Painting…Day 35

Rick and his crew have the kitchen cabinet and first floor trim painting underway. The panoramic photo below shows the kitchen and dining room from the back hallway with the freshly primed perimeter cabinets along the walls. We also see the cabinet doors laid out in the dining room as they start the “production line” painting of these and some of the exposed shelves.

The next photo shows the kitchen desk and pantry with white primer on all the surfaces. The third photo shows the white primer on the cabinets in the first floor laundry room. All of these cabinets will get a “distressed” white finish using a brushed-on glaze before they are complete.

The last photo shows these same painting operations from the fireplace in the living room. Here we see all of the drawers for the kitchen cabinets lined up on the floor in front of cabinet doors on the saw horses in the background. They have also primed the trim, stair risers, and balusters in the staircase all the way up to the second floor. Rick and his crew will now repeat this operation 3 or 4 more times as the kitchen takes shape.

Countertops…Cultured Marble installation

Our friends from Central Marble Products showed up today and installed the cultured marble sinks and countertops in the bathrooms at the “L” Shaped House. The first two photos show the countertops installed the cabinets in the master bath. We decided to use an off white bowl (Pure Warm White) in a granite (Warm Peddle Granite) colored top in the master bathroom.

 

The next photo shows the white (Pure White) marble top in the kids bath. Both the kids bath and master bath have integral sinks at each end of the cabinets and an integrated 4” backsplash. The last photo shows the cabinet and cultured marble sink in the first floor bathroom. In both this room and the basement we are using a single color integrated sink in the Warm Pebble Granite color.

 

Ceramic Tile…Day 34

Matt Sletten was back last night working in the first floor bathroom. He has the walls in the shower nearly done and took the wraps off the tile details at the curb. The different sizes and shapes of tile in this area combine to make a very interesting look even though the color is all the same.

Painting…Day 32

Rick and his crew (Carmichael Decorating) are busy today getting all the masking in place as they prepare to paint the kitchen cabinets. The first photo shows the kitchen with the cabinets, windows, and floor masked…nearly ready for painting. Rick plans to put the final coat of varnish on all the stained surfaces (the Island, Hutch, and doors) just before they leave this evening. They will then mask the stained surfaces in the morning and start priming the cabinetry and trim. This may well be the last time we see the cabinets in their natural wood color…I sure hope we end up liking white!

The next photo shows the divided light doors for the music room after staining. Since the 3-panel doors were ordered in error (and we own them) we decided to stain and varnish both sets of doors and store the ones we don’t use. That way if we want more privacy in the music room we’ll already have the solution down in the crawl space under the mudroom!

Painting…Day 31

The Carmichael guys continue preparing the kitchen cabinets for painting. The first photo shows the masking in the in the cabinets along the oven wall after the doors and drawers have been removed. They hope to all the masking done sometime tomorrow and start painting later in the week.

The next photo shows all of the drawers from the kitchen cabinets masked and arranged in the living room ready to be painted. Once the stained wood is covered Rick will spray the cabinets, the window and door trim, and the risers and balusters in the stairs. It is going to be quite the operation.

Painting…Day 30

The painting job at the “L” Shaped House involves at least as much masking and taping as actual “painting”. The Carmichael crew has started in earnest on what will certainly be the most painful part of the job…the kitchen cabinets! We decided a (very) long time ago that we wanted a “distressed” white finish on the kitchen and first floor laundry room cabinets. Steve Carmichael tells me that they will achieve this using a four step process.

• Prime the cabinets (spray)…
• Paint the cabinets using white enamel (spray)…
• Distress the cabinets using a tinted glaze (brush)…
• Clear coat the cabinets (spray)…

The process requires that all the kitchen and laundry cabinets are disassembled, marked, masked, and then carefully reassembled after painting. The first photo below shows the beginnings of the process. All of the drawers, doors, and shelves have been removed and the masking is just underway on the kitchen desk.

The next two photos show the back corner of the kitchen and the desk area after all the loose bits have been removed and the masking begun. This is going to be interesting to watch!

Painting…Helen’s Room

After an…Emergency!!!…Extra Special!!!…Three Day!!!…meeting with Helen we are finally back on track with the colors for her room. It turns out that Helen was not completely “in the loop” on the color selection and has some strong feelings about what she wants. Fortunately her dad (a communication and visualization specialist) jumped in and saved the day!

The front corner should end up looking something like this…

Painting…The bedroom colors

Now that the bedrooms are painted we can can get a look at how each color works in the space.

The master bedroom…(Abingdon Putty)

Helen’s room…(Guilford Green)

Sam’s room…(Philipsburg blue)

Anna’s room…(Persian Violet)

What’s in Your Walls?

So…when you go to hang stuff on the walls in your house how do you decide where to drive the nails? Can you remember where you put the blocking? Are you sure there isn’t some important wire or a water line running right where you want your hanger?

At the “L” Shaped House we are going to use our X-Ray photos to solve this age old dilemma. If you recall I have carefully taken photos of every wall in the house at each stage of the construction. Using Adobe Photoshop I can now combine these photos to create a composite image that allows us to once again “look beyond what we can see” !!!

These two photos are combined using layers, the opacity slider, and the warping tool in Photoshop.

Painting…Day 29 (continued 2)

The photos from our evening visit to the “L” Shaped House show just how far the Carmichael guys have come in the last couple of days. The first photo shows the kids bathroom with the Richmond Gold paint above the tub surround and the paper removed from the floor tiles. The next photo shows the master bathroom after painting the 45 degree wall section above the shower (a recent addition). Both look totally different with the warm colors on the walls behind Matt Sletten’s nice tile work.

The next two photos show the progress in the master bedroom and walk-in closets. The first shows the view looking into the hallway leading to the master bathroom with the pocket door closed. The second is the view from inside the bathroom looking out through the bedroom toward the front of the house. It is amazing how much the tones change with the lighting conditions…