Blog 48 Outside stone work
The corner on the left of this photo is where the hot tub will go.

The stone masons have finished the lower wall so it meets the floor. It looks great.

We are still waiting for the caps which will allow you to sit on top of the wall.

The covered patio floor is almost finished and the stone fireplace is almost finished. I am standing in the kitchen looking out.

They have also stated the wooden fence out side. This is the fence that will be seen from out bedroom.

The same fence from a different angle. We had to build it off the lower wall (not on top of the wall). It made our fence higher and keeps weight off the brick wall. We are hopeful the brick wall does not fall.

Blog 47
I realize that the edge of the master bath does not look finished. I thought when the painters touched it up it would look finished, but it does not. The only solution is to put tile over it.

So this wall will be tiled too, not sheetrock. 

The living room blinds were put in. They all open and close automatically. We will have a wooden cover built over the top of the blind like the casing around the window.

The wall paper has been started in the laundry room.

The wall paper in the master toilet.

The front steps have been prepped for the stone. 

The brick has been stuccoed.

We had a family re union planned for this week end. Our contractors had this sign waiting for us when we arrived to show the family the house. Very special!

The wood floors have been stained.

The wood island counter top has been installed.

We love the color of the floors.

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. 

h

Hopefully, next you will see pavers around the pool.