Week 19

Just a little farther to go...

Our bathroom vanities were delivered and installed. Oops... the right power outlet is now in the wrong place and had to be repositioned.

Argentina vanity in the kids'/guest bathroom

The toilets were hung and the actuator plates installed (fancy name for the buttons you push to flush).

Just look at those lovely smooth sides...

...and the space underneath you can easily clean!

The living room in the front of the house, which was always so dark, had recesses put in for lights, and wiring for a ceiling light.

The patio ceiling had recesses put in for lights.

The closet in Felix's room acquired a big hole in it which they cut to work on the plumbing in the bathroom on the other side of the wall.

I went to Lowe's late at night and purchased bi-fold closet doors.

Our new (additional) tankless water heater was installed for the hot water in the bathrooms, a Rinnai RL75EN, 7.5 gpm Energy Star rated, purchased via eBay.

On Sunday, we had a family painting party. 13 years earlier, almost to the day, Jim and I, together with our neighbors Michael and Deirdre (who have since retired to Arizona) painted the front bedroom yellow in preparation for our baby girl who was due six weeks later. It was the weekend before my baby shower, and Ella then decided she was going to join us the following week instead of waiting until November. After sharing the room with her brother up to now, Ella is getting her own room, and Felix wanted it blue. He picked the color himself and we all worked together to get that paint on the walls. The end result is not anywhere near as good looking as the professionally painted walls in the rest of the house, but we had fun doing it, and Felix doesn't care.

BEFORE

DURING

 

 

AFTER

 

Week 18

The first thing that happened this week is that on Monday morning, after a very hot, very dry summer, the sky darkened and it started raining! It only lasted 1 day but that was the impetus that was needed for our skylight window to get installed.

The tiling was finished in the master bathroom - right-hand side wall and bench - and our Grohe shower/bath fixtures were installed!

Not QUITE done... still needs a diverter & a tub spout

The kitchen floor tile was installed - same tile as in the bathrooms (Anticho series Timber).

The replacement Saltillo tiles were grouted and sealed, and now they match the old ones just beautifully.

We went back to the bathroom vanity store and ordered the units we want. This is a showroom model of the one we ordered for the master bathroom, except on ours, the sink will be on the left. It's from the "Sweden" series. One of the things I really like about it is that it has a lot of storage, and also that the cabinet is right below the sink with the drawers underneath, making good use of space.

The carpet guy brought over another set of samples; the one he had brought us previously was too fluffy. He brought berber carpet, which we also don't really like although the colors are nice.

I sent him a picture of one my friend Jennifer found for me from Home Depot that is discontinued and I asked him to see if he could find one like it.

Finally, on Saturday, the air conditioning guys came by and installed the final part, the condenser. Now we finally have lovely all-house AC! The condenser is a lot bigger than I expected, I thought it would be about half that height, but it's tucked away behind the garage so we won't really see it at all, and it runs fairly quietly too.

Week 17

We are getting soooooo close to being done! The bedrooms and hallway were painted this week, bringing more color into our house. Also the bathroom floors were finished off with matching grout and I absolutely LOVE it.

Master bedroom: Pompeian Red
(similar to 2015 Color of the Year: Marsala, just a coincidence)
and Taupe Tease

Master bathroom tile started:

Since a small section of the kitchen tile had to be removed when the new door was put in, and we've always hated the kitchen floor tile anyway, we decided to go ahead and replace all of it. The old tile was at least an inch lower than the rest of the flooring in the house and had ugly tiles on it. I didn't get a "before" picture but within hours, all the old tile was removed and a fresh layer of cement was poured, this one level with the rest of the floor in the house. How refreshing!

Our contractor wasn't satisfied with how the old tile looked against the new tile; it didn't match well enough. So he took out more of the old tile, all of it from the hallway, leaving only the existing tile in the front living room.

And we have............. ELECTRICITY again! Well only in the new part of the house so far, but it looks SO good, all the beautiful recessed lights shine brightly, and the outside patio lights were installed.

Lights and paint (Calm) in the kids' bathroom!

Bench finshed and paint (Cauliflower) in the master bathroom

Lights inside the closets!

Lights and paint (Monologue) in Ella's bedroom!

Patio lights and beautiful haint-inspired blue patio ceiling

And finally, we're taking advantage of the apartment facilities and enjoying the last days of summer before we leave. We sometimes have dinner down here as well.

Week 16

 
We are getting close to being done! We've given notice on our apartment and will hopefully be able to move back into our house at the end of this month. The interior paint has started this week. After many more trips to Home Depot gathering paint chips, and playing with the combinations on my vision board, these are the colors we have chosen. Overall, I am happy with how the colors turned out, except for the ceilings. On the chip, the color has a grayish tint, but on the ceilings and doors, it's pretty much just white.

Living room ceiling: White Moderne, living room walls: Curio, dining area: Toucan (all eggshell finish). Ella's bedroom: Monologue, kids bathroom: Calm, master bathroom: Cauliflower,
master bedroom: 2 walls Pompeian Red, other 2 walls, ceiling, hallway and closets: Taupe Tease.

This is how the painter works on the ceiling, on stilts!

Baseboards and door trim were added

Here's our skylight, no cover on it yet.

The floor tiling has started! I'm really happy with the tile we picked for the bathroom floors. It is a porcelain tile called Anticho Timber in 6" x 24" size.

Master bathroom floor

The living room floor tile was started as well.

Pedro

The doors were painted!

The new doors, enrobed in White Moderne gloss

Even the old linen and hallway closet doors were given a fresh coat.

And finally, the tile in the kids' bathroom was grouted. Now that area just needs the actual shower/bath fixtures and it is done! Oh, and a shower curtain, too, I guess...

Checking if the bath is comfy (verdict: yes)

Shower niche detail

Snow White grout on white tile, Ice Blue grout on mosaic