Cabinetry

Our kitchen and kids' bathroom cabinetry is almost finished, and it is TO DIE FOR!  I could not be happier with how everything turned out.  Our cabinet guys is beyond amazing.  I am SO excited to move into this house!

Here is the stove cabinetry and hood (of course the uppers and hood will not be resting on the counters!)...

I think the hood is my favorite part- he got it exactly how I wanted it...

The oven/refrigerator wall (see my appliance garage- woot!!!!)...

The sink and peninsula section (and another appliance garage!)...

The hole is where my pull out trash cans will be.

And the kids bathroom cabinetry- the two tall ones will be side by side across from the vanity...

My high was burst when I went to check on our window/french door delivery- apparently I wasn't thorough enough and didn't catch that they ordered them with two many lights (the panes of glass), and I can't send them back because although they didn't specify to me, it was on the order form.  I think it will work out ok- they are just much more cottage looking than I was going for, but that is more Cape Cod style anyway.  We are definitely on a steep learning curve with this remodel.  It's REALLY hard to keep track of every last detail.

Insulation

Some more not so exciting progress...we have insulation!

The vaulted entryway (so far, my very favorite part of the house)...

The family room...

The playroom...

We have a floor and the bones of a shower in the guest bathroom...

And an installed bathtub and soap/shampoo carve out in the kids' bathroom.  The tub looks so small to me now that it's all enclosed, but it's the exact same tub we had in our master bathroom at our old house so it's actually quite large!

I can't wait for "pretty" stuff to actually be installed instead of just electrical, plumbing, insulation, concrete, framing, etc.  Shoot, even some drywall will look pretty to me!

Fireplace Advice

I haven't been updating because construction stopped after the inspector was not pleased that we had done so much without having our final plans approved (oops).  We didn't get in trouble, but our contractor did not want to irritate the inspector so construction stopped. :( We are finally back up and running, as most of our plans have been approved, and the final should be done this week (tomorrow?).

With approval of the great room, I was able to FINALLY order our fireplace.  And here is my advice (and I plan on telling you about all our mistakes so you can avoid them in your own remodel!): DO NOT REMOVE YOUR CURRENT FIREPLACE unless you absolutely have to.  We absolutely had to (it was on the wall that no longer exists between the kitchen and family room), and I still wonder if there was any way we could have kept it.

First of all, we had a wood-burning fireplace, which are no longer allowed in California (even outside- so beware if you plan on doing an outdoor fireplace!!).  Now, you must have direct vent gas only fireplaces, which are much more expensive than wood burning (of course- story of my life right now).  But not just any direct vent gas only- there are all these emission requirements, environmental crap, etc.  Our engineer had to meet SEVERAL times with all different county officials AND get fire department approval before they would approve the particular direct vent gas only fireplace I chose- it has taken MONTHS to get approval for one little fireplace.  Time and money wasted!!!  UGH!

But let's stay positive. :)  I'm told that I will much prefer the gas only fancy fireplace because (a) it is turned on/off with just a switch or remote control so super easy and (b) they give off tons more heat so you will use it much more often and save money on running your heater.  And I did find a very pretty one with my herringbone pattern obsession!!

And I'm also excited because once again, another random thing that I hated about our old house was (a) that our fireplace and entertainment center were on a hearth, and (b) that our fireplace wasn't centered:

 and now I get a regular fireplace on the floor and centered with a built-in all around- yippee. :)

I'm still fighting with my contractor over putting tile on the floor in front of the fireplace rather than running hardwood floors right up to it because the fireplace people told me that because nothing is emitted from an all gas fireplace (no ash, embers, fire, etc), you no longer have to have tile in front of the fireplace.  But my contractor tells me it's code that you do (you know the code and I don't get along).  I'm going to talk to the inspector myself.  For reals.  I'm serious about this business.

Electrical, Plumbing & Kids' Bathroom

I just don't have much to talk about lately because although there are 4-8 guys at our house every day all day long, they've been doing only electrical, plumbing and ducting since the entire house is getting rewired and replumbed.  Let me tell you, our house is going to be BRIGHT...I won't need to put lamps anywhere!  So even though a lot is getting done, there isn't much to show for it.  Well, except for our brand new electrical box...

I know, super exciting.

And then they are just digging deeper and wider in our master bathroom (seriously, I told Gary that I think it would have been much easier to just take a couple bulldozers, knock down the house and yard completely and start over)...

An even larger pile of dirt in my closet...

We've had a few changes in the kids' bathroom.  You might recall that we were having a vanity similar to this built...

Well, my cabinet guy informed me on Tuesday that the kids' vanity is much larger than the one pictured (ours is 58", which is really long for a single sink vanity) so it will be extremely cumbersome to open those two large drawers- especially for the kids.  He suggested that we go with a more basic and typical vanity design.  I was not pleased.  The sole reason for custom cabinets in their bathroom was to get this furniture style vanity.  So I scoured the internet for 2 hours trying to find something else I liked that had doors and drawers.  This is the only thing I could find, but it still isn't what I wanted...

So I decided I would make my own design!

I should be an artist, right?  You get the idea.  So the bottom drawer will still be quite large and cumbersome, but we won't be using that drawer much anyway.  Both middle drawers have to be fake drawers for the plumbing, and the four outside drawers will be functional.  I think I actually like it better than my inspiration photo, and I feel better not trying to exactly copy someone. ;)

This will be the style of the drawers on the vanity and the drawers/doors on the built-in cabinet across from the vanity...

I cannot WAIT to see these done!!!!

Another Closet...

I think they framed my closet wrong because seriously, it is enormous.  Not that it's a bad thing, but I'm worried that it is taking away what is supposed to be part of the bathroom.  I couldn't even get a good picture because I had to stand so far back to get the whole thing in the photo...

Doesn't that look like the size of a bedroom?!  It probably just looks bigger because there is no shelving, but now I'm thinking we should just both use Gary's closet, and I could have a 5 bedroom house plus an office!

Here is the water closet for the master bathroom (another weird requirement of mine was that the toilet HAD to be in its own room in the master bathroom)...

It eats up a lot of space because code (damn you code!) requires a lot of room on each side of the toilet and from the end of the toilet to the door, but I don't care- I'll sacrifice bathroom space for the toilet to be in a water closet with a big ol' door that can be shut and locked.

And for everyone that stays with us, here is what I'm dealing with so that you can shower- you're welcome. ;)

That second picture is a pile of dirt in my pantry!

The Good & The Kind of Ugly...

The Good...

They are framing in my vaulted entryway!  I cannot wait for this...it's going to look so stunning when you walk in...and we all know the entryway was my numero uno requirement for the new house...not only are you not going to walk right into a room, you are going to walk into the entryway of all entryways!

The entryway was so important to me that they actually had to move our entire furnace AND reroute 2 gas lines in order to vault the ceiling.  I'm a bit looney bins about the entryway, no?

They are working on plumbing in the master bathroom...

They have trenched the footprint of my new master bedroom and bathroom- all ready for pouring footings for the new slab!

They framed out the openings for my two new 6' doubt French doors leading from the great room to the kick-ass California room!

The Kind of Ugly...

We keep having issues in our kitchen.  Our kitchen is not large so spacial planning is especially important in there.  They keep framing out the wall for the ovens/appliance garage/refrigerator incorrectly!  They are now on the THIRD re-frame of the wall behind the ovens/appliance garage, and the SECOND re-frame of the wall next to the fridge.  Grrrrr.  I'm trying not to let it get to me because framing isn't a huge deal (although it does also involve moving electrical, etc.), but I always just think that every little mistake is costing me even more money!  Deep breaths. 

Closet Talk

Gary's new walk-in closet has been framed!

But let's get real...we all know this will be half Gary's closet and half my closet (or maybe my shoe closet!!) because one closet is definitely not enough for any girl.

It's so big!  And the best part is that my closet is going to be even bigger than this one!!!!!  This house is a hoarder's dream.  There is SO much storage.  I am so excited.  Our last house had basically no storage.  In this house, we'll have 2 big walk-in closets in the master (as opposed to 2 pretty small ones in our last house); the kids' closets are at least twice the size of our last house; there are THREE hallway closets just in the section of the hallway where the bedrooms are; there is a built-in closet in the kids' bathroom; there is a "fine china closet" in the other hallway (by the kitchen); then there will be TWO more closets in the hallway behind the kitchen.  Oh, plus my walk-in pantry.  YIPPITY DO DAH!

Do you think this will mean I will finally have a clean, clutter-free house??!!  Probably not.

RH Love

That's Restoration Hardware, not Real Housewives. ;)  I love them!  I realized I forgot to purchase the light for the guest bathroom, but I didn't want order it separately because I was already paying the max shipping amount (one thing I don't like is they won't even let you ship to store for free on lighting- you HAVE to pay shipping on lighting).  Anyway, I called to add it to my order, but they can only add to orders on the same day so she had to do a separate order but waived the shipping costs for me!  I love good customer service.  Here is my cute guest bath light...

More Kitchen and Bath Finishes

I'm buying fixtures and finishes as fast as I can so we don't stall the process at all.  I ended up going a different direction for the kitchen faucet/sink.  I noticed that really none of my kitchen inspiration photos have those commercial type faucets so I ended up going with a more traditional style.  It's actually not my very first choice, but I absolutely insist on a pull-down (oh my gosh, if you don't have one, you need one stat- they are the best!), which limits my options...

I went with an acrylic sink, but it's in between the cast iron and regular acrylic- it supposedly is some special acrylic material mixture that is absolutely stain and chip resistant...

Then I bought the pedestal sink for the guest bathroom.  It had to be really tiny since it's being side-mounted so again, my options were very limited.  This was far from my first choice, but I think it will look decent, and it's really tiny, which is good...

I got this faucet for the pedestal sink...

And then I ordered these toilets, which I posted about before.  Seriously, if you need new toilets, these are the best looking ones I've found at any price, yet they are almost half the price of many of the Kohler ones!!  It's the Aquasource Tristan at Lowes...

Finishes

I did a bit of damage at Restoration Hardware last night because I decided I will not compromise on the pendants I want for the peninsula so I got my forever all time favorite pendants...

I also bought the two sconces for the kids' bathroom, which I love...

I want to go back this weekend to buy our kitchen pulls and knobs (if I can figure out how many we need).  I know I want these knobs because I had them in my condo, and they are just so good looking on the cabinets...

What I can't decide on are the pulls.  Most of my kitchen inspiration photos have these (which are the ones I had in my condo)...

But I also love these...

I will probably go with the first option (which is what the salesperson at RH recommended for my style kitchen), but I just don't want to make the wrong decision!  For every little decision like this, I scour through my hundreds of inspiration photos because little elements seem to make or break a kitchen for me.  I'll see a kitchen with white shaker cabinets and marble counters, which is what I love, but I'll hate the look of the kitchen so I'm just trying to make sure that all my decisions are going to give me the look and feel that I will love!

Because trust me, Gary is not going to let me make any changes to this house for a loooooong time after all this!! ;)

What Comes Down Must Come Up...Finally!

This is what's left of my master bathroom...

And I have no walls left in my house.  Here is looking from the master bathroom, which is at one of the house, all the way through the master bedroom, family room, kitchen and guest room...

And here is looking the other direction- from the guest room to the master bathroom...

But they are also building things so fast!!  I was unbelievably excited to see my big walk-in pantry all framed in...

 
And finally, after 4 years of toys everywhere, I get my dedicated playroom!!!!!!!  You can see the French pocket doors leaning up against the back wall...

And here is the guest bathroom, which will now contain a shower...

At that rate these guys are going, I really do believe it will be done in 10 weeks!  They are such hard workers- they were there until almost 7 p.m. tonight.  I have major contractor/laborer love today. :)