It is beginning to look a lot like.....

It is beginning to look a lot like...

December 25th  -- With Christmas music blaring through the speakers of my iPod dock, I spent the holiday doing something I have never done on the holiday before.  To say that this holiday season has been unlike any other would be a gross understatement.  Who would think that I would spend part of the 25th of December experimenting with interior paint colors and installing insulation in the space between the floor and drywall before the baseboard trim is installed?  Not me, but that is what I did.

Making selections about interior paint colors has to be the most challenging and difficult task so far.  I thought I was partial to shades of gray, but now I'm not so sure.  Although the paint supply house has several tools on their website, including the ability to upload a photo of your space and then the ability to "test out" colors, that won't work because my spaces are not yet done.  

Here are some photos with the two colors I thought I would be interested in.  The darker color is Sherwin-Williams, Lazy Gray, and the lighter color is Sherwin-Williams, Ice cube.  I thought the lighter color would work for the ceiling and the darker for the walls, but now I've come to the conclusion that the darker gray is too dark, even though I have looked at it at different times of the day and at different times of natural light  in different locations in the house. Even in these photos the same colors can look so different.


































So, I think it is back to the drawing board on the interior paint colors, so stay tuned.

Consistent with the period and style of the house, the baseboard trim will be taller than that found in most contemporary houses.  However, I noticed that on some of the exterior walls there was a gap between the bottom of the drywall and the wood floor, such that the basement was visible through some of the gaps.  When I mentioned this to the contractor, he said that was typical and the gap would be covered by the baseboard trim.  I told him that I was concerned that even though the gap would be covered by trim, there was no insulation to ward off drafts. His reply was to tell me that he was not going to install insulation, but if I wanted to do that, I should go ahead and do so.  

Okie, dokie, so that is what I did.  You can see in the following sequence of photos how I shoved pink insulation in the gaps.  The worst was in the guest suite in the bedroom and bathroom, which are both along the north exterior wall of the house.  Even though the plumbing is interior, I installed insulation so that the room would not be drafty and the plumbing would not be vulnerable to freezing temperatures during winter. 

These two photos show the pink insulation peeking out of the filled gap in the guest suite bedroom.

These photos show the insulation in the guest bathroom

There was also a gap between the floor and the south exterior wall in the dining room where the sliding door had been installed to replace the dining room windows.  The next few photos show where I installed the insulation in those gaps

It is amazing to me how installing a small amount of insulation goes a very long way to saving energy and increasing comfort, yet in the scheme of all the different moving parts that go into home renovation, contractors seem to only focus on the insulation that is required by code and they do not go out of their way to look for every opportunity to ward off drafts by installing insulation.  Living among the ruins has given me the opportunity to install as much insulation as I can, and I expect these efforts to pay off in the long run.

I used up about a half of a regular-sized roll of insulation and will probably put the rest to good use in the days to come.

December 26th -- My contractor told me that he didn't think there would be much work going on the rest of the week, but yet again I was surprised.  It was a quiet morning and when I returned from the grocery store, I was pleasantly surprised to see the finish carpenter's truck parked outside my house.

Two finish carpenters were on site today, with one working on setting the double vanities in the master bathroom, as show below.

The head finish carpenter was working on the crown molding and the other trim pieces on the cabinets in the kitchen.

Here is the trimmed valence where the range hood chimney vent will go.

And, here is the trim work on the wine rack with some temporary masking tape covering the corner where some cement is drying.

On the 24th I was surprised that one of the tile guys had shown up to put in the concrete to form the shower pan in the 3/4 bath so that the shower tile floor could be installed.  Here is the shower pan for the downstairs 3/4 bath off the gathering room.  The tile guys will be here tomorrow to begin setting tile.  In preparation, they already dropped off several bags of tile grout on the front porch.

 Before the finish carpenters left for the day, they hung the etched glass door to the pantry, as shown below.  The plastic cover is still on the glass to protect it, so it will be a while until we get a good look at the door.  The finish carpenters will be building shelves in the pantry, but I guess it was easier for them to hang the door first, just to get it out of the way.  The etched glass pocket doors that will separate the guest suite from the dining room have also been delivered on site, but have not yet been installed.

Tomorrow promises to be an interesting day with the first of the tile to be laid on the two shower floors.  I also have an appointment to view the three slabs of granite that I have on hold at the granite yard.