Granite!

The granite for the two downstairs bathrooms went in today.

Why granite, when the kitchen countertops are quartz composite, and the two upstairs bathroom vanities are Corian? Why, cost of course! Short of cultured marble, granite offered the most cost-saving options (remnants, prefab, numerous sources).

Downstairs main bathroom:


Guest bathroom:


I found my own granite source, bypassing my GC's preferred source. I'm never sure if I'm breaking an unspoken construction protocol by going out on my own, but the end result was that while I found a place that would charge considerably less, I was now on my own to do the coordinating. The place I found was recommended by a very picky friend, and indeed, the price was right: $900 for the remnants, fabrication and installation of both. My GC's guy wanted over $1100 for each.

But the guy I found didn't keep track of the remnants I chose from his yard, his office staff didn't convey messages, he didn't remember the price quote he'd given me over the phone, he needed several reminders about the date he'd committed to for templating, didn't call on the day of install, left messages on the wrong phone numbers, told me to send email and then never read or answered it. Then when I called about install, he couldn't commit to a time and said lightly, "Ahh, let's see, sometime this afternoon?" As if I just hang around a cold jobsite all day with three small children, waiting for him to breeze in whenever.

I'm deeply grateful that my most excellent GC has spared me the vast majority of this sort of hassle. Except what I take on myself to save $1200.

Getting Over Things

I'm in the phase of this project in which I'm faced with new decisions and new results all the time. It seems I'm constantly "getting over" stuff now. Today I feel like complaining about things that aren't quite right but aren't quite wrong enough to change. Instead, I just have to get over them.

OK, "get over it" item #1. Look at this tile wainscot & cap:


That 6" cap should be lined up with the 6" field tile below it! It even shows that in the tile design. I want to shift the whole cap section over to the right by about an inch. For that matter, the glass tile border of 2x2s could line up too.

Well, OK, I can see why the 2x2s don't line up -- in tile world, three 2" tiles does not equal one 6" tile, because of grout inbetween. But it worked on the sample board at the tile store. Yeah yeah, I know sample boards aren't reality, but I don't see any sneaky cuts here. I think it could have worked.

Worse, in the far right corner, the vertical quarter-round on this outside corner has a cut that should line up with the top or bottom of the 2x2 glass tile border. Instead, the cut falls right at the middle of where the cap ends. Couldn't they have lined up that cut with the top or bottom of the 2x2s?

This bugs me. I just want to noodge down that cut so I can enjoy the end of that cap.

Who are the homeowners who get the perfect bathrooms without mistakes like this? How do you do that?

(I'm sure designer-types will have kniptions about my decision for an offset sink in this bathroom. I'm sure it won't "look right" and creates problems about where to put the (surface-mounted, because the wall was already drywalled by the time I got around to choosing the) medicine cabinet. But having a nice large area on the right to set Stuff on makes more sense to me than two small spaces on either side of the sink. Function Over Form.)

"Get over it" item #2. This angled under-stair storage door is hinged on the wrong side. You have to stand on the stairs and crouch to reach into that low storage space, instead of stand in the nice wide hall and reach into a much taller opening. Not worth changing (that was an expensive little door!), but definitely not ideal.


"Get over it" #3. The upstairs kids' bathroom vanity is a WoodPro "Heirloom" series. When I bought it, I pointed to the photo in the brochure and said, "This color:"

But in real life, "Cherry with Sable and Black Glaze" looks like this:


Yeah, my bad: the back of the brochure has a teeny photo that shows "Cherry with Sable and Black Glaze," and it's about as dark as my vanity. I didn't think to look in the back of the brochure. I just looked at the large, prominent display photo and stupidly said "duh, that."

The WoodPro quality is fabulous, I really like it, but I'm really really sorry I didn't get a much lighter and more appropriate wood color

"Get Over It" #4. I don't love my kitchen countertop. I like it. But I want to love it.


And this is especially silly, because I really didn't care that much about the countertop, other than its being the lowest-maintenance and highest-abuse material possible: quartz composite. I told the kitchen designer to just pick the color, and she came up with Cambria "Sutton." It's perfect. But I'm not bowled over by it. I guess you really can't be with quartz composite. I should be, since it meets all my criteria. To me, the biggest "wow" comes from how well something works, not how good it looks. Buuuuut....should I have gone granite instead?

I also wish I'd gotten full grilles on that bay window, and obscured the glass, since it looks right into a fence and the side of our neighbor's house. Get Over It.

This one, however, I'm not getting over. Back to the guest bath, the one with the offset tile cap....now, the floor. Its grout color is wrong. Wah wah, right?

No, this is a full-on mistake. And not mine for once. The floor grout was supposed to be "Oyster Gray." Instead, they (say they) put in "Bone," like the wall tile. Does that look like the wall tile color? Actually, it doesn't matter. Call it what you will, but it's white. And I'm calling it "absolutely not."


I absolutely love the Bellagio Sabbia porcelain floor tile, with Oceanside Geologie "Sand Dune" glass/stone accents. Tile Fantastic has this on display on their own floor (photo below), with a 3x3 accent of the Oceanside 1x1s. And "Oyster Gray" grout. It's great.

This is how it should look (from the tile store's showroom floor).


(How did this Bone/Oyster Gray mistake happen? Because the original tile design stated Bone only for the whole bathroom. I amended the floor grout verbally, then in writing, to the master tile guy and two of his subordinates. Guess who didn't get the message: the guy who actually grouted this floor.)


It irks me, but I know that when the guys fix this grout, their hours will be lumped in with all the legitimate hours they spent on the jobsite and submitted to the master tileguy, who then does his markup magic and passes it on to my contractor. They're not going to break out the 1.85 hours they spent fixing their mistake. We'll end up paying for the fix.

As long as I'm getting over "Bone" grout, I'm not crazy about it in the upstairs kids' bathroom either. "Bone" was the indicated color here, but it turned out light.

Check out that cool glass tile border, a "custom pattern" my architect did. I love this bath tile -- practical porcelain 12x12s, with some fun accents (the colored glass tile) but not too "kidlike." No carved frogs please.

But I'm not here to reap praise, my purpose right now is to grouse. This remodel was motivated by very fundamental problems: layout, flow. Those have been solved, so well that now I realize I didn't care enough along the way about the finishes. I haven't cared about how the pieces that go into a bathroom look together; I've focused almost entirely on how well each individual piece does its job. But in the end, how things look dominates the final impression of the project. I may have been high-and-mighty before about not being one of those high-maintenance designer-types who are super-picky about the exact shade of brushed vs. satin nickel, but now I have new appreciation for that eye.

One thing for sure: before the kitchen (tile) backsplash goes in, I'll post signs on all 4 walls in 12" letters stating the grout color!

Stair door backward

I can't stand wasted or unused space. So, this nook under the staircase had to be accessible, via a funky little door that fits right to the space.

In discussing it with the door guy, our jobsite foreman, our contractor, Dave, and anyone who'd listen, I was adament from day one that it open into the hall, not to the stairs. I had to repeat this in every conversation, because everyone wanted to hinge it on the long side. NO, I insisted, I don't want to stand on the steps to nudge it open.

Door-swing terminology is really complicated. There's "left-hand" and "right-hand" swing, but what does that mean? Does it matter if it swings in or out? Does it matter if you're standing on the "inside" or "outside" of the space? Does everyone do it the same way? Maybe, maybe, and definitely No.

I insisted on seeing the printed door order and approving it before any purchases were made. That might sound smart, but in fact, it means you take on responsibility for any tiny obscure mistake in the order, often in some part number or code for the finish color or something you don't know enough to notice.

But this one, I made certain was specified correctly: "LH," meaning, when you look at the door and it swings away from you, the hinges are on the left.

Despite my great care, I was dismayed to see that sure enough, the hinges ended up on the long side, and it opens into the stairs.

Looks like I have another round of draining phone calls to make when everything re-opens next year.

Diagonal

Well, that shower floor tile is going in diagonal after all. It's the craziest story. For some reason, this bothered me enough that the tile guy and a carpenter both encouraged me to ask to have it changed. I agreed, and decided to bite the bullet. I authorized the approximate day's work.

I told the jobsite foreman I'd like it changed.

Then the tilesetter guy put me on the phone with his boss, the master tile contractor. He explained that pulling up the tile in a showerpan could damage the underlying hot mop. Besides, the diagonal set left some oddball pieces. We could put a diagonal on top, but that would cover some of the base tile and make the drain hole too deep. After much shouting into a cell phone over the racket of power saws, he talked me out of it.

I told the jobsite foreman to leave it square.

But the jobsite foreman looked at me and said: "Nah. We can pull up that tile."

He grabbed a claw hammer and chisel from his car, and five minutes later, the square-set tile was gone! It hadn't been grouted yet, and the house is so cold that the underlying mortar hadn't set, in fact, some of it was still gooey.


Now that's service. I really appreciated his taking me under his wing like that and making it happen. It's interesting too how many different opinions there are from the pros on how something will work. The master tileguy was understandably conservative. The tilesetter journeyman vastly overestimated the demolition work (he said half a day). Our jobsite foreman, whose job includes customer satisfaction, took matters into his own hands and used his experience and confidence -- and chisel -- to fix the situation!

Meantime, far more important things transpired. The cabinetmaker who will make our mantel was out measuring, and discovered a highly unstraight wall that will complicate installation (on the left, it angles in about an inch). More drywall and framing repair. But the new hearth has been floated and is ready for tile.


And now I get to pick knobs for my kitchen! The oil-rubbed bronze is a no-brainer. After the tile debacle, choosing knobs should be easy.

Square

Dang! Missed it. I'd told the tile guy to put this floor square unless he heard otherwise this morning. Unfortunately, tradesman's "mornings" are different from ours, and we missed the boat. It was done by the time Dave arrived with the message.

I'm in such remodel overload that this sort of minor setback is devastating. I really, really, REALLY wish we'd caught this. The floor tile is awesome, and it would really stand out if it were a diagonal-set. But really, aren't there greater things in the world to stress about than the direction of floor tile in a guest shower?

The good news is, the rest of the tile looks absolutely fantastic. I love that glass tile, and the diamond in the niches worked perfectly

Square or Diagonal

I stopped by the house this morning after a long dentist appointment. This was the 3rd morning in a row I stopped by, and the 3rd time in a row my visit was productive. Today, I reminded the carpenter hanging doors that a bathroom door was one of the few "normal" thickness ones (most of our doors are 1-3/4" thick, heavier than standard), and talked to the tilesetter about how to put down tiles in a shower floor.

Square or diagonal? Square makes more sense, everything in this bathroom is square, but I like diagonal. This is why I need interior designers.

Tile and mason

The mason's been here! Preparing the original wood fireplace for the new mantle and tile surround. Unfortunately, it turns out the drywall and framing above the mantle is so distorted it has to be replaced. More extras.


You can see the test-painting I was doing. The future color will be Kelly-Moore "Dustry Trail," the greenish color on the left.

The first bathroom's tile is in! Grout still isn't in, so the lines look a lot darker. I love that onyx border. We'd long since settled on these materials and design when I learned that the onyx border is $18.50 a foot -- and this design has a double border! Agh!

But, I've also learned, that a detail like that is worth putting a few extra hundred dollars into. This bathroom will be Grand Central Bathroom, where all the fingernail-clipping, bandaid-applying, allergy-medicine-finding, morning toothbrushing, last-minute hair touch-ups, toddler-potty-training, pre-dinner handwashing, mudbath-rinsing and countless other functions will take place. I'll be spending a lot of time in here.

The kitchen cabinet installation continues! Here, the kitchen designer, the cabinet installer, the project foreman and the countertop templater discuss the farmhouse sink installation. Seeing this collaboration makes me very, very, VERY happy!


I'm really happy with our kitchen designer, for numerous reasons. Not only did she design a beautiful kitchen, and keep aesthetics in mind while working with a very functionally-oriented client (me), but she's also well-versed in the countless details of installation. She's been onsite many times answering countless details about the installation that I'd never have thought of: how the countertop edging works with the sink edge. Where the countertop seam should go. How to conceal a triangle gap at the ceiling. How to reposition light fixtures that were misplaced. More and more I find myself answering questions with, "Whatever she says." I'm not even choosing the knobs, other than to rule out the bin-style cup ones because they force you to twist your wrist to open a drawer and that's just not functional enough. See what she's up against?

Cabinet Progress

Progress on cabinet installation, despite the holiday.


It's starting to look like a kitchen!


I'm nervous....what if I don't like it? The quasi-shaker style looks odd on the wide short drawers. Ah....I've been through far too much to quibble about things like that

Cabinets unpacked

Kitchen cabinets have been delivered and unpacked!!


This isn't the kitchen's final color; that's just tinted primer. It will be a lot lighter, still greeny-gray, though I'm actually starting to like the primer color!

Exterior priming

Our house is green now! This isn't the final color; it's just tinted primer. The actual color will be darker and richer and more of a gray-green than a ferny-green. And the trim will be a creamy white. I've wanted white trim for a while.



The painters are priming the interior too. Family room view:


Today at the jobsite meeting we talked about interior paint colors, stains, how to do the stairs, how to finish an alcove in the bathroom, how to paint the exterior columns. Not finishing details yet, but we're getting there.

KITCHEN CABINETS DUE MONDAY!!

Fireplace tile design

This month is filled with pressure, as we must finalize countless selections to keep the project from getting behind. Most homeowner can ask their contractors, "Are we on schedule?" Me, I don't dare, because the answer is, "Are you on schedule?" And I'm not exactly.

This morning, I worked with a tile designer for almost 3 hours to set up the bathroom tile order -- and that's with the tile already selected and layouts already done! That's huge.

Then I met with the kitchen designer, and we finalized the kitchen backsplash, niche detail and corresponding family room fireplace , final layout coming tomorrow. That's huger!

The last big design bugaboo is the living room fireplace. Here's the old living room fireplace:


It was partially demolished last week to this:


And today I got a beautiful design from our architect/designer, who said she really had fun with this. We're both delighted. This time, picking tile will be fun.


My 6-year-old says it looks like it has eyes!

Sheetrock

Siding is up. Sheetrock is up! The house looks completely different.

Observe the view from the original dining room, through the swinging door, into my former deep dark cave of a kitchen. This is the way it used to be.


Now look. This change we did so the hall goes all the way through to the West yard is great.


My future kitchen! Even with the huge pile of drywall scraps, I love it.

Porch flooring

New front porch flooring went in. We'd planned to paint it, but now that we see it, we'll clearcoat it. It will make a stunning entry. Plywood covers the opening for what will be our new front door.



Here's a peek at our new front door, which the guys kindly opened up from its substantial packaging so we could peek at it.


Family room fireplace is in too!

Rough Inspection Passed

Rough inspection passed! Despite these minor protrusions into the 3'10" no-no zone on the south side. This is our new kitchen bay window, too bad it faces a fence.


This is a huge milestone! Now they can start buttoning up.

Windows have arrived!

They're here!


Wah, I wanted those squares on the top of the living room window to be...well, square. A check of emails reveals that this is the design I'd approved, and rationalized at the time. Something about balance and proportion. Goes to show: go with your instincts.

But of the numerous things I have to "get over" in this project, this doesn't even make it into the Top 10.

Fire in the hole

Paraphrased from an email from our contractor today:

You missed an exciting day at the Doudna remodeling project today. Everything is fine, but we had a brief scare. Plumber was working with his torch sweating pipes together and hit a piece of the paper backing on the old insulation between the floors. The old paper backing went up pretty fast, and then hit the piece of insulation in the next bay, and then the next piece. Only the paper burned, but it went fast. Fortunately we had fire extinguisher on hand. We pulled down the burnt pieces of insulation and hauled them away. Only the paper side was burned. There was only one spot on the edge of a floor joist that got lightly scared from the flame.

We went ahead and called fire department just so they could give the all clear. They had the street blocked for a little while with the fire truck, so some of the neighbor may say something. Firemen poked around and said everything is fine.

Whew.

But the really really bad news comes from PG&E: over $5000 to move our gas service -- and that's the easy, straightforward cheap one. I can't "wait" to see what they want to move the electrical service.

Choosing exterior paint colors

Testing out paint colors. On the left, "templeton gray," (bluish) and on the right, "hancock gray" (greenish). The test trim color is an off-white interior color I had lying around.


I stink at painting, but fortunately, my photography is even worse and conceals the drips and streaks and surges.

Exterior framing done

Kitchen cabinets ordered!!

Exterior framing pretty much done. Rumor has it that windows will start to arrive next week.


The arch for the tile niche above the cooktop is framed in the wrong place, as our most marvelous kitchen designer observes.


Someday it might look like this.

(editor's note: that inspiration persisted right up until tile selection, and I still love it.)

Making use of all spaces, this area under the stairs will be accessible for storage, from two different places. It'll be a great place for kids to hide. Or grownups to hide from the kids.


Big meeting with the plumbers today to review valve placements.

Cabinets ordered

Almost a sign-off meeting with the kitchen designer, still need some measurements, but I'm on a short leash to sign off as soon as she's done, and write a very, very large check for our cabinets. We made some changes that will save some money, such as changing one drawer design to another that won't require a custom cabinet; or removing some drawers.

It's going to be spectacular. I'm still not sure how it ended up "spectacular," I'd have been fine with "great," but these things have a tendency to run away with me.




The cabinet order alone will cost over $70,000, but it's for far more than a kitchen -- it includes a desk area, pantry, hutch, and entertainment area -- over 30 drawers, 50 shelves, and 80 handles. Then the countertops and appliances are on top of that. Gulp.

Lap siding all around

We decided against shingles, so it'll be all lap siding. One of the reasons was to preserve the siding, window trim, and decorative knee braces around the remaining upstairs east-facing wall (below) -- but it turns out that the siding profile doesn't match any of the other siding anyway. So it goes.


Met with our contractor's interior door guy on Friday, to put together a preliminary list of doors.

New idea to replace the dining-room French doors: a painted ordinary door (the "servant's entrance"), but with an operable casement sidelight. The dining room gets no ventilation otherwise. Door guy is looking into it.

Thinking about exterior colors! I like the "templeton gray," a bluey gray (top strip, center color). Dave likes "hancock gray" (top color on the vertical strip). Ramon, the most competent jobsite foreman who's also full of good ideas, also picked Dave's color on his own.