Bathrooms, Kitchen & Carpet

The inside of the house is nearing completion with the tiles, sinks, shower, toilets all being installed this last two weeks. Brian camped out at the house to complete the master bathroom. Here's how it was still looking not too many days ago:

Molly was asking about the bath tub...

The tiled floor is travertine stone while the shower and bath tub cladding is a porcelain tile.

 Here's how it was looking when Brian took a break. We are very pleased how the colours and textures are coming together:

In case you were wondering, here it is...

With the tile work done and the bath tub and fixtures back in place, it was time to add the glass for the shower.

The master bathroom is looking great, so Brian moved on to completing the second bathroom starting with the floor tiles.

 With the floor tiles done, it was time to add the sink and fixtures and fittings:

The decorative mosaic tile around the sink came out very nicely and the addition of the mirror is trans-formative:

The laundry room porcelain tiles are the same as in the second bathroom, but the while cabinets create a different feel.

The sink, faucet, and back splash are now installed:

All that's missing is the washer and dryer...

And now we are ready for all that muddy cycling kit!

The addition of the carpet on the stairs, landing and bedrooms has created a softer, warmer interior. The colours and textures are all blending beautifully and, although it's hard to tell from the photos, the feel of the carpet between my toes is wonderful!

Meanwhile downstairs the cleaners have moved in making everything sparkle including the red oak floor:

The kitchen has gone through a metamorphosis with the tiles finished, fixtures and furnishings installed, and LED under-cabinet lighting providing a dramatic effect.

All we need now is the fridge...

Why are American fridges so BIG?

That pretty much wraps it up for the inside. Oh, but what about the lights for the nook?

We'll do the big un-wrap next time...

Front Porch, Fence, and Uphill Retaining Wall

As move in day approaches and final inspections are due, Richard and the contractors have been cranking up the activity. I have always been attracted to the traditional American front porch, and now we have a chance for one of our own. Here's the space:

We are having composite material for the decking that is water, mildew, and fade resistant and requires no maintenance.

Stan is back to help with the porch construction. The support beams are regular treated lumber.

And once the beams are in place, he makes pretty fast progress:

Here's the finished decking and, already some of the wall for the landscaping:

Meanwhile the front door has also been installed. The glass has a lovely stained glass window-style pattern.

Time to call the painters back... We opted to paint the door beeswax candle which is the accent colour we chose for the house.

And here it is:

Clay then adds the pre-primed cedar cladding for the porch support posts. Yes he really is that tall and he doesn't need a ladder!

On the downhill side of the house the fence is going in on top of the concrete retaining wall. Brian is also starting work on the steps and platform which will be the solution to the long running conundrum of how to get in through the side garage door!

And here's the completed fence section alongside the house:

The fence section at the front of the house will be done once the driveway is done. The wooden struts are holding the forms in place in preparation for pouring the concrete for the driveway which will begin when the weather decides to cooperate:

On the uphill side of the house some of the stone blocks for the front landscaping are already in place. Alongside the house however, a wooden retaining wall is required to hold the soil in place. Richard and Clay are working on this:

Below the topsoil, the earth is a hard, yellowish clay that is remarkably stable. The vertical cut into the uphill slope as been exposed throughout the winter rain and snow and has not budged one jot, and so an upright wooden retaining wall will provide all the support required without taking up the space that would be required by a stone wall.

And here's how it looks as Richard completes the fill and Molly checks it out for possible squirrel activity:

That's all for now!

Mantelpiece

Richard made the wonderful suggestion of re-purposing a slab of maple (possibly myrtle wood - it's actually hard to tell) for the mantelpiece. This is a slab that came from his father-in-law's wood shop where it was used as a workbench and is shown leaning upright below:

It's a gorgeous piece of wood and we took Richard up on his offer. Of course the slab needed to be cut to size, sanded and polished and, in the process, a number of interesting elements were found. An old-fashioned square head nail had been hammered into the tree early on in its life and the tree had grown around the nail completely burying it in the wood in the process. Similarly there were some old buckshot holes as well as a small rock that had similarly been incorporated into the tree's interior. These made for some interesting scars hinting at the history of the tree. Here's the mantelpiece after it had been cut to size and polished which really accented the grain and textures within the wood. We decided to keep the lovely gnarly outside of the tree as the front edge:

And here it is installed with the green tile surround that matches the tiles we used in the kitchen:

We are delighted to have such a delightful, natural feature in the house that is so fitting in the context of the wooded environment.

Kitchen and Bathroom Counter Tops and Tiles

The house really starts to feel like a home once the cabinets go in and, during the last week, the delivery of counter tops and tiles further added to that feeling. The granite counter top for the kitchen came from a company in Salem and Julia and I had already been up there a few times to make our selection. Here's the slab we chose which is called Bordeaux River:

And here it is shown on the central island in the kitchen. The layout design was done by Ricky (of the Marble Center) to show off the large scale patterns within the rock slab to best effect, and, although it's a bit hard to see from this photograph, we were very pleased with the result:

Richard also began to install the back-splash tiles on the kitchen wall. We have selected a lovely pastel green hand-made tile which, it turns out, is made in Exeter, England by the Winchester Tile Company and supplied by a company in Boston. Here's how it looks so far with the spacers still in place and before any of the grout is applied:

I have to say they look absolutely brilliant and, still unfinished, here's how they look from a bit further back (the space is where the cooker and microwave will go):

Meanwhile, upstairs in the laundry room, the counter top and sink and back-splash has been installed:

Brian has also begun installing the porcelain 16 x 16 floor tiles which look even better than we expected:

In the second bathroom, the floor has also been prepared to receive the tiles. The sub floor is a cement resin board (called Hardiebacker) that is very resistant to moisture because it has no paper backing and doesn't contain gypsum. Therefore it is ideal for wet environments such as bathrooms, showers, and laundries and provides a very stable platform for the tiles:

Here's the cabinet counter top in the second bathroom complete with decorative back-splash that matches the floor tiles (the same tiles as used in the laundry).

In the master bathroom, the floor also has a layer of hardiebacker:

However, in addition Julia and I decided to include the luxury of underfloor heating. The underfloor heating is in the form of a pad that rolls out like a carpet and includes a thermostat controlled electric filament running through it. Two separate pads were required:

On top of the underfloor heating, Brian will install the travertine stone tiles which should do a good job of propagating the heat:

The shower and tub area looks like a scene out of Psycho, but in fact the red colour is an additional waterproofing layer over the top of the Hardiebacker cement board over which the tiles will be mounted.

The electrician, Roger, has been installing some of the electrical fixtures and here's a selection in the following order: ceiling fan in the master bedroom, ceiling fan in the guest bedroom, lamp in the dining area, front outside light:

That's all folks...