float some new concrete in those spots to finish out the foundation.

Taking out the overgrown bushes really opens this space up.

Since all of the kitchen cabinets were assembled, it seemed to be a shame not to get them installed.  Andy and Kip figured it would take them a few days to get them installed.  So, Andy asked if Miquel, carpenter extraordinaire, could come in and help.  And we're glad he did.  One wall in the kitchen which was part of the old kitchen but with new drywall, was a crazy wall.  It took a lot of time and work to work around the issues with that wall.  But that one is done and they should be able to knock out the rest on Friday.

The longest wall of cabinets are now in place on the crazy wall.

And the AC was finally turned on upstairs.  That is good with the warm weather we've been having in Dallas lately.  The Swiss are probably not used to these temperatures.

Basically, everyone is running as fast as we can to get the space livable by Saturday evening.

Day 43 - 10/20/2010

There were three projects all going on at once today.

The painters were painting the outside.  Inside we like the bolder colors but outside we pretty much stayed with the very neutral color that it was before.

The garage door is looking much better while the new siding upstairs is no longer that hardie board yellow.

Inside, Andy assembled all 15 of the wall cabinets and the final base cabinet.  We still need a couple more base cabinets and a couple horizontal wall cabinets for the sunroom.  Andy has to make a trip soon to IKEA.

A whole lotta cabinets waiting to be installed.  Andy hired RHD's carpenter for Thursday to help get these installed quickly.  Hopefully they can finish these in one day.

The big thing for today was the stairs.  We finally have a real banister and real treads.  Of course, they need to be stained and finished and tile put on the risers.

Looks like a real staircase now.. well, almost.

Looks like it's gonna be a lot of activity on Thursday as we rush to get enough finished to host our Swiss guests that start arriving on Saturday.  Andy, Kip and Courts will get the range and dishwasher out of storage plus maybe a dining table.  The concrete guys are supposed to show up, for the third time this week, and at least take care of the final foundation items inside and start working on the additional pool decking.  The plumber is supposed to show up and install water and gas valves.  The HVAC guys should be out to turn on the upstairs A/C.  The kitchen cabinets will be installed.  Monica has Thursday off and will get things ready for the cleaning on Friday.

At some point before Saturday, Andy will install a temporary plywood counter top and hook up the sink, dishwasher, range and fridge.  Then we will at least have a functional if not finished kitchen for when our first Swiss guests arrive late Saturday afternoon.

Day 41 & 42 - 10/18/- 10/19/2010

It is really beginning to look like a house inside.

The HVAC guys came out and installed all of the AC grids on all the vents and installed Andy's handy-dandy, z-wave enabled, home automation connected thermostat for upstairs.  What a geek!!  They will be back after we have electricity to hook it up and check it out.

Speaking of electricity... we now have it in the new addition!!!  Yahooie!!  It is great not having to pull long extension cords around as we work.  The lights and light fixtures are in except for the under-cabinet lighting and range exhaust hood.  Those will have to wait until Andy is finished hanging the cabinets.

Low hanging light fixture looks strange for a living room.. but this will become the formal dining room.

The sitting area of the new great room has lights and ceiling fans.

The breakfast room has the light fixture.  It's hanging a little low but we'll adjust it after we get the furniture in.  There are three can lights along the red wall.  The lights are not in yet however.

Lots of light in the kitchen.  In the great room, there will be 21 cans plus the breakfast room light fixture.  There will be under-cabinet counter lighting as well.

In the office, we have a 68-inch behemonth

Kip and Andy got all but one base cabinet boxes assembled.  Time to start assembling the wall cabinets and start hanging and installing the cabinets.  The plumber needs to install the water and gas valves.  Andy will then be able to bring back the range and dishwasher from storage.  He will also need to install enough cabinets and a temporary plywood counter so we can be in business for the incoming Swiss.

Cabinets are coming along

The painting of the outside has begun as well.  Prep work started on Tuesday with power washing, caulking and painting of the doors

On Wednesday, the stair treads, railings and trim will be installed.  Something else Andy has to paint/stain.  More concrete work to extend the exposed aggregate pool deck and to grind high spots and float low spots in new foundation will be done.  The painters will also continue to work on the outside.  Andy will try to continue to assemble cabinets around all of this.

The great escape and secret adventures of Murphy

We have a cat named Murphy but we call just call him Murph.  He is a long-hair orange male cat.  He is so sweet and laid back.  He loves people, loves to be petted and he purrs so loud.  All the other cats, and even Giselle the dog, love Murphy!

This is the look that captured our hearts...

We adopted Murphy just after Hurricane Katrina.  The SPCA was looking for homes for their animal inventory so that they could take care of pets from New Orleans.  So, off we went to the SPCA in The Colony.  Monica held just about every kitten in there and was about to choose a really rambunctious little female kitty.  However, we noticed this orange kitty in the bottom cage was just calmly looking at us with big pleading sad eyes.  We decided to take him out and once we held him, we knew that he was the one.  He was so soft and cuddly.

His SPCA name was Gonzo... which just did not suit him at all.  Murphy seemed like a more appropriate name to us and that is how he's been known ever since.  And he IS such a Murphy.

Murph and a few of the other five cats were always curious about the outdoors, sneaking into the garage or onto the patio.  So we knew that during the construction that we would have to keep a very careful eye on the kitties.  Most of the time they were isolated in the bedrooms.  Once we got windows and doors we started letting them out in the evenings when no workmen were around.  They really enjoyed exploring the new addition.

However, last Wednesday when it was time to rustle up the cat herd at bedtime, Murph could not be fournd.  We looked everywhere, even the attic.  No Murph.  We figured he was just hiding somewhere and proceeded to get ready for bed.  Andy went upstairs to close the windows.  Usually having the upstairs windows open was not a problem.  Even Murph wasn't crazy enough to jump from a second floor window.  But Andy realized that just outside the open window was the scaffolding that the bricklayers were using.  We suspect that Murph saw his opportunity for a great escape, climbing out onto the scaffolding, then over to the roof which was then an easy jump from a low corner of the roof.

We looked around the house and outside.  Anna thought she saw him but could not get him.  We figured he would get hungry and be waiting at the door in the morning as Murph rarely missed a meal.  Thursday morning came and no Murphy.  We kept a look out for him and Anna walked the neighborhood looking for him.  He picked a real lousy time to run off as we all are so busy with the renovation, the wedding, work, etc that is was difficult finding time to look for him.

On Saturday, Anna made a poster and Monica had it printed and hung them around on Sunday morning.  Every time we went outside or driving in the neighborhood we kept an eye out for the big fluffy orange cat.

Monday morning Andy heard a cat meowing but couldn't really figure out where it was coming from and figured that it was Karen's cat Marty as she was getting ready for work.  Later he was outside and distinctly heard meowing again.  But could not find any cat.  He looked in the bushes, around the house and up and down the street. But no Murph.

At lunch time Andy was in the back just about to pop a scrumptious frozen pasta meal in the microwave for lunch when he heard the meowing again.  He looked out the window and sitting on the window AC unit staring at him was Murphy.  He ran out and looked into the bushes and there was Murphy.  Andy pushed his way into the bushes and Murphy promptly jumped down and disappeared.  It took a bit but Andy finally found him hiding under some patio furniture that was stored on the side of the house for the construction. 

It occurred to us that he may have been hiding out there this whole time just laughing at us as we frantically looked for him.  That would be a Murphy thing to do.

Murph didn't come out at first, but Andy finally was able grab him by the collar and drag him out.  He held onto Murph very tightly until they got into the house.  Murph immediately ran toward the master bedroom door and promptly walked in as if nothing happened.  Silly Murph. 

It probably doesn't need to be said but Andy immediately texted everyone in the family to let them know Murph was back.  This made everyone's day.

Murph contemplating his adventures... but happy to be home!!

Welcome home Murphy!!   We all missed you.

Day 40 - 10/17/2010

While the construction crews never worked on Sunday, Andy was not exempt.  He and Kip did have a work day on Sunday while Jason was at his day job protecting the citizens of Addison.

They finished up with a second coat of the blue paint for the upstairs rooms.  Andy did some painting of the little recessed area around the office pocket doors.

The recessed area is red and blue.  The doors and the trim will be white against the gray walls.

All of the walls have been painted...of course there is some touch up to do.  The trim will be painted as Andy goes through each room installing flooring and putting on the final touches.

The kitchen cabinets are finally being moved from the garage to the inside....well, at least some of the boxes.

Kitchen parts are finding their way into the house...

Andy and Kip did get a start on the cabinet assembly as well.  Things are really beginning to come together.

It's a start... but still a long way to go...

We're almost there but not out of the woods yet.  Andy's gotta get at least the cabinets on this wall installed, a temporary counter top so he can hook up the sink and get the range and dishwasher installed. If that happens and the electricity and HVAC is on, then we will at least be somewhat functional when guests from Switzerland start arriving on Saturday.  Hoo boy!!!

Day 38 & 39 - 10/15-10/16/2010

The last two days has been really busy for Andy and his painting crew.  Jason was back on Friday and was joined by Andy's long-time friend, Kip.  On Saturday it was Kip and Andy.

As it turned out, the stair company did not make it out on Friday.. oh well, the stairway had to be painted anyway.

Their priority was to get all of the ceilings painted before the electricians come on Monday.  One of the things they will be doing is to install the trim for the light cans.

However, they got quite a bit more done.  As of Saturday night all the walls were painted with just a second coat on the blue walls. 

Downstairs will primarily be gray with red accent walls

The upstairs will be grays and blues... the office will primarily be blue with one gray accent wall

The foyer will have all the colors.  The gray primary color, a red accent wall from downstairs and a blue accent wall from upstairs.

The coming week will still have a lot of activity.  On Sunday Andy and Kip will begin the assembly and installation of the kitchen cabinets. 

The kitchen has been patiently waiting in the garage since April.

Monday will bring the concrete guys to take out some bushes and extend the aggregate pool deck giving us more area for outside seating and the will have to do some work inside to grind down some high spots and float some low spots.  The electricians will also be out on Monday to add a new breaker box and trim out the electric.  On Tuesday the HVAC guys will finish up the AC work.  The stairs will be finished on Wednesday.  The blow-in insulation and the additional spray-on radiant barrier is scheduled for Thursday.  And on Friday will be a whole-house cleaning!  Man, that is really needed.

The outside painting is still to be scheduled.  And there is still a little plumbing trim-out to be done to add the final water and gas valves.

While there is still a lot of work to do with flooring, painting trim, etc, it looks like we will be able to handle the Swiss invasion starting next Saturday.  Whew!!!

Day 35, 36, 37 - 10/12-/14/2020

Just a quick update for the last three days.
The rear elevation brickwork has now been finished.

The brickwork has been finished!!  It looks like a real house from the rear.

A new doorway from the new sunroom to the new TV room was created and a hobbit hole from the hallway to the understairs storage area was created.

The hobbit hole give easy access to storage under the stairs.

The office pocket doors have been installed.  What a big job but Miguel did great.

The grand entrance to Andy's new sanctuary.

 Painting has begun...

Forty-three gallons of paint to apply....

Thanks to Jason and Courts, we have primed all of the new addition. Andy painted most of  the stairwell walls in preparation for the stair work scheduled for Friday.  He wanted to get any walls that would abut or be above the wood stair treads... it's just easier not having to worry about drips.

Andy has to get back to painting now!!!  More pics coming..

Day 34 - 10/11/2010

It's the first day of Andy's vacation and unfortunately not much he can do yet in the new area. 

The trim guys are here installing the interior doors, door casings, baseboards and window sills. 

Sample of the trim work... Andy was wondering how they were going to handle the rounded corners.

Our next step is to start the painting which is around 4500 square feet of ceilings and walls.  But have to wait until the trim is in.  Andy is planning on a Wed start and has enlisted some help so hopefully that will proceed fairly quickly.  Andy and Monica decided on the paint colors.

The colors for the new areas.

The primary wall color downstairs will be a neutral gray to go along with the black and white tiles.  However, the downstairs will have accent walls of a crimson red color.  All the ceilings, downstairs and upstairs, will be a very light gray color called touch of gray which is really a gray tinted white.  Upstairs, the nook and the storage room will have the gray as the primary wall color with an accent wall in the nook of easton blue.  The office will primarily be the easton blue with an accent wall of the gray.  The entry will primarily be gray with the red and blue accents to tie it all together.  The entry will look like a big Texas state flag.

The brick layers showed up nice and early on Monday... however the brick did not.  Two pallets of brick did arrive just after noon but they did not start bricking today.  We're guessing that they decided it was too late in the day to get started and will get an early start on Tuesday.

Palettes o' brick.. they look kinda lonely.

We got another AWA for painting the entire outside of the house.  We've been here since 1997 and haven't painted so the entire house is in sore need of that.  So, more $$$ kaching $$$.  By the time we are totally finished only two bedrooms and the guest bath will not have been touched.  Of course, at Andy's work pace, that just might be in time for the next labor day cookout!!

Day 31, 32, 33 - 10/8-10/10/2010

Just a quick post to update from the weekend.  Not much really exciting happened.  Friday was a day of watching mud dry.. mud on the walls that is.  The mud had to be thoroughly dry before the texture could be sprayed which happened on Saturday.  That was messy.  They had to first sand the joint compound (ie: mud) and, even with the A/C off, that dust permeated everything.  And the mess from the texture spray...  ugh.  That was probably the worst that we've had to deal with as far as messes.   These guys did not clean up very well.  Andy swept the downstairs area before we could let the animals out and he had to clean up a mess they left in garage repairing a hole someone made with their foot in the garage ceiling.

The brick sub-contractor was out on Friday to size up the job.  And the trimwork was delivered.  Both trimwork and brick laying should start on Monday.

Andy spent Saturday designing the floor layout for the master bath.  He was hoping to get a start over the weekend but it just didn't happen.  He did install the false drawer front and door for his sink cabinet and installed hardware for the master bath vanities.  He had to build some jigs for placing the handles on the drawers and doors and that took some time to get it just right.  He also did some touch-up paint for some dings and the drywall repairs from moving electrical outlets and switches.

Tile pattern Andy will use for the master bath.  The larger accet tiles will function as transitions in the doorway as well as borders around the vanities.  Single rows of the multi-colored tiles will border all the primary tiles.

Unfortunately, we lost electricity again in the guest bath, hallway and Karen's room.  It was working on Sat morning as Anna and Karen got ready for Anna's bachelorette party but early Sun morning Andy noticed it wasn't working.  The only thing going on was the texture on Sat and we don't see how that would affect the electricity.  It is a curious coincidence though.  Andy though it was the breaker but all of those seem to be ok.  Well, the electricians should be out later this week to start installing outlet, switches and fixtures.

Andy has the next two weeks off and is hoping to get a lot done.  It's really coming down to days now.

Day 29 & 30 - 10/6-10/7/2010

Wed and Thurs consisted of guys walking around on stilts spreading mud on the drywall.  It's amazing how comfortable they are on those things.  There were even going up and down stairs.. YIKES!!  Unfortunately, watching them prepare the sheet rock is not extremely dramatic or exciting, with the exception of navigating stairs on stilts.

However, up close there is a big difference in the walls, not to mention some of the floors... it is a messy job.  And dust everywhere.  We're having our own dust bowl at the Perkins house.

Quite a mess in the expanded entry.. .fortunately all of this flooring is going away..

Here is a view after day 1 of drywall work as seen in the last post:

Just the drywall is up on the walls and ceiling. No tape, no mud and nothing in the eyebrow arches.

Two days later:

Same view.  The rounded edges have been added to the post and eyebrow openings.  The drywall seams and screw dimples have been taped and filled in.

Not a dramatic change like earlier in the project but still significant.  They should start doing the texture soon we hope.

Of course, there is still a good bit of work left.  Obviously the texture on the walls.  The electrical trim out, the baseboards, casing and other trim, the new A/C turned on, blow-in insulation and radiant barrier, bricking the rear and more concrete work.  RHD is hoping to get to the point that Andy can start assembling and installing cabinets next week.  Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Since we decided on the tile for the downstairs and the tile for the entry was a "special buy", Andy went ahead and dropped a good bit of change at the tile store for 135 sq feet of tile for the entry and stair risers before they sold it all.  Just what we need, more stuff in the garage.

This is the tile for the entry and the stair risers. 

Once the cabinets are out of the way, it will be time to fill the garage up with additional tile and flooring... will Andy ever get his man-cave back?  In the meantime, Andy is working on designing the cabinet layout for a wall in the sunroom and a wall in the new informal dining area.  More cabinets to install.

The good news is that our natural gas bill was less than $12 this month due to not having the gas range to cook on.

Day 28 - 10/5/2010

We feel that we have finally entered the home stretch with today's major event: the drywall started going up.

Andy said he was glad that he doesn't deliver drywall for a living.  This was a small project with only 120 sheets.  The guys had to carry it from the truck and half ot the sheets had to go upstairs.  It was quite interesting watching them take it up.  One would stand at the bottom of the stairway and one at the top.  The bottom guy would stand the drywall on end and start lifting it up to the other guy passing it through the wall framework.  The top guy would grab it and pull it upstairs.  Andy is very much appreciative of being a desk jockey!!!

The drywall crew came in just after noon and got to work.  They worked until about 8pm and got most of the drywall up.  Despite putting up additional plastic sheeting, pretty much everything in the house is covered in a light coating of dust.  The crew will come in again tomorrow  morning to finish up so that the next crew can come in and tape and bed.

It is really beginning to look like a house now:

Looking from the sunroom to the informal dining area

View into the kitchen from the sunroom

We can finally see the office closets.  Hmmm... the one on the left must have been designed for short people only.

The drywall subcontractor said that they should have all of the drywall and texturing done by the end of the week!!!

In yesterday's post, you saw the decorative blocks on the rear roofline.  All of those have been installed now.

The blocks don't look so big from a distance

During Andy's night shift, he installed the mirrors in the master bath and added the front and doors to Monica's sink cabinet.  The master bath is coming along as well, albeit a little slowly.  Andy may be slow but his labor rate is quite low.

Next: add the handles and start tiling...

Hopefully, Monday will be the beginning of all of the trimout work.  Andy is taking the rest of his vacation the next two weeks to start working on his part of finishing the great room.  He needs to assemble and install the cabinets, get the granite process going, install the appliances, paint, install the tile and wood flooring and bring some of the furniture back from storage.  We'll see how far he gets before the Swiss visitors show up.

Day 23-27 - 9/30 -10/4/2010

It has been a few days since we've had a post.  Not a lot of dramatic changes over this time but we'll catch you up on the happenings.

The issues brought up during the walkthrough have been corrected.  All of the light cans on both floors have been aligned and centered as best as they could get them.

All of the siding and fascia work has been done including replacing an area on the west side of the house with hardie board that we've had a problem with water damage... no more!  They also repaired the fascia on the west corner of the house where a squirrel couple decided that our attic was a nice place to live so they chewed up the corner to make a grand entrance to their new home.

The corner which became the main entrance for our unplanned squirrel habitat in process of being repaired

The first wave of insulation has been installed.  That would be the batts for any walls touching unconditioned space including ceiling areas where there is no attic.  The insulation was supposed to be done on Friday but they had a truck break down but it was installed on Saturday.  The blow-in insulation and the additional radiant barrier will be done after drywall is in.

Some of the insulation in the office.

On Monday, the city inspector inspected the insulation and gave a green tag and now drywall can be installed.

The back door and the windows were both delivered on Monday morning.  One of the windows had a crack so they will have to repair that and there were no screens which will have to be delivered later.  Also the door company delivered the correct door frame for the french doors but the wrong doors which fortunately they corrected later in the day.  The windows and doors were installed on Monday.

Doors and windows add a whole new dimension to the look.  Notice they are adding little decorative elements along the roof line that Ryan designed in.

The decorative elements that you see in the above picture are fairly hefty carved cedar blocks.

Close-up of one of the cedar decorations for the rear roofline

We went shopping for tile over the weekend picking up a few samples to show the girls and get their opinions.  We've decided on the the following.

This will be the flooring for the entry and stairway as well as on the risers for the stairs

This is the pattern for the kitchen floor but with little red squares instead of the little white ones in the corners.  Gonna be a lot of marble cutting for Andy... all of these borders and little squares have to be custom cut... maybe he'll finish sometime in this decade.  Another possibility is to use a subset of the backsplash tiles for the corners.

We will put wood flooring in the rest of this area.  In the upstairs we will likely use some type of laminate since there will be office chairs rolling around and folks exercising.

This will be the backsplash in the kitchen... may use four of these little squares in the floor pattern

Monday also saw the installation of the granite vanities for the master bath.  Over the weekend Andy played electrician moving outlets and switches so the six inch backsplash will fit.  That also required that he play drywaller as well to patch the holes.  Then after the granite was in, he put his plumbers hat, and droopy pants, on to install the sinks and faucets.

The new granite looks great

Lola likes her new drinking fountain

Hopefully the drywall work will start tomorrow.