January 5th - the home stretch

OK we are almost there. A lot of work has gone on and we are getting really excited about nearing the end of the long road and moving back in.

The built in cabinets in the living room turned out great. The bottom cabinets are ones we purchased with the ones in the rest of the house, but the shelves were all custom made by Hyo, Chris and his carpenters from stock pieces.

Paint is up everywhere as well. This is a light greenish-gray and really looks great with the white trim. This is the view through the living room and into the bonus room.

The kitchen cabinets are all in as well the last few finish items are to put the pend pannels on the underside of the island and peel all the blue protective film off of the doors. These will both wait until after the counter tops go in and the floors are all finished.

The wider window over the sink has an extra deep sill from pushing the window toward the outside of the house. They also installed the sink - it is a cast iron farmhouse (also called apron front) design and will mount underneath the counter.

Sorry for the Batman angle- the software is acting up again. This is the island and that stainless thing is the microwave. The door on this design pulls down like an oven making it easier to use in the under counter position. The space underneath the microwave will house a warming drawer that matches.

Across form the island is the kitchen desk. It is counter height so we can use the same stools for the island eating area and the desk and the space between the top of the counter and the bottom of the upper cabinets will house a computer monitor mounted on the wall.

This is where the rage will eventually go the yellow wire is for the vent hood. To the left underneath the upper cabinets is the appliance garage. It isn't yet installed since it has to be installed on top of the counter.

This is the former guest room ("blue room"). The color is pretty much the same as it was though it is a new color. The closet has been moved to the same wall as the entry door to the room. The old closet space was merged with the old master bedroom.

Another view of the room.

Here is the tile in the hall bath shower/tub area. There are a couple of small pencil tiles missing that were ordered in the niche, but it is pretty much done. Looks great!

Here is the guest room the window on the left is the existing window and the one on the right is one we had to special order to match.

The marble tile in the master bath. Underneath all of this is a heated floor system that wraps around into the toilet room to the left. The marble is on the floor and around the tub. The walls in the shower (to the ceiling) and around the wall of the tub (to a chair rail) are white subway.

Here is a view of the tile around the tub and on the walls.

The shower floor is a marble basket weave tile.

The toilet room.

The mater bedroom sliding french door.

A wider view of that wall.

Here is Abby's room. The color looks a little pinkish more than the purple it is here. A pale purple. Very cute.

Her closet. This is the same place where a closet was before, but it absorbed the space from the closet on the other side of the wall in the blue room.

The front foyer. You can make out the two tone paint in the powder room. This will be separated by a white chair rail.

December 1 - Floors in and trim

The floors are all in and most of the trim is up. We are waiting on a couple of doors that we weren't able to salvage or find at auction. Things are still moving along very quickly and are right on time.

 The view to the bonus/breakfast/Abby play room. The floors are all in and the trim is going up very quickly.

The butler pantry. There aren't doors, just these open door ways.

The new door to the basement. the space to the right of this shot is where the desk in the itchen will be.

A view upstairs in the landing area. This view is down the upstairs hallway through the master bedroom to the sliding doors leading to the second level of the deck (yet to be built).

 The hall bathroom and the door to the former master (future Abby's) room on the right.

The master bedroom. Here you can see how the tray ceiling came out. We really like it.

 Another view of the master bedroom. The slider to the upstairs deck to the left.

Back downstairs - a view through the kitchen to the living room and butler pantry (to the right).

November 29 - Flooring and interior trim

Turns out that when you use your camera to take pictures of dusty places, the lens gets dusty. Shouldn't be a surprise, but it was. So sorry in advance for some dusty pics in this post.

 First dusty shot: the new floors go into the living room. They aren't quite done here - the red paper on the left is the stuff they put underneath the floor as it goes down - but it is a good shot of what the floor grain and wood will look like.

 Another view the other way. They have a lot of the floor in upstairs as well, but since I took these after work, and it is late November in DC, it gets to dark to take a lot of shots (there are still not a lot of lights installed).

 Here is the closet french door in the "blue" guest room (soon to be child #2's room - hopefully everyone reading this knows about the second child on the way. If not, ask Monica). We opted for a different trim from the existing house that is a little nicer looking (but not that much more $).

 Here is a good view of the trim as laid out around the windows. We opted for a "picture frame" treatment around the windows - no window sill - it is a little more modern, but is a very clean look that we really like. This window is the one over the tub in the master bath. The green board on the walls is the moisture-resistant drywall - that is certainly not the final color - don't worry.

 Another window in the master bath. this is a better shot of the final trim choice.

This is the window in the kitchen. We opted for a traditional sill here because it will be used to house herbs and such. We replaced the single window in this space with a wider double window to allow more light into the kitchen area. We also had them push the window back as far as they could toward the outside of the house to allow for a realy big (9 or 10 inch) sill area.

November 20 - Drywall and attic

In this post you can see the drywall progress and some shots of the new portion of the attic

 Drywall going up in the dining room. this view is through the dining room to the back windows in the new living room.

 Here are stacks of the new flooring to go in. Lots of hardwood floor in the plan (everywhere on both floors save two bathrooms).

 Another stack of the white oak - we thought it was red oak in the existing house, but upon closer inspection it is white oak. Not sure what difference that makes, but good to know anyway!

Here is the attic space over the new addition. Since the HVAC system tok up so much of the existing space, it is great to get an additional large are to store the huge quantities of holiday decorations we possess.

Another shot of the new attic space. It is not very tall (about 3 feet in the midle), but will serve our purposes well.

November 19 - siding is up!

Apologies again for the delay. I am going to try and catch up with a few posts because there has been a lot of progress!

Siding went up. We used a product called Hardie Plank that comes in a selected series of colors that are prepainted and baked onto the surface. As long as you like the colors, the product is a great idea. The color is guaranteed for 15 years and goes up very quickly.

 View from the back alley to the back of the house. The building on the right side of the shot is the garage which will be painted to match the house.

 From 44th street. The windows are all in and the trim is up.

From Butterworth Place. This is really the only view that people will see regularly. At the bottom, you an see the stairway down to the basement unit.

A view from the back yard. This is a good view of where the two level deck will be going in.
 

 This is the east side of the house. This side is very tight so it is hard to get a good shot.

November 10-18th -- Dry Wall!!!

Seems like I have to start all of these with an apology for how long it takes me to update this blog, so I figured I would keep that up and apologize for taking so long to make this update. In my defense, though, there hasn't been much to see until now. The plumbers, electricians and HVAC crew were finishing up and that doesn't make for great photography - "hey that's nice solder!", "is that R8 register wrap?" - but today is different.

Before we left for the beach for a few days, Hyo said that we were in for big changes by the time we got back. Siding up, drywall up and the first coat of drywall mud all in. I think that counts for big changes.


Entrance way to the right. The right door is the one to the powder room and the one on the left is the closet.


This is the shelf in the powder room above where the toilet will go. This was made possible by the addition of the appliance garage in the kitchen (on the other side of the wall).

Kitchen from the living room. The indent in the back corner is the space for the appliance garage.


This is the nook where the desk in the kitchen will go. We have decided to bump the height of the desk to be the same as the kitchen cabinets. That will allow us to use the same height stool here as at the island. Three fit easily there but four will fit in a pinch.


Living room from the bonus room. The middle has been bumped out to accommodate the built in cabinets. The middle panel will be where the TV is going to be hung with 18" cabinets underneath. The cabinets on each side will be 12" depth with 12" shelves above up to just below the windows.


View of the bonus room from the butler pantry.


View back through the kitchen from the living room.

The old living room with a new ceiling. Hyo removed it due to some damage from water and removing the floor above. It was easier to replace than to repair and will look better to boot.


Upstairs guest bedroom. That window is the new one that we ordered to match the existing one in this room.



Closet in the old master bed room. This was doubled in size by combining the space from the closet on the other side of the wall.


Upstairs hallway. The door on the left is to the new guest room (previously Abby's room). The two doors on the right in the hall are (in order) the hall closet and laundry room.


New guest room from another angle.


This is my closet.


Here is the tray ceiling in the master bedroom.


Master bath. The tub is not actually blue - it is a protective coating that Hyo put on it to protect it while the drywall is going in.


This isn't the greatest shot. This is the wall behind the cabinets in the master bath taken from the doorway.


Toilet room in the master bath.


Down to the basement. Hyo removed the existing bulkhead that was down there and replaced it with a smaller version. A lot of the duct work in the old one wasn't needed and it was hanging down just enough for me to run my head into the bottom of it. It is only a couple of inches higher, but it is a very valuable couple of inches.


Another shot.


The old exterior door now covered with drywall.


In the new basement. This is the kitchen area. The stub wall will be the back of the cabinets.


Back toward the doorway to the existing house. The orange drywall on the ceiling is sound deadening. That and the bat insulation should keep the noise down in the basement. Just in case - we won't tell any potential renters that there is a toddler living upstairs.


Another view into the living are of the basement back toward the coat closet.


This shot doesn't show it very well, but the bedroom ended up pretty big. It will be a good sized room.


The basement bathroom - Monica had the god idea to add the nook in the wall utilizing the space left by the old basement exterior door. Storage is at a premium, so this will really help.


Laundry room/nook


A closer view of the kitchen area. The silver tube is the exhaust port for the range.


The door back into the existing house. Hyo framed out a nook for a few shelves to the left of the door. He had them drywall over it for the time being. I am thinking that he thinks that I have enough other things to do first - that I may not get to this project any time soon.


Entry door to the basement.


They had to pull down the ceiling in the storage area in the basement to get to some of the HVAC stuff, so they replaced it with nice new drywall and a new light.