More floor

It's unbelievable, but we came thiiis close to not having all the flooring in. Our contractor's flooring source underestimated the amount of material needed, and though it's nothing unusual or exotic (domestic red oak), this prefinished material has to be ordered weeks in advance. Ironic if we'd get hung up on one of the few decisions we'd made before demolition even started, but, back then in the good old days, freight companies weren't going out of business left and right.

But, our most wonderful foreman leaned hard and somehow got it here today, in the nick of time. Construction cleaning starts tomorrow (3/12), and after that, the house is no longer a jobsite.

Speaking of floors, one floor we hadn't planned to replace was the original porch floor. But it was already damaged and then had to be cut into for some electrical reason, so the only choice was to replace it. Which gave us the choice not to paint it, as the old porch had been. Instead, we just clearcoated the fir. Other than losing some interesting old screen door scratch marks, I'm beside myself about this change. It is beautiful, and really makes the new doors stand out too.

Our old porch, right before we moved out (and after a piece of exploratory trim was removed):


The new porch:


Oh yeah, and remember those living room floors that were redone? They were dry on a Saturday afternoon, so it was only natural I'd expect them to be in the same state Sunday morning. Who coats floors on a Sunday? Worse yet, what idiot homeowner steps on them, still wet, in socks, on a Sunday? That would be me!

Yupper, I left a nice perfect size 6-1/2 smoodge on our brand-new living room floor finish. As soon as I felt the stick, my heart sank and I backed out immediately. Fortunately, it can easily be buffed out. I don't have an answer to the question: why did I take off my shoes if I thought the floor was dry?

The stairwell carpet is in too -- all flooring done!

We've been living in a carpeted rental house for 9-1/2 months, and this has permanently cured Dave of his previous ambivalence about carpet v. wood floors. I grew up in a rowhouse in Brooklyn with no carpet, and have never liked it. Now, with all the spots, the stuff sticking to them and in them, the difficultly moving things around....good riddance. Rugs OK, carpet on stairs OK (ugly but quiet), wood floors, the way to go.

Wood Island

My island is in! And yes, it's huge -- 7 feet long -- but it fits the kitchen. I guess the kitchen is huge. I didn't expect that exactly, I didn't think I was a huge-kitchen sort of person. I must be the sort of person who can't, or won't, do division...I've known all along that the island would be at least 85". That just doesn't sound as long as 7 feet.

I wasn't sure about the woodtop's legs, but I do like them -- enough so that I sort of wish they were a squarer simpler design, but, whatever. I'm an expert now at "getting over" stuff.

I like how the hanging pendants line up in this view. Notice how the island is centered on the cooktop, niche and hood, and draws your eye right in there? That's the sort of thing kitchen designers think of. That never in a million years would have occurred to me as a design element, but I can't take my eyes off it now.

Why a butcher block top?

Well, I'm torn -- matching countertops would bring the whole kitchen together, but now that I see how the quartz composite doesn't bowl you over like granite does (sniff), it's just as well. Butcher block goes completely against my no-maintenance grain (har har), but it'll be easy to rub oil over it on an island with no corners or details. Really, my main reason was comfort. I bake a lot with glass bowls, chop a lot with acrylic cutting boards, and wanted a softer, quieter, more forgiving surface with a little extra traction for most of my prep.

The island is also a little lower than the countertops too, something only users 5'2" and shorter will notice, and greatly appreciate.

I have to laugh when people make comments about kids doing craft projects on the island. Kids? My kids? On my island?!! Glue? Crayons? Glitter? Pencil used as awls? No way! Yes, Sharpie does fade from wood in a few months (arrghhh...), but, thanks, no. They have the rest of the house for their graffiti.

Floored by flooring

This entire project revolved around maintaining some key few original elements of the house. Mostly, this was a remodel, but there were some "restoration" aspects to it as well, in the living room and dining room. From the outset, we were absolutely not going to refinish the 95-year-old floors or disturb them in any way. This is why the gigantic fireplace footprint remained; to eliminate impact on one of the few remaining original elements in the house worth keeping.

Yet somehow, Friday, days before final inspection, an open-house party, and move-in, something happened that triggered a refinish of the old floors. Mostly, we're down to knobs and screws and light switches, so this came as quite a surprise.

I'm not entirely certain of the reason....the floors were "screened," but a huge puddle was left in the middle of the living room floor, so the screening had to be re-done, but apparently they couldn't do that well because of years of previous buildup on the floors. Somehow, our contractor worked it out that this refinish wouldn't cost us anything, and though it's tight, won't delay our schedule. That's nothing short of miraculous.

There were two holes in the floor that went through to the basement, that had been covered by brass plates before. This was as good a time as any to repair those.


Meantime, the flooring we weren't going to have any problems or delays with, we're having a problem with a delay. It's a prefinished oak floor, and I absolutely love the material. Somehow, the amount needed was underestimated, and now they're having problems shipping the material. The whole side of the kitchen and family room isn't floored yet. Our hardworking foreman is doing everything he can to try to get it here, but we might be showing off our house next week with a carpet patch.


As long as we're looking downward, this corner is sort of tragic. I can't remember how it came about to have this little step, but it was necessary, and I don't mind goofy quirks like this. But whoever cut the baseboard for this didn't get the message that the angles aren't 45 degrees.


All in all, the living room looks really nice. The floor has a first coat of polyurethane on it, and everything looks so much better with the mostly-matching trim, and with actual color on the wall (even if I'm not very bold about colors).

For once, a photo with the flash looks better.

I'm so used to thinking this house doesn't have electricity. I could have turned on the lights!

That is some gap under the front door. Punchlist!

Finishing Bits

Our temporary power has been disconnected! We have regular electricity now. The 25-foot pole is still in our backyard, but that'll go now. Inexplicably, PG&E put in the old-fashioned analog meter that doesn't track your time-of-day usage, so we'll get charged the same for peak and off-peak usage. Yet another phone call to make.

Upstairs kids' bath replacement medicine cabinet is in. This time, both kids and grownups will be able to see themselves in the mirror. Recall that I'd expected the color to be much lighter -- this finish is great, but so not a kids' bathroom!

However, those tacky plastic gold-colored knobs must go. I think I'll replace them with something like this. I have to get my kicks somewhere, after all.


My kitchen pendants are in. They make the desired punch all right!

(Still, hand-wringing -- do they fit in with the style? Are they too high? Will the bulbs glare in my eyes?)

The family room fireplace works! I'm going to love this.


Another mistake, this time an honest one: we planned for this shower door to hinge on the left, so you reach for it with your right hand. Unfortunately, we didn't anticipate that the outswing would hit the robe hook and towel bar I'd planned for the wall right next to it. Which is why you don't see a towel bar or robe hook. And in general, doors opening right into walls is a bad idea.

But the real problem with this door is that it swings in slightly too, and hits the plumbing fixtures. My 5-year-old was VERY surprised when he was playing inside the shower, tried to get out by pulling the door toward him, which hit the cross-handle knob, turned it on, and blasted him with cold water! Poor kid. The worst part for him was that I was too busy rolling on the floor laughing to go fetch a towel!

Another "obvious" mistake I only just realized: in general, one should try to avoid a toilet being in view when a bathroom door is ajar. And bathroom doors are often kept ajar, and should be, to identify its availability. (I had a roommate once who insisted on closing the bathroom door at all times for this reason, because the toilet was in plain sight of the whole living room, but I never knew if he was in there, and I really didn't like to knock and bug him if he was!)

This is actually a nice-looking toilet, as toilets go, but really, who wants to look at one? We should have switched the vanity and toilet in the design. (It's a Kohler Memoirs toilet, and the same 5-year-old was the first to honor it with his rear end too. I think it works better than the Toto's that are all the rage, and that we have 3 of.)

Another decision I made, against my architect's and window salesman's recommendations, was to make this bay window lower than the usual 30". I wanted to actually sit on it, even if its proportions look odd. That's me, function over form.

But you know, it looks odd. And somehow, it ended up only 18" off the ground. And really, there's a major function I didn't think of: wall space. If it were 30" off the ground, a table would fit neatly in front of it. What an idyllic place for a sewing table, for instance. Being as low as it is, it's a lot of unusable wall space. And this house is very, very short on wall space!

However, for the split second that my sons weren't tearing around the house screaming their heads off today, they assured me that it's at the right height.

There are still countless details awaiting attention; a light fixture here, they ran out of flooring for the kitchen there, uneven floors wreaking havoc with the tall baseboard....but nothing that will hold up our schedule. The final construction cleaning is planned for the 12th and 13th, just in time for an open house -- and for us to move in!

Mantelpiece

The mantel is in! It's beautiful, and the workmanship top-notch.

I love the shelves on the side.

The mantel is so spectacular that I'm almost regretting the hearth tile, that we didn't put in some rich dark granite, and perhaps a darker color of the "Craftsman" tile in the surround. The tile is great, the mantel is great, but I probably wouldn't have put them together like this. Alas, this wouldn't be a real project if I loved everything. Overall, the whole fireplace surround is great.

(The fireplace is as big as it is because the previous owners established that footprint with stone hearth they'd put in. If we'd reduced the footprint, then we'd have had to refinishing those old floors, which might not have another refinish in them, so we stuck with the footprint we had. It makes for a really big fireplace in a pretty small room.)

But, one you can sit on, set down a wine glass on, and set photos up on!

Kitchen News

Panic! Appliances are being installed today, and it turns out they hadn't planned for a range hood with a remote blower. Our contractor's foreman called my kitchen designer to ask about the availability of an overhead blower, I happened to call her for an unrelated reason, and she broke the news to me about the remote blower problem. I just about had a heart attack. I burn way too much food and set off the smoke detectors constantly -- we need a kick-*ss blower with the noise on the outside!

Fortunately, DH got on the job. He went to the jobsite and saw that the remote blower was indeed feasible, the motor is integrated into the roofjack and no inside venting has to change. Yeah, some re-roofing was going to have to happen, a new wire to be pulled to power the external blower, but it's entirely possible. He also gently added that this shouldn't have been news, the KD had provided cutsheets for all appliances, and we're not paying for a change. The big difference between an excellent contractor (as we have) and a lousy one (as we've had) is how they respond to such inevitable problems. Our contractor is taking care of it professionally and with the integrity we've gotten very spoiled with. Whew.

(Kitchen forum lingo primer: DH=Dear Husband KD=Kitchen Designer)

The kitchen backsplash tile is GREAT!

If I had to nitpick, I'm 60% on the row of glass tiles on the lower border, but as accents in the focal-point niche: WOW. Classy. My KD really pushed for the glass tile accents; I was so-so on it. (Now, am I that classy?!)

Same on the family room fireplace tile: WOW. Love the glass accent tiles (regrettably invisible in this photo):

Glass tiles: Sonoma Tilemakers Tantrum, in Pewter.
Field tile: Sonoma Tilemakers Sonoma Stone 1x2 Brick, in Olive Green)

I was really looking forward to these funky pull-outs as a corner storage solution, but they're much much much smaller than I expected.
Very cool, but a surprising missed opportunity to use all the space. Then again, dedicating corner storage is always problem anyway, and I'm glad to have accessible storage on either side instead. Many people give up on corner storage; this is better than nothing. Even if these goofy shelves are too small to fit my heavy 12x12 Le Creuset covered skillet. The good news is, they're sturdy, smooth, strong, and very cool-looking!

I'm grateful the kitchen details have come last, since I'm much more discriminating and educated now. Moreso than I wanted to be, especially about the ins and outs of remote vs. overhead and inline blowers. Thank goodness for DHs.

Glittering diamonds

Today I was dazzled by our new living-room light fixture. I'd only seen it online, named unremarkably the Kichler Classic 69048. The little diamond detail fit perfectly with the diamond trim theme we already had (in the corners of the top bar of door trim), and I was in the mood for something a little more colorful. I'm generally not a Tiffany-light sort of person, but this was pretty understated.

It's rare that something exceeds my expectations, but this fixture is beautiful. And it works perfectly in there!

(Bill, the energetic electrician -- no pun intended -- takes great pride in his precise, detailed work.) Previously this room had one switched outlet, and a scattered outlet or two in which we could plug in lamps. It is so time for centralized, adequate light.

Speaking of the living room and diamond-trim details, I visited the woodworking shop that's making our new fireplace mantle today. Here it is, in the works!

With, of course, a diamond detail.

(OK, not a diamond, but rather, a 45-degree offset square.)

The diamond theme started with the dining room's original window, which has offset squares on the top piece of trim. As far as we can tell, that's original to the house.

When we put the dining room chandelier in, we bought wall sconces with the intent of adding them to that room, but it took until this project to finally do so -- and a good thing too, because it wasn't easy to wire them in. This original room has no outlets, and only the one center pendant. Now, the sconces on either side of the window not only add some ambient light, but they look fabulous.

It helps a lot that they cast light onto a colored wall, instead of the previous harsh white we had everywhere. I'm loving our almost total loss of white walls (minus insides of closets that is).

But will we actually sit in this room now that we have the catch-all kitchen/dining/family room area? Before, it was the only place we had to sit to eat, but now, I'm not sure what to make of it. How many rooms have an exterior door with an operable casement sidelight (you can crank the sidelight open), a 4-foot pocket door, and a swinging door? It's very strange. Then again, strange is our hallmark. I was very pleased when the mantle guy commented at all the niches and pocket doors and hidden closets in the house -- like me, he makes use of every little space available. That may have cost us in numerous ways (money, time, confusion, no wall space), but the cool factor is pretty high.

Finally, something I don't have to get over. I love this light.