Blog 46 Kitchen
They have started the back splash in the kitchen. We did not stain the tile it with tea.

Here it is with grout.

This is over the cook top.

Here is what it looks like from a distance.

 The edge showed the side of the clay tiles with part of it glazed and part of it raw clay. Therefore we needed to add a bullnose or an edge tile. Of course we have to order more since I did not think of it at the beginning.

Here is the kitchen island. Notice the added base around the bottom of the island. This was added to keep stuff from rolling under the island and to hide the electrical lines in the island. I do not like the white board or the look, with the board added, you can not tell that there are feet on the bottom of the island now.

By covering the white base with a stained piece of wood the feet show up again, so I will have the hard wood floor guys stain the new added base with the floor stain color so the feet show up.

The outside fireplace has been grouted.

The bluestone has been cut up to the curved wall. Cutting the bluestone takes sooo long. Now the stone masons have to come back an fit stone to to the floor. The pipes sticking up are where lights will be.

Blog 45 Pizza Oven
Michael bought a pizza oven. He researched it and decided that Chicago Brick Oven had the best reviews. He  requested info and recieved a phone call from a rep. Long story short the "rep" was the owner of Chicago Brick Oven. He answered Michaels call  because he had just purchased a home near us on lake James. We are looking forward to meeting him and showing him our pizza oven.

We have a nice covered area for sitting in front of the fire place. This whole area will be covered in bluestone pavers.
We have a space for the grill which is not under the covered space. The grill will be built in on that wall that you are looking at. The small gas line and electric line are already installed.

The size of the pizza oven is larger than I was expecting. It is the size of this box and the smoke stack is the size of the 2 boxes on top. See the oven opening??? Michael and I tried our mock up pizza oven in several places. This space, that you are looking at, is where the gas grill must go. We are trying to pick a space for the pizza oven, is it beside the grill or in another space?

Here is the mock up  pizza oven beside the mock up grill. I like the open space around the covered porch and was not thinking it would be filled up with "Kitchen".

Here is the pizza oven next to the steps. I am not sure this is a good space for it. It does not look great from the garage side.

 Here is what it looks like when you enter the space from the garage side. The oven and high smoke stack fill up the space.

We have this space by the garage that has a concrete pad on the ground. This was going to have colored clay pots but I am thinking about making this space for the pizza oven. We are not sure but we are thinking about it. The city inspector said either space would pass code.

Ugg!!!its hard to visualize!

Blog 44 Outside

Here are photos of the lower lot.

Here it is now.

Here is a beat up old tree

Here it is now.

Here are the new steps to the backyard. The red pipe on the wall is the outdoor shower. There will be a wooden wall here blocking the shower and the pool house. This house id behind the curved wall.

This is the top of the steps now with the new blue stone pavers. The new shower wall will be on the left.

Photo of the blue stone around the pool. It just rained so it looks dark.

Here is the fireplace under the covered patio with 2 log boxes on either side. The hearth in front of the fire place seems high but the floor will be higher than it is now.

Next, Where to put the pizza oven.

Blog 43 Inside
They are working on the master closet. My make up/jewelry station is a bit larger than I thought. That corner piece was an afterthought. It is supposed to have a mirror door covering the shelves. I realize that I may not be able to see in the mirror, while I am sitting down, since the 2 drawers are so big. The mirror only comes to the top of the drawers. We will see.

They are ready to stain the hard wood floors. We will be unable to walk inside the house for 5 days. We had to choose a color.

They have installed the cook top. I did not realize that it would stick out so much further than the granite counters.

We also have the dishwasher installed.

We are ready to do the back splash. The cream colored Mexican tile we chose is poureous. The tile on left is what we bought. The tile on the right has been soaked in tea for about 4 hours. The cracks show up more with the tea. The dark wood at the bottom of the photo is the countertop.

 The top part of the tiles have been soaked in tea. 

We made buckets of tea and took it to the house (since I had already unloaded the tiles from my car).

I started unloading some of the tiles from the boxes into a large container so they could soak.

Now I am not sure. I have today to decide. They are installing the tile on the wall tomorrow. 

Blog 42 Pool area
We finally had some dry days. They have figured out the drains and dug channels for them.

These white pipes are the drains sticking up. The rest of the pipes have been covered up.

Now they have leveled the area around the pool out, filled it with crush n run, and are  getting it ready for the sand. The machine you see is tapping the rock down firm. Sand is next. The pavers will be put in on top of the sand.

This is under the covered patio. Electricity pipes were dug and water drains were dug. They were  buried and covered up. Now this space is finally level and ready to be tapped down so sand can be put on top. 

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Hopefully, next you will see pavers around the pool.

Blog 41a Bedroom cabinets

Slowly it is taking shape, if we could get workers to come and stay on the job. When they are there they do great work.
Here is one of the master bathroom sinks. The counter top is in, with sink and faucet. We are still waiting on knobs. I am waiting on cabinet guy to bring mirror (that he is making) so the electrician can hang the light fixture,

Here is back wall of the master shower. It has flat pebbles that are outlined. The shower floor 

has rounded pebbles that will massage our feet!!!

Here is a full view. Hopefully it can be grouted soon and the heated floor tiles can be put down.

Here is one of the bathrooms compleated  with mirror, countertop, knobs and sink.

Here is the pool bathroom. This was a problem since the window came down lower than a standard cabinet (you would have seen side of cabinet from outside the window). I found this funky low cabinet (that is lower than the window) and I found a bowl and wall faucets.

Here it is up close. The cabinet guy is reworking the drawers so they will work with the pipe that is now in the center of the drawers.

Here is a photo of a funky mirror that I may use for the pool bath. We will see when it gets here, hopefully soon. I would love to have  the light fixture hung while the electrician is still here. I can not hang light until mirror is up.

Here is the re worked guest bath. The edge of the tile did not look finished because it did not have the pencil tile going down on the edge. The tile guy (bless his heart) had to chisel out 4 tiles on each side and then add 4 new tiles. I am sure that I am the talk of the construction site! Now I just need him to grout  it.

 

Blog 41
We have changed the move in date again. Maybe July 28???
Here is the pool wall.There will be a cap stone on top to sit on.

Here is the same view from inside the house.

Here is the stone fireplace. The masons are working on the cap stone over the fireplace.

Here is a better view. Can you see the mantle position? The pipes sticking out are for electricity on top of the mantle in case we want to plug something in on top of the mantle.

Now for the inside!

Blog 40
Not too much is happening at the house on the inside. We have had lots of rain so the outside is moving slowly too.
Here is the wall by the pool. The mansions started putting the stone on the wall, but it did not look like what we had in mind. So we asked them to take it down and start again. I photocopied photos of rock walls and explained how the pattern should be.

Here is the next attempt. It is much better.

We are still waiting to put the irrigation system in back and put grass down, the front steps to be finished and the retaining wall in the front to be completed. It needs to dry out enough so a tractor can drive on the yard. Unfortunately,  it rains and the mud is too thick to drive a bulldozer in the yard.

Here is one side of the drive way with the new retaining wall.

On the inside!

The door knobs are on some of the doors.

I am trying to decide what size mirror I need in the guest bath.

I am trying to decide what backsplash to use in kitchen.

The fireplace mantle was put in.

Thats about all the new stuff we have. Hopefully, more to come.