They've also started in on the tricky part of the staircase below - the one that brings you from our unit's little foyer to the kitchen/dining room. Here's the landing just off the kitchen/dining room that they've put in so far:
Sunday, 6 February 2011
Staircase framing begins in our unit
The carpenters have been working on framing the stairs to the correct size and location this week. So far they've roughed in the shape for the staircase between our living level and our bedroom level:
Above is the view from the dining room. The next two photos are views from the living room up towards the bedroom level (third floor of the building).
My favorite thing about this staircase so far is that when you come down it from the bedroom level and pause on the curved landing, you will be looking out the new door, though the new balcony and to the green space beyond. The next photo is of the top of the same staircase. It curls before depositing you in the upstairs hallway.
They've also started in on the tricky part of the staircase below - the one that brings you from our unit's little foyer to the kitchen/dining room. Here's the landing just off the kitchen/dining room that they've put in so far:
After they finish this staircase, they will just have the staircase between our bedroom level on the third floor and the roof level headhouse. Here's what it looks like right now - it's the last original structure in the building:
Rebuilding that staircase will tell us how much of a closet we can have beneath it: we're planning on a stackable washer and dryer under the stairs but I would love a slightly more substantial laundry area since I dry most of my clothes either flat or hanging and don't like the look of them strewn about damp.
They've also started in on the tricky part of the staircase below - the one that brings you from our unit's little foyer to the kitchen/dining room. Here's the landing just off the kitchen/dining room that they've put in so far:
Saturday, 5 February 2011
A rug for the master bathroom
John Robshaw recently updated its sale section so I decided to go out on a limb and by this dhurrie that's been tempting me since it came out:
Rugs are tricky for me to find, especially because I shy away from large scale patterns, modern patterns, bold colors and sharp color contrasts. On the other hand, I don't like anything plain - unless it's jute, rush, seagrass, etc. Despite the final sale warning, I took a baby step and ordered the 2x3 size with the intention of using the rug in front of the vanity in the master bathroom. I hope in real life it's not too red and feels good underfoot. Does anyone have any experience with John Robshaw dhurries?
Rugs are tricky for me to find, especially because I shy away from large scale patterns, modern patterns, bold colors and sharp color contrasts. On the other hand, I don't like anything plain - unless it's jute, rush, seagrass, etc. Despite the final sale warning, I took a baby step and ordered the 2x3 size with the intention of using the rug in front of the vanity in the master bathroom. I hope in real life it's not too red and feels good underfoot. Does anyone have any experience with John Robshaw dhurries?
Thursday, 3 February 2011
Our front door trauma
I've been waiting no less than 6 months for the revamped front doors to our unit to arrive from the refinisher/woodworker and, in the middle of Tuesday's snowstorm, they finally did. (The valiant drivers, however, were 2 hours late, which meant I spent 2 hours waiting anxiously in the unheated building.) My heart sank when I saw the doors. Try as I did to look on the bright side, they're ugly. Keep in mind that there are four panels (two that are operating doors and two that are just panels on the walls framing them). Now witness the trauma:
The biggest problem is the seams in the glass. (Ignore the thick layer of dust on the mirrors.) They're in places that make sense (they line up with the joins in the wood trim) but they're still really distracting and piecey looking and not at all what I had in mind. Our architectural designer made an image of what the doors would look like if the trim was painted white:
I had planned to paint the trim gold, but wanted to see what the stripped, unfinished wood would look like first. Well, now I know: bad. For reference, here's the look I had been hoping for:
The idea behind the whole project (including having four panels) is to hide the way in to our unit, so that when you come into the building, it looks like there is a common hallway and only two units in the building (their doors are to the right and to the left of the paneled wall with our doors in it). Sort of like the secret doors concealed in walls of bookcases that I've always loved.
Or like an unmarked underground club. Well, I have some ideas about how to try to fix this monumental screw up and will start running through them one by one tomorrow.
The biggest problem is the seams in the glass. (Ignore the thick layer of dust on the mirrors.) They're in places that make sense (they line up with the joins in the wood trim) but they're still really distracting and piecey looking and not at all what I had in mind. Our architectural designer made an image of what the doors would look like if the trim was painted white:
I had planned to paint the trim gold, but wanted to see what the stripped, unfinished wood would look like first. Well, now I know: bad. For reference, here's the look I had been hoping for:
The idea behind the whole project (including having four panels) is to hide the way in to our unit, so that when you come into the building, it looks like there is a common hallway and only two units in the building (their doors are to the right and to the left of the paneled wall with our doors in it). Sort of like the secret doors concealed in walls of bookcases that I've always loved.
Or like an unmarked underground club. Well, I have some ideas about how to try to fix this monumental screw up and will start running through them one by one tomorrow.
Friday, 28 January 2011
The fireplace grows up a little
Here's what the fireplace looks like a day later. Our mason had to make an adjustment to some of the coursing so that slowed him down a bit. Isn't it the cutest little fireplace in the whole wide world?
He's gone back to his family for a week but will be back the week after next to continue building.
He's gone back to his family for a week but will be back the week after next to continue building.
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Tenants' bathtubs are in; windows are bricked; construction begins on the fireplace
We've been getting hammered by snowstorm after snowstorm here, which makes it really hard to do any of the remaining outdoor work...and I hear that we're in for another set of flurries next week too. It's torture waiting for weather that's warm and clear enough to put in the headhouse windows. Look how much snow is piled up on the roof.
The tenants' bathtubs have been installed, and some of the framing around them put in. I absolutely love how those bathrooms are turning out. They feel really spacious for basic bathrooms and the tubs are wonderfully deep.
The plumbers have also run the rough plumbing for the tenants' toilets, sinks and their washers and dryers. Lookin' good!
Our wonderful mason has been putting in brutally long days for the past week and a half, bricking in the dozen or so windows. He's done now, except for a little part of one window. (The HVAC guys have been crawling through that space to install pipes in the back corner of the building.) Here's what it looks like. I'm so impressed with the way he angled the bricks to fill in the arch. It's too bad it's going to be covered up with insulation and drywall.
Today he starts to build our fireplace! I took a few "before" pictures, with all the bricks laid out for the firebox.
I'll keep you posted as it shapes up.
Friday, 21 January 2011
The headhouse windows are here...plus brickwork
We were out of town for a few days this week but in our absence the headhouse windows and French doors were delivered. They're stacked in the building because it's been snowing/raining. When the weather clears up it will be exciting to see them go in.
Also this week, our mason has been bricking up the inside of the windows on the back of the building. He is doing an absolutely beautiful job. Check it out:
Also this week, our mason has been bricking up the inside of the windows on the back of the building. He is doing an absolutely beautiful job. Check it out:
Thursday, 13 January 2011
Progress, but it ain't pretty
I feel guilty about the light posting. I keep hoping that if I hold off, I'll have something pretty to show you. But it ain't pretty, so I'm giving you a few glimpses of what we've got going on inside the building.
Most exciting to me this week is the fact that we finally have the steel post installed between the master bathroom/bedroom. This is the structural support we need to put in a massive glass wall (9 feet tall and about 10 feet long) between the two rooms and not have the garden and garden room come crashing through our ceiling. Voila, the much-anticipated post:
The last photo shows the view from the far corner of the bedroom back towards the walk-in closet/alcove. The opening is oversized. It's actually going to have 2 pocket doors front and center that slide open to reveal the alcove and then slide closed to meet in the middle of the opening. The closet feels wonderfully huge at this point, but I'm sure that will change when the drywall and shelves go in.
In other news, the HVAC installation continues, with ducts and equipment running pretty much everywhere now. Here's the compressor that's in the wall/closet space between the two guest bedrooms, plus pics of its intake openings in the hallway on the third floor and in the ceiling of the second floor.
The last photo I have to share is one showing the framing for the concrete hearth that will form the base for the fireplace in our living room.
We're still torn between the wood mantel and the marble mantel. Since both are beautiful, it's coming down to a question of size. The wood one needs 6 inches of non-combustible material lining each side of the opening, which reduces the space for firewood to pretty puny dimensions (24 inches). The marble fireplace, on the other hand, whose opening is 35 inches, carries no such requirements and might actually be able to be enlarge by a couple of inches at the top. Our master mason (my boyfriend's godsend nephew from Milwaukee) is coming to town for two weeks on Sunday night, so we've got to make a decision stat.
Room framing continues in the basement. Our poor crew spent the early part of the week sawing out the 3 foot deep granite foundation so that we could run the plumbing pipes closer to the outer wall of the building. The work looked brutally hard (I dropped by during the sawing and fled the building in a cloud of dust, plus there were rueful comments about soreness the next day). We're so glad we had it done, though, since it's going to make the bathrooms a much more respectable 8 feet by about 6.5 feet. Since we were tweaking the size of the bathrooms anyway, I decided to put in really nice soaker tubs. My priority was to get the deepest model available, with the cleanest inside shape. It's shockingly difficult to find a deep tub with otherwise relatively small proportions! (Ahem, bathtub manufacturers, you might want to make a note.) The best I found was the Kohler Underscore (66" long x 36" wide x 22"deep).
Two have been delivered and are sitting in their boxes in the basement. We're going to tile around them with our 3x6 Carrera subway tile. Do I even need to say that I'm very excited to see how it looks?
Most exciting to me this week is the fact that we finally have the steel post installed between the master bathroom/bedroom. This is the structural support we need to put in a massive glass wall (9 feet tall and about 10 feet long) between the two rooms and not have the garden and garden room come crashing through our ceiling. Voila, the much-anticipated post:
In other news, the HVAC installation continues, with ducts and equipment running pretty much everywhere now. Here's the compressor that's in the wall/closet space between the two guest bedrooms, plus pics of its intake openings in the hallway on the third floor and in the ceiling of the second floor.
The last photo I have to share is one showing the framing for the concrete hearth that will form the base for the fireplace in our living room.
We're still torn between the wood mantel and the marble mantel. Since both are beautiful, it's coming down to a question of size. The wood one needs 6 inches of non-combustible material lining each side of the opening, which reduces the space for firewood to pretty puny dimensions (24 inches). The marble fireplace, on the other hand, whose opening is 35 inches, carries no such requirements and might actually be able to be enlarge by a couple of inches at the top. Our master mason (my boyfriend's godsend nephew from Milwaukee) is coming to town for two weeks on Sunday night, so we've got to make a decision stat.
Room framing continues in the basement. Our poor crew spent the early part of the week sawing out the 3 foot deep granite foundation so that we could run the plumbing pipes closer to the outer wall of the building. The work looked brutally hard (I dropped by during the sawing and fled the building in a cloud of dust, plus there were rueful comments about soreness the next day). We're so glad we had it done, though, since it's going to make the bathrooms a much more respectable 8 feet by about 6.5 feet. Since we were tweaking the size of the bathrooms anyway, I decided to put in really nice soaker tubs. My priority was to get the deepest model available, with the cleanest inside shape. It's shockingly difficult to find a deep tub with otherwise relatively small proportions! (Ahem, bathtub manufacturers, you might want to make a note.) The best I found was the Kohler Underscore (66" long x 36" wide x 22"deep).
Two have been delivered and are sitting in their boxes in the basement. We're going to tile around them with our 3x6 Carrera subway tile. Do I even need to say that I'm very excited to see how it looks?
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