Let it snow!

Let it snow because we have heat and a mudroom! Hooray! We've got tons of snow and are loving it.


Here's the new mudroom which I love more and more each day. As you can see, it is being well used. We love our red cabinets, but hated the process of painting them. One coat of primer, 3 coats of red, one coat of black glazing and a clear coat later...they were done. Not an easy process.
It's amazing to have a place to put all our wet snowy clothes and boots, such a big change from the original house where there was nothing. And there's heated floors to dry the drips...what more could I want?
The stairs are finally done too!
Up, up we go to our new play room (for now at least) We still are working on paint and trim, but with the heat on, we love having some more space.
Eben finished the trim on the bathroom mirror this last weekend and we were able to put up the sconces. And so there it is for now.

And so it's been awhile.

We've been busy working on little things and though it doesn't look like much has changed from the pictures, we are finally enjoying some of our hard work. The siding on the front of the house is done and we have exterior lights, which is really great since where we live there are no street lights. Yes, I have not done any staining since about 5 months ago when I started, and yes, one day it will all be stained. People also often ask if we are going to reside the original house to match the new addition. Come on now...of course we are, just not a priority right now. The roofing for the mudroom is still not on, but the garage is all roofed. Soon all roofing will be done, at least that is the plan. And one of these days we will move that ugly white cabinet that belongs in the garage away from the front of the house. It's been there so long, I don't think we even see it anymore.
The entryway has a doorbell, which is cool, because we've never had one of those. We haven't told Elia about that yet, since Eben installed it last night. I just need to prepare myself for a solid 30 minutes of ringing I think. We are going to build stone steps up to the landing with those big square stones. Haven't quite finished designing that yet though.
What we love is that our new living space is now livable. Well, sort of. It was very livable until it got cold. It will be another couple of weeks before our furnace goes in and there is heat up there. We still have to finish staining the wood windows and doors, and also paint. We also have all the trim to finish...and the list goes on!
All windows and doors will soon be stained dark like this one, and it is pretty exciting to have a new bathroom.
I love that I can now park in the garage.
And that I have a new washer and dryer that is no longer right next to our living room. Even though there's lots of finishes to be done, it's so nice to enjoy some of our hard work. We just designed the mudroom furniture and have sent that to the cabinet guy. So in a few weeks our mudroom will be up and running. I am super excited about that! Just in time for winter.

Deadline is approaching!

So, my college friends and their families are headed here for a reunion in a couple of weeks. They will be staying with us, and so we need to have our new space above the garage livable. We've been working away and so here's where we are at...


Slate tile is all installed, and we are about 80% done grouting it. It looks really dusty in this picture.
Shower tile is done...I guess it just needs to be sealed. Boy was that a lot of work. Next time I am choosing LARGE tiles!
The bathroom floors are grouted and sealed! The electricians will be here tomorrow to switch power over to the new place and the plumber will be finishing things up this weekend! Hooray for progress!

Piece by piece...

So, it's been a busy summer around here. Eben is turning over his nearly 10,000 square foot home to his clients in a week, and we have been enjoying a summer of travel and visitors. So, our poor house is slowly coming along. We've been focusing on the inside for now. We've got some friends coming at the end of August for the weekend and have made that our deadline for having the place livable. Eben and I head upstairs a lot of nights after putting the kids to bed and work away. Oh the joys of a remodel!
Here's the shower which we are still working away on. I'm learning a lot as I go and am thankful for the tile we chose. Since it is not smooth and is more rugged looking, I don't have to be so perfect. Good thing, because I am far from expert at this. I just hope it stays on the wall!
Here's the bathroom vanity. Eben just installed the granite and the door hardware.
The wet bar area is pretty much done now too! I guess it still need the faucet and we are doing glass suspension shelves along that side wall.
Eb got some doors hung. We still need to stain them.
The glass door between the house and the mudroom is finally in. It really connects things and brings in a lot more light. This is the stain that all the wood trim and doors will have. We like the dark look.
So that's it for now. Hopefully in the next week we should finish our shower tile and maybe even the slate floors. Look out!

Elia's Ballet Graduation Class

Here are some videos of Elia's ballet graduation. The lily pads on the floor are their fairy houses. She loves ballet class and has a big show this Sunday where her class is buzzing bees.

Working on the finishes and the roof...

Here's a look at the roof. The eaves and the whole mudroom roof will be metal, as you can see. (The metal roofing is yet another free thing Eben has acquired) The rest of the roof will be comp.

We have been hard at work inside and outside these days. Here are the boxes of shower tile we'll be using. We were lucky enough to get it all for free. I really like it!
This is the bathroom vanity. We have some free granite which Eben has been hauling around for a couple years now. It will work for the counter here and in the wet bar area. We'll just have to have it cut and finished in a few places.
I've been working on the slate floors. You can't see the color very well here, but it's nice. It's not too hard and I feel like I am learning some of the tricks of laying it. I'm glad we got the 16's...it is going pretty quickly, but is rough on the hands!
Here's the wet bar cabinets (minus an upper one that isn't installed yet) The open shelves on the left we designed thinking that one day we might want to put a bar fridge in there. So, they can be removed if necessary.
The walls and ceiling have paint on them all ready. We will just be adding a couple accent walls and rerolling the walls when we are all done.

In all his free time...

I was lucky enough to find a great swing set on Craigslist last week. So, for Mother's Day, Eben took a break from the big house and built a little one for the kids. This is as much a gift for me as it is for them, since they can now entertain themselves right here at home! What a find!
Now it's back to the real house. We'll be hanging the rest of the facia in the evenings this week, so that the roof can go on. We found an amazing price on roofing and will be doing a combo of metal and composite.
All the finishes except for the floor and the trim have been ordered, which is exciting. We'll be working on painting and tiling the shower soon.

Onto the finishes!

Well, the drywall is in and textured.
I still can't believe how much work this has been and that Eben has built this whole place. It's pretty amazing now that it is all coming together. We are getting excited! Above is the laundry area of the garage and where the furnace and hot water heater will be. The door goes out to the backyard.
Here's most of the rest of the garage.


Here's our mudroom to be! The shot is taken from what used to be the front door and will soon be a glass door. The stairs below go up to the new living space.


Here is the great room up there.
This corner is where the wet bar will be and the door goes into the bathroom.

Here's the door into the bedroom.
And here is the bedroom with a view of the loft.
Here's the bathroom, toilet on right and vanity will be on left behind that wall.
Shower!
And here's the pony wall in the great room. The stairs go down from the landing on the right.Kind of confusing, I am sure, but you're welcome to come up and see it for yourself. We're working on getting a real roof on soon. As the rain is pouring down outside, we'll just hope for no leaks.
We're choosing floors and tile and painting should be happening in a week or so. We've ordered cabinets, knotty alder. It's all coming together!

We have a garage door!

Here we are! A garage door, front all sided and trimmed out. Almost seems like things are going to be done soon....hmmmm. We are moving along, almost ready for rough inspection. Eben stained the garage door and that is the final color that the whole house will be eventually. He tells me the staining is my job and so it will probably be done the second Tuesday of next week with the amount of time that I have to do things. Sure is nice to have an enclosed garage door and one that works.

Moving a little quicker these days...

So here are the latest advancements in the addition. It is really fun to start getting an idea of what the finished product will look like. We have a front door now! Elia helped Eben stain it.
The shakes are up on the gable of the garage and you can see some of the boards which will complete the siding on the bottom half.
Here's a view from the street. The garage door in coming in a week which should be really exciting. Don't worry, the existing house will one day be sided to match the new one!

Just some more shots of the shakes. I'm a big fan! Thanks for your help Tel and Tim!
The windows in the addition are now all in. These are in the living room in the new space.
Eben has been hiring some guys he works with to help with things. It makes things go a lot quicker, that is for sure. Juan put in all the ducts for the HVAC. This is the back of the garage ceiling.

This little platform will have on it the furnace, hot water heater, washer and dryer, and a utility sink and counter. All to come soon. Thankfully we were given a Miele washer and dryer from some clients of Eben's who that they were too small! Can't wait to get those up and running.
The plumbing is in too. Eben is going to finish it off. The electricians have also been working. So things are really moving along. Our hope is to have it done by June...and then it will be on to phase 2, the existing house (oh man!).

A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

Progress seems slow these days as Eben is working on things as the weather and his time allows him. He's been trying to get the facia up for awhile now, but can't do it by himself, so he has to wait for kind and helpful friends to drop by. Also, things have been icy even though we don't have much snow! I'm a big fan of the tongue and groove under the eaves.
The front windows went in, which is exciting. Only 2 more windows left to put in upstairs now. He has ordered the garage door, the shakes for the gable ends, and we are getting bids for the plumbing and electrical work.
It's always a a question of money or time. More money means it takes less time, but right now we are opting to save a penny or two. So this means, slow progess and more work for Eben! Good thing he's such a hard worker and a jack of all trades.