Color me crazy....

COLOR ME CRAZY....

January 4th -- no one showed up to work today.  Hmmm, I wonder if that has to do with the fact that the high temp is barely above 20 degrees and it started snowing overnight and has only stopped for brief breaks.

With no one here to distract me, and in between breaks to shovel the snow off the sidewalk, I've been trying to deal with the color palette for the house again.  I'm pretty much sold that the foyer and stairwell to the upper level and the front living room will be painted "on the rocks"  gray for the walls, "snowbound" for the ceiling, and "high gloss white" for the mill work trim around the windows and baseboards.  There will be a light gray carpet on the stairs.  The same color scheme will be used in the gathering room with the exception of a possible accent for the fireplace wall in a darker gray to complement the slate tile around the black fireplace.

I began to think that too much gray might make my otherwise very cozy old house seem too cool, so I started to look at "warmer" colors and "warm neutrals", especially since some rooms, like the kitchen, will be very white and maybe too cool.

Although I selected white cabinets in the kitchen because there is only one window and I wanted the kitchen to be bright, with the stainless steel appliances, white subway tile, oak floors and nordic black antiqued granite, I started thinking that only the deep blue pendant lights over the sink and over the breakfast bar would provide some color.  So, I decided to revisit whether I want to have a painted accent on the wall between the kitchen and the dining room.

To remind you, here are some photos of that wall, the first from the west end of the galley kitchen looking through the kitchen to the dining room

This is the same wall, but the view is from inside the laundry room so you can see that the original hutch, which is white, is also on this wall and that on the other side of the wall is the dining room with the sliding door.

There are three possible paint colors for this wall.  Here are all three possibilities together, with the white cabinets and the granite.

Option 1 is "celestial blue"

 Option 2 is "lupine blue" (note the flash on the camera washed this color out a bit, other photos will show it darker and richer)

Option 3 is "on the rocks"

Which of these three combinations do you like for the accent wall?

I also picked up two "warmer" color options for the walls, but these are not easy to see in the photographs, but here goes.

The color with more yellow is called "paper lantern" and the one with less yellow (but there is a bit of yellow in it, although it looks white/gray in these photographs) is called "crisp linen."  Who makes up the names of these colors and gets paid for doing so?   How can I get hired for this job?

The guest suite could benefit from a bit of warmer color since it is on the north side of the house, so I'm thinking of "paper lantern" for the wall colors in that room with just a bit of the lupine blue accent on the wall feature that frames the library doors, shown below:

The dining room will be "paper lantern" for the walls and "lupine" for the accent wall around the library doors, shown below.  I'm thinking of mirroring these two colors -- paper lantern for the walls  with lupine as the accent in the guest suite (shown above) and the dining room, which is on the other side of the library doors.

I am still trying to figure out the colors for the master bedroom.

Option 1:  "Snowbound" for the ceiling (top color); "lupine" for the accent wall around the three windows on the north wall; and the walls "on the rocks" shown below.

 

Option 2:  "Snowbound" for the ceiling (top color); "celestial" for the accent wall around the three windows on the north wall; and the walls "on the rocks" shown below.

Options 3 & 4:  "Snowbound" for the ceiling (top color); "lupine" or "celestial blue" for the accent wall around the three windows on the north wall; and the walls "paper lantern" shown below.

(These photos suggest that the master bedroom would look like either the IKEA sign or the national flag of Sweden, but the yellow is NOT that yellow).

 It is super difficult to photograph and represent these colors because of the variables in my camera and flash, the color balance on your computer monitor, the light of the day (it is overcast and snowing and late afternoon), and the influence of adjacent colors (e.g., the "paper lantern" looks more yellow when it is next to the "crisp linen.".

So, here are just some shots of the ceiling color, the two blues, the gray ("on the rocks") and the two warm neutrals all mashed together.

Your opinions are welcome and very much appreciated!

Tile, trim and planning the built-ins....

TILE, TRIM, PLANNING THE BUILT-INS....

January 3rd --  The head of the finish carpentry company and one of his crew showed up before 8:00am this morning as did the tile setter.  The head of the finish carpentry company and I went over the basic idea and plan for the shelf in the master bedroom closet as well as the bulkhead shelf between the two hanging bars in that closet.  We also discussed the 16 inch depth shelves for the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in the gathering room and its library ladder rail system, with the ladder treads and sides to be built in oak; the design of the fireplace mantels in the gathering room and the master bedroom; and we designed the mudroom, which will have a small bench with underneath storage for taking off shoes/boots; a coat closet with doors (so that I won't have to look at hanging coats when in the gathering room); a wall of adjustable cubbies; with a place for the recycle bins and a place where I can hang my bike; and a row of coat hooks.  It will be awesome!  He drew the outline of some of these built-ins on the dry wall.

If you look carefully at the photos below you can see the "penciled-in" coat closet between the two windows on the south side of the mudroom. There will be an open shelf on top of the closet doors.

In this photo you can see the penciled outline for the three rows of adjustable shelves that will form cubbies; if I remove the shelves of the cubbie stack to the left, I will be able to hang my bike in that space with the proper hook.

In this photo of the fireplace in the gathering room you can see where I taped the specs for the center channel speaker that will be installed above the fireplace mantel that has been penciled in on the drywall.  Above the center channel speaker I hope to mount a flat screen TV.

On the tile front, the work shifted to the master bathroom this morning.  In the photo below you can see the "warm wire" floor heating system coils have been laid out on the floor.  The coils cover just about the entire bathroom floor so that my tootsies will be toasty when standing before the vanity, getting out of the soaker tub, stepping out of the shower, and

 as you can see in this next photo, the heating coils also go into the room where the toilet will be set.

After the coils were set in place and the electrical connection was made to the pull wire in the wall that will lead to the control panel (I can set the floor to warm with a thermostat or a timer), the tile setter than prepared the floor for the tile that will be set next.

However, before he covered the floor heating coils, he set the tile in the shower in the master bathroom, as shown below.

 In the meantime, the only finishing carpenter who worked today concentrated on the trim for the windows in the southwest corner of the gathering room shown below, and 

one of the windows in the mudroom.

He also started installing the bulkhead shelf in the master bedroom closet, as well as the shelf above the clothes bar.

As the weekend approaches, I'm not sure if there will be any work done until Monday.  When I asked the tile setter, he told me that with the forecast of anywhere from 1-4 inches of snow, the odds were even whether he would come to work.  The finish carpenter told me that his boss told him he could have the time off, but then he told me that he might just show up to get things done.  Although the painter e-mailed last night to tell me that he wanted to take advantage of today's warmer temps to do a small exterior paint job elsewhere, so he wouldn't be here today.  However, he didn't tell me whether he might come by this weekend.  

So, it will be a surprise if anyone or no one will show up this weekend.

In the meantime, I took what I hope is my last trip to the paint store to pick up a few more color samples, which I will throw up on the walls and post some new photos over the weekend.

Slow tile and trim....

SLOW TILE AND TRIM....

January 2nd --  The New Year has started and this project continues on, but at a much slower pace today than on the last day of 2013.  On December 31st the finish carpenters arrived at 7:30 am and there was a crew of three.  They came early because they intended to leave early to usher in the New Year.  It was clear that none of the finish carpenters were planning to work on January 1st!  

There is only one person setting the tile, and there is a lot of tile to set. By the end of 2013, the tile floors for the two bathrooms on the main floor were done and work on the tile walls for the shower in the 3/4 bath had started.  The photos below show the progress up to today -- the first work day of 2014. 

Only one person showed up on New Year's Day, and I'll reveal who that was later on, but maybe you can try to guess.

Below is the large subway tile wall for the shower in the 3/4 bath off the gathering room.  The tile will go to the ceiling in the shower, and wrap around the wall to where the toilet will be installed, as shown below.  In the photos below, the green circles are not part of the tile, just temporary disks to hold the tile in place while the grout sets.

Here is a view of the 3/4 bath with the vanity set in place, the subway tile wrapped around the outside of the shower wall, and the space where the toilet will be installed.  We discussed putting the extra subway tile on the wall between the shower and the vanity (behind the future toilet) if there is enough subway tile left over.

The floor in the guest suite bathroom is also done, as shown below.

Any guesses about who showed up on New Year's Day?

When the original wall between the dining room and the old downstairs bedroom (before it was renamed the "guest suite") was moved to create the guest suite, no one noticed that the door leading into the new closet would not be on the same plane as the wall.  This means that when the door to the closet was framed and hung, as shown in the following photos, a small "box"  about an inch or so projecting from the wall (shown as the white, floor to ceiling, trim next to the closet door) needed to be built to put the door and the wall on the same plane.  When the contractor explained this to me, it was my understanding that the "box" would go from the door frame to the wall, but as you can see below, that did not happen, and the "box" stops midway between the door and the wall.  So, I explained to the contractor that the box below looks odd, makes that wall space useless, especially if I wanted to hang a picture or even a mirror on that wall.  He explained that if the box is built to meet the new wall, it would partially obscure the electrical outlet on that wall (look for a black square near the corner of the bottom of the wall).  Why the electricians put the outlet so close to the corner is beyond me.  I insisted that the box be enlarged to span the space between the door frame and wall, even if it means that the trim plate for the outlet has to be trimmed -- the contractor explained that I could pay an additional $85 to have the electricians come back to move the outlet. Really?

 Needless to say, the contractor has been in a foul mood lately as he is beginning to plan for additional projects as the current ones are winding down (not sure if I would put my project in the "winding down" phase yet).  There is such a boom in building here that now contractors cannot find the labor that they need to complete the jobs that they are taking on.  During the recession craftsmen who could not find a way to survive the slow down in construction have either left the state or left the construction business.  Contractors always need to be thinking ahead, and he is now getting busy with new projects and worried about how they will get done with what seems to be a looming labor shortage -- the preview of this issue was the crummy drywall company he had to go with when his usual company was not available.  It seems that in the construction business it is either feast or famine.


The trim work to frame windows and the hanging of doors continues, but no baseboard trim has been installed yet.  I was pretty psyched that even though there was only one finish carpenter on the job today, at least he was productive.

Here are shots of the newly hung closet doors in the master bedroom suite from each end of the hallway.  For someone who has lived in this house for 26 years with virtually NO closet space, this is a very exciting development.  

 

 The other exciting development at the end of the day is a bit more difficult to visualize from these photos, but I'll try to walk you through it.  Where the kitchen cabinets end on the north wall of the galley kitchen (the wall where the range top and hood vent are located), there is supposed to be a small granite breakfast bar counter top that makes the transition into the gathering room.  The main support wall for the breakfast wall extends past the end of the cabinets for about 15 inches and will connect to the wall near the doorway to the 3/4 bathroom.  I requested that the section of the wall that faces the kitchen be constructed so that it was open with small shelves for a spice rack, which would be most convenient to the range top.

Ta duh...here is the roughed in support wall for the granite breakfast bar.  The adjustable shelves, with a little lip so the spice bottles don't just off the shelf, are stacked vertically below, and I put one of these shelves on top of the stack in its horizontal position to give you an idea of what a cool little feature this will be.

Here is another photo that gives a better sense of how the granite breakfast bar will be supported and connects to the existing cabinets.  Once the template is made for the granite counter top, the granite breakfast bar will be supported by the "spice rack" wall and two corbels that will be attached to this little support wall.

 So, who showed up on New Year's Day?

I had received an e-mail early evening on New Year's Eve from the heroic painter.  You might remember that he was elevated to hero status when he pulled an all-nighter to complete as much of the dry wall prep as he could before leaving for a 10-day holiday visit to his family.  The e-mail was to tell me he was back in town and eager to get back on the job.  He asked if he could stop by around noon on New Year's Day to see the progress that had happened while he was away and so that he could begin to form a plan for the drywall work and painting that he would need to do next.  

When he showed up, we walked through the house together and he told me that he felt that he wanted to redo some of the texture work because he wasn't 100% happy with it.  This guy takes tremendous pride in his work, which I very much appreciate. 

We are still feeling the effects of the "drywall debacle" because the sequence of tasks that remain is still off.  There is no way that the painter can do what he wants to do, especially because the finish carpenters and tile setter are having enough logistical problems just trying to work around each other.  Now, add the painter into that mix and soon, the electricians to install outlets, switches and fixtures, the plumbers to install the plumbing fixtures, the crew who will need to sand and finish the hardwood floors, and well, you get the picture.   The painter recognized this logjam and told me that he is eager to return to this work site and is willing to put in 10-hour days, if need be.   He promised to meet with the contractor to figure out the logistics.

 And, this is why he continues to be the heroic painter!

Tile and trim.....

Tile and trim....

December 30th  -- At 8:03am the house came alive with 4 craftsmen and a visit from the contractor. 

The tile setter's goal was to set all the tile floor on the main-level, starting with the shower floor and the bathroom floor in the 3/4 bath off the gathering room, shown in these two photos, with arctic white hex tile with a black hex thrown in randomly to break up the white.  The white and black hex tile is "period appropriate" for the age of my house.

He also set the slate tile in the pattern I created for the rear entry to the mudroom

And, near the end of the day when I arrived home, he came running after me to say that he just ran out of the white hex tile, so the bathroom in the guest suite is about 80% done, as shown in these photos.  I got on the phone to the contractor who will bring the needed 5 sheets of the arctic white hex tile by tomorrow morning.

The crew of finish carpenters are focusing on hanging the remaining doors and trimming the doorways.  Here is the trimmed doorway that goes from the gathering room to the stairwell to the basement.  Eventually, the finish carpenters will build the "wall of bookcases" around this doorway.

They also installed the pocket door, which looks like this.

A new member of the finish carpenter crew arrived today and he was sent to work in the master bedroom to hang doors and to begin trimming the windows and doorways with the mill work.

Here is a photo of a trimmed window in the master bathroom.

   

And, here is a close up of the detail in the mill work for the window trim.

By the end of the day, all the windows in the master bedroom were trimmed and "silled":

And, the door to the master bedroom suite was hung, but not yet trimmed.

During the morning visit from the contractor, we discussed the advantage of installing a mini-pendant light over the sink, rather than a canister light fixture.  So, I will return to the lighting store to order one more mini-pendant light fixture that will match the two pendant lights that will hang over the breakfast bar.

Speaking of the breakfast bar, the contractor, head finish carpenter and I agreed on a design where corbels will extend from a support wall to hold up the granite top of the breakfast bar.  The two corbels will match the design of the exterior corbels.  The support wall will be open on the side facing the kitchen so that I can have a few shelves to hold my spices that will be in easy reach when I face the range top.

The head finish carpenter also needed to ask me questions about the interior design of the master bedroom closet and the shelves in the pantry.  As we were discussing the closet shelving, he pulled me aside and said something to the effect that he understands the importance of closets and to assure me that he is a "closet guru" who will work to maximize storage space -- music to my ears.  Sure enough, when we moved to the pantry to discuss the shelving, he suggested a great design that would also accommodate a space for the vacuum cleaner, with shelving above so as to not waste storage space, as well as the installation of a bar to hang brooms, mops, and so on.  He even suggested a special shelf to hold heavy equipment, such as a professional mix master, which I do not currently own, but who knows what the future will hold with all this space for future kitchen gadgets and gizmos.

In the mean time, I'm pretty sure that I have settled on the interior paint color, "on the rocks" and below is a sample of the carpet for the stairs next to the white trim and the paint color.  

I ran over to the store to pick up a knob that I think will work for the kitchen cabinet doors, and narrowed down the choice to two drawer pulls.  I will mess with these tomorrow and try to decide on the drawer pull and when I do you'll see that hardware.  

So, the tile and trim are the focus this week, and the progress is moving along nicely.  There is a bit more work that needs to be done to some of the drywall in some of the rooms, and I look forward to the painting crew returning in a few days from their holiday vacation.