Day 37

 
The master bathroom is finished---except for a few accessories. I want to live with it for a few days to see where I want to place the remaining pieces. I am so pleased with the way it turned out!

Old Look

New Look

         

                                      Tomorrow will be the hall bathroom.

Day 36

Stay tuned----- both bathrooms should be finished tomorrow!

Remember where we started:

Hall bathroom.

Master bathroom.

Day 34

I thought I was going to have a day with no workers in the house but Tom Britt, the handyman, stained the steps-coming in from the driveway.  Therefore, to take a bath, I had to walk outside and and then go through the garage to get to the bathroom in the basement. Coming back (with wet hair) was not much fun in the cold.

The green carpet was removed and the steps have been stained.

 Hey Carter, it's your birthday!

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!! 

 From Bill, Ann, Kitty, Virginia, Isabel and Bambi who is short on words but loooong on wishes!!!!

Day 33

We will be using Virginia Mist granite for the kitchen and bathroom countertops. I wanted the soapstone look but heard it is pretty fragile. I like the durability of granite, but prefer a more matte finish. John Lee suggested "leathered" granite. I found  Virginia Mist granite online and liked the grey color with the white veining. We finally got a sample and I love it!

Virginia Mist

Worked today on trying to get at the dust from the renovation. The guys do a great job of trying to keep the dust out. They even Swiffer every afternoon, but there is always dust. 

Dining room table. 

Jeff Roudabush, my upholsterer, dropped off the dining room chairs yesterday. They are gorgeous!

Bill noticed the the fabric actually has an "H" in the pattern. Do you see it? Hint: it is aqua.

I think my $10.00 Homestead chairs turned out quite nicely. 

Day 32

Roanoke Glass delivered and installed the bathroom mirrors and the glass for the shower in the hall bath. The mirrors make the bathrooms seem much larger.

Mirror in master bath.

Mirror in hall bath.

Glass in shower in hall bath.

When Bill realized that there would be no tub in the hall bath he replied, "how uncivilized".

A sneak peek at the material for the countertops tomorrow. It is "leathered".

Day 30

Today was all about the bathrooms. I came home late this afternoon to fun surprises!

Rub-a-dub-dub three men in a...........bathroom working hard!
Tim, the electrician, Wyatt and Patrick.

Love the Benjamin Moore color, Hurricane.

The thermostat for the floor tiles. This is especially useful because the heater was taken out.
Bill loves this feature!

Day 29

As more plastering was taking place, Wyatt and Patrick were working on the marble tile frames around what will be the huge bathroom mirrors. In the hall bathroom there will be sconces within the frame of the mirror and in the master bath, the sconces will be within the mirror.

Patrick adds the final tile to frame of hall bathroom mirror.

Master bath mirror frame. 

I went to Black Dog Salvage on Memorial Avenue to look for items for the house. So many wonderful things to see!

Grayson Goldsmith works at Black Dog. She is also a local celebrity as she is featured in "Salvage Dawgs" a reality show on DIY and HGTV based on the shop.  (Sorry the pic is blurry)

Days 25-28

Bill and I went to Richmond Thursday evening. He attended a seminar on Friday and I made another trip to the fabric store. Also, there has been a lot of plastering at the house this weekend.

Bill eating his favorite sandwich, "The Farmington", at the Bellaire Market in Charlottesville en route to Richmond.

The wonderfully helpful Lucy Leake at Williams & Sherrill  in Richmond.

The plasterers showed up unexpectedly today (Sunday). Check out the stilts. Bambi wishes she had some!

Day 24

Mostly structural work was done in the kitchen today. Wyatt took out the window over the sink and replaced the header. Tomorrow he will take out the double door and other window.

Former window over kitchen sink.

Because there was not a lot of picture worthy work done today, I am going to post some extras.

I am in the basement chopping up vegetables for soup in the Crock Pot..

A pic of Kitty taken at the Biltmore last weekend.(by Matt)
Kitty just texted that she will be home for Thanksgiving . Yea!!!

Day 23

When I got home from errands and yoga today, we had new bathroom cabinets and a toilet!!! The cabinets are beautiful. Having a toilet on the main floor and near the bedroom is is also beautiful. Only one problem, at this point, there is no door on the bathroom.

New cabinets for the master bathroom.

Toilet in hall bathroom.                    

New cabinets in hall bathroom. 

                                                                          

Day 22

The Dream Team
Patrick, Wyatt and Mike

From    






Today, we got lights and fans in the bathrooms. Tomorrow we should get the bathroom cabinets and toilet.

Hall bathroom shower and light.

Hall bath floor tile.

One of a pair of chairs from Black Dog Salvage suggested by Vera Silcox.

Don't know how, where, if I am going to use them, but how fun. 

Day 20

Cornel came on Saturday to finish the tile. All the doors were locked when he got here and I was in the basement doing laundry and did not hear him knocking or ringing the doorbell. I had left the door unlocked for him but Isabel locked the door (not knowing he was coming). Cornel got a late start installing the laundry room floor. He was very gracious about the mixup.

Cornel grouting the shower floor.

I think the new laundry room (former hall closet) floor looks just like wood but it is tile!

The shower floor in the hall bathroom. 

Day 19

Most of the tile work has been completed in the bathrooms. The master bath has 3x6 inch marble tiles surrounding the tub. The floor is 12 inch slate tiles. The grout was just applied and will dry lighter. They took out the heater along the side wall. All agreed that it had become unsightly. Therefore, the floor will be heated and they moved the heat lamp to the center of the ceiling to provide more heat. Mirror and lighting will go in on Monday. The toilets should be in on Tuesday. FINALLY!

The other bath and laundry room coming up tomorrow.

Day 18

 I think that I have finalized plans for the kitchen. It is difficult to make so many decisions but John Hopkins (the architect), Steve Morris (the kitchen cabinet designer) and Wyatt make it easier for me. For example, Wyatt prepared a mock up of the island (using pieces of styrofoam and a trash can) so I could get a feel for how much space I will have around the island.

I will have pictures of the progress in the bathrooms tomorrow. No lights are in the bathrooms yet and I have gotten home too late in the afternoon to get good pics.

Bonus Entry #2

I am a little behind on my posts because my last two days have taken unexpected turns. Tuesday afternoon about 1:30, Bill came home and ask what I had planned the rest of the day. I was tutoring Janeti and then had promised to take her little brother and sister to the park ( it was conference day). Bill asked if  I wanted to join him and fly to Washington with Dick Cranwell for Terry McAuliffe's election party. We had to be at the airport at 4:00 sharp.

As you can see, we made it in time and took off for Dulles. The evening was nerve racking but exciting.

Then this morning Maria, my great friend from college, called to say she was in town and wanted to get together. We had lunch and spent the afternoon together. Two unexpected and fun days! Back to the renovation tomorrow.

Day 15

It is hard to believe that this is the beginning of the third week of the renovation. The tile guys started  work this morning. They got a good start on our new rock climbing wall:

(TILE GUY HUMOR)

Actually, this is the tile in the master bath. Chase is doing a great job!

I think we have finalized the plans in the kitchen after a few tweaks. We got really lucky with the cabinet maker. He is reported to be the best in the area.

Day 12

Hard work continues daily on the renovation. The plumber got a lot of work done in the baths and kitchen. The electrician has been working for the past couple days. He had to put in a new panel so we had no electricity all day yesterday. Dry wall has gone up in the bathrooms. Tiling should begin early next week.                Walk in shower in former yellow bath:

Robby and his dad got a good start on the beautiful new floors in the kitchen. Robby will work all weekend to get the job finished.