Granite is (mostly) in!

To start with, sorry for the funny order in these images -- as I've mentioned before, this blog's composing software basically sucks. Anyway, the above shot shows the kitchen counter top after installation and the hole for the sink was cut.

Cutting the hole for the sink. I hope they measured right....


And now, in splendid time-reversal, here's the counter BEFORE the sink cutout.

A shot of the kitchen with all the surfaces in. This was taken from the upstairs.

A closeup of the island.

This is a photo of the top next to the refrigerator.

...And, for the final shot, a view of the kitchen island.

Lots more to do/decide on, but this definitely counts as progress. Whee!

More Wood

This viewpoint has been shown a number of times. It's from the nook, looking into the family room. Previous shots have shown it with just the studs up. This photo is a long way down that road -- in particular, the flooring is in! It looks a little dull now but that will change once the Ipe' is sanded and finished. It should look great. We also have been working on selecting more stone for the fireplace -- sorting thru our supply to get more uniform pieces. We wound up with a surplus we can use for this part of the project, plus we like the stone anyway. It doesn't weigh any more than man-made stuff anyway, so why go there.

Oh, yeah -- there's some masking paper/tape there too, left over from the interior painting work. That will go away pretty soon now.

This is a shot of the master bedroom floor. The master bath floor (on the left) isn't done yet -- we're figuring on installing 'Walnut' Travertine for that. Another good deal, we hope. But the granite top we bought for the master vanity didn't work out -- the sinks' placement didn't work out with the base cabinets. We will need to come up with something else, there.

This shows the current state of the upstairs flooring installation. The rec room is about 50% done. Our builder told us we didn't have quite enough to finish the upstairs, so we bought about 170 square feet more of the Ipe'. The folks we bought the first batch from gave us the same price for the additional SF so that's pretty good -- about the same for inexpensive oak flooring. Stone-wood outlet: pretty decent folks to work with.

This upcoming week will be a big one. The granite countertops for the kitchen will be installed this Tuesday! And the slate will start going in around that time as well. We will start getting the tile in for the upstairs bathroom, as well. More later...

Surfaces Redux #?

The living room floor is installed! Lots of variation in the wood, but we knew that going in. It should look terrific once it's sanded and finished.

A slightly different shot near the fireplace.

The slate will be installed in the entry-hall. We've wetted down a few pieces to see how they look next to the Ipe.

We have decided to go with glass tile for the upstairs bath. The vanity countertop will be one of these colors (probably the stuff in the upper left). We are going to use Marmoleum for the floor, and there are some samples of that on top of the glass tile. We found a source for the tiles that is selling them for only $2.99 apiece.


Here's another photo of the living room fireplace. Here, we're showing the granite tile we've chosen for the hearth and fireplace surround. It is called "tropical green". The wood sample resting against the tile is a scrap of oak that has a couple of different stains on it, to see what we like for the oak part of the mantel. We're going to go with the darker stain -- 'Mahogany'. It's a better match to the Ipe. Although not easily visible here, the granite has some nice red garnet tones that echo the Ipe.

Flooring; granite; misc.

Here's a shot of our latest favorite granite. It's called 'Crema Bordeaux'. It has a lot of colors in it that go with our slate, along with the kitchen cabinets and Ipe' flooring. We may get a bit of a deal on the two slabs we need because they are singleton slabs: the last of a couple of different lots. We like the stuff enough that we probably will go with it regardless.


And here is a photo showing one of our four trips to the warehouse to pick up our Ipe' flooring. That stuff is HEAVY -- we figure that we probably moved about a ton and a half of flooring. Last weekend we moved the slate into the house -- that was a lot of work, too, even though we just moved it from the old garage to the new house. At the end of that job, my hands were so tired they could barely hold the last few boxes of slate.

A pile of Ipe' (one of several). One of the major support beams is directly under the pile--not an accident....considering how much weight is sitting there.

A photo showing concrete board installed around the kitchen island. The slate will go down on the concrete board.

Some of our upstairs doors. They're in the storage room, standing upright to be painted.

Our oak fireplace mantel. We will put granite tile between the fireplace insert and mantel. We're thinking about "tropical green" or maybe "emerald green". There also will be a tiled hearth in front of the fireplace. You also can see a bit more of the Ipe' flooring, which will be going into the living room and dining room.