We arrived to a nice surprise on Friday with the Structural FX crew putting up Christmas lights around the house. All nicely connected into the eaves outlets and on the electronic timer controlled from the garage. We had also re-loaded up the fridge and snack bar to keep them all going in these last few weeks of intense finishing work.
It was another blazing week of interior finishing work and bonus exterior landscaping while the weather has held up here. I'm writing this now as it's just pouring outside and our street is like a river. The rains have finally arrived to the Bay Area! Here is an update on this week:
The last of the upper cabinets were installed in the kitchen and we ran copper tile along the entire backsplash. The tile needed a special epoxy grout but hardened nicely and at the same time sealed the copper nice and shiny. Charlene baked Christmas cookies for the crew on Friday for the first time using our Thermador double oven and dropped off a case of beer and taco chips with salsa. Up for next week is to finish the crown moulding and trim.
The carpet arrived from Georgia. I had purchased this from Owen Carpet in Dalton, saving at least 30% over what we could get it here in the area. They held it for about a month until we were ready and the day has at last arrived. The garage was cleared out and it was dropped off in there. It actually takes up less space than I had imagined but that is probably because the carpet is so tightly packed up in the rolls. The installer Paul Ondricek will be here Monday. All the room are ready and cleaned up.
The Shoji cherry door from Cherry Tree Designs in Montana was installed in the dining room. The door and track look great and make for a nice transition that will match up with our cherry dining room set. You can also see it from the front door which makes for a grand view.
The interior speakers got put in the ceilings. We went with Bose 191 which have a pretty big box but fit nicely between the trusses. All the speaker wires come in to one point in the family room and we also ran them down to the media room in th eventual hope that we will be able to hook everything up to a media pc with remote control. I don't think the technology is there yet to do this properly and cost effectively but should be in a couple of years. We would want to try to re-use as much of our amplifiers as possible when we do this. As for the media room, we were not able to get speakers in the ceilings due to the TGI joists which are very tight. We will place exterior mounted Cambridge Soundworks Newton speakers around the room.
The Omni stainless door "dummy" latches were put up throughout the house on the closet doors. There was a mixup on the strike plates and backsets for the passage and privacy latches and we are getting replacement parts sent over from Omnia. That has been a challenge as we had bought these on the Internet from Home Annex which meant first filling out a return authorization form, then spending a couple of hours on the phone with the customer service/sales group to get the right parts and air shipping. This is a drawback of Internet orders. If you don't get the right thing, it can be quite a frustrating exercise dealing with returns and exchanges. Anyhow, the right backsets are the 2 3/8" type, which are pretty standard for most doors, not 2 3/4", and the strike plates are "full lip" not "T" shape. I was surprised Homeannex had no option on their e-commerce site to specify full lip or T, very annoying.
The hot water heater was hooked up. Candice our plumber was back for a few days working on this and connecting the Jacuzzi which got dropped back in the newly grouted granite tile bath area which looks great. Barney did a great job laying that tile and polishing the edges with a grinding wheel. Trent was busy hooking up all the faucets and bathroom accessories, which really tie the look all together. We are very pleased with all our choices on the these.
On the outside, Brian was able to mobilize a crew of day laborers to do more work on the back garden walls, spread some dirt around with a bobcat (equipment thanks to San Mateo Rental), roto till the entire property and demolish the last remnant of the old house - a section of the white picket fence that was being used to hold up our mailbox. I told the mailman to deliver to our house now. We put our numbers up in a hurry, both lighted and the Design Within Reach ones we bought for the entrance area. The day laborers also dug the main trench for the water pipe that will feed the fire sprinkler system.
Next week's list: carpet installation, finishing the kitchen crown and trim, finish the half bath slate vanity/sink and painting touch ups. If the weather clears, they may tackle the deck and finish the garden wall and stair areas. I hope to also get the trenches doug for our sprinkler system and put in the bender board for demarcation of the flower beds so that we can finish bring in fresh grass sod. Our fireplace slate still has not shipped yet but is expected to be done this week, a month later after our delivery disaster.
