Modernize the Powder Room

After doing the other changes in our house last year, the powder room looked a little bit dated.  Here is a before image:

To the right is another small room where the toilet is.  It was decided that everything had to go. I found a basin that I really loved and so that was our starting point.  Here is an image of the Kohler Antilia Wading Pool Sink.  

Demolition and plumbing has begun.  It's amazing how long it takes to re-do a powder room!

Here are some sample paint colors painted on the wall.

In the toilet room we'll have this wallpaper.

Monkeys!!

Paint is done, plumbing is in, and electricity is all wired up.

Here is the cabinet (without the doors) that Rob Newman constructed. The finish matches what he did on our dining table. This cabinet will "float" on the wall and there will be some LED lighting glowing beneath it.

Here is a view of the cabinet in place however it will look quite a bit different when the granite top is installed. Photos of that coming soon.

This is a catalog photo of the sconces that will be flush mounted to the mirror.  They are half cylindrical so when they are mounted on the mirror, their reflection will make it look like its a round sconce.

More photos coming soon with sink, mirror, granite, and sconces installed. That's all for now!

Holidays over!

Thankyou Mom for the pretty contemporary bowl!

Nearly Finished - At Least Until Phase 2!

After 11 months, we have declared the initial remodeling on our house nearly complete! At least until Phase 2, which will be a remodeling of Kevin's bedroom, bathroom, the laundry room, and the powder room.  It took twice as long as we expected but we are very happy with the results.

Craig working on the Dining room

The painting done by Craig Stringer of Rock Creek Painting is finished along with the hardware changes and baseboards. We have hung paintings around that we already owned.  Some I hope to replace or reframe to go better with the new decor. And in some rooms we need to decorate more with plants, art, and rugs.  Sonja Knutsen helped with all the color and furniture selections and her work isn't finished but we love how everything has turned out. We are happy that the remodeling is, for the most part, complete.

Some photos:

We repainted all the woodwork on the front of the house.

Already have our Christmas tree up.  The color of the exterior paint was custom mixed.

We kept the beautiful door pulls that were already on the house.

This photo shows the concrete floors well. 

All the interior was painted, including the beams.
This room is Dunn Edwards Bison Beige.

View from the front door toward the kitchen. Here we have new lighting.
Walls are Dunn Edwards Pigeon Gray.

                         

This is a good view of the custom dining table built by Rob Newman.
All the lighting is new and the walls are Bison Beige from Dunn Edwards.

This angle shows the back lit shelving also built by Rob Newman.

The walls in the TV room are painted Pigeon Gray, the woodwork Barrel Stove.  All the lighting was replaced with new recessed lights. An all new surround sound theater system was installed with all the speakers flush mounted in the ceiling. And finally, we refinished the wood floors.

In the kitchen, the cabinet doors were all replaced as the older ones were warped and not all of them closed properly.  The paint color for the kitchen cabinets is Barrel Stove. We also added new hinges, new pulls, a built-in pull out trash can, new under cabinet LED lighting, new pantry track lighting, and a coffee station. 

Added all new low voltage recessed lights in hall.

Furniture, Pillows, Lighting, and Paint

Fall is here!  It's been three months since the last post so there's a lot of updating to do.

First of all, the last three months have been a struggle and in addition we went for a little vacation in London and Paris. But the work on the house had slowed down a lot while we waited for lighting switches, numerous electricians, paint decisions, and sheet rock repairs.  Sonja Knutzen was busy getting our furnishings and pillows ordered and they all look really great.  Here are a few photos of some of the items.  We still need rugs, artwork, plants, and lamps but the basic furnishings are done.

Another thing completed is the new dining room lighted shelving. It was crafted by Rob Newman and it will look really great once the walls are all painted and we find some pretty glass sculptures and vases to put in them.

Most of the Lutron switches are installed. We still have a couple of places where wiring is hanging out of the walls because some additional switches had to be ordered.  Carrie at Phillips Lighting of Modesto was very helpful in the design and decision making process as was  Sonja, but still it was a difficult process. We selected the Lutron RA system and it has been very hard to find an electrician in our area that knew how to install them.

After 3 electricians came out, some even starting to work and then quitting, we finally found Bruce Trussler at Kirkes Electric in Turlock who knew about these special switches! Done!

We are certainly pleased with the results and functionality, and the ability to control "scenes" of lighting throughout the main areas of the house from our phones or iPad is really cool, but this solution was more costly than we realized when starting out and I'm not sure we would choose it again. On the other hand, I do hope that all the dimmers, using pre-programmed scenes, and adding the thermostat controls will save on our monthly utility bills over time.  Here is what the switches look like.  In every area, we tried to replace large groups of switches with smaller and less.

The upgrade to the under cabinet lighting in the kitchen has also been completed.  We used LED lighting here and so we should never have to change a bulb! Love it.

If you look closely at the kitchen cabinets in the photo above, you'll see how warped and wonky some of the doors look.  We have decided to get all new cabinet faces with new invisible hinges. Rob Newman is working on them now.  He also completed the pull out garbage drawer.  Before it was just an empty space under the counter where we put the trash bin.  Now it is integrated into the cabinetry and when the kitchen is all painted it will blend right in.

A few weeks went by while we had all the holes from the electrical work patched up by a sheet rock specialist, Pro-Drywall Services of Ceres.  I think we are finally ready for paint.

Craig Stringer of Rock Creek Painting will be doing all the painting. We have chosen Dunn Edwards Paints based on his recommendation.  After buying literally dozens of quarts of paints to sample different colors, we finally have decided on 4 shades.  Here were some of the ones we tried, and an example of how I painted samples on walls, ceilings, cabinets.  We've had a real patchwork of colors up on the walls for months.

The selected colors are Bison Beige, Pigeon Gray, Barrel Stove, and Weathered Brown. The kitchen cabinets will be Pigeon Gray, and this photo shows the pulls we've selected.

This coming week the floors in the Den will be stained also.  Here are the stain samples.  We like the ebony ones.. the firsts and fourth samples. Not sure which we will pick yet.

So things are coming together for a fast and furious finish with painting starting the week of October 10th!  I hope all the work on the house itself is completed by the end of October. Then it will be fun shopping for accessories, artwork, plants, and rugs.  More updates coming soon.