Decorator's Choice

Now that we are getting to the final weeks of the project, we have to start picking out how to decorate! I both love and hate this part as I don't want to make any decisions that I won't want to live with for a good while. I am excited about our choices and we are still working on a fabric for the window seat. . waffling between a stripe and a pattern without being too crazy! Enjoy:

The Orange 'Couch' (potterybarn.com, Greenwich series Loveseat in Orange Spice). It is the only tailored couch we've been able to find with the correct measurements (70" wide)

The chair I love and hope Mr. K will learn to love. . .still trying to decide slipcover or tailored. Pottery Barn Brooks Chair in Bettina Fabric

The 'old' family room rug we plan to reuse in the new family room~courtesy of GreenFront's fabulous rug shopping. . .

The Bettina Fabric Pillows found on Ebay. . .

I'[m hoping I can get her to do some custom pillows with cording in an orange/pink that my fabulous 'deisgner' Jennie picked out.

And our prospective fabric for the seating in the kitchen.

Checkmate

So the drywall is complete and now it's my turn to screw things up. I need paint colors, final tile selections, to decide dark or light wood in the hardwood areas. . .aghhh! When perfection is at stake (as it always is), it is impossible to do. And while I know most of the decisions I have to make are reversible now (paint colors, fabrics, tile even), its not like I am going to want to touch anything when this sucker is complete. So Mr. GC has played his hand well and the ball is invariably in my court to finalize my decisions, which, I think change just about every single day;)

So here are pictures of the last week, ending August 14, 2009, where all the drywall is in place and the new gas meter has been installed and we will get back on 'gas' for hotwater in the near future. This week we are heading into cabinet and flooring installation. . . .so we'll see how much progress the end of this week brings!

Half-wall/bench at the end of the island. Divide between Family Room and Kitchen
Family Room view of Sliding glass doors

Mudroom where Henry wanted 'something to paint'- cubbies on right and view of the door to garage

Kitchen view from Family room

View of Garage from Door to Mudroom

Family room Bay windows and fireplace

View of Kitchen/Family Room from Mudroom Doorway- half wall/bench back

View of Family room/benchwall from southwestern corner of kitchen

View of Garage drywalled from garage entrance

View of the storage/pooltable area and mudroom entrance on right

Bathroom drywalled

New dental molding and pantry sealed up entrance to kitchen

View of new bay windows and complete siding on the exterior pf the kitchen

View of the Mudroom Addition and Garage enclosure

Keep on Truckin'. . . .

"Truckin', like the do-dah man. Once told me "You've got to play your hand"

Sometimes the cards ain't worth a damn, if you don't lay'em down,

Sometimes the light's all shinin' on me;Other times I can barely see.

Lately it occurs to me, What a long, strange trip it's been." -Grateful Dead

So we enter the final month (or thereabout hopefully) with the project now getting to being 'a simple remodel' (verses the structural and physically challenging things that go along with it being a renovation). My terminology could be wrong. At the end of August 7, 2009, here is what the house looked like. The insulation was in, and we were expecting a week of drywalling the week ahead.

Hardy Plank Siding on the Addition/Mudroom/window to the bath

View from the southwest corner of the kitchen into the family room (step down), bar area and door to the mudroom

View from the southeastern part of the kitchen and entrance from the house of the family room and door to the mudroom.

Our ingenious kitchen entrance turned pantry. We reused an old door and cut it in half. I love it!

I plan to keep it closed with an icebox lock.

View of the mudroom/cubbbies(right) and door to the garage.

View from the mudroom entrance to the family room, then step up to the kitchen.

View from the garage door to the garage. (anticipate putting a doggie door on the left, to the left of the window)

View of the storage/pooltable/entrance to mudroom and patio side of the garage.

All's well that ends well. . .

So in my last post, we had our first 'issue' come up. Now, I know working with GC can sometimes be a nightmare (I think most people have had this experience), so I feel fortunate that our GC has been kind enough to work with us on most everything, including the stairs, which we are quite happy with the new! Here they are: The original Architect's sketch

The first version of the stairs

the final version of the stairs. . .

One last view a little farther out!

So now that we've overcome that feat, I am definitely a happier camper with that decision. However we are now on fast forward, so I will post the last 2 progress pictures separately as they are 2 phases that moved faster than I was able to blog/update!

Which one of these is not like the other?

OK, so I have now two somewhat major, but not incorrectable situations with our GC. First, our courtyard steps and which direction I should push? Check them out and if you think one looks better (the sketch or the actual), let me know! My 'vision' is the sketch and the pictures are the current existing situation with my contractor. . . .so we have to correct this, this week to keep on schedule as best we can! Oh joy.

Second is the Fireplace built-in, but that creates an entire chimney atop itself. . .

Currently the Fireplace is designed to havebuilt-ins on either side (the electrical and water heater are in the process of being moved, so ignore them); We had watned to vent through the existing chimney there but it was for a boiler and so code wouldn't let us. We are asking them to run the vent farther back, so its not striaght up as I think it's going to cause us to have electrical/TV issues above it.

Larger look at the room and placement- around it will be an entire wall of bookshelves and/or cabinets on either side- we are trying to get them to move the venting back towards the wall so that it runs up the cinderblock and not against the planned-TV area.

The current exit from the family room to the courtyard

Another angle at the opening

My expected 'vision' (note the 9-10' wide stairs)

Second is the Fireplace built-in, but that creates an entire chimney atop itself. . .

And the Honeymoon is officially over. . .

So I think most general contractors are akin to an errant, but good-hearted boyfriend. There are so many good things that you do like, but the bad things that are just a matter of mis-communication, can really get to you. . .and so I think this week was my boiling point with one such issue. I had been throughly enjoying the progress as it went and watching now (this week- ending 7.24) the siding is up on the additions and the masonry and roofs are on the bay windows and so I didn't really take a good look until our morning tour with family this Sunday when I noticed a hole in my slate roof and venting from the gas fireplace taking up a HUGE amount of space in our family room. None of which I was either consulted on, or, more importantly, approved of.

And I know drywall is supposed to start on Monday (or was) because I hate the new 'look' so much, I think that we actually may just scrap the whole fireplace if they can't do what they told me they would. . .and further I am annoyed that NOT ONE PERSON ASKED me if that was OK. I know that it wasn't the plan, because we almost ordered cabinet that would have had to be fit over the new chase and I don't think we can have the TV we expected there over the fireplace. One of two things happened: My GC wasn't consulted and then its entirely his sub's fault (which I hope is the case) or my GC was consulted and just made the decision or forgot to tell me. Of course, I think communication with GC is very important and equally important is his ability to communicate properly and appropriately with the people who are paying for such things. So much on my rant. But I am boiling and this has probably shit my Sunday away quite nicely as I am not sure when I will get an answer about what the H*LL is going on with my house!

Below are last week's pictures (ending 7.17), of the progress with Windows, doors and the rest of the rough-ins (which, also, I note, if are what we expect, are not complete either. . .so I hope my GC understands that. . .) I will hope it's his sub's minscommunication so I can keep 'dating' him without being tempered by this concern.

The new 'view' from the family room.

View of the 'mudroom' from the entryway (via garage) [washer'dryer on the right under window] and the bathroom framed on the left.

View of the exterior from the driveway (both new bay windows and framed out pantry).

View of the Garage and mudroom addition from the driveway.

View of family room from the kitchen.

View of the soon-to-be pantry

View of the new window seat/family room window.

View of the kitchen from the family room doors.

Exterior View of the new windows in the corner (and subsequent masonry to match).

View of the Sliding Glass doors.

Water, Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink!

So this week in the lives of the Kirkebabies means rain coming through 2 stories of your house, always at night and always when Daddy Kirkeby is working late! So Mama Kirkeby gets to deal with all of the mess herself.

Just after our last post on July 1, the rain started and as I was getting ready to head to bed, I hear and see water everywhere in the foyer of the house. We had Niagara Falls sprinkling on our steps and around our molding and in the paint. Thankfully it required mostly just me over-moping the floors with towels and then finding a place to hang these now wet towels once it stopped raining. Now any of you who know the foyer, know that it is on the first story of 2 stories. So you, ask, 'How does water make it through 2 stories?'

I asked myself the same thing, in an attempt to find where the water was coming from. Once I got upstairs to our *new* officespace (e.g. converted attic 18 months ago), I witness water coming in between the cracks of the draywall, pockets of water in the paint, drips coming through the hardwood floors and the lovely sound of what i thought was a hose between the walls of my house. So I totally freaked, attempting, like a cartoon holding a balloon with more leaks than fingers, to contain each of the many leaks and water entering my house and wondering 'when will the rain stop?'! So what seemed like an eternity was a storm that was less than a hour and damage that required these enormous fans plugged into our walls to attempt to remediate/alleviate the amount of moisture plaster attracts.

Good news: the upstairs dried itself out, so all we have are plaster, drywall and wood molding to replace, along with some new trim or fixed trim, depending on whether it dries itself out. Bad News, on top of not having a *real* kitchen, and living in our makeshift kitchen in the dining room, we now have the added pleasure of having them demo the plaster ceiling in the foyer of the house to get the wet plaster out. Why does this bother me? Because they are basically demo-ing wet, 60 year olf plaster with what is probably lead paint and I have 2 children under 4 and they eat about 20 feet from the demo.
Good news: they pay for just about everything inside the house to repair (less our, thank god we kept it low deductible).
Bad news: If it rains agian, it will come back in the house.
Bad news: I can't get a roofer to do this repair for at least a week and we are forecasted thunderstorms Thursday through the weekend.
Good news: They are making progress on the remodel while we live in what seems like eternal hell....

So what I had intended to post last week, I will post now. Here are the pictures of our progress from around July 6. . . .

View of the boys outside the family room-soon-to-be-bay window

View from the family room to the kitchen

View of the patio area (where they cut the soon-to-be-9' patio door and the 2 window- one old and one newly cut on the corner)

My contruction workers helping 'fix their house'

View from the driveway of the 2 new openings for the kitchen bay window and then the family room bay window-'seat.'