It's been a while..

We realize that it has been nearly a month with no new posts.  It has been busy though.  Andy works a few hours most nights after his day job at IBM and most of the weekend.  In addition there has been several dinner parties and other social events including a number of dinner parties that Monica has given in spite of the state of completeness of the house.  She loves to show it off and entertain.


So, the question is: what have we gotten done in the last number of weeks since the last update?

 If you recall from the last post, we were waiting for an installation date for the granite, so Andy really could not proceed much more with the kitchen.  So, what to do next?  He considered working on the tile for the entry and stairway, but Monica wanted to put the Christmas tree in the corner of the stairway and she got her way, of course.

The tree looks nice in spite of the unfinished trim around the stairs.

But Monica wasn't happy with just one tree... she added two more.

The living room (future dining room) received it's usual treatment.

Even the unfinished sunroom has a tree.

That lead to the decision to start working upstairs.  Over the last few weeks, Andy has been busy caulking the trimwork, filling in nail holes, priming and painting the trim and touching up paint.  With the walls and trim in decent shape it was time to install flooring.  Since the upstairs is mostly office with rolling chairs, we wanted something pretty durable.  We chose to go with a laminate product.

We installed laminate in the house about ten years ago.  While very functional and not really too bad looking, it was still looked like laminate.  Laminate technology has really progressed over the last decade.  Andy found a really nice Pergo laminate that emulates very closely a hand scraped hickory hardwood.  And it happened to match the stair treads fairly close in color.

It took a good weekend and a few evenings to install the flooring.  It was actually pretty easy with the new click and lock technology.  Much easier than the first time he installed laminate a decade before.  It also helped that he had much better power tools this time, especially for those intricate cuts required around door frames.  The table saw, miter saw and jig saw was indispensable.  It took another few evenings to install the transitions and quarter round.  We are now ready to start moving in office furniture.

A close-up of the Pergo.  Very realistic looking.  In fact, it fooled my contractor.

A view of the office.  The floor looks really nice in this room.  You can see one zone (Sonos S5) of Andy's wireless Sonos music system and his iPad which has an app to control the Sonos.  He brought it from the master bedroom so he could have some music to work by.

Another view of the office.  The pocket doors lead into the exercise nook.

The other side of the pocket doors leading into the office.  Ryan designed in a nice recess and we used the red from downstairs and the blue from upstairs to frame it in color.

The exercise nook looking from the office.  At the edge of the picture on the right is the passage to the stairs leading down to the entry.

Andy still needs to terminate the data networking (cat 6) and video networking (RG6) cables to the office and nook.  The holes you see in the office and nook walls is where the data and video cables will terminate.  Also, the pocket doors still need pulls and handles.  Otherwise, the office and nook are done.

During one of the first really cold nights, Andy discovered that the new upstairs HVAC unit was not putting out warm air.  Our contractor, Pat, sent out the HVAC guys and they found that the heating element was bad and replaced it.  Such is the joys of remodeling.  Fortunately, the heater upstairs wan't  needed much as the warm air from downstairs along with the sun from the south-facing windows, keeps it warm up there.

In the meantime the installation of the kitchen granite finally got scheduled.  Andy had to take a diversion from working upstairs to prepare for the installation of the granite.  In the sunroom, he had to put on his electrician's hat and run a new electrical connection for the under-counter beverage cooler.  He had to remove the wonderful 3/4 in plywood temporary counter tops and the put on his plumbers hat (and droopy plumber's pants) and uninstalled the plumbing for the sink and remove the sink as well.

Finally the day of the granite installation came and the installers arrived early and got to work.  It was a bit of a challenge for them to bring in one particular slab.  It was 10 feet long and weighed close to 500 pounds.  There was another slab that was about the same size but did have a nice big hole for the sink so it wasn't quite as heavy.  It took them most of the morning to install the 67.5 square feet of black galaxy granite.

Black galaxy granite is a beautiful deep black granite with flecks of gold, silver and  even some red reflectors.  More info can be found at http://stone-network.com/india/granite/black_galaxy.html.

This is a close-up of our black galaxy granite. The reflectors look different depending on which lights are on and from which direction the light is reflecting.  It is a very beautiful and interesting stone.

Then once the stone was in, then Andy had to re-install the sink faucets and drain plumbing including a new top line garbage disposal.  Fortunately, as the sink is an undermount, the granite guys installed that.  Andy finished the sink cabinet by installing the panels, doors and handles which brings the total to 68 handles installed.  Finally the kitchen cabinetry is finished.  Well, that's not quite correct.  There is cabinet trim work to be done once the backsplash has been installed.

The cooking station of the kitchen with Monica preparing for one of the several dinner parties we've had.

Looking from the cooking station down the kitchen to the bar.  We decided on one big and deep sink and are really happy about that decision.  The faucet is one of those Delta touch faucets.  You can just touch the faucet to turn it on and off.  Very handy when your hands are covered in batter or chicken fat, etc.

To finish off the bar, we ordered some under cabinet glass and wine racks. Now the bar looks like a bar!

The bar! We are extremely happy with the result.  While the kitchen cabinet layout was designed even before we hired an architect, this is pretty much a late edition.  Once the house plans were finalized, we had one leftover cabinet and this additional wall space.  We decided to turn it into a major bar area.  What a great bonus!!!

It hasn't been all work and no play.  We have had a number of dinner parties with friends and family.  It is quite a hoot to see the facial expressions when folks see the renovations for the first time.  From the time we open the door and they see a beautiful staircase where a dining room used to be, to the huge open area where a very much divided kitchen, breakfast nook, sunroom and patio used to be to the huge office area upstairs, they are really surprised with the change.  Once the shock is over, then it is down to some serious eating and partying.

One evening over the Thanksgiving, Karen was having a gathering of her friends most of whom live outside of Dallas now.  Andy and Monica were in there room listening to each person as they came in.  The usual expression was something like "Holy Sh*t" when they first walked in and another one when they walked into the kitchen.  We got a great laugh from that.

Next on Andy's list of projects are 1) moving the office to the new space upstairs 2) installing tile on the back door step and 3) installing the backsplash in the kitchen.  Of course, like most projects, plans can change.  We will post back after the new year with an update to see how much he really gets done over the holidays.

Thanks for following our journey this year.  With the wedding and the renovations, it was really an exiting 2010 for us.  We're hoping that 2011 will be a bit more calmer.  Here's hoping you have a joyous holiday season and that 2011 brings you much happiness and enjoyment!

Murphy and Tigger enjoying some nice weather and reflecting on the past year.