Week 4

It has been a busy week both for the project and for us at work.  Plus there was the excitement about the tornado-ridden storms passing though the Dallas area on Tuesday.  And there was a good bit of excitement around the renovation project.

While not directly related to the renovation the new pool equipment was installed and we are in the process of evicting the swamp monster. 

We got a new, electronically controlled, variable speed pump, a new DE filter about twice the size of the old one, a new sweeper and booster pump, a new chlorinator, new valves, a new time clock and lots of new PVC pipe.

 The media room is really starting to take shape.  Shelving for the kegerator niche was added, base mold was installed, window sill and trim was added, a door to the upper cubby storage was added, a new solid core door from the media room to the hallway was added, cabinet assembly and installation started and the pocketless pocket door was installed.

The shelving in the kegerator niche. The bottom shelf is for holding the CO2 tanks behind the kegerator thereby freeing up space in the kegerator for the more important beer kegs.  The upper shelf will be hidden below the lid of the kegerator so the lid can be opened without moving the kegerator out.

The door allows access to a storage area above the cabinets.  This is an a perfect place for Andy to store large brewing pots and fermentation bottles.

The assembly and installation of the cabinets are started.  The cabinets are a black-brown but appear mostly black.  The two smaller base cabinets will have three drawers.  The upper cabinet will have glass doors with in cabinet LED lights.  LED lights will also be installed under the upper cabinets.

This is the shelving for the main media components.  You can see the A/V and speaker connections through the cutouts in the back of the cabinet.  The cabinets will be removed when the painters paint the walls so the ugly yellow won't show through.  The rear surround speakers will be mounted below the component shelf.

Lola is checking out the trim that was added around the windows.  These windows will have cellular blackout shades.  The trim is added to cover the normal gaps around the shades but it gives a nice window case look to the windows.

This one door caused a lot of discussion and confusion in how to implement it.  Since this is a media room, we wanted to minimize light coming in and sound going out.  The door is a heavy solid core door.  The design calls for the door to slide into a slot when closed and to overlap the width of the opening.  In essence this is a pocket door without the pocket to hide the door when it is open.  Andy calls it a pocketless pocket door.

The most dramatic change however occurred in the master bath. In last week's post we showed that the bathtub was installed.  But when we met with the cabinet builder to talk about the custom closet door and the custom bathtub skirt, it was noticed that the tub was not level... it was off by a half inch.  while this may not sound like much, when it comes to tiling and building the tub skirt, it is a big deal.  The plumber was called back in on Monday morning to fix it, but, according to him, it is level and he left. 
Darrell, my RHD project manager, along with one of the subs pulled the tub and corrected the problem himself and reset the tub.  Now the plumber has to come out and reattach the plumbing.

The tub had to be pulled out so the stringers could be reset level.

The tile layout became a bit of an issue.  The architect, Ryan, originally called for a 2x6 tile pattern which means cutting those out of the 12x12 tile.  While that was a cool design, there were a couple of problems.  First was the fact that the limestone tile that Andy and Anna selected had some really cool quartz deposits of various colors.  Andy's concern was that the quartz would either get cut up too much or would be lost in the design.  Another issue is that the 12x12 tiles has a small bevel on each of the four sides.  If they were to be cut into 2x6 tiles these would have to be dealt with.  So, Ryan created a couple of alternative designs resulting in a really nice design using the full 12x12 tiles. 

This is the shower with the accent tile that has the multi-sized mosaic.  The picture does not do it justice.  It looks fantastic!

The floor of the shower is 1x1 tiles.  These are the same kind of stone is found in the accent tile.  The shower curb will be capped with granite just like the pony will will have.  The granite company has found a perfect match with the granite that we used for the vanity counters.

The tile around the tub is almost complete.  all that is left is the accent tiles in the little diamond areas.  This accent tile has the same colors as the accent tiles used in the shower by are 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch.  If you look carefully these were used inside the window casing.  The 2x4's are an optional feature... actually they are holding the upper tiles in place while the mortar dries.

George, the tile guy, is doing a fantastic job with the tile.  He pays attention to the details.  He will be working Saturday to finish the wall and the floor tiles and grout everything.  Monday should bring the painters and they will start prepping to paint.  Sometime mid-week, the glass company will be in to measure for the frameless shower enclosure. 

A couple of items might take some time.  The door to the master bath uses a barn door type of hardware which they are having trouble locating locally and will likely have be shipped.  The door itself is not in yet either but has been ordered.  Then there is the custom-built tub skirt and the custom-built closet doors.  Those might take some time to complete.

But, we are definitely beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.