Kitchen update

This post is a little delayed because of loss of electricity as a result of a small storm that blew threw this weekend. Happy to report that although the White Mill is still without power, there was no wind or water damage (phew!)

The kitchen is really shaping up:

Also, in the master bathroom, the tile work is shaping up nicely. Here is a shot of the basket weave "rug" inset that is centered in the vanity portion of the bathroom:

Already, and despite the lack of electricity, these photos are out of date... We will post more over the weekend...

Kitchen cabinets are in!

well sort of... Here they are:

The installation will begin on Wednesday, between now and then the painter will be priming the kitchen and painting in preparation for the big install. In fact, if all goes as planned, the butcher block will be delivered on Wednesday and appliances will be coming on Friday, so next weeks post should be pretty cool.

But lets not overlook the great work of this past week. When we walked in on Saturday, it seemed like we had crossed a threshold. Up until this weekend, it felt like a "job site", suddenly it now feels like our home and it is very exciting! The main reason for this is the completion of the base and door trim work now that the floors are in. What a difference; here are some photos:

Also this weekend we cut out the openings for the speakers (we decided that we would go forward with the speaker system that we wired back on New Years day so that we could get these cuts in before the painter started). Thanks to our great Home Speaker Installation Crew for their help back in January and today. It is really going to be great!

5 months in...

This week begins the 5th month since construction began. We had been a way for a few days, but were anxious to get to the house this morning to see how much progress was made with the wood flooring. It had been a rainy/ snowy/ rainy end to last week, so we were not sure if that would have any impact on the schedule. It turns out the answer was a resounding no, as all of the wood has been installed and it looks GREAT!
We are using white oak throughout, downstairs we are using an 11" wide plank and upstairs we are using a 5" wide plank. Here are some photographs:

Over the coming weeks we will be watching the installation of the kitchen cabinets, appliances, additional trim work, paint and floor finishing.

Mid February update

The project is buzzing lately with lots of craftsmanship-type efforts. Trimwork is going up, including crown molding, door and window trim and base trim:

Also, there is a lot of tiling going on. The following pictures are the floor of the laundry room, the guest bath subway tile and the master bathroom shower:

Finally, the wood flooring was delivered this past Wednesday. It will spend a week adjusting to the humidity of the house before installation begins on Wednesday. Here are some very nice pictures of the piles of wood. Not the most exciting pictures to post, but it is an important development in the process:

a 3 part tour....a 3 part tour !

Tour the upstairs after the sheetrock !

January 31; The Kitchen Post

The drywall is in progress, so understandably it is a little messy right now. So rather then more pictures, this weekend's post is going to go into a little detail about the Kitchen design.

It took us 5 years to develop the overall design for the renovation, and when we first located the kitchen where we are building it, we had a very traditional layout with cabinets in an "L" lining the perimeter and a large island. It looked very nice, but it wasn't quite what we were looking for. One evening, while at our good friends house in Stamford it occured to me that their layout, centered around a large island with doors opening to the courtyard (in their case, an impressive sliding glass Nanawall), would provide the access to the yard we wanted and a layout that is more geared to entertaining than traditional living. So big thank you's to F&M for being our kitchen muse.

The kitchen has been one of my favorite parts of this project for many reasons. First, I know it will be the most well used room of the house and, after years of cooking in squalor, we will finally have a great space to cook, entertain and live. It has also been a fun design project, and to that end it has reuinited me with an old friend and coworker who works at the Kitchen company that is a part of the company that is building the renovation. I have really enjoyed time spent in the showroom or on the phone, noodling over the details with someone who I know enjoys design, detailing and construction as much as I do.

Here is the layout:

The doors at the top of the plan go to the courtyard in the backyard. The island will be about 4'6" wide by 11'6" long with a soapstone top and a section that is a 4" thick butcher block opposite the cooktop. Here are some sketches of mine, followed by some more official renderings done on 20/20 by A.

Here are some pics of the space in progress:

Finally, here is a picture of the slab of soapstone we put a deposit on this weekend and the lights that will likely hang over the island. I am also including the photos of the cabinets again, so you can see the full palette. Oh yeah, also a picture of the faucet for the kitchen sink... my sister helped us out with this over the weekend!

1st house tour (not so polished)

A bit rough...it starts in the kitchen and moves into the hall, office, pantry, mudroom and living room.  We are at the point there we have walls. 

More polished version will be posted shortly.