Office Cabinets Ordered, Backsplash Tile Chosen

On Tuesday of last week (9/22), I finalized everything for my office cabinets and put in the order! Torrie came out to get all the measurements and talk through the final details. I'm excited about the office. I like the J-shaped desk configuration because it puts everything conveniently at arm's length. Here's a Google Sketchup version of what I ordered. These images show only the cabinets and the drawers that will be suspended under the countertop:

I also settled on the tile for my kitchen backsplash. I placed the order today, so hopefully I'll have the material by this weekend. I may take a whole day off work Friday and start the project. This is the last big project for me to do inside the house. Then I can mount the range hood and call for the final inspection!

I'm still making some decisions about drawer cabinets for the master closet, cabinets in the laundry room, and whether or not to let the cabinet people make wooden panels for the front of my kitchen island.

Kithcen Corner Cabinets Installed

The cabinet guys were out again on Wednesday to install the corner cabinets in the kitchen now that the coutertops are in place. It looks good! There are some decisions I need to make about trim moulding where the cabinet meets the countertop, and also around the microwave opening.

On Thursday, I picked up the final oversized sink for the master bath. The countertop guys came out later that day to install it and finish caulking in some places. My mom and I had made a thorough inspection of everything and found a few details for them to address: There was a window sill they made for me that was installed off-level, one sink was mounted off-center from its hole, the hall bath counter has a splotch of discoloration, and and some places needed either a touch-up of caulk or hadn't been caulked at all yet.

They took care of everything except the two most noticeable things: the off-center sink and the discoloration. He informed me that fixing the sink would entail removing the entire counter and chiseling off the sink (since they attached them using a thick epoxy glue). This might damage the sink.

The discoloration was a manufacturing defect, he told me. I wondered why they didn't see this spot during their fabrication process. It looked like they could have easily spun the slab around and let the spot be in the area the cut out for the sink. I asked if they could make another slab for me. He called and got permission to do that, but again, it would involve breaking the seal to remove the undermount sink. This could damage the sink.

So instead of risking the broken sinks, I asked for a discount to compensate for both of these issues. We settled on $225. Yes, I probably should have pushed for more. I'm just not good at that kind of thing.

I've been spending time working on a contract job I landed. I need to finish the job because I need the money for the house. So the last 3 days have mostly been spent on that. Tomorrow, we'll go back and touch up more trim. I'd also like to start laying tile in either the laundy room or one of the bathrooms.

Cabinets, We've Got Cabinets. We've Got Lots and Lots of Cabinets!

They delivered the cabinets for the kitchens and bathrooms on Monday. They worked to install on Monday and Tuesday. There are a few pieces in the kitchen that they did not install, either because I asked them to hold off or because they need to wait until the countertops are in. Here are some pictures:

The driveway guys came this morning to start working. They staked out the horseshoe part of the front yard and dropped off some of the fabric that goes underneath everything... Then they left because it was too cold to work! I can't blame them. It was cold today. I ordered the materials for the underground drainage. I don't even want to think about how much that cost. :-( The stuff will be delivered tomorrow, and the driveway guys tell me they'll be back out to start grading everything in the morning.

Also tomorrow, the electrical inspector is coming. If all goes well, I'll get approved. And then I'm going to apply for the temporary meter permit. This will free the utility company to come hookup the power to the house before my final inspection. That will be good for at least two reasons: I can get the alarm system working to protect the appliances and other valuables I'm accumulating, and I can run the A/C to get the wood flooring I buy acclimated to the environment inside the house before I install it.

This will let me remove the temporary electrical pole just in time to get it out of the way of the driveway.

Rapid-fire Miscellaneous Tidbits

• I found out tonight that the trim carpenter prefers to start before I tile
• I have to go tomorrow to pay for the tile before they order it
• The house is all painted, except for a couple of closets. A bathroom needs a second coat on the walls.
• I finalized my kitchen cabinet design today! I gave her a deposit. She's going to write it all up as an order and let me know when she sends it to the builder.
• The plumbers connected my sewer line to the house today. They had to dig and axe their way through an old tree stump, so they were not happy to see me when I came by! Nah, they like me. But they joked about not wanting me to talk to them.

News on Cabinets & Garage Doors

Cabinet Supplier Selected!

Over the weekend, my mom & I visited Wood-n-Things unfinished furniture in Gretna. I had met with a girl from this store at my house during the week, and I was impressed with her knowledge and attitude. She called me the next day with a price and I was definitely impressed with that since it was the lowest so far! And the visit to the shop confirmed that the work was up to par as well. So I've decided who will supply my cabinets!

It takes a lot to impress my mom. She's a perfectionist (even moreso than me) with a good eye for detail. But she was impressed with our visit. The quality of cabinets was good, and the people are helpful and down-to-earth. The owner offered to show us some of their work in progress, and we followed him a few blocks to his workshop where they were finishing some furniture.

They offer pre-made cabinets from a few places, but I'll be getting my cabinets custom built by a guy named Bruce in Dallas. Now that this is settled, I just need to figure out exactly how I want my cabinets configured. It turns out this is no small set of decisions either! Uggh... It never ends! :)

Garage Doors Ordered

Another big step accomplished is that I ordered my garage doors today. Home Depot had a 15% off sale on Clopay doors. I got a traditional-looking door for the rear garage and something a bit more stylish for the front garage. The next step is for someone to come out to measure and inspect the site before they actually make and ship my doors. This was another decision that's been hanging over my head for a while, and it's a relief to get it done and move on. I need to finish hanging paneling around the door frame and finish the insides of the frames with Hardie board before the doors get put in. That should be in 2-4 weeks.

The front garage door

The back garage door

Paneling Progress

We spent this evening hanging more paneling in the back garage. Here are pictures from our work as of Saturday. As usual, I'm behind on pictures of what we did today, so a few more panels are up on the wall from what you see here:

Shower People, Paneling, Colors and Cabinets - Oh My!

So the owner from the shower place came out with another guy. They looked at it and reluctantly agreed to do more to get it better. He said it looked better than the original installation (which is true) and that you can only see the defect if you're standing right underneath it. Also true. However, I'm going to be standing right underneath it every time I take a shower. And it's still not acceptable. So they're supposed to deal with it when they come back to put on the last trim piece they've created. I also have to get the door put on. I hope I don't have problems with that also. At this point, I plan to go to the other man-made marble place in town for my bathtub alcove...

My Dad and I made good progress on Tuesday night putting the paneling up in the back garage. We finished most of one entire wall. The plywood sheets are laid horizontally, and with my 9ft ceilings, there are two full (4ft) sheets and an extra 1 ft to deal with at the top. We completed the two full layers. We're going back tonight and I'll get some pictures.

Like everything else, it's taking more time than I thought. If we could just slap each sheet up there and nail it, things would go fast. But we need to cut many of them so that two sheets will meet on the center of a stud. This allows you to nail the edge of both sheets. It's just time consuming, probably just because we aren't used to doing it. But the wall is coming out nicely. With the fluffy cellulose insulation behind it, there are some places where you can see a slight bulge outward.

My mom's cousin cleans houses. She got permission from the owner of one house for me to come and look at her wall colors. I did that yesterday. One room had the shade of green I'm really looking for. It's a but more muted than the avocado color I've been toying with. Most of the other walls were cream, off-white, or a light beige. I see the merit of using all very neutral colors so it's easy to match furniture and accessories later on. But I want to avoid a house that's all one blah color if I can. There's a happy mix in there somewhere.

On the cabinet front, I visited a woman's home who had cabinets done by my friend's cabinet guy in Hammond. They seemed to be built well, but she opted not to get the nicer drawer glides and hardware. Her cabinets were painted white with a fancy glaze. I prefer stained wood finish. She was very happy with the cabinet maker and the finished product. She said she's remodeled other houses and this guy was the best value by far. She had to drive to Hammond about three times during the process to see how it was coming and make design decisions.

I also met this week with someone from another local custom cabinet maker. She came out to the house to measure and talk about what I want. She had helpful suggestions to make and a women's perspective to contribute. I appreciated that. Her cabinets are made by a guy in Dallas, and they are finished at her shop before installation. She also measured for the office desk and the bathroom vanities. Today, she called with price of $8,463 for the kitchen, $2280 for the bathrooms, and $4,166 for the office. That's cheaper than the guy in Hammond (for the kitchen at least -- I didn't get the Hammond guy to quote the other rooms). I need to go to this local shop to get an idea of their work.

Preparing for Spray Primer... and Hurricane Gustav!

It's weird... I've been at the house almost every evening doing stuff. But it's little stuff, and I can't lump it all into one category to say, "I've been working on THIS." Where does the time go? :)

Back from the Beach: Shower Install, Take One

When I got back from the beach, the guy came out to install the material on the walls of the shower. It took most of a day. He didn't do a neat job. The rear wall didn't come out flat, and it's obvious he didn't take steps to shim it out or anything. The bench seat wasn't scribed to the contour of the uneven wall, so you see a big gap in the corner. One leg of the bench seat is not squared properly. And there a couple more items that aren't right. I called, and one of the company's owners came out to look at it. He says they're going to take steps to fix it. But he's going to try to fix the back wall without removing the left and right walls. So I don't know how neat that's going to come out. We'll see.

Caulking & Attic Insulation Gaps

After placing a lot of plywood decking in the attic we moved on to other tasks, like caulking around the exterior of the windows and doors. I used gray caulk to match the color of the brick mortar. It was kind of fun doing that. We prepped for this by scaping away loose mortar and vacuuming out the dust. The actual caulking took less than a day. We finished (I think) a day before the remnants of Hurricane Fay came through and dropped a lot of rain.

I've noticed two spots in the attic that don't have insulation coverage. I've called them, and they're coming back out to patch it up. One of the areas is over the wall between the master bedroom and the patio. I can see down behind the bricks and there are spots of daylight, so I'd say that's a big weak spot in the thermal envelope!

Driveway Bid Progress

My slab guy finally came out to look at the driveway job this past Thursday. Now I'm waiting for him to get back to me with a price. I talked to him yesterday. He says he has the estimate at his office and he's supposed to call me back with it. I can't imagine that I wouldn't go with him for the job, but I got another guy from my original concrete subs list to come out and look at it also. I'm waiting on his bid also.

Flooring & Cabinet Search

I've been to a couple more flooring stores. There are a LOT of choices out there. I think I'm settling in on something that's a blend of gray and terra cotta colors. I have a couple of favorites so far, but I haven't been able to get samples of those. As for cabinets, I visited one local pre-fab custom cabinet shop. I still like the idea of having mine built from scratch. The two bids I've gotten are $11,000 and $18,000. My original estimate from Lowe's was $14,000. So the custom-built-from-scratch idea isn't out of the park on price. I'm trying to get up to Hammond (over an hour away) to visit the cheaper guy's shop and get a look at his work.

Priming Spray Prep

On Friday, I have someone coming to spray the primer coat on the ceilings and walls. We've been preparing by stuffing newspaper into wall outlet boxes and ceiling fixtures. Tonight we laid down paper on all the floors to protect from overspray, and tomorrow we'll use plastic to cover all showers and tubs.

Hurricane Gustav Prep

And the most recent development has been Hurricane Gustav, which is currently in the Carribean and forecasted to make landfall close to New Orleans early next week. My dad and I picked up plywood yesterday and made cut-outs for most of my windows. We still have two to cut.

We also picked up thinner plywood for paneling the rear garage. That's because I still have my netting on the walls holding in my cellulose insulation. If we get high winds and driving rain, that insulation will get soaked! So the idea is to stain & seal this paneling and put it up before the storm gets here.

On Friday, I was supposed to go visit the cabinet guy in Hammond. However, there are going to be a LOT of people leaving town on Friday ahead of the storm. With all that traffic congestion, I think I'm going to postpone the trip.

Back from the Beach

Well, it's back to my day job today after a week off. My 4 days in Gulf Shores last week provided a much-needed rest from work and from house stuff. We had our share of rain, but not enough to ruin the trip. I love having a balcony right over the beach! This way, even if it rains I can still sit and listen to the waves. And that's all I really need. :)

After I got back, I went to another flooring store on Friday and my dad and I spent Saturday decking the attic floor with plywood. This will provide more space for storage (and also minimize the chance of someone accidentally putting their foot through the sheetrock into the living space downstairs)! Also on Saturday, my sheetrock guy came to put back the green rock in the shower that had to be removed for the pan installation. I also got a painter to come look at spraying the primer on the walls and ceilings.

For this week, I'm continuing the cabinet search, as well as looking for garage doors. Narrowing down at least my cabinet wood color will help with picking out paint and flooring for that part of the house. I need to get ready for the primer spraying by putting paper in all the lighting cans and outlet boxes to keep the paint out. Once I know a definite date, I'll also need to cover the floors with paper.

My slab guy was supposed to stop by on Saturday to look at my driveway job. He didn't show. So I have to work on him again.