Hall Bathroom tile started!!!

Looks like a murder scene! Red Guard had to be applied to our walls before tiling...ew.

Most of the blue tile got installed today. Tomorrow, the rest of the tile will be installed and grouted! Yay!

Word to the wise. Danze fixtures suck ass. I have never has so many plumbing problems in my life! Too long of a story to explain, but Danze has to send us a new spout...and we haven't even used this one yet!!!

I love this house...

The backyard is still shaping up....haven't spent much time out there lately.
I think I might like the blue lights...still not sure.

We just painted the wall that extends from the entry to the dining room a color called Jamaican Breeze. It is lovely.

Our floors are filthy from all the drywall sanding that has been going on day in and day out. We have to rent a steam cleaner...ours broke.

Matt is going to re-frame the painting of Christie and I in a more modern frame. It chould look pretty bitchin' when we get it put up. I can't wait to buy some more furniture and accessories for the house...all my budget is going towards the remodel for the moment. :) Although I did find some nice Tom Vac look-a-like chairs that I am going to snatch up for the dining room table...will look so good with the 12' teak table....mmmmmm.

Bath tile and kitchen shelves

Our bath tile came today. It is a glass tile in light blue and white. The white will be on the floors and the blue will wrap the the shower.
Matt finished the shelves...

I can't wait to get all the s%$@ put away. What a mess!

Close up of shelves.

Uppers went in today

Matt got the upper cabinets all built today. They went in, along with shelves. We still have to put birch edgetape on the front of the shelves. We are ordering custom pullouts and dovetailed drawers for the kitchen as well.

Here's Matt holding up the backsplash tile. We'll be having the tile professionally laid in the next week or so. :) And...then we will order our Stellar Snow counters....mmmmmmm.

Here's a shot from the dining room. Look at all the crap everywhere....

Here's a view from the slider. Eventually this view will be amazing. Matt has to build the island cabinets next. Then, we'll yank out all the absolutely disgusting rotted warped cabinets, and replace with the new pretty ones.

Side view from the soon to be coffee/wine bar area.

Nice cabs, dude.

We now have all our lower cabinets on the wall side of the kitchen. Still need the uppers and above-the-fridge-cabinets...and doors...and counters. We're getting closer to having a kitchen! Just ate some cookies straight from the oven...heaven.

BLUE

So...something I was really excited about I have actually ended up hating. I bought blue light shields, and the light looks kinda cheesy, I think. Maybe when the tounge and groove birch ceiling is in it will look different. Naw....I think I hate the blue.

Kitchen rendering and tile backsplash

I crack myself up! My renderings of what I envision things looking like are hilarious. I like to think my scale in my drawings is accurate...he he he. This shows what I envision the kitchen looking like.



Our 1 x 3 glass tile just arrived. There is a plastic film on the front of it, but the color is called 'light sage green'. I think it will look hot.

We have an oven...2 in fact!

We have had our double ovens for over 1 year in the box. Well...today they met the cabinets! Matt built the pantry cabinet and oven cabinet and faced them with birch, then stained and laquered the faces.

Seriously...I'm going to make cookies or something tonight!

I don't even have anything to put in the oven. Nothing. How sad is that?! hahahahahaha.

Here's a close-up of the awesome birch wood...it's shiny and perfect in every way!

Oh...and no more ditch in the kitchen to fall into. I still feel the urge to climb over it.

Sod went in today

The sod went in today and it looks sweet! Now, I have a new perspective on the scale of the backyard. Once we add the other elements to the landscaping, the scale of the grass patches will seem more appropriate. Right now they seem really small...not for long!

Address sign all lit up!

It's officail. People will now know our address when they drive by. If they don't see it now...they're blind. We also lit up the grapefruit tree up front. We need to cut the screws down in the back of the sign, but it is essentially done. *sigh* We started working on the pavers up front...need to get sand, and then one more component to the front landscaping will be complete!

Rock on...quite a transformation!

This is what the backyard looked like in May 2005.

More May 05...

Plumbing for kitchen and house expansion had us digging up dirt in the backyard.

Matt showing me what the back of the house was going to look like. I had no idea what was ahead of us.

Prior to bumping out kitchen and adding glass wall, the back patio was recessed under the roof. We had just added the new 50 foot scored patio.

We worked for weeks to get the back of the house complete and weather-proof.

Thank god we started the addition when it was cold outside....can't imagine the house not being buttoned up in this heat!

Matt and his worker pals worked late into the night most every day to get the job done.
Here's our landscaping plan on paper...shows the main backyard and side yard off our master.

After running the irrigation, landscape lighting, and weed cloth, we started having the rock placed throughout the yard...24 tons of it!

We re-built the planter the original owner laid out, and will soon paint it a nice dark orange. Italian cypress will be planted so that they grow 30-40 feet tall and add privacy to our master retreat area.

Once the rock was leveled out, it started to look good. The sod goes down next Monday, which is just enough time to soak the ground and have the fertilizer set in. The transplanted citrus tree will hopefully come back to life next year....I'm willing to wait!

More shots of the new river rock.

This is a weird shot of the master side of the yard. It has a long run of grass and will have a cresent-shaped pavillion with hounge chairs, a custom fountain, and some sort of patio cover off the master bedroom. The dogs like the new landscaping already...it is extremely dog-friendly.

Here's a good overall shot of the landscaping....not complete yet and there are many elements that will be introduced that will soften the look of all the rock. The grass will help, also the tree benches and more planting.

More landscaping shots from 6/5.

I'm loving it....I can walk out without getting all "dirty".