Broad Strokes - Day 178

I know that it's been a while since I've posted- like OVER 2 weeks- but it's partly been because there just hasn't been a ton of stuff going on. So, there hasn't been a lot of progress to show you, but also I've been a tad frustrated and didn't really want to 'vent' about it on here. Renovations are a lot of work and everyone says they never go as planned. Too true...  So I'll show you a bit of what HAS transpired!

Yes- the interior painting is essentially finished. Each room has been hit with primer and its primary color. That big box sitting in our living room actually contains the tub for the master bathroom upstairs. Sweet!

As you can see, our primary color is a very cool, light gray. More blue than brown for those keeping score at home.

It basically covers our entire first floor and then extends up into the staircase and into the upstairs landing.

Once upstairs, that's where things get interesting. In the master bedroom, we went with a faint blueish-gray that looks fantastic in the soft light.

The guest room is a pretty tropical blue that is very warm and cozy. Any guest who stays in there will feel like they're looking at a clear, Caribbean sky... on a wall. :-)

As for Grace's bedroom, I think the picture speaks for itself. She got her wish- and her wish is ELECTRIC LIME! Yes, she got one entire wall- plus one wall up in the loft, in Electric Lime.

The pictures may not entirely capture the true essence and magnitude of the energy that color radiates, so you'll have to see for yourself someday. Safe to say that by reflecting off of the other white walls, that it will save us some money on our electric bills.

The crew also put in the granite counter and shower bench in our master bathroom. You can see the double vanity picture here.

Here's a nice shot of the bench for the shower. That could be a little chilly on the cheeks! Good thing we've got showerheads on the wall, in the ceiling overhead and a hand-held.

There had been dozens of deliveries at the house today, mostly lighting fixtures, faucets and toilets, so the guys are going to be very busy installing all of that for the next couple days.
Cheers!

Busy Bees - Day 162

It's April 7th - officially Day 162 and we're back from Spring Break. The Project 713 work site has been busy. In fact, it was a little busier than we had actually anticipated, because when we showed up Tuesday afternoon, we found this!

I mean, we knew it was coming soon, but thought it was still a week or so off, so imagine our surprise when we found a new driveway and the old, crumbling parking pad and patio in back demolished and gone.

That entire area that used to be concrete will eventually be grass and natural area. The rest of that retaining wall will be demolished and leveled and then we'll be expanding the back patio area back a few feet and putting in a new deck.

Once we went inside the house, we found a couple of pleasant surprises in Grace's room. Check out the cool built-in bookshelves up in her loft which also help serve as a railing.

The frame for her bunk beds was almost finished as well. You can see the bookshelves that also serve as the headboards. A large set of stairs that will contain storage as well is going in on the right side against the wall.

It may be hard to tell, but the painters also primed the walls throughout the house at the end of last week and should be putting the actual colors on the walls this week.
Cheers!

Easter and Spring Break

I was fortunate to have Good Friday off heading into the Spring Break week. We were able to celebrate Easter mass on Sunday, then head off to a quick vacation up in Scaly Mountain in western North Carolina.
Here's a cute picture of Grace and Kristin after mass.

We were able to get to our destination by early afternoon and enjoy a hike up Scaly Mountain before some stormy weather rolled in.

A good afternoon of exercise and one heck of a view made the 3 mile round-trip trek worth it! This is a great picture of Nanna with the grandkids.

Oh, and after taking a short 'detour' on the drive up, I couldn't resist taking this picture of one of the local roads. I sure know how to 'pick' a winner!

Good Friday - Day 158

We've turned yet another page on the calendar, as Project 713 has reached the month of April. For record-keeping purposes, Day 158 was April 3rd- Good Friday. I apologize for skipping several days without posting because of weather issues and relatively little visual progress. The picture below is probably one of the bigger accomplishments of the week. The designer who did our counter-tops took a couple days to let the slabs cure, and worked on our fireplace mantel which is really starting to come along. It will eventually have tile inside those columns and around the face of the fireplace.

There has been stuff going on, but much of it was planning or minutiae like measurements and cutting smaller pieces of the larger projects. For example, below is a picture of the new steps that were put in for the staircase leading from the first floor up to the second floor landing. The final two steps are on order since they're custom made since they're rounded on the right edges to keep folks from hurting themselves!

This picture below is of the wood trim edge to Grace's reading loft. It's a very nice white oak and really 'classes up the joint.' The second picture below is my birds' eye view shot from up in her loft. That was my first time getting up there and let me tell you, it's WAY up there.

And of course it wouldn't be complete if I didn't put a picture of Grace up in the loft enjoying her high-altitude perch. As you can tell from her pose, she's pretty stoked about the additional space.

The mystery box in the photo below is one of our two bathroom sink vanities for either the upstairs guest room or Grace's bathroom. I guess we'll just have to wait until it's opened to see which one!

So these were the final pictures I took prior to the Easter holiday weekend and the start of Spring Break. Since I'm just now catching up, I can tell you that there are some really cool pictures coming up in the next couple blog posts.