Staging the Library Shelves

This is seriously fun!

I am trying to not only house the books, but also keep it pleasing to the eye and make it personal for both Mike and I.  The hard part is that I have a TON of stuff and Mike has very little - but we are working on that!

The flags are from each of our Fathers funerals as they both served in the military.  We plan to put the flags in wooden boxes and then I want to make shadow boxes with each ones medals.

Although neither Mike or I are hunters, these antlers - purchased at Magnolia Gardens Auction House in Hockley TX. made an interesting 3-D effect.

I had to make one shelf with my sidesaddle collection of antique stirrups and some other gifts people have blessed me with!

Library Doors

.... long awaited and greatly anticipated!


They still need to be stained.

We Will Call This the Blooper Reel!

A collection of "OPPS" pics and explanations from the construction of the house!

First off - those very very long beams were 2x4's and thankfully one of my daughters friends noticed it and said they needed to be changed to 2x6's.  This is a load bearing wall!!

This set of french was installed backwards resulting in a huge water leak during hurricane Harvey

The water leaked down into our kitchen and ruined the newly installed dry wall ceiling

The trim  guys put the double oven insert so low - I would have had to lay down on my belly to see if something was done in the bottom  oven.  This had to be redone.

The kitchen cabinet hardware was sent with screws that were too short.

The microwave hutch still does not work properly.  When opened it lays on top of the microwave instead of in the brackets that should keep it flush with the top.

 The  workers kept opening my crank out windows and leaving them open in the rain.  They broke 2 of the sets of openers and left one window open.  I was unable to close it until the window guy came out to disassemble the crank. 

Opps - someone hit a glass panel in our breezeway door and did not admit to it.

Still dealing with this Opps.  This tub had a drain that runs beneath it - there for raising the height of the tub by over 4 inches.  The beautiful marble has to be demoed and we have to build up the platform to support the tub and then marble and tile it again.

 

This slipper tub was hooked up and when I went to clean it out - found a huge leak coming from the brass fixtures.  Water leaked downstairs and collected in the laundry room light that now no longer works.

A few more:

The kitchen flooring was installed and was twice as thick as regular tile - so the dishwasher and  the refrigerator did not fit.

The orig AC company I originally worked with did not install any vents for any of the bathrooms or the kitchen so my kitchen vent hood is really a very expensive light and there is no way to install vents in the laundry room, mud room bathroom or the exercise room bath.

The brand new freezer that has never been used but been in storage for over 2 years became home to a field mouse - who chewed through some of the wires.  Repair man coming this Friday to work on that issue!

Closets

Mine

In the back of my closet is my sewing room!

...and his!

Love Our Tile Guys!!

Today they tiled behind the dog wash tub and did the stove back splash which included setting a HEAVY fire back plate!!

Running Water!

We have it!

Library Doors!

Squeeeeellll!  Here they are - hope they get them framed so we can have them installed soon!

Wood Floors are IN!!

This is the flooring we chose to go on the upstairs landing, down the hallways and into the bedrooms.

We chose to stay with the mahogany stain in the library.  I will find a beautiful antique rug for this room to diversify the color without compromising the look of the room.

This is the master bedroom.  We chose a honey colored wood for this room to keep it light and cool looking.

Even Though Our House is Not Move in Ready.......

Mike and I moved in a few pieces anyway!!

Both of these pictures are of pieces we found at our favorite furniture store - Magnolia Gardens Auction House.   This huge piece was a originally custom made entry table and I cannot tell you how big it is.  The top is mosaic marble and is heavy heavy heavy!  It worked out so perfectly for our butcher block table!!

Here is our dining room table and we are so thrilled to have it before Thanksgiving!!

I Love This!!

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am to see this fixture up and lit!!  It is a late 1800's oil lamp converted to electric that I found in California.  

                                                                                YAY!!!

...And More Gets Done!

Here is an updated pic of the kitchen .

Door and drawer hardware is being installed and the glass is in the decorative door as well as the glass shelves

We had the oven raised, so now instead of having a large tray cabinet - there will be a bottom drawer and a top narrow cabinet where I can put baking sheets.  I cannot tell you how happy I am we made this change!  

This is one of the sink faucets in the master bathroom.  It has sentimental value because this is the same faucet my parents had in their bathroom.

This is Mike's closet.  I put a mirror above the seat which I wish now I had done something like this in my closet.

I loved working with a company called Milstead glass.  They were so professional! This is the exercise room where you can see one wall is completely mirrored.  Lily needs to get on the tread mill! 

Here is one of the upstairs bathrooms.  I am so glad that one of my neighbors happened to stop by when they were about to bring this tup up the stairs.  It is cast iron and weighs a LOT.  Butch helped them to carry it up without doing damage to the stairs!  God Bless You Butch!!!  I have a beautiful piece of beveled glass that will be placed over the window to give it a more antique feel.

We are really excited and things seem to be moving along but there is still quite a bit to do before we are really done and ready to move in.  The plumbing still needs to be run from the well to the house.  The wood floors and carpet need to be installed.  The painters need to come back to finish touch ups.  A band of decorative tile needs to be put on above the tile in the above bathroom.  Door knobs, drawer pulls and clothes rods need to be installed.  The master tub will hopefully go in today.  The electrician needs to hook up the hot water heaters and finish installing 4 bathroom lights as well as get the kitchen antique hanging fixture working.  I am sure there is more - 

We got a bid for a sprinkler system .. it was high but the company has great reviews and was recommended to us.  We also need to get a final grade on the front lawn and then start bringing in good garden soil for the beds as well as get some kind of grass growing because come April 2018, it has to be wedding ready!!

Mirror Mirror on the Wall...

.. well - here are a few of them:  This is the mud room bath

This is the upstairs bath that will have a slipper tub

.and here are the kitchen cabinet doors.  They are putting in the glass panels.

Inching Right Along

The plumbers started today and this afternoon I went down to take a peek.  They have installed 1 toilet, 1 sink faucet, several toilet rings in the floor for others and they were working on the kitchen sink and dish washer!  This is the mudroom bathroom.

Mike and I spent all weekend working so hard on the house doing what is called a final clean.  That is a bit misleading as it is not really the 'final clean', it is just the big clean where you take all the tape of the window panes, get rid of all the dry wall silt and make endless trips to the dumpster with garbage!  Mike is so thrilled with the library...me too!

Another part of what we did was put in all these shelves.  We can move them later if we need to have more or less room to accommodate books and such.

I just had to post this - but in all honesty, this picture does not come close to doing it justice.  This is the chandelier in the dining room.  It looks spectacular lit up - especially in the evening.

I can't wait to get our dining room table set up beneath it!

High's and Lows

Throughout this project we have gone through a series of highs and lows.  It is so much fun to reach a place you have only dreamed about - a few examples of that would be when the framing started to go up and you could see the outline of the house, when the sheet rock went in and all that open space all of a sudden became individual rooms and just recently when the light fixtures were installed.

Sadly yesterday was a low day for me.  For one - Mike is out of town at a training conference.  On top of that the guy came to spec out the install for the appliances and he found LOTS of problems.  The flooring we chose is thicker than regular tile - so it essentially raised the level and shortened the measurements of the openings for both the dish washer and the refrigerator.  The refrigerator opening is too low on one side by 1/4 of an inch, while the dishwasher missed the mark by 3/4 of an inch.  We also are missing a piece to secure the washer on one side of the interior of the cabinet.  The vent hood opening was cut to the actual size of the hood, so it is way too big AND there does not seem to be an actual vent pipe going into the attic.  Wow - where do you go with that???

The oven is a whole different issue.  First off - the electrical connection was installed way too low, so that has to be raised and I have come to the realization that I have to have something changed in the kitchen that will be quite costly - or it will drive me nuts.  The double oven opening is so low, it feels like it is at my feet.  We purchased ovens with side opening doors and one reason was because it is so much easier on our backs, but having the units so low defeats that purpose.....and now I am not sure what to do.  Changing it will cost a LOT of money and I am so angry at myself for not seeing this until late in the process.  When I did notice it - I thought I could make it work, but as time goes on - I just do not like it ......

WHAT SHOULD I DO???  Can you see how low the oven opening is?