June 14, 2004
Homestretch (sorta)
Things are starting to come together. The floors are in, the tile in both baths is finished. The tub has been refinished. Kitchen cabinets are on order and should be here in two weeks. Pretty much all that is left is to install the kitchen cabinets, appliances and countertops, bathroom vanities, shower door, and lighting. I know that sounds like a lot, but considering how much we've done, is seems like not a lot to us. The patio is getting sand blasted next week. We're on the homestretch.
We had a party this weekend and opened up the house for all our Mod Com friends to kick the tires and tell us what's right and what's wrong. We got so much positive feedback ... it was really affirming. Plus we have someone chomping at the bit to make an offer. It's pretty damn exciting. Onward to the pics...
Floors
[click images to enlarge]
As we were scrambling to get ready for the party, the floor tile finally showed up and the installers arrived on thursday. We were going to install it ourselves as VCT is about as simple as flooring gets but we are quickly running out of time for us to be working on a learning curve. So we hired installers. What took them a day and a half would have taken us a week I'm betting. The tile is commercial VCT AZRock Thru Quartz - white with a black fleck. They look amazing! The place feels about 10 times bigger now that there is a solid surface over the concrete (and not a bunch of tools and materials piled everywhere). Many thanks to l'Horizon who kindly loaned us some furniture while the hotel is undergoing renovations this summer.
Master Bath
[click images to enlarge]
All of the tile is set and the tub has been resurfaced. It looks amazing. I can't believe it's the same tub.
June 06, 2004
Crunch Time
I don't have any pictures to post but I did want give a quick update on our progress.
We are now entering what my friend William calls "The Domino Phase" wherein each action we take now hinges upon another action... The cabinets can't go in until the floors are in. The floors can't go in until the tub is resurfaced. The tub can't be resurface until the tile is finished. The tile... sigh.
The master bath is finally finished and looks amazing. Better than I had hoped. The guest shower is where we hit our latest snag. After the wrong tile being shipped fiasco that held us up for a week, someone screwed up and we ended up short on the quarter rounds so now we wait for that tile to arrive.
In the meantime, stuff is stacking up over there. All the appliances arrived last week. The flooring is there (about 50 boxes) and it's getting a little difficult to move around. We were going to order the cabinets but we don't have anywhere to put then except outside. Oh yeah, and I'm picking up a bunch of furniture for staging tomorrow. I have no idea where the hell we're going to put it all... Yikes!
Did I mention the 10 new doors aren't here yet either? They were supposed to come in last week. I've had to reschedule the door guy who's incredible hard to get. I just hope and pray that everyone doesn't show up on the same day. That would be a friggin nightmare.
Delays are to be expect on a project of this size, especially when we are acting as our own general contractors, but I had so hoped that by June we would be putting the finishing touches on the joint and sticking a sign in the yard. It's still doable but we have to kick ass and everything has to go perfectly in the next two weeks. That would be a miracle.
I'll try and get some pics. We are having a little summer kick-off shindig here next Saturday night (we had optimistically thought the house would be done by then - Ha). We'll be spiffing the place up as best we can so that we can have both homes open.
So here's the schedule for this week:
Monday: Pick up U-Haul and furniture. Finish painting. Plumber.
Tuesday: Tile setter and trip to IKEA (order kitchen cabinets)
Wed: Tub Resurfacing. Empty house for floors.
Thurs and maybe Fri: Floors go in.
Saturday: Party!
Sunday: Collapse
Somewhere in there the doors should arrive. The fun never ends! This week is going to be crazy... pray for me ;)