Various things

Here's a summary of the latest progress this past week (in addition to the granite slab installation, that is - see previous post).

The hose-nick that occured in the smaller downstairs office (as mentioned in some comments to the previous post) has been repaired:

I wish things like this wouldn't happen, but the repair job looks pretty durable to me. The hardwood guys have replaced the hardwood planks and given the office floor its two coats of sealer.

The garage attic access stairs are done:

The puddle in the foreground is actually on the exact spot I had intended to relocate my boat building tent to - clearly I will need a better base than that! I plan to buy a few dump-truck loads of rock and gravel to firm things up.

Covering the stairs with hardwood in in progress:

The stairs will be sanded and finished exactly the same as the hardwood floors were. And obviously, hand-rails and newel posts will be added as well.

Lots of progress is being made on tile, both in laying tile and in grouting the earlier areas. This is the floor of the upstairs guest bathroom:

I've come to realize that the master bathroom, especially the shower, comprises a huge amount of tile work. Dan is making good progress on things though:

The kitchen area is the largest tile area to be done, but steady progress is being made:

The kitchen is the only place we are doing that simple "offset" pattern, but I'm glad we did it there - it breaks things up a bit.

Interior doors have started getting installed:

Some minor issues have arisen: the Kitchen-Aid range hood we selected is nowhere in stock, and will require a 30+ day lead time to order it from the factory. I'm in the process of selecting an alternative brand so we don't have to wait on that. Also, it appears that nobody was aware that we wanted double-doors for the upstairs game room. Lots of little details to keep track of as we get closer to the finish line.

Granite slabs installed

On Thanksgiving Day, the granite crew came out (I guess they don't celebrate turkey-day) and installed our granite slabs. We were out at the house when they showed up; at first I thought someone had called 911 to report an accident:

This is a good sign though, because it means the contractor\company is serious about keeping costs down. I'm pretty sure that a second-hand ambulance is cheaper than a brand new truck.

Here's our slabs in the back of the truck:

I don't think I'd want to work with granite myself - the stuff is obviously very heavy, and you'd have to be very careful to not let yourself get old before your time. These guys do seem to have a lot of tricks to make things easier though:

The granite crew is not yet entirely done, since the majority of our sinks and faucets are not here yet. I'll share some pictures of how things look at the moment though. This is the master bathroom vanity:

Kitchen counter:

The kitchen island with the "desk" in the background:

Upstairs shared bathroom:

Downstairs "powder" bathroom (I'm really not keen on that "powder" terminology):

We are pleased with how everything has turned out.

Tile setting begins

The hardwood guys worked yesterday to lay down the second coat of sealer (both upstairs and downstairs), and will be starting to install hardwood on the stairs next. In the meantime, Paul and his crew have started setting tile in place. Here Paul (job superintendent) and I (on the left) are laying out the tile mural for the master bathroom shower:

Paul Lewing (the artist) makes it easy to assemble the proper layout; though most of it was pretty obvious in our case, he numbers each tile on the back and provides a layout diagram so that no mistakes should be possible:

This is the mural all laid out on the floor:

The three loose tiles at the bottom are accent tiles that will placed around the perimeter of the tub deck. From the right, they are a catamaran, a ferry (a common sight on Puget Sound waters, in case you've never been here), and the Mukilteo lighthouse. When my wife and I were dating we used to spend a lot of time down at the Mukilteo beach next to the lighthouse and this brings back lots of fun memories. Ah those teenage years... :)

See the sunken ship on the bottom? I asked Paul to model that on the USS Constitution - I've always been fascinated with the age of sail and the USS Constitution is a marvelous ship that is still accessible to the public; I highly recommend a visit if you ever find yourself in the Boston area. (I also want to see HMS Victory someday, but find myself a bit short on cash at the moment for a European vacation...)

We are very happy with how the mural has turned out. It will make a really unique and personal touch for our bathroom.

Tile setting in other rooms has also been going on. This is the upstairs laundry room:

I asked Paul, and he said they were planning to set all of the tile first, then go back and grout.

This is the upstairs guest bedroom bathroom:

Here's a good view of the floor in one of the upstairs bedrooms:

That is not the final "look" of the floor...the above will be buffed, and then a third final coat of sealer will be applied near the end of the job. Sasha the floor guy was careful to caution me about this, so we wouldn't get alarmed that this would be the final appearance. So far it looks good, but I am a bit surprised at how much the grain raised. Hopefully the final sealer coat will really level things out.

Our appliances have been delivered and are waiting in the garage:

The garage remains a minor disaster zone, with two chop saw stations plus a tile saw...

...but I'm sure it will all get cleaned up nicely when things are done :).

Last but not least, we've finally finished selecting all of the light fixtures. The kitchen island pendants took some searching before we decided that we both liked the "Kana" onyx shade pendant from Tech Lighting. There will be three of these hanging over the island. The sales folks at the Kirkland Crescent Lighting showroom were quite helpful during the process, but I'm glad it's over. One more thing done! :)