Things are simultaneously moving quickly and slowly towards the finish line at the CMR. Today I will put in our "notice to vacate" here at the temporary digs. Huzzah! The final finishes calendar is up at the CMR - and it looks like we are really going to get this project wrapped up. Still proceeding with cautious optimism.
 |
| This is the calendar. Everything seems to be in order |
After another "small" problem with the water heater - some kind of interior leaking that was fixed by the manufacturer - we now have heat! See the glowing green light? Green = good!
 |
| Glowing Green! |
More proof? A working thermostat that says it's going great guns! But the most important proof? The house was actually warm when you entered it. Toasty warm. Take your shoes off and feel the heat on the floors warm. If there wasn't so much plaster dust and nails and other hazards on the floor, I would have just kept them off for the whole visit. Radiant floor heating? It's the bees knees!
 |
| A little high for George The Elder aka "The Electric Company" |
The floor was installed in the library. It still needs to be sanded and stained (which could be problematic, but we'll get to that in a minute) - but we're one step closer in this room. Next up? The cabinetry. Some place to put the loads and loads of boxes of books that have been sitting in the dark for the past 19 months.
Trim around the windows and doors in being crafted and installed. This is our strange little octagonal window in the library. Why did they put this window in in the first place? Who knows. But we like it and it's staying. It will be surrounded by more shelves in the next couple of weeks.
We are having a bit of an ironic situation over at the CMR that has to do with staining the wood. The existing wood work in the upper level has been used as the prototype for the stain color for the new wood work that is being installed. Interestingly, it took several iterations on different types of wood, using varied stains to derive the final samples for the new stuff. When we finally settled on the stain color we were jazzed. But then during the negotiations with Charles the Painter he offered to "spruce up" the existing wood work by a simple quick sanding and a couple of clear coats of varnish. The price was reasonable and the old wood work was a little age worn. We went for it.
Last week, Charles started the sanding. There are book shelves in the family room, built ins in the dining room and a whole floor of baseboards and window sills. The ironic part? Now that Charles has started the sanding it is apparent that the original stain color can't be easily matched. Go figure.
Here is an OK photographic representation of the wood work before the sanding. It's this kind-of-a-sort-of-a-honey-oak finish. The reason that we had so much trouble matching it so that we could stain the new wood work was that it had a sort of "greenish" color in there too. Hard to see, but trust me, it was there.
 |
| Dining room case work right before we bought the house |
This is a photo of the top of that same casework now that Charles has sanded it down. Hmmm? What was the stuff that was on it? Some kind of mid-century waxy furniture polish/treatment. Now it's all gone.
In his attempt to "match" the newly sanded stuff, Charles the Painter tries his hand at matching. First try? On the Right. We went from honey oak to yellow oak. No go. So, Charles tries again. I arrive at the house to see attempt #2 on the left: Mahogany. Not only a fail - but an epic fail. See small board lying up against the newly sanded cabinets? That is the goal. The Holy Grail. My faith in Charles the painter - - who I was kind hoping had a little experience in the matching of colors - is teetering. I get the yellow. I don't get how mahogany is even close to the oak sample. We got ourselves some more work to do. GC Paul is working on it with Jason the wood guy. Excellent choice. He's the one who made the samples in the first place. I am hopeful he can recreate his masterpiece.
This is a photo of the existing guest room. You haven't seen many photos of this room since nothing much was being done in here. It has also been used as the "safe room" where all manner of boxes containing soon to be installed light fixtures, door hardware and other "need to keep dry and out of the way" construction things like new doors and windows are housed. The reason I am showing this photo is because when we bought the house only one of these four windows could be opened. Some were nailed shut in what we imagine was an attempt to "keep grandma safe." Some were just simply painted shut. Now, although you can't see it - - similar to the heat coming up off the floors - these windows all open. Hip Hip Hurrah! Luke the Foreman is a God.
Simply a view from the top of the upper hallway down in to the kitchen. They've put the old hall cabinet in to the corner of the kitchen so that we'll have a little more cabinet space until the day in the future when we rip the whole thing out and install the kitchen of our dreams. The steel railings that will keep us from failing down in to the stair well will be one of the last things to go in.
The bathroom tile is nearly finished. I sorely wish that the photos didn't make it look so "santa-esque" When in fact there's a mix of green, blue and red. The light blue looks white - - but it's not. I keep saying that. Still, we like it in person. You're just going to have to come and visit to get the real "experience."
 |
| Shower area and pony wall are nearly all done. Still missing the right tile shape for the very edge of the pony wall |
 |
| Shower floor (and the rest of the floor) is done. I didn't take a photo of the rest of the floor since it was all nicely covered up |
 |
| Niche #1 |
 |
| View from standing in the pool room looking toward the front of the house and H's room on the upper right |
1 comment:
Please let me know when my room will be ready for occupancy. :) I've never been to san fran and I believe I owe you a move in since you helped me with a move out.
Post a Comment