Today The House, Tomorrow The Food

As I was going through all of my photos yesterday afternoon, I noticed that I have taken a lot of "food" photos that I haven't posted. Although I still don't have my personal recipes and my cook books (they are in our sea freight shipment), I have been cooking a lot (taking special requests from the kids and Kevin) and we are grilling quite a bit since the weather is so nice. I have the photos to prove it and will share tomorrow. Today's post will be another update on the house renovation.

In the event you were wondering what was under that ledge in the family room...

Leftover bricks from the original construction of the house were used as filler. 

Dan and Mimmo planning a strategy for dealing with this mess.

First, they filled it in with sand and broken bits of stone (some left-over from the jack-hammering project in the bathroom). 

Then, they filled with cement.

Even this looks better than the original ledge! I cannot wait to see this area when it is finished. 

In the bathroom, the new plumbing for the shower, toilet and sink have been installed.

We had to remove and rebuild the wall behind the plumbing fixtures in the shower because this was (yet another) area where drywall had not been installed behind the paneling. 

Mimmo and Dan also clean-up and re-wired the electrical connections in the bathroom ceiling to bring everything to code and make it a lot safer. There were quite a few wires going to nowhere and junction boxes that were installed not according to code.  

Before.

After.

This is the excess wire that was removed.

The new ceiling fan and a new light that we installed nearer to the shower. 

The specs for the new vanity. 

I wanted something similar to the vanity in the photo below (courtesy of Pottery Barn) but I didn't want the price-tag of almost $2,000 (including tax and delivery). Yikes!

The supplier who built the vanity for the upper-level bathroom was able to design exactly the vanity that I wanted (a few minor changes to the Pottery Barn version) and will custom build it for us in about 2 weeks. I selected a cherry-java finish which will (I hope) coordinate really well with the tiles and mosaic we selected. All of this at less than 1/3 of the cost of the grossly overpriced Pottery Barn version. 

The door in the guestroom. This door features maintenance-free "blinds between the glass" (which I had never even heard of) so I won't need to worry about installing a window treatment. Or cleaning.

The new shower has been partially installed. Since the shower will be fully tiled, we chose to install a Schluter shower system in this bathroom to eliminate the potential for water leakage/damage and mold growth. The Schluter system is a bonded waterproof membrane that is applied directly to the mortar bed and protects the wall and the wall cavities from being saturated with water during regular use and from vapor penetration. 

The new wall has also been installed. 

In the family room, the new base molding and other trims have been installed.

We also opted to install the Schluter system on the floor in the family room, hallway and guestroom. When it is dark outside and we turn the lights on, the entire room glows orange. Definitely a funky look - maybe we should keep it this way until Halloween! 

 

 

So, as of this morning (Friday), that is where the renovations stand. As I write this post, Mimmo and Dan are beginning to paint the walls. I chose to use Valspar's "Cream Delight" on the walls in an eggshell finish. It is the same paint we used in our bedroom and the upper-level hallway. Although I would love to use some color in these rooms, we have a lot of art to hang on the walls so I think the neutral color would be best. 

Have a great Friday!