Still working it!!

Wow!!  It's been nearly five months since we've done an update....  But have been chipping away at the tasks despite the lack of blog update.  Unfortunately, it has been busy outside of this remodeling project.. all of that real life stuff you know.  Most of January and February was lost due to a big work project Andy had in Jan, the passing of Monica's mom at the end of January and Monica getting back to working on her Master's degree.  In spite of that we have made some progress, particularly over the past few weeks as we geared up for a big party.

Here is a quick summary of what we've done since the end of Dec.

So that we can stuff things away, we installed some basic shelving in the upstairs closets.  This is just some bare wood modular shelving from IKEA.  It's not great looking but is very functional and configurable.

This is the new upstairs storage closet.  There is deeper ~24" shelving on the left and 12" shelving on the right.  It filled up in no time mostly with Monica's scrapbook stuff.  Andy was able to snag a shelf or two.

The same shelving system is installed in the two small office closets.  This closet will become a technology closet where Andy will put routers, switches, computers, etc.

The room at the top of the stairs has become an exercise room.  Andy purchased a recumbent bike and a weight machine.  The weight machine was a bit of a bear to assemble.  We also have an elliptical and a treadmill still in storage.  Most likely we will only add the treadmill and get rid of the elliptical.  We'll also put a small LCD TV in here with a DVD player for exercise DVD's.

The "gym"!!  Probably won't get a lot of use until after the renovation is done.

The next big project was the entryway and stairs.  We painted the trim along the stairs and in the entryway and the closet door.  We had already purchased the tile several months ago as they were a special buy.  The tiles are a mosaic of white marble and black polished granite.  We decided to purchase some black granite tiles as transitions between rooms. 

This is the tile we purchased many months ago for the entry and stair risers.  As you can see it is white marble (probably Caldera??) rectangles surrounding a small black square of what is most likely some type of black granite.  The white has bits of gray highlights thrown in.

This is looking from the top of the stairs.  You can see the various gradations of gray in the white marble.  Cuts of black granite tile is used as transitions in the three passage ways.

A closer picture of the entry tile.  In the corner with stairs we will put a small teak secretary that Monica got from her mom's house.  It should fit perfectly.

We used the same mosiac tile on the stiar risers will a small strip of the black granite.

 
After the entryway it was time to start on the "great room" which includes the kitchen, breakfast nook and sunroom.  We had to finish off the painting.  The trim, window sills and doors had to be painted.  The walls had to be touched up especially around the edges.

For the kitchen, we wanted to extend a similar look with white marble and black granite.  We decided on 12" x 12" white Carrera marble tiles with  3" black granite tile strips trimmed around the cabinets and 12" x 12" black granite tiles as transitions to the sunroom and breakfast room.

It was a lot of work over several weekends to lay the kitchen tile but we think it was worth the effort.  You can see the same type of white/gray tile as in the entry mosaic but in a larger 12" x 12" tile.  The same black granite look was used as trim around the cabinets and as transitions between the kitchen and the rest of the "great room".  It's hard to see but the toe kicks have a stainless steel look.

The black granite was also used as a landing for the back door.  You can see Andy checking out how the hardwood will look against the black.

We wanted some type of wood for the rest of the "great room" (ie: the breakfast area and sunroom)  We looked around quite a bit for wood flooring and almost decided on a dark solid bamboo but we just kept coming back to an engineered wood from Thomasville.  The core is high-density fiberboard and the top hardwood layer is Brazillian Jatoba with a Cherry Amaretto finish.  Andy happened to find a closeout sale online at Home Depot for 30% off and free shipping.  He just couldn't resist and purchased 1800 sq ft of the stuff.  Nope.. the great room is not 1800 sq ft!!  This flooring will also be installed throughout the rest of the downstairs including the formal dining room, master bedroom, the other two bedrooms and both hallways.  We should have a good bit leftover for future repairs or expansion.

The breakfast nook and the sunroom sections of the "great room".  The 12 x 12 black granite tile is used as the transition between the kitchen and the other areas.

The bar in the great room.  One of our favorite features in the house.  Notice the "stainless steel" looking toe kicks.  You can see the stainless steel look toe kick better here.

We also installed shades in the sunroom and in the office.

We installed the same blinds upstairs as well.  These are Levelor cell blinds with a cordless lift system.

We got all of this done just in time for our Cinco de Mayo celebration, affectionately known as Drinko de Mayo!  We got a lot of comments about the floor, especially from folks who had seen the bare concrete floor that we've been living with since last fall.

There are still several things left to do in the great room.  We still have to finish the baseboard quarter round trim, install another light fixture over the sink in the kitchen, install the backsplash tile on two walls and add trim to the cabinets.  Then the kitchen will pretty much be finished.

BUT... there's always a but isn't there....  While this will mostly complete all of the new addition, there is still the formal dining room, the media room, the master bedroom, the guest bedrooms and the hallways.  Oh yea.. still have to finish the hobbit hole closet under the stairs.  Whoo boy!  Then finally, after that, Andy will get to work on his garage man-cave.

It wasn't all just work.  Andy upgraded and added some audio/video components.  He purchased to "placeshifter" units, called Vulkano, that connect to the FIOS set top boxes and the network.  This allows us to watch live TV on various clients like iPads, iTouches and our Android phones.  He also added a USB disk drive to each so that we can record shows/movies that can be downloaded to our clients for offline viewing.  Monica can now enjoy TV in her bath.  Anna can now record shows and movies to watch on her iTouch while at the gym.

Our Samsung big screen DLP TV is 3D capable.  Unfortunately it uses the checkerboard format whereas the Top/Bottom or Side-to-Side formats are the primary formats used these days.  However, Mistubishi has an adapter that works with legacy Mitsubishi and Samsund DLP systems and converts new 3D formats to the checkerboard format used by these TVs. So, Andy had to purchase this adapter to keep up with his Geek club membership.  Of course, he had to upgrade to a new 3D Blu-ray player and upgrade the AV receiver to support 3D.  Just like when he adopted HDTV 10 years ago, there is not a plethora of content available  but it is growing.  He is hoping that the Mavericks make it to the NBA finals because they will be broadcast on the ESPN 3D channel.  Monica really enjoyed watching Tangled in 3D

Stay tuned, this blog will have more updates!  We will try to update more often.