On June 15th, our friend Kevin Huntington put together this huge memo for us on market analysis and homes available in the area. We were hoping for a couple ideas for homes available in the Eagan/Apple Valley area, and he went above and beyond.
Since I don't do a good job ever deleting emails, I was looking back at the email from that day. It was funny, he started the email "Hey Tieds and Tieds." (Kevin was an usher in our wedding).
He wrote about how the market had fallen in the area, and what might be available if we chose to stick around that part of the metro area. He told us at the time that "while there are super bank deals in certain parts of the metro, (in which you probably don't want to live), the crazy good deals around your area aren't always as common." That's all very technical stuff from my lawyer/Realtor friend.
We spent a little bit of time over the next few weeks driving around and checking out what might be available. There was a house or two just blocks away that we often saw out on walks that we really liked.
At the time though, just a couple of weeks back from our Honeymoon, we really had no plans to move.
On June 23rd, Kevin put together a matrix for us on homes in Sara's association in Chanhassen and my association in Eagan. After all, if we were going to move into a new home, surely we'd have to sell our two homes. That was a no-brainer.
I remember looking at the comps in our two neighborhoods wondering how we'd swing selling either of the two townhomes let alone both given the current market.
We decided at the time to keep in touch with Kevin and continue to see what's out there. We were in no hurry and were in the middle of Summer hopeful to spend time at the lake and just generally have a relaxing Summer.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Closets and Landscaping
Sara and I spent a bunch of time today working on closets, kitchen bar stools and landscaping.
We drove down to the Container Store late morning and spent a few hours there working on finalizing designs on most of the closets in the home. They have a system called Elfa that is totally adjustable, and is somewhere between the fixed wire closets, and a fixed system that California Closets design. We have a few little tweaks here and there, but have ordered a great system for all of the closets except for the two guest bedrooms. They are scheduled to be ready for me to pick up early Wednesday morning. They will come packaged by room, and will be ready for us to install before we move in.
On the way back to Blaine, we stopped at Hom Furniture in Coon Rapids. Getting furniture in the house is going to be a process, and what we have will suffice for a while. The one first exception is a place to eat. At some point we're going to get a nice kitchen table and chairs, but for the time being we're planning to do meals around the island. So we went shopping at Hom for medium height bar stools. Sara had found some at Crate and Barrel that are very nice. They will take weeks to get in, and are a little more than we wanted to spend. We happened to find some at Hom that we really like that are on sale right now. We put in an order, which we'll probably execute early this week. They also have matching chairs we could eventually purchase for the dining room.
On the way out, Sara saw a recliner that she fell in love with. I think it is likely we'll purchase it as well (if not now, sometime down the line).
We met with a potential landscaper this evening to start the process of getting landscaping bids. Kevin with B&D has done work for a couple of neighbors in the cul-de-sac, and came as a recommendation of Tom three houses down. Kevin seems like a great guy. He was very honest (maybe overly honest about how everyone in the field is chasing down work). He surveyed the land, gave us some homework (books on trees, shrubs, rock and retaining walls) and is going to get back to us with a menu of options and prices. He said they are working a couple of weeks out right now. We've come to the realization that we probably won't have grass when we move in, but we're in a pretty good spot to get it done shortly thereafter.
We took Kevin over to our mortgage broker Nate's house to show him an example of what we like. I think Nate's wife considered calling 911 as we haven't yet met her, yet we were poking around their front yard.
Anyway, we look forward to seeing what Kevin comes up with, and plan to get at least one, and probably two more bids.
I think we decided over the weekend which glass mosaic we're going with in the kitchen. We're going to work with Village to try to get that ordered and installed before we close. It is a chocolate/caramel color.
Tomorrow they start the carpet, and Tuesday the driveway and sidewalk will be poured.
We decided definitively that we need to get gutters installed now, before the landscaping goes in. So my next task is to get a couple of bids for that project.
Sara leaves for Fresno in the morning for her first of three trips out to California before we close. That means I'll have to write our name in the wet driveway cement Tuesday without her.
We drove down to the Container Store late morning and spent a few hours there working on finalizing designs on most of the closets in the home. They have a system called Elfa that is totally adjustable, and is somewhere between the fixed wire closets, and a fixed system that California Closets design. We have a few little tweaks here and there, but have ordered a great system for all of the closets except for the two guest bedrooms. They are scheduled to be ready for me to pick up early Wednesday morning. They will come packaged by room, and will be ready for us to install before we move in.
On the way back to Blaine, we stopped at Hom Furniture in Coon Rapids. Getting furniture in the house is going to be a process, and what we have will suffice for a while. The one first exception is a place to eat. At some point we're going to get a nice kitchen table and chairs, but for the time being we're planning to do meals around the island. So we went shopping at Hom for medium height bar stools. Sara had found some at Crate and Barrel that are very nice. They will take weeks to get in, and are a little more than we wanted to spend. We happened to find some at Hom that we really like that are on sale right now. We put in an order, which we'll probably execute early this week. They also have matching chairs we could eventually purchase for the dining room.
On the way out, Sara saw a recliner that she fell in love with. I think it is likely we'll purchase it as well (if not now, sometime down the line).
We met with a potential landscaper this evening to start the process of getting landscaping bids. Kevin with B&D has done work for a couple of neighbors in the cul-de-sac, and came as a recommendation of Tom three houses down. Kevin seems like a great guy. He was very honest (maybe overly honest about how everyone in the field is chasing down work). He surveyed the land, gave us some homework (books on trees, shrubs, rock and retaining walls) and is going to get back to us with a menu of options and prices. He said they are working a couple of weeks out right now. We've come to the realization that we probably won't have grass when we move in, but we're in a pretty good spot to get it done shortly thereafter.
We took Kevin over to our mortgage broker Nate's house to show him an example of what we like. I think Nate's wife considered calling 911 as we haven't yet met her, yet we were poking around their front yard.
Anyway, we look forward to seeing what Kevin comes up with, and plan to get at least one, and probably two more bids.
I think we decided over the weekend which glass mosaic we're going with in the kitchen. We're going to work with Village to try to get that ordered and installed before we close. It is a chocolate/caramel color.
Tomorrow they start the carpet, and Tuesday the driveway and sidewalk will be poured.
We decided definitively that we need to get gutters installed now, before the landscaping goes in. So my next task is to get a couple of bids for that project.
Sara leaves for Fresno in the morning for her first of three trips out to California before we close. That means I'll have to write our name in the wet driveway cement Tuesday without her.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Let there be Light
If everything goes as planned, three weeks from right now I'll be waking up and enjoying my first cup of coffee in our new house for the first time.
More importantly, three weeks from today Sara WON'T be at a coffee shop doing homework. I'll hopefully be preparing an omelet and strawberries for her, maybe to eat on the front porch if it's nice out (we won't yet have a deck).
Sara and I went to Gaytee Stained glass yesterday afternoon for our second trip. TJB puts a piece of stained glass in all of their homes. It's one of their trademarks and part of the deal if you want to build with them. We'll have a custom designed stained glass window in the transom between the foyer and study in the front of the house. It's an odd place (maybe that's to be expected at a stained glass store in Uptown), but the people are very nice and they had our design all sketched out and ready to go. We picked out the pieces of glass we're going to use for different components. It took us all of 20 minutes and we were on our way. I didn't take pictures of the sketch to add here, but we're going to like it. It is simple and reflects some very important values of ours. The types of glass we were able to choose fit the theme too, which I think will really add to that part of the house.
After picking up Sara's graduation cap and tassels from the U (see above regarding the homework issue) we enjoyed some Punch Pizza at the U and then headed up to Blaine out to the house.
With the exception of the carpet, fridge, vessel sink, mirrors and a couple of lights (oh, and US) basically everything is in the house now. For the next few weeks it is a matter of all of the little details, and making sure there were no mistakes. We have a couple of walk throughs to make sure everything is perfect.
The lights and the water are now functional. We arrived at the house early enough that we could still look around without them, but it was fun to see everything functioning. You will recall that we did the electrical walk through months ago when we literally walked around the house with the electrician and told him where we wanted every outlet, light and light switch. Turning lights on in the house last night, I think we generally got it right.
We're still debating on what to do with the light we put in the foyer. We really like it, but it might hang down just a little too far. We still have one chain link we can remove, and it is right on the edge of being just a little too low.
This is the light in the the study with a view of the side wall. It is cool to see these up and working.
Here is the chandelier in the stairs on the way up to the second floor. You can see this is one of the little details we need to take care of. (One of the lights is out). I'm hopeful that it is just the bulb he installed and not one non-functioning light on the chandelier. Either way, it will be fixed. We're really happy with the family of lights we picked out throughout the house.
The next two pictures are in the master bedroom. We took a lot of liberties here to make it just the way we want it. There is soffit around the vault where, as you can see, we have lighting that turned out awesome. We'll eventually put speakers up in the corners as well.
The garage lights are all working too, and as you can see they built in the stairs up to the door. At the bottom of the stairs is all of the paperwork that the inspectors need to sign off on as they do their inspections. Looks like we're on schedule to have everything inspected and approved.
And this is what the house looks like from the street with the outside recessed lights in, and the chandelier on. We had purchased 100 watt "day light" CFL bulbs for the outside recessed lights. The ones that were installed are soft white and don't really give off enough light outside. We'll have to get that changed. Other than that, I think this looks great, and it is fun to see a lit up house from the street.
More importantly, three weeks from today Sara WON'T be at a coffee shop doing homework. I'll hopefully be preparing an omelet and strawberries for her, maybe to eat on the front porch if it's nice out (we won't yet have a deck).
Sara and I went to Gaytee Stained glass yesterday afternoon for our second trip. TJB puts a piece of stained glass in all of their homes. It's one of their trademarks and part of the deal if you want to build with them. We'll have a custom designed stained glass window in the transom between the foyer and study in the front of the house. It's an odd place (maybe that's to be expected at a stained glass store in Uptown), but the people are very nice and they had our design all sketched out and ready to go. We picked out the pieces of glass we're going to use for different components. It took us all of 20 minutes and we were on our way. I didn't take pictures of the sketch to add here, but we're going to like it. It is simple and reflects some very important values of ours. The types of glass we were able to choose fit the theme too, which I think will really add to that part of the house.
After picking up Sara's graduation cap and tassels from the U (see above regarding the homework issue) we enjoyed some Punch Pizza at the U and then headed up to Blaine out to the house.
With the exception of the carpet, fridge, vessel sink, mirrors and a couple of lights (oh, and US) basically everything is in the house now. For the next few weeks it is a matter of all of the little details, and making sure there were no mistakes. We have a couple of walk throughs to make sure everything is perfect.
The lights and the water are now functional. We arrived at the house early enough that we could still look around without them, but it was fun to see everything functioning. You will recall that we did the electrical walk through months ago when we literally walked around the house with the electrician and told him where we wanted every outlet, light and light switch. Turning lights on in the house last night, I think we generally got it right.
We're still debating on what to do with the light we put in the foyer. We really like it, but it might hang down just a little too far. We still have one chain link we can remove, and it is right on the edge of being just a little too low.
This is the light in the the study with a view of the side wall. It is cool to see these up and working.
Here is the chandelier in the stairs on the way up to the second floor. You can see this is one of the little details we need to take care of. (One of the lights is out). I'm hopeful that it is just the bulb he installed and not one non-functioning light on the chandelier. Either way, it will be fixed. We're really happy with the family of lights we picked out throughout the house.
The next two pictures are in the master bedroom. We took a lot of liberties here to make it just the way we want it. There is soffit around the vault where, as you can see, we have lighting that turned out awesome. We'll eventually put speakers up in the corners as well.
The garage lights are all working too, and as you can see they built in the stairs up to the door. At the bottom of the stairs is all of the paperwork that the inspectors need to sign off on as they do their inspections. Looks like we're on schedule to have everything inspected and approved.
And this is what the house looks like from the street with the outside recessed lights in, and the chandelier on. We had purchased 100 watt "day light" CFL bulbs for the outside recessed lights. The ones that were installed are soft white and don't really give off enough light outside. We'll have to get that changed. Other than that, I think this looks great, and it is fun to see a lit up house from the street.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Plumbing and Lighting
They are supposed to be wrapped up with all of the plumbing and lighting later today (at least all that they can, as our fridge and dishwasher aren't here yet).
We've learned that we have lights we ordered that we aren't able to us. We planned to put a hanging light right inside the front door, but the light we chose hangs down too low, both in terms of code, and in terms of how it would look. We'll have to send that light back and probably replace it with one of the flush mount lights that we have all around the hallways. The electrician might have thrown away some of the links that make the light shorter and longer. If they threw away parts to our light, that will obviously be a huge problem. But we're hopeful that the parts are in a drawer sometime.
This is the light in the semi-formal dining room off of the kitchen. It is going to be above the center of a table, which we will purchase sometime in the future.
You can see here (kind of) that the bulbs are all in in the recessed lights.
This is the chandelier in the stairwell heading upstairs. We were worried about whether or not we were purchasing something that was too small, or too big. I think we purchased on that is about the right size.
I had written earlier that we wanted to develop a cool powder bath on the main floor. The tile and glass mosaic is all installed, as is the faucet. The vessel bowl was in the bathroom earlier this week and we're not actually sure where it went. But at some point it will be here on top of the cabinet.
They installed the washer and dryer in the laundry room.
They also just put in the bath tub and the faucets. This is one of the only rooms on the second floor (other than the bonus room) that has windows out to the street. This will obviously be the first set of windows that get blinds or shades.
They flipped the fixtures in the master bath to have them face downward. Under each of them we will have a mirror, and in between the mirrors we are looking to put a medicine cabinet.
While we have a few changes to make, they are basically done with the master shower, which we are very excited about. You can see the huge rainshower (we are going to raise it up a little) and the removable hand held (which has about six different settings). The glass mosaic around the shower turned out great. The only issue in the shower that we have is that the handles they installed don't match. Two of them have white handles and the other one is chrome like the rest of the shower. We're working with the plumber to get these switched out.
There probably won't be a lot of significant change today. We're hopeful the vessel will be in the power bath. But other than that, most of the fixtures that we have at the house are already in. We're still waiting on the new pendants over the island, and as I mentioned we have to switch out the light right inside the front door.
This afternoon, Sara and I are going to the stained glass place and are going to try to finalize the stained glass between foyer and the office.
We're also going to go back to the Container Store to get the master closet and several other closet systems ordered. We'll hopefully be able to do that yet this evening (since the Twins game is canceled that we were going to attend).
We've learned that we have lights we ordered that we aren't able to us. We planned to put a hanging light right inside the front door, but the light we chose hangs down too low, both in terms of code, and in terms of how it would look. We'll have to send that light back and probably replace it with one of the flush mount lights that we have all around the hallways. The electrician might have thrown away some of the links that make the light shorter and longer. If they threw away parts to our light, that will obviously be a huge problem. But we're hopeful that the parts are in a drawer sometime.
This is the light in the semi-formal dining room off of the kitchen. It is going to be above the center of a table, which we will purchase sometime in the future.
You can see here (kind of) that the bulbs are all in in the recessed lights.
This is the chandelier in the stairwell heading upstairs. We were worried about whether or not we were purchasing something that was too small, or too big. I think we purchased on that is about the right size.
I had written earlier that we wanted to develop a cool powder bath on the main floor. The tile and glass mosaic is all installed, as is the faucet. The vessel bowl was in the bathroom earlier this week and we're not actually sure where it went. But at some point it will be here on top of the cabinet.
They installed the washer and dryer in the laundry room.
They also just put in the bath tub and the faucets. This is one of the only rooms on the second floor (other than the bonus room) that has windows out to the street. This will obviously be the first set of windows that get blinds or shades.
They flipped the fixtures in the master bath to have them face downward. Under each of them we will have a mirror, and in between the mirrors we are looking to put a medicine cabinet.
While we have a few changes to make, they are basically done with the master shower, which we are very excited about. You can see the huge rainshower (we are going to raise it up a little) and the removable hand held (which has about six different settings). The glass mosaic around the shower turned out great. The only issue in the shower that we have is that the handles they installed don't match. Two of them have white handles and the other one is chrome like the rest of the shower. We're working with the plumber to get these switched out.
There probably won't be a lot of significant change today. We're hopeful the vessel will be in the power bath. But other than that, most of the fixtures that we have at the house are already in. We're still waiting on the new pendants over the island, and as I mentioned we have to switch out the light right inside the front door.
This afternoon, Sara and I are going to the stained glass place and are going to try to finalize the stained glass between foyer and the office.
We're also going to go back to the Container Store to get the master closet and several other closet systems ordered. We'll hopefully be able to do that yet this evening (since the Twins game is canceled that we were going to attend).
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Tile, Appliances, Faucets and Lights
We met at the house this afternoon with the hopes of rectifying Village's confusion over where they were supposed to install the glass mosaic around the tub in the master bath. Apparently they had all of the vendors in the house at once today because a lot has changed since we were there late Monday night.
First, however, with regard to the mosaic. The installer and Justin laid out an option which wouldn't require them to remove (much) of what they had already done. They laid the sheets of glass end to end to see if what they had left in the order would fit all the way around the tub, and it does. So we'll have a row around the tub right off of the platform, and the segments towards the top of the tile will be there too.
And because they had enough of the excess from the original order, they won't have to order more to fix the. . . . to fix the. . . Wait a minute. They installed a bunch of glass where we didn't expect it to be, and there is still plenty to wrap the entire tub (yes, the shower is all finished)?
The reality, of course, is that they have enough glass mosaic left because they ordered enough to do what we said the plan indicated to begin with. It actually looks pretty cool that there is a segmented second row at the top.
So we'll take it. (while quietly enjoying the fact that we were correct)
Some of the kitchen appliances have arrived and have been installed. Here is the second oven and the microwave.
The main oven and stove are here. Above this in the hearth is where we will add a back splash and some other glass mosaic of some sort. That's TBD once we can get some samples over to the house.
The plumber was busy today too. This is the island in the kitchen with the kitchen sink faucet. The little button to the left of the faucet is actually an air switch that controls the garbage disposal. They had intended to place a normal switch inside of the cabinet. We didn't like that idea, and it also didn't make any sense to have it on the edge at munchkin eye level (thinking way ahead). This seems like a great option. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works. The plumber also installed the Insinkerator garbage disposal that Dick and Carol brought to us over Easter.
The plumber also installed a few of the toilets we selected way at the beginning of this process. This is the powder bath with the glass mosaic on top of the sink.
The electrician installed the ceiling fan in the great room. Apparently there was some confusion as to when the light bulbs were supposed to be at the house. Since they weren't there today, only the light fixtures that came with them were put up.
This is the hallway on the way up the stairs. I think we have 10 of these same flush lights in different parts of the house.
Here is the ceiling fan in one of the guest bedrooms. Both are installed.
They put up the vanity lights in the guest baths as well.
And put the hand held shower head up in the Jack and Jill.
Looks like they'll put the washer and dryer in tomorrow.
Here is our ceiling fan. You can see that the tub is in our bedroom ready to install.
Per our earlier conversation, the glass mosaic is all installed in the shower (again, with plenty to spare).
And the faucets are installed in our master bath.
This thermostat controls a mesh in floor heat in our master bathroom.
And lastly, these are the ceiling lights we are using in the closets
Justin had the concrete guy out to meet with us and talk about the driveway which will be poured next Tuesday when Sara is in California. We talked through how we want it positioned, where we want it to turn and how much, and where we want to enter from the street. We also looked at where the back patio will be. Our intention at some point is to have a nice deck, but for now we'll have a patio off the walk out (that will eventually have a hot tub). We had him make it a little bigger than what we have in the spec book. They'll pour that next week as well.
This is a picture of Justin, Tom's son and one of the VP's for TJB who oversees the actual build. He saw a box in the dumpster that he wanted so he jumped up there to get it. Well, he actually saw a box that we wanted so he went up to. . . Ok, that's not true either. We saw a box we wanted and he offered to grab it.
Fine, we wanted one of the boxes in the dumpster and asked Justin to jump into the dumpster and get it for us.
That's really how good he's been to work with.
This evening we purchased all of the light bulbs which I'll drop off in the morning. Most of the lights and a lot of the plumbing should be done by tomorrow or Thursday.
Just a few weeks left.
First, however, with regard to the mosaic. The installer and Justin laid out an option which wouldn't require them to remove (much) of what they had already done. They laid the sheets of glass end to end to see if what they had left in the order would fit all the way around the tub, and it does. So we'll have a row around the tub right off of the platform, and the segments towards the top of the tile will be there too.
And because they had enough of the excess from the original order, they won't have to order more to fix the. . . . to fix the. . . Wait a minute. They installed a bunch of glass where we didn't expect it to be, and there is still plenty to wrap the entire tub (yes, the shower is all finished)?
The reality, of course, is that they have enough glass mosaic left because they ordered enough to do what we said the plan indicated to begin with. It actually looks pretty cool that there is a segmented second row at the top.
So we'll take it. (while quietly enjoying the fact that we were correct)
Some of the kitchen appliances have arrived and have been installed. Here is the second oven and the microwave.
The main oven and stove are here. Above this in the hearth is where we will add a back splash and some other glass mosaic of some sort. That's TBD once we can get some samples over to the house.
The plumber was busy today too. This is the island in the kitchen with the kitchen sink faucet. The little button to the left of the faucet is actually an air switch that controls the garbage disposal. They had intended to place a normal switch inside of the cabinet. We didn't like that idea, and it also didn't make any sense to have it on the edge at munchkin eye level (thinking way ahead). This seems like a great option. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works. The plumber also installed the Insinkerator garbage disposal that Dick and Carol brought to us over Easter.
The plumber also installed a few of the toilets we selected way at the beginning of this process. This is the powder bath with the glass mosaic on top of the sink.
The electrician installed the ceiling fan in the great room. Apparently there was some confusion as to when the light bulbs were supposed to be at the house. Since they weren't there today, only the light fixtures that came with them were put up.
This is the hallway on the way up the stairs. I think we have 10 of these same flush lights in different parts of the house.
Here is the ceiling fan in one of the guest bedrooms. Both are installed.
They put up the vanity lights in the guest baths as well.
And put the hand held shower head up in the Jack and Jill.
Looks like they'll put the washer and dryer in tomorrow.
Here is our ceiling fan. You can see that the tub is in our bedroom ready to install.
Per our earlier conversation, the glass mosaic is all installed in the shower (again, with plenty to spare).
And the faucets are installed in our master bath.
This thermostat controls a mesh in floor heat in our master bathroom.
And lastly, these are the ceiling lights we are using in the closets
Justin had the concrete guy out to meet with us and talk about the driveway which will be poured next Tuesday when Sara is in California. We talked through how we want it positioned, where we want it to turn and how much, and where we want to enter from the street. We also looked at where the back patio will be. Our intention at some point is to have a nice deck, but for now we'll have a patio off the walk out (that will eventually have a hot tub). We had him make it a little bigger than what we have in the spec book. They'll pour that next week as well.
This is a picture of Justin, Tom's son and one of the VP's for TJB who oversees the actual build. He saw a box in the dumpster that he wanted so he jumped up there to get it. Well, he actually saw a box that we wanted so he went up to. . . Ok, that's not true either. We saw a box we wanted and he offered to grab it.
Fine, we wanted one of the boxes in the dumpster and asked Justin to jump into the dumpster and get it for us.
That's really how good he's been to work with.
This evening we purchased all of the light bulbs which I'll drop off in the morning. Most of the lights and a lot of the plumbing should be done by tomorrow or Thursday.
Just a few weeks left.
Mosaic Tile
We have a number of places in the house where we chose to install some glass mosaic tile that we thought would look pretty cool. Yesterday, I wrote a little bit about how the first round of it by the tub in the master bath was installed wrong. We're meeting the installer and Justin out there later this afternoon to make sure the issue gets fixed before they do any further work on the tub.
We were going to steal an idea from the other newest house in the neighborhood by adding black and grey subway tile around our fireplace. With the color we chose for the walls and carpet, black wouldn't have looked right, but we were able to use the same brand an stile in the color you see here. We don't have quite as much of it as we anticipated with the legs on the mantel, but we really like the way it turned out so far.
This is the power bath between the mudroom and the kitchen. The tile in the middle is the same tile we have on our master bath floor before you get to the shower. On top of the glass mosaic will be a frosted vessel sink and we purchased a pretty cool faucet for this room.
Funny story about this tile. When we first saw it in sheets in the box it came in, the blue glass looked bright green. We don't have any green or anything that green goes with, and were worried that we inadvertently picked out the wrong tile (or that the wrong tile was ordered for us). The owner of Village took ownership of the issue and ran all the traps to make sure this was correct. It turns out we could have recalled something from Kindergarten and our worries would have been assuaged right then. You may recall learning that yellow and blue make green. They even make Ziplock bags that close that way so you know they are sealed. The yellow paper it was on turned the glass bright green in the light. As you can see, they are decidedly blue.
While we await the correction of the mosaic around the tub, they did start installing the same glass in the master shower. This, they got right and we really like it. This will wrap around the whole shower like you see below.
A more recent addition to the shower is this bench we had installed. There are a couple of similar smaller soap/shampoo stands yet to be installed across from this seat. We have assurances that this seat is durable and can be sat on if need be. We'll see.
We also intend to have a glass back splash around the inner wall of the kitchen, and something in the hearth above the stove. We were unable to come to a conclusion which style, color or design we wanted and hope to place some samples up against the wall now that the paint and granite are in. We'll see how this master bath issue affects that.
In a couple hours, we'll head out and try to get the best possible solution to the glass mosaic issue around the tub. Will be interesting and exciting to see what else they got done today.
We were going to steal an idea from the other newest house in the neighborhood by adding black and grey subway tile around our fireplace. With the color we chose for the walls and carpet, black wouldn't have looked right, but we were able to use the same brand an stile in the color you see here. We don't have quite as much of it as we anticipated with the legs on the mantel, but we really like the way it turned out so far.
This is the power bath between the mudroom and the kitchen. The tile in the middle is the same tile we have on our master bath floor before you get to the shower. On top of the glass mosaic will be a frosted vessel sink and we purchased a pretty cool faucet for this room.
Funny story about this tile. When we first saw it in sheets in the box it came in, the blue glass looked bright green. We don't have any green or anything that green goes with, and were worried that we inadvertently picked out the wrong tile (or that the wrong tile was ordered for us). The owner of Village took ownership of the issue and ran all the traps to make sure this was correct. It turns out we could have recalled something from Kindergarten and our worries would have been assuaged right then. You may recall learning that yellow and blue make green. They even make Ziplock bags that close that way so you know they are sealed. The yellow paper it was on turned the glass bright green in the light. As you can see, they are decidedly blue.
While we await the correction of the mosaic around the tub, they did start installing the same glass in the master shower. This, they got right and we really like it. This will wrap around the whole shower like you see below.
A more recent addition to the shower is this bench we had installed. There are a couple of similar smaller soap/shampoo stands yet to be installed across from this seat. We have assurances that this seat is durable and can be sat on if need be. We'll see.
We also intend to have a glass back splash around the inner wall of the kitchen, and something in the hearth above the stove. We were unable to come to a conclusion which style, color or design we wanted and hope to place some samples up against the wall now that the paint and granite are in. We'll see how this master bath issue affects that.
In a couple hours, we'll head out and try to get the best possible solution to the glass mosaic issue around the tub. Will be interesting and exciting to see what else they got done today.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Wood Floors, Tile and A "Little" Mistake
We're less than 30 days from closing, and the place is changing rapidly. We were there in the morning Friday, and when we got there Saturday the whole wood floor was in. It is covered in cardboard and taped up, but what we can see of it really looks great.
A lot of the weekend was spent running around again (at least much of Sunday was. I hit a wall on Saturday after a long long week and slept from 4pm to 9am).
This is the edge of the kitchen and the great room leading into the dining area. It is amazing how quickly they installed this wood floor. The floor is Brazilian Cherry, which is a deep red colored wood. They warned us in advance that when they pull up the cardboard the parts exposed to the light would be darker, but the rest would quickly catch up.
This gives you a better sense of the color. Although this is the place in the cabinetry where the refrigerator will soon sit.
This is the tile in the master bathroom. We love this tile and it will look great against the carpet coming off of the bedroom. It will look really good with the glass back splash once they fix their mistake.
When we walked into the bathroom, aside from smiling at the look of the tile, our stomachs knotted up when we saw what they did with the cool glass mosaic we picked out. You can see in the next two pictures where they placed it in tiny segments at the top of the tile.
This area, around all of both sides of the tub below the window and the tub platform, is where the glass mosaic is supposed to go.
I put "Little" in quotes, because this isn't a little mistake. We were/are very excited about some of the little access pieces in the house, and this is one of them. We spent time out at the house measuring below the window to the platform to decide how much glass we could use. And doing it in small segments was never part of the conversation. We had them stop all work on this part of the house, and Justin has been great making sure they didn't continue down this path, and helping to make sure they come up with a solution. It's funny, because we've kept this blog so years from now we can recall all of the ups and downs and fun and frustration of the building process. But it came in handy today just looking back a week ago when I took a picture of a small segment of the mosaic and described it as going around the whole tub. I don't know where along the lines they got confused, but they are going to fix this.
In fact as I've been typing this, Shelly from Village called twice, and they do have some good options to correct this mistake. They are on hold until we can get out to meet with the installer to make sure it gets done right.
They've got the bathroom sinks installed. This one is ours in the master bath. It is a double vanity. This particular sink will be mine.
This is the curb entering into our master shower. They had installed this incorrectly at first which cut off a pretty big part of the big shower. They changed that and Justin texted me a picture with the change when I was traveling last week. This shower is going to be awesome. We brought the plumbing over last night that we'd purchased on our own, including a huge rain shower shower head.
This is the tile and sinks in the guest bedrooms. Kind of blah, but we like the way it turned out. Eventually we'll get to paint these blue or pink.
They've poured cement in the garage now. We're going to be very happy with all of the space we have in the garage.
They are starting this week to install light fixtures and plumbing. We purchased a bunch of this on our own and delivered it over the weekend. Here it is, all stacked up in the office and ready to go. Tuesday night we get to go light bulb shopping for the fixtures that didn't come with bulbs. Apparently these new bulbs last like 11 years.
I'm going to head out to the house right now and take a look at what else they got done today. More tiling and flooring, and probably some installation by the electrician or plumber.
Sara might be traveling next week for work, which would mean tonight is her last night of class. . . EVER!
A lot of the weekend was spent running around again (at least much of Sunday was. I hit a wall on Saturday after a long long week and slept from 4pm to 9am).
This is the edge of the kitchen and the great room leading into the dining area. It is amazing how quickly they installed this wood floor. The floor is Brazilian Cherry, which is a deep red colored wood. They warned us in advance that when they pull up the cardboard the parts exposed to the light would be darker, but the rest would quickly catch up.
This gives you a better sense of the color. Although this is the place in the cabinetry where the refrigerator will soon sit.
This is the tile in the master bathroom. We love this tile and it will look great against the carpet coming off of the bedroom. It will look really good with the glass back splash once they fix their mistake.
When we walked into the bathroom, aside from smiling at the look of the tile, our stomachs knotted up when we saw what they did with the cool glass mosaic we picked out. You can see in the next two pictures where they placed it in tiny segments at the top of the tile.
This area, around all of both sides of the tub below the window and the tub platform, is where the glass mosaic is supposed to go.
I put "Little" in quotes, because this isn't a little mistake. We were/are very excited about some of the little access pieces in the house, and this is one of them. We spent time out at the house measuring below the window to the platform to decide how much glass we could use. And doing it in small segments was never part of the conversation. We had them stop all work on this part of the house, and Justin has been great making sure they didn't continue down this path, and helping to make sure they come up with a solution. It's funny, because we've kept this blog so years from now we can recall all of the ups and downs and fun and frustration of the building process. But it came in handy today just looking back a week ago when I took a picture of a small segment of the mosaic and described it as going around the whole tub. I don't know where along the lines they got confused, but they are going to fix this.
In fact as I've been typing this, Shelly from Village called twice, and they do have some good options to correct this mistake. They are on hold until we can get out to meet with the installer to make sure it gets done right.
They've got the bathroom sinks installed. This one is ours in the master bath. It is a double vanity. This particular sink will be mine.
This is the curb entering into our master shower. They had installed this incorrectly at first which cut off a pretty big part of the big shower. They changed that and Justin texted me a picture with the change when I was traveling last week. This shower is going to be awesome. We brought the plumbing over last night that we'd purchased on our own, including a huge rain shower shower head.
This is the tile and sinks in the guest bedrooms. Kind of blah, but we like the way it turned out. Eventually we'll get to paint these blue or pink.
They've poured cement in the garage now. We're going to be very happy with all of the space we have in the garage.
They are starting this week to install light fixtures and plumbing. We purchased a bunch of this on our own and delivered it over the weekend. Here it is, all stacked up in the office and ready to go. Tuesday night we get to go light bulb shopping for the fixtures that didn't come with bulbs. Apparently these new bulbs last like 11 years.
I'm going to head out to the house right now and take a look at what else they got done today. More tiling and flooring, and probably some installation by the electrician or plumber.
Sara might be traveling next week for work, which would mean tonight is her last night of class. . . EVER!
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