slowly but surely

Little by little, the house is coming together. Painting is still going on to the trim work within the house. David is still cutting and nailing baseboards, and I'm still coming behind him with the caulk. Its a long and arduous process.

But, a shining moment for the weekend was this! The backsplash was installed. 4" x 12" travertine acts as a border at the top and bottom, and 2x2 tumbled travertine is in between. It looks very nice with the Giallo Ornamental.


David also insalled the microwave. You could almost live there now.

And the final task of the weekend was power washing. HD started power washing the stone on the house, and it looks 100x better already, but the patio and driveway were just too much for a little nozzle to handle. So, out comes the "whirlybird" as David and David like to call it.

David's friend David Evans and his dad came by Sunday morning with their state of the art steam activated pressure washer.

Look at the difference. Left is after, Right is before... Amazing.

So that's it for this week/weekend. Exterior painting will hopefully start happening this next week. Carpet is being installed the week after Easter and then we can start moving furniture in.

Hip hip hooray!

igneous rock

The day has come! Granite arrived this week.

*Funny side note

David and I had talked about edges/details of the granite early on, but never came to a definite decision. So, when Saturday rolled around and Josaphat at Renaissance Stone Works was cutting the granite, David wanted to confer with me and talk it out one last time. Well, I wasn't available. So, Josaphat and David declared their manhood and made the decisions themselves. And what good ones they turned out to be.

*One other side note. I finally started using my "good" camera to start taking better shots of the space. I think at this point it warrants that.

The sink and faucet. Stainless steel one basin sink, about 9-10" deep. "You can bathe a baby in there!"

Giallo Ornamental granite.

The whole kitchen finished off with the granite countertops. Note the thicker island... yeah, wait till you see this...

One of David and Josaphat's grand "Man-decisions" was to do the island in a double, 6cm chiseled edge. It basically looks like one massive piece of rock in there. Its awesome. The other counters have a 1/2 bullnose edge. It looks good in contrast and will blend in nicely.

Hall bathroom. Apollo Storm granite. Goes very well with the honey onyx diamonds in the shower.

"Pretty" shot of the Apollo Storm and faucet.

Master Bathroom. Breccia Sarda Limestone.

Breccia Sarda, faucet and sink. Breccia Sarda means "broken sardine", so we're told.

We are still truckin' away at trim cutting, hole filling, caulking and painting. Here is a picture of David as he measures/cuts his baseboards. He is really good.

All the plumbing is pretty much done... HD Walker is to thank for that ;) Exterior stuff will most likely start this weekend and next week. Carpet is a little slow going, but we are hopeful to have it here around Easter. At that point, David can move back in... to essentially a new house.

We are all simply amazed at the transformation that has occured.

The next fun part is staging. And boy howdy do we girls have many things up our sleeves.

turning the corner

At this juncture in our project, there is little to show of progress. This is because everything right now is a tedious task to help finish out the space. This includes trim, baseboards, doors and little things here and there.

For instance...

Here is David, on hands and knees sliding across the floor filling little tiny nail holes with wood filler. This is an ever so fun task and is great for the back too ;) This and caulking the edges where baseboard hits wall and where door trim meets door jamb, has to be done to every baseboard and door trim piece every, oh 16"...

Here are some pictures, however, showing the interior with some of the trim installed. We actually are now seeing... in our minds and somewhat visually a turning of the corner. As far as the interior goes, there is little left to do. Big things, but they can happen fast. These include granite countertops, carpet, and finishing touches on trim work and interior/exterior doors.

We have the beautiful hardwoods covered right now to protect them, but now the contrast of the white trim is showing up very nicely with the wall color.

And here is our latest design dilema to tackle. Carpet. We want to make sure that the carpet color is warm and inviting and not too "different"... but we also want it to coordinate well and not clash with the tile (in the hallway outside all doorways to the bedrooms) and the wall color. So now I am thinking of going in a more grey tone to bring in a nice contrast to the travertine and add some depth to the stark white walls in the bedrooms.

Other things that got done this past week thanks to David's dad were all the light fixture installations. David and I went to Home Depot late one night last week and had a cart full +2' above the rim with lights and fans and hardware. It was an interesting sight to say the least.

The exterior will be moving right along after power washing is completed and priming of the trim happens. We've got the colors picked out and its looking like we might have things done in two weeks...? I dare say that, David may have some other ideas.

Monday brings granite installation! I will hopefully be getting pictures of that Monday or Tuesday and will post as soon as I can!

400 ft of baseboard, chapped lips, 6-panel doors and stained hardwood

Hello everyone! This past weekend was a yet another good one. Every week just keeps getting better. But why wouldn't it? I mean, David keeps working his magic every week. Almost as if he were Santa bringing in a new elf specialist each day for this and that task. Yes, thats it, my boyfriend, David Claus.

So here they are, the newest improvements for last week.

Here are the (24) 16' baseboards that my mom and I painted outside on Sunday. It was by far the prettiest most warm day we have had this year. I even got a little color on my white arms. What was so funny about these baseboards is a.) they are 16' long and we had some awesome steel sawhorses made by the Walker men aiding in our acrobatics of manuevering b.) the sun was shining right down on the boards and literally cutting the drying time in 1/2 so we had to work very fast and furiously to keep the brush moving or the paint would dry to fast and then they would get icky and globby. c.) lets just imagine David, Jim and I trying to clean up and store these in the garage without them sticking to one another... we figured out a way though ;)

I thought I'd throw these in there to show everyone what I will one day ;) inherit. David is a Marlborough Man... Not in the sense of the cigarettes, but in the sense of Pioneer Woman. And he hunts and fishes, and kayaks and does all the typical southern texas man stuff. Including collect deer heads and let them bleach out in the sun on his front porch. Oh I love him so! But I have an idea for these gruesome yet oh so trendy items. With a little white paint or dark stain, we could do a fabulously modern arrangement on a focal wall...

And here are the wood floors. This picture shows them newly sanded. Yet another friend of David's came on Sunday to tackle this task. They looked beautiful all stripped and raw, and for a moment I thougth it would be really nice to leave them. So did David. But in the end, we really needed the contrast with the walls and the fireplace in there. So, on to picking out the stain color. Jerrod had several with him and after a short diliberation (always a short one with David and I... we are a very decisive team) we decided on one. I can't remember the name to save my life. There was a lot going on that day. Including the fact that my lips were half way to a 3rd degree burn from me licking them so much as I was desperately concentrating on my caulking efforts. Besides the point. Below are the finished floors.

I think its safe to say that my camera sucks with the flash in this house. I don't know if its the dust or that the lense just needs to be cleaned... or the fact that if you looked at the camera you would think it had been thrown down the garbage disposal its so chipped and old. I have a better one that I need to start using. Goals are good to have. Maybe next time.

So there you are. The visual tour of week 8. Other things not included in the visual tour are the panel doors that David and Justin installed Sunday. David got a nifty jig that helped him carve out the little notches for the hinges. For my house, he did not have this, but now its a piece of cake for the Burson house. They also started assembling the new casings around the doors. Thats right all new trim around the doors. Thats where my chapped lips come from... caulking and filling holes for all those doors. They did a splendid job.

Oh! One of the most important things also happened last week. I'd like to give a big shout out to HD for installing. . . . . a toilet. whew. Enough said.

Again Nancy is the bomb diggity for bringing lunch every weekend work day for us. She really out did herself this time and made a healthy assortment of home made dishes. And there is always desert ;)

Upcoming items, and in upcoming I mean already happened today thanks to HD... are master bedroom fan, master bathroom toilet, closets utility and pantry lighting. For the rest of the week, power washing the stone, wood, and basically every surface of the exterior, finishing the doors, finishing doors/trim, ordering carpet, installation of granite. We also picked the exterior paint colors. I'll leave this as a surprise for the end, b/c it will just be too much of a shocker I want everyone to get the whole effect ;)

el domingo especial

This week was a week for tile. Some amazing things happened, but first here are some things not related to tile.

Here is the new wood flooring going in. Its going to look awesome in the end, and already is making a statement. However, the finished floor will be sanded and re-stained to be a little warmer... not as honey colored. That will happen next weekend, and after that I believe we will have a dust free zone. Until the dust is over we cannot have any final finishes/fixtures go in like trim, doors, or lighting because it would just be too much to dust.

Here is another view of the wood floors. The french doors are just going to pop during the day with those floors and the fireplace. yay!

And here it is... the completed hall bathroom. There really are no words to describe how excited we are to have this masterpiece of our friend Domingo Montez. Mingo asked David if he could do something special, that he had some left over tile that was beautiful but he wanted to get rid of. So, we let him go at it and here it is... The special tile that he added is diamonds of honey onyx. The before is below. Strangely enough we weren't going to do anything in here... just have all tile and tub surfaces re-surfaced with a bright white clean look. But I think we made the better decision in the end.

David and I also made a trip out to AG&M and Renaissance Stone Works to look at granite on Saturday. Unfortunately Giallo Muscat is not the secret word anymore but there are many more that will fill the house and its new beauty. I'll leave that as a surprise for next time or maybe the next time.

The finish line is in sight and David is very excited to have a lovely new home.

looking like something

Here we go folks. What you've all been waiting for. The surprise of the weekend! The new master shower was tiled. This is travertine in 12x12 tiles and the little seat there is just perfect! Our favorite specialty tile layer, Domingo Montez did this work. He is by far the best tile layer I have ever seen.

*SIDE NOTE*

When David and I worked at AG&M, Mingo (as we call him) did the tile for the new showroom there. He is such a perfectionist (but doesn't waste time doing so) that at the corners of where the contoured rubber base for the floor/wall met the stone base he contoured the edge of the stone to match. That is dedication to your trade.

Here is the shower floor, 2x2 tiles to prevent slippage and promote happy hygiene.

This is the vanity in the master bathroom. Same as the kitchen. Get ready for it!

The new and improved fireplace! Note the new hearth! So pretty. This is a David Walker original.

Hearth close up.

Front door from the inside.


And here we go! Tile floors and kitchen cabinetry!

Kitchen from hallway, living room to the right, front door to the left. That column is structural and is keeping the house standing... but it creates a good anchoring point for the step down from the kitchen to the living room at that corner.

Kitchen cabinets from the dining room. The granite is being templated tomorrow!

There will be an oven/cook-top with microwave/vent at the furthest wall's opening. The sink will be under the window. The next opening along the wall (hard to see) is for the dishwasher, and then the refrigerator will go to the right of that in that big open space with cabinets above.

The island will have a 8-10" overhang on the left side and closest side to the camera for bar seats. The other exciting thing is that through that doorway on the left is a short hallway that provides an awesome new pantry on the right, and just past is the smaller and more reasonable laundry room. Then directly ahead is the garage door. A perfect "back of house" area any stay at home soccer mom would die for ;) or just me and my love for all things "homey".

Thats it for tonight.

Giallo Muscat is the secret word of the week. *hint* its hard, cold, beautiful and can only be cut with a diamond blade saw.