House update

Finally the day came for the driveway to be poured. We got to the house around 9:30 am and they already had the front drive poured. They are leveling out the drive before they expose the aggregate.

They spray something on the concrete and then spray with water and the top cement is washed off exposing the aggregate. The cement truck actually mixes the aggregate and the sand right before it is poured. You can see the two different mediums in the back of the truck before it goes down the shute. Below is a shot of the exposed aggregate on the back patio. Getting it there wasn't easy for the concrete truck.

The first attempt to get close enough to the porch was to drive up next to the garage and try to back across the patio (which they had to remove the forms first). That didn't work because of the trees in the way preventing the truck to turn.

So the next attempt he went around the trees and tried to back across the patio. Again, the trees prevented him from doing this either.

So he stopped and they got out the bobcat with front loader to haul the cement from the edge of the patio area to the porch. Lots of trips back and forth to get enough of the stuff so the guys could shovel and level out.

They had about six guys working in the back getting this done. I felt sorry for them having to take out the forms for the patio to get to the porch, but that worked out for us. The day they put the additional forms in for the added patio space they were supposed to put in a sweeping curve, but instead had just a straight line from the tree. Therefore, we got them to correct that when they rebuilt the forms before they poured the patio. Good thing we were there that day painting.

The truck moved after they finished the porch so he could get to the side of the patio. We weren't getting much painting done watching all of this process. It was very interesting to watch. Below is the leveled porch before they exposed the aggregate. There is no step down from the great room or study to the porch, but we do have a slight step down from the master bedroom because of the slope to get the rain water to drain away from the house.

The patio finished below with the slight curve in the edge from the tree to the door. They didn't finish until about 8 pm. It was a very long day for those guys.

We got the master bedroom wall painted (only one wall) and not sure if we are painting any more in there. We will have to wait and see. Terry worked hard in the master bath cutting in all the ceiling and around the tile and cabinets. I just absolutely hated the color so we decided we had to do something else to the room.

After we got the entire room painted, we went back to the paint store on Monday and got some really light color and some glaze. I wound up glazing the toilet area and ragging it off which gave it a much softer look. Terry wanted to sponge the new light color on the rest of the bathroom so that took two days. Then we decided it needed an additional color to blend and we used a medium color and sponged sparingly over that and finally got the look we like.

There will be tile and mirror above the cabinets so we weren't sure how far to paint so we just painted and used the mirror area as our test area and then sponged over that.

The toilet area looks different since it was ragged off, but it is the same color.

The electrician was there on Friday installing lights, fans and switches. Unfortunately the switches should have been biscuit instead of white so they had to take all the switches back. We have lights and fans but no switches!! The fan above is in the sewing room and the same fan is in the guest room.

The porch fans have big blades!!













I think Terry's study fan is the prettiest and was probably the most expensive. The ceiling treatment in the study will also have molding. They didn't know that when they put the molding in, but will get it in the recessed area. We painted the ceiling in there a gold color. We glazed three walls in there with a light brown "tea stain" glaze and the two walls beside the fireplace are dark blue. The trim will be stained the same as the cabinets and the flooring is wood in that room.

The fan in the great room is really my favorite. It is entirely different from anything thing else and more rustic looking. You can see the breakfast light is a little fancier!! Also the pendant lights match the breakfast and they match the foyer.

Below is the tankless water heater. This prevents lots of water being heated and reheated all day. It is heated by propane and will ignite when the demand is there. There are coils inside get heated and then push the water to the faucet. Supposedly they are more energy efficient and you won't run out of hot water.

The outside lights are in place and the driveway is finished. Now we can go out there and wash our vehicles and boat!! We can even park in the garage.














The foyer light!!

The front porch lights and sidewalk

The masons were working today getting the brick around the bar and also around the fireplaces. We didn't stay long today, just checking things out.

Our car parked on the driveway!!














And we officially have a house number, but no mailbox.

That's all for today. Now let's watch some football. I hope all of you have a safe and fun Labor Day Weekend.

Sandy

Fishing

Jack rabbit in the Cedar Breaks Park at Georgetown Lake. This is the first one I've seen!! Big ears and big rabbit.

Another fishing day at Georgetown lake but as you can see the skies were threatening. Rain all around and lots of thunder and lightning in the sky. We didn't have much luck only a couple small ones.

They were having a tournament on the lake that night from 5 pm to 9 pm but we didn't stick around since it looked like rain. It would have been interesting to see what size and bag weights came in so maybe next time we will check that out.


I kept trying to get a picture of the lightning, but always missed.

The boats in the picture are some of the tournament fishermen and the skies looked threatening. Wasn't stopping these guys tho!.

The water is about 25 ft down according to the lowrance unit. As you can see from this 5 gal bucket in the tree, the water has been lots higher than it is now.

More later.

Sandy

Cabinets

Well we have had a few requests to update the blog so here we go. The cabinets arrived last week and were stained and now are being installed. They will be glazed after they are installed by a different person. From the left is the bar then microwave cabinet and refrig. The cabinet should meet the wall on the left at the corner but doesn's so will have to be adjusted and a filler cabinet installed on the right side of the refrig cabinet. The problem is with the sink at the bar and the plumbing for the sink. It's close to the door opening so either the cabinet has to be adjusted or the plumbing has to be redone (jackhammer, sheetrock, etc.). We prefer to have the cabinet adjusted.

The island and the hood are paint grade wood and have the base coat but no glaze. The color on the right side of this sample board will be the final color on the island and hood.

Of course as you can see all of the hood is not there. They will have to install the vent and then they will put in the panel on the front and some type of "deco" treatment on the face of the hood at the bottom. All of these changes with the cabinet will hold up the granite which was to be laid out this week. Oh, well, hopefully we will be in before Christmas!!

When Terry got back from Oklahoma and saw the island, he was shocked. It is huge!! They will need to redo the island take off approximately 6". Right now it measures 54" x 54". Way too big and only leaves about 33 inches between sink and island and that's without the granite which will take away another inch on each cabinet!! I think 48" should be about right for the island. That would give us about 38" on each side approx to walk around. The far cabinet on the right is for the double oven.

We had the pantry door special ordered since we liked the door in Oregon so much that Barb and Tom gave us. It was really nice. Plus we added a button in the framing to turn the light inside on and off when the door is opened and shut. We had that feature in one house in Atlanta in our closet and it was nice. The pantry door will be painted to match the molding and trim - homemade biscuit is the color.

The master bath sink and linen closet which will be Terry's sink.

The above is the other side of the master and my sink and knee space. Will have mirror across the wall. We need to get in there and paint before they get the mirror installed. Hopefully, we can start that this weekend.

And finally is a picture of the guest room shower and tile work. Obviously the glass and door haven't been installed yet. Hope you like it and will visit!

That's it for now and hopefully they will get to moving fast again soon. The brick arrived for the fireplace and under the bar area in the kitchen so they should be in there doing that soon.

Sandy

Paint and Tile

Hello from hot Texas. The cats love to lay in the window and sleep and as you can see they love each other!!

It's going to be a week of 100 deg will stay inside most of this week. Only have to meet with the lady who will be glazing the cabinets and going to the tile company while they lay out the granite for cutting.

We got some of the rooms painted but haven't had a chance to get into the master bath.

The sewing room is a greenish/gold with terra cotta.
The guest room is apricot and terra cotta. You can see outside the window part of the driveway that has been laid out for pouring. Still waiting on pricing for the color and/or staining.

The study is a dark blue on the wall with the fireplace. The fireplace will be bricked. As you can see the molding is broken next to the door so that will be replaced and the molding hasn't been stained yet. Of course, we know they will get stain on the paint and we will be cleaning that up and touching up. The other walls are a yellow/gold. That could change since we want to do some glazing in that room and can't seem to get the actual look we want yet. Will keep trying.

We want to get into the master bath and paint but the tile guy hasn't finished in there yet. We were hoping to get in there before the cabinets were mounted. We are painting this room a blueish/teal color.

The foyer tile turned out good. Of course, right now everything is dirty.

I know it's hard to believe about the weather so had to show you this morning's forecast for the week!! Very hot!!

Well, that's all for now and hopefully will have cabinet pictures and granite pictures soon.

Sandy