Day 229 - Have you given up on me yet???

SO it has been a while and YES I am ...oh...let me see.....160 days OVER schedule....BUT we moved in over the last 3 days.  We have finally reclaimed our 2nd floor.  Now mid you, our move is not your typical - "let me get the things from storage and move in" type of move. No, we have to dig through millions of boxes to see what we can and can not unpack at this point because we are vacating the 1st floor for PHASE 2....So over the last 3 days we have moved our existence from floor 1 to floor 2, added a few boxes of missing clothes, shoes, books and toys while eliminating things we wont need any more on floor 1.

Ruben will start this week with the 1st floor demo.  We have decided to remove a major wall between teh DR and Kitchen area, add a kitchen peninsula, create a pantry space where there used to be a tub, redo the powder room, repaint, retrim and redo the hardwoods.  Should take us about 8 weeks but who's counting - certainly not me this time around.

Check out our process over the last 72 hours:

 This is the first floor after 48 hours of moving.

 The hardest part was deciding what we'd need upstairs and what not as "living space" is way more limited upstairs.

 The site of our future family room - mini- kitchen - dining room over the next 8 weeks!

 Prepare, Prepare, Prepare for the worst.  We are trying to salvage our paint job that we paid for twice.

We got a lot unpacked and made the space livable by our newly set lower standards :).  Actually it will be fine for 8-10 weeks.  We are so tired that it truly doesnt matter.

Check out our latest "looks"...

Vs Room....her bed and piano corner.

 The :big picture:  she is bust as a little bee getting things organized and ready!!  First sleep over with a friend in her new room is Friday!

 This is our new mini Kitchen - family room - dining room...We still have to get our final inspection tomorrow - if the inspector asks why my kitchen table is upstairs now I will tell him we have to wait a few weeks to get our floors finished and needed to get in so this was how we are handling it.  Could be trouble for us!

Master Vanity - I added a second upper cabinet since the last pictures.  waiting on mirrors to come in this week and then it will be ready.. a dream come true.

The once HUGE master closet looks shrunken down by the amount of sh_t we have!!!

The master hallway above and the new maser glass shower doors - how upscale do we feel now???

This is Tilo's pride and joy - our VERY own steel and glass landing railings. They look AMAZING in the space making i feel so wide and open. Crazy that they are in our house!!!

The future master bedroom - furniture is being restained so we are bare minimum right now~~it'll all be worth it come Thanks giving!!

Vs bathroom...

I will post tomorrow when I feel better - too tired tonight but wanted to up date you on our progress as slow as it may be..I will outline our delays tomorrow while offering pointers for your own renovation - things ot catch early on before they catapult and wind up costing you 100% ore...

Day 160 something...we are so close yet soooo far away

So in the last few weeks we have been working to finalize the details of the finishes of our 2nd floor.   We have been dealing with "fixing" the imperfections that the american subcontractors obviously do not see.  If nothing else I am sure that this is probably not the industry for me and my eye for perfection. I walk into a space and can tell you every imperfection, mistake and mishap. It is a curse but great for my clients!!  It is horrible in this situation because nothign is good enough for my own house but I can't reemthe guys because i have ot work with them at my projects!!  They think I am crazy, but you knwo what ..I am paying for this and I want what I want.

Please in your own process be very clear about your expectations providing pictures, samples of the finishes you are looking for. The clearer and more precise you are the easier it will be to request a "redo" at no extra charge.  If you state your desire upfront with samples and pictures the contractor has the chance to say "that is not how I priced the work" or to tell you he can not achieve that level of finish. if he does not speak up, he has officially bought into your concept and agreed to it. I made the mistake of not being as demanding with the guys as I am on a regular job site..I did show examples but didn't see it through - checking them every step of the way, and more importantly stopping them when they lost their course.  What am I left with now? well...

We are finishing our floors next week and the painter is back on Thursday to redo ALL of the new trim.  The paint job was horrendous and my new expensive trim material looks like it has been painted 6 times over and is 10+ years old!  SO yes he is redoing it ALL...I am even willing to pay someone to fix it if he cant.  Paint is the most important finish - trim paint is what it is all about!! Cut corners on wall painting and do it yourself, but pay a TOP professional to paint your trim!!

There are some positives - the lights are up and the countertops are going in Tuesday..check us out...

Master Bedroom - Gray wall, can lights and fan..

Master WALK IN Closet!!

Master bathroom pendant lights...

  Our bathroom uncovered - waiting on countertops..
 
Viola's blue room! Actually totally relaxing..like in the ocean...

My DISCO Stairwell....have glass disco balls!  Will change to back wall to gray to make the lights POP...

Viola's "green" bathroom...she loves it...

Viola's bathroom sconce..

Now we have to pick floor colors - we are going LIGHT upstairs and dark downstairs...we like the middle slightly pink color and the the second dark one from the left for the main floor and stairs.

More pics to come with more finishes...We are starting with the design selection for the 1st floor and GUESS WHAT - the scope has increased 10 fold....LIKE always....you cant touch something old and not want to fix it ALL!!!!!!!

Where are we now??

Again it has been a while since I last posted.  It has been a roller coaster ride trying to be my own general contractor, project manager and client.  I need to  hire "me" to manage my own project and things would happen a lot faster.  I am so busy getting things done they way Tilo and I want them done (hard task given we use German standards and not American!) and still try to make all of the design and finish decisions in a timely manner so as not to hold up the entire project.

Where are we now?  Well exterior painting is complete and we have brand new gutters on the entire home.  All that is left is the front door and the garage door which will both be stripped and stained, and then the landscaping which is a HUGE task in itself and will not be done until the heat wave breaks here in Atlanta - maybe mid September.  Here are some exterior pictures....

 We used a Sherwin Williams gray color and "tweaked" it to add a tint of green.  Sometimes the house looks gray, sometimes silvery and some times green.  We are really happy with the choice.

 The rear elevation looks so much better - like it is also brand new.  Now Tilo and Viola will have to paint the little garden house to match - nice fall project for dad and daughter.

 We chose a new gutter color - never been used by my installer before and it turned out really cool.   A silvery gray that adds alot to the front with the granite stone.  Tilo had them come back after I took this picture to tweak the gutter connections to make all the water lead away from the house. 

 New paint, Gutters, and stone - looks like a $300k remodel right?  We love it!!

We have also got a lot done on the interior.  All of the ceilings and walls have been painted and they will finish up with the interior trim Monday - Tuesday.  We went white on white for most of the rooms, adding an accent wall to the master.  Viola's room is a light blue and her bath a very faint green to go with her accent tile band.  All tile has been completed and sealed but due to the construction mess, I think I will have to re-grout my dark floor when it is all said and done..URGH..wasn't here to manage the subs that came in after it was complete.  Frustrating really...have a look at the new Master shower....

 Limestone was used throughout on all the floors in the Master Bath - this is the shower floor and curb.  I added a limestone bench and niche ledge after the fact - making ALL the difference in the world in the final product.  Having my installer tear out the left wall was the hardest but best decision I have made thus far. 

 Glass accents where the shower heads are located....

 Chrome accents around the niches - make them sparkle and look that much more modern.

I will go up and take paint pictures and shower/toilet fixture pictures - everything went in on Friday.  The last thing that will go in - and of course they are all waiting on me to make up my mind about - are the countertops.  Viola's is a gray limestone and mine ..well I am thinking of resin??  I need modern so granite really does not work and that is my struggle.  cant mess that decision up!  I should have them in by the end of this week with the sinks.....More pictures to come this evening..

Day 131 - And the Saga continues..

Okay so I long for the day when I can write about all of the exciting perfect, gorgeous finish work being done on my job!!!! Let's see where do I start....cabinet install last week - they sent the wrong cabinets - 6 weeks of waiting....now we are on call to receive the FAST made replacements - 1 week delay added to my total. 

Next, tile was installed last week in the master shower and when I walked up in the afternoon to check on the last wall I saw a HUGE mistake in the layout.  I struggled with being able to "aceept it", the "grout will hide the cuts"..I let it go on friday.  The visual stewed in my brain over the weekend and soooo YES I had him rip out that wall again.  Bottom line is I have to live in the this house (WAY longer NOW than I thougth because YES we are over budget!!) and I will see these mistakes.  You have to pick and choose your battle as a homeowner - some I DO let go but the crazy cuts in my ultra modern Master shower I can not.  So it has gone up only to be torn back down.  Now the question is when can he (or possibly someone more talented) re do it???  DELAY once again....check out the cuts and see if you could live with it...

There is a one inch sliver on the back wall that is hard in this pic to see, and then another 2 inch sliver on the side wall right next to it.  he just needed to start with a full tile on teh right wall and i would have been okay!!

Anyway, the left wall got torn back out today and we will start over.  Not until next week though. Delay 5 days added to my total.

Let's see what else could become an issue? Oh yeah, my custom Sherwin williams color for the exterior that took Tilo and I WEEKS to decide upon and create was painted by my guy Onsongo and we realized that it was not the right color - it was MINT green!!  YIPES.  So back to the paint store for onsonogo - that was another 2 day delay to cover it back up and get the colors worked out!!  Now we are back on the right track...here is a sneak peak...

Stain color for the cedar and porch ceiling....

Board and batten custom colors - gray with a tint of green...

And meet Onsongo - an accoutant from a distant land - been painting in our neighborhood for 10+ years.  Very funny guy!!

Hopefully we are on the upswing and only good things will happen now.  So far I have had about 7 weeks of TOTAL delay, about $2500 in upcharges for "unforseens" and another $500 in tile material replacement!  Urgh...we have to be on the home stretch now...

Day 128 - It's raining contractors.....

We are back in full swing trying to get our interior finishes together.  Tile has gone in - will be grouted Monday, but it is looking great..a few hiccups here and there..things that could have been laid with a bit more thought but I couldn't be there every second and as a result will have to live with the tile cuts as they are.  If this was my only project, I could have sat down and engineered the entire tile layout so no "cuts" were necessary by increasing the width of the glass stripes, etc.  BUT I also have to make money so there isn't much I can do.  I think once it is grouted, the cuts will fade away...at least I hope they will or I will be KICKING myself for not taking the time to handle the layout.  Who knew I would have to become a tile, paint, and exterior trim expert???

JUST some tips, the red stuff you see on my walls and floors is red guard and is a waterproofing seal that you paint on top of your Durock before installing tile.  It adds a layer of waterproofing behind the tile and on top of your wood framing.  Many guys use it on the seams, I had him paint 2 layers on the entire walls, floors and seams for added protection.   A small additional expense for loads more water protection!

Our Master Bath:
My limestone bench...

 The first glass strip at my shower head...the niche is also visible.

 The second glass stripe at Tilo's shower head.  You can see the cut in the corner..Urgh...

 A close up.  These glass tiles are TINY and very difficult to work with but the look beautiful!! They are a zinc color and will be grouted with the same....it just shimmers and looks really Luxurious. Look them up SICIS tiles.

 Looking from the entrance, towards the bench and 2nd niche for me.

 My limestone subway floor tile....and my SQUARE drain.  I recommend to every to get an EBBE drain - the square form is much easier to tile around and it gives you a modern touch to any shower floor.  Most tile stores sell them or you can get them on line.  Make sure you get the complete construction kit and cover.

Viola's shower got grouted so it is now complete and looks ultra modern, young and hip.  It is hard to see the straight vertical lines of the 4x12 tile because the grout matches so perfectly but it looks cool close up!  And most important, She loves it!!  I am using the gray limestone for her countertop.

We are starting exterior painting on Monday, grouting our shower then and finishing up interior door work during the week.  Interior painting will be the following week along with countertop installs and then it is plumbing & lighting fixtures.  FINALLY we are on the home stretch!!

GREEN with Envy??

Who knew there were 72 colors called "white". And did you know that there are at least 3 times that many colors of gray??  And "beige", forget it!!

Tilo and I set out to find a simple easy light color for our exterior and have since gone through 2 bottles of vodka and had 3 fights!!  Our house looks like a quilt with all the test spots....

The only thing we agree upon is that we cant do a true gray and we dont really like the plain jane beige scheme.  Our "dream home" with the same granite has a greenish tinted gray stain on cedar shake siding.  I CANT change the siding now (or can I? - no seriously I CANT) so we need to make due with our board and batten.  Looking at our dream home..

 Tilo and I decided we would find that greenish/gray and make it "ours".  I have been to sherwin williams 4 times in the last 4 days and have spent $75 on paint samples - BUT we are getting close!! 

My mother's day will be spent painting and deciding, not necessarily in that order!!  I will post pictures of the green results tomorrow....We have basically one day to pick out trim colors, siding colors and wood stain colors!  I leave for Washington DC with Viola and her school Monday! Could the timing be any better??