Category Archives: Mudroom

Week 42: Tile, Trimwork, Stairs, Septic, and Rental House Issues

Posted in Cabinetry, Dining Room, Entry, Flooring, Great Room, Great Room, Kitchen, Laundry Room, Millwork, Moving Homes, Mudroom, Mudroom Bathroom, Permits, Powder Bathroom, Septic System, Tile by

Rental House

This week seems to have gone by so quickly!   One of the major things that happened this week is that we received an email from the property manager from the house we’re renting a couple miles from the build.  He said that the owners of the house want to move back into the house and we need to move out at the END OF APRIL!!!  Matt was anticipating for the house to be finished at the END OF MAY!!  Seriously?  How does this happen to us?  Our 10-month lease ended in January and since then our contract switched over to month-to-month leasing.  And the contract states that we or the owner can terminate the lease with a 20 day notice.  We actually met the owner about 6 months ago when they were visiting from China getting baby gear out of their garage.  Back then he said that we should stay and rent the house for years!  And in January when I told the property manager that we were extending our stay past the 10-month term he said to stay until August.  Now they want to move back from China though?  Something must have changed with his Microsoft job.  Ugh.  And the property manager has no idea either – this totally blindsided him as well.

So now for the first time in the entire build, schedule matters.  Prior to this, Joel and I honestly didn’t care if it took longer to build, we just wanted it done right.  I mean, what’s a couple extra months in the end if it turns out great?  The boys have made some good friends in the neighborhood we’re renting in and it’s so close to the build, that it’s convenient to pop over and check things out.  Now getting done with the build at the end of May when we need to move out at the end of April seems WAY too long though.  Where are we going to live for those 4 weeks?!?  So I did what any person in my situation would do.  Ask our builder Matt, “what’s really going to be left to do after the last week of April?”  I explained our situation and wanted to see if there was any way we could speed things up a little and maybe move in sooner than later.  He took a couple days and was able to push a few things…and now we’ll be moving into the new house the first week of May!  Can you believe that?!?  The first week of May!!!  That means that we’re only between homes for a week.  A week, I can live with.  Can you say, “hello mom & dad?”  They live about 45 minutes away from us without traffic so the commute just to get the boys to school and us to work is going to be horrific.  But the boys love staying there and it’ll be so nice just to move with only having to pack our clothes.  The rest of our stuff can move into the garage of the new house until we get there a week later to unpack.  Although Matt will have the inside of the house finished, we’re not expecting the outside to be completed – we’ll likely still need the deck, driveway and landscaping.  The inside is good enough for me though!

For our final hail mary, we’re still trying to see if we can extend our lease another week so we can move straight from the rental into the new house, but we haven’t heard back from the owner and they’re not returning the emails that the property manager has sent (which has been 4 of them now).  Cross our fingers 😉  At least mom & dad’s is a good back up plan.

New House

Besides the rental house issues, things have been moving along at the house quite well.  There’s so many little details that took place in the house this week. The tile and hardwoods have been completed and that’s all of the flooring until the carpet is scheduled to be installed in the last week of April (just before we move in!).  The stairs were even installed this week and they look fantastic.  It took a few different tries to get the right stain color for the treads, but I think they turned out great.  On Thursday evening, Cameron and I went to check out the house and Matt was there covering the stairs to protect them from all the workers’…and we ended up helping and covering them for him.  Um, don’t say that I never lifted a finger to build the house, ha!

The trim sub consultant keeps on trucking – there’s so much that we’re having them do for us.  Besides installing all of the door moulding and baseboards throughout the house, there were two major accomplishments this week – creating the fireplace surround and starting on the interior transom windows.  First things first the fireplace looks amazing!  Monday morning Matt and I walked through what I wanted the design of the fireplace to be and he made it all happen!  I love how it sits on top of the bench/hearth we have, and that the mantle is so deep.  In our old house there would barely be enough room for Christmas stockings, let alone any other decor.  This one is sure to fit whatever I want to decorate with!

On Saturday, Joel and I went out to check out the progress and one of the trim guys was there working on the interior transom windows.  We weren’t quite sure if we were going to order these or have them built on-site, and now that we went with the latter, I couldn’t have imagined the ordered ones turning out so well.  The first side of the transoms have been installed, then they’ll need to be painted on both sides and glass added.  Then the other side of the transom trim can be added.  It looks so good for them finally to be filled in with moulding though!  All these little details are really making the house come together.

And did you notice that the oval windows in the great room in the last picture now have trim as well?  These were measured for and custom made by a different company and then installed this week.  The same goes true for the arched windows in the dining room and in the entry.

Besides all of the trimwork, they also added some more detail on the cabinetry.  Matt pointed out that if we added crown all the way around the kitchen hood (like I wanted) that the crown would basically touch the other pieces of crown in the coiffured ceiling.  So that’s out of the question…so that’s a bummer.  But I still think it looks good as is without it – definitely my favorite feature in the kitchen, and it’s pretty fun that I got to design it!  Feet were also added to a few cabinets throughout the house – which I also had custom designed based on some pictures of kitchens that I liked on Houzz.

Tile work also continued this week.  Although choosing and shopping for tile was my absolute least favorite thing to do for the entire build, I love seeing it all installed.  Most of our selections were pretty basic, but even seeing white subway tile instead of drywall is fun.  On top of that, the tile my mom and I chose for the backsplash behind the range arrived and I brought that out to the house.  On Wednesday, I met the tiling sub onsite to go through the layout with him.  Originally, we were going to have a different border that had a dark gray bardglio marble liner and then a white chair rail that matches the subway tile backsplash.  Unfortunately though, the bardiglio came in and looked too blue to really coordinate with the beautiful mosaic tile.  So we ended up using a carrara marble chair rail.  We needed it this week though so there wasn’t any time to special order in the profile of the moulding that I wanted.  Luckily, good ol’ Home Depot carries one that will work perfectly.  Not so perfectly is that you have to find the marble in gray and white.  And when you see them at the stores, about 80% of them look white with brown veining.  Ick.  I’m not kidding you – to find the 12 pieces that we needed to frame the backsplash, my mom and I went to 6 different Home Depot stores!  Unreal.  But now that we have them,  I love them and totally worth the drive time to find them. Plus at $6 each, they were about 7 times cheaper than the ones that I wanted to order in!  Score!!!  I hope it gets installed back behind the range soon – I can’t wait to see it on the wall!

The painters were also in the house this week.  They’ve set up a Dexter kill room, er, um, a “spray booth” in the downstairs storage room .  That room was ALWAYS creepy with the concrete floors and unfinished walls and ceilings but this tops it.  I can’t wait for electrical finishes to finally put some lights in this space.  It’s beyond creepy and way too dark in there now.

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The painters have set up a spray booth in the storage room downstairs where they can paint doors and whatever else they have. I’m steering clear of this space though until they take down all of the plastic. A little too Dexter-esque for my liking.

And one of my favorite doors was also installed this week!  We have a dutch pocket door between the mudroom and the hallway.  This way we can just pull out the bottom half of the door to keep our dog Bella in the mudroom during the day.  No baby gates needed here!  Isn’t it fantastic?  It’ll be so nice instead of shutting the entire door on her while we’re gone during the day – I hate doing that now in our rental house.

Also, the septic installation began this week.  After getting the septic notice on the title recorded with King County and submitted to the health department, the septic stub-out was released and they were ready to do the install right away.  By Saturday, they had the tank set in the ground.  While Joel and I checked out the progress inside the house, we laid out a blanket and the boys ate their Subway lunch by having a picnic on top of the rock pile.  Little do they know that that’ll eventually be part of the septic drainfield!

Week 41: Countertops & Tile

Posted in Boys' Bathroom, Cabinetry, Countertops, Great Room, Guest / Rec Room Bathroom, Kitchen, Laundry Room, Master Bathroom, Millwork, Mudroom, Paint, Powder Bathroom, Rec Room, Tile by

This week there’s been a lot happening at the house this week including continuing on the trim work – there’s tons to do still including wrapping all of the doorways and baseboards.  And the painters were also there painting doors and other trimwork.  But I barely even took pictures of those since the best thing about this week was all of the countertops and tile that were installed!  The absolute white quartzite was installed throughout the main level and it looks ‘absolute’ly amazing!

So now that the fireplace hearth is installed, and I’m not 100% sure about the tile that my mom and I picked out for the fireplace surround.  Originally we picked out 3″x6″ tiles from Walker Zanger’s Rue Pierre Antique Gris Marble.  Now I’m not so sure about it.  It’s definitely similar colors as the absolute white quartzite, but  has more of a striped white/gray pattern to it.  I’m wondering if maybe something more consistent in color like cararra marble will look/flow better.  For the record, my mom actually liked the carrara better originally.  It’s pretty similar to the hearth quartzite though…too similar?  Ah dilemmas!

The laundry room floor was installed this week (still missing the grout), and so were the counters!  We went with MSI’s Sparkling White Quartz which has some green glass and mirror flecks in it for the counters and kept it simple with Daltile’s Octagon Dot floor tile in white.  Once the white grout is installed it will tone down the patterning in the floor for sure!

The flooring in the mudroom was also installed this week – actually weekend!  They were out there installing it on Saturday when I was there for a visit.  We went with 12″ x 24″ Florida Tile’s “Mingle” in the Cool Summer color set in a 1/3″ stepped offset pattern.  The vanity, sink and countertops were also delivered from Restoration Hardware this week for the mudroom bathroom.  I chose the Cartwright Powder Room Vanity with the Italian Pietra Grigio Marble top.

And downstairs, lots of things happened this week too!  The hardwood flooring was installed, although by the week’s end it was covered with a protective layer of Ram Board which I think will stay on it until we’re ready for cleaning and moving in.  The new narrower sink base arrived for the bar and looks fantastic!  The sink barely fits in it, yikes!  Hopefully it’ll work still though.

The boys bathroom flooring was also grouted.  Although one piece of tile needs to be replaced – someone dropped a tool on it (probably when installing the door) and the tile broke.  Once that’s done the floor (and grout) will be complete.  The counter tops and sinks were also installed in the boys’ and guest bathrooms.  The boys’ countertops I selected are a gray/blue color – Wilsonart’s Quartz in Amalfi Coast and the counters in the guest bath is Pental Quartz’ Grey Savoie.

At the beginning of the week, the Skyline Tile and Marble were out measuring for the bar downstairs and for the farm sink placement in the kitchen.  Then I went to their shop in the afternoon on Monday to choose where I wanted the counters to be placed on the slabs.  We ended up having to purchase two slabs since the bar is in a U-shape and we needed the graining of the counters to all be in the same direction.  There’s so much left over though!  We may end up using it for a backsplash.  We’ll see how much that’ll cost!  My mom and I chose these slabs back in October at META Marble and Granite.  They’re fantasy brown quartzite with a leathered/textured finish.  With the gray & brown that they have, they’re going to look great with the cabinetry and room color.

And finally, there has been some sunny storms over the past couple of weeks…check out that rainbow!

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Just a touch of rainbow to brighten up the sunny and rainy day!

 

Week 18: Getting Ready for a Roof, Window Walkthrough & Countertops

Posted in Countertops, Framing, Laundry Room, Mudroom, Mudroom Bathroom, Rec Room, Windows by

This week seemed like there wasn’t all that much progress when I look at where the house was last week compared to this week, but they actually got quite a bit done.  There were random wall & ceilings that needed to be finished up (or changed…because things didn’t look quite right and I wanted little things slightly different than what was originally planned…hello change order)!  In addition to these little framing things, they were really getting ready for the roof to be put on next week – which meant getting all of the plates/brackets/etc put in the right spots – something that I really don’t even notice.

It's coming along!!

It’s coming along!!

A view of the front from the other direction.

A view of the front from the other direction.

The garage doors were framed this week.

The garage doors were framed this week.

They finished the last little shed roof above the master closet this week.

They finished the last little shed roof above the master closet this week.

Also this week, we decided not to put the windows in the garage. My mom convinced me that there's really no use, and all it does is let people see all the junk in the garage. And with the basketball hoop going in near the garage, maybe they'd just end up broken anyhow.

Also this week, we decided not to put the windows in the garage. My mom convinced me that there’s really no use, and all it does is let people see all the junk in the garage. And with the basketball hoop going in near the garage, maybe they’d just end up broken anyhow.

The mudroom door was FINALLY added this week. The framers made a mistake originally and forgot to put it in! On top of that, we also had them increase the size of the windows in the mudroom (left) and the mudroom bathroom (right).

The mudroom door was FINALLY added this week. The framers made a mistake originally and forgot to put it in! On top of that, we also had them increase the size of the windows in the mudroom (left) and the mudroom bathroom (right).

The laundry room ceiling was finished up this week - I love how the ceiling over the window is sloped and connects with the rest of the vaulted ceiling. A little hard to tell in this picture, but once it's drywalled it'll look amazing!

The laundry room ceiling was finished up this week – I love how the ceiling over the window is sloped and connects with the rest of the vaulted ceiling. A little hard to tell in this picture, but once it’s drywalled it’ll look amazing!

On Friday I met Matt and Andy from Grove Window Supply at the house and we measured & walked through each window and what I wanted the grids to look like.  It took a little over an hour, but it was definitely worth it to be out there.  A few of the windows we hadn’t quite sized or figured out how they open, and Andy had great ideas.  My most favorite decision we made was the window in the staircase.  Because of the stair placement, the window couldn’t be the same size as the others in the lower rec room.  I was going to have it be a little odd in size, and just deal with it, but Andy came up with an awesome idea of just doing the upper 1/2 of the window so that it still aligns with the others in the room…and it looks fantastic!  Such a great idea and I never would have thought of it.  My favorite window is definitely the one above the bathtub in our master – we decided to switch it up as a focal point and put the grids in a diamond pattern.  I think it’s going to be such a cute detail.

We have stairs! Now we can finally get downstairs without walking around the house!

We have stairs! Now we can finally get downstairs without walking around the house! And check out the window at the bottom of the stairs.

I love the new window shape in the staircase. So simple, yet I never would have thought of it!

I love the new window shape in the staircase. So simple, yet I never would have thought of it!

Here's how the lower rec area looks like from the back of the house. The 1/2 window in the staircase is on the lower right.

Here’s how the lower rec area looks like from the back of the house. The 1/2 window in the staircase is on the lower right.

Besides picking out Windows, my mom and I met up on Friday to pick out countertops.  We had gone a couple weeks ago to look at slabs, and found absolutely white quartzite that we loved, but it was at a random fabricator’s shop and Matt had no idea of the quality they’d do.  But lucky for us, we found the same slabs at MSI in Seattle!  Score!!  So now we can have our own (recommended) fabricators do the install and there’s nothing to worry about!  We found 4 slabs, so that’ll take care of the kitchen, powder room & master bathroom.

Slab #1

Slab #1

Slabs #2 & #3 are book-matched.

Slabs #2 & #3 are book-matched.

Another shot of slab #2.

Another shot of slab #2.

Slab #4

Slab #4

Quartzite is so beautiful - check out what sunlight looks like through Slab #2 when it travels through the slab. So gorgeous! Too bad we'll never see it like that in the house.

Quartzite is so beautiful – check out what sunlight looks like through Slab #2 when it travels through the slab. So gorgeous! Too bad we’ll never see it like that in the house.

The slab is so beautiful up close - love the crystal-esque pieces in it.

The slab is so beautiful up close – love the crystal-esque pieces in it.

Close up of the countertop.

Close up of the countertop.

Another detail picture

Another detail picture

Four slabs of absolute white quartzite - yes please!

Four slabs of absolute white quartzite – yes please!

While we were at MSI, we also checked out the quartz slabs that they had.  Quartz is a man made stone and it super durable, and we’re thinking of using it in the laundry room and boys’ bathroom.  They had a really cute white slab of quartz with little blue-green glass and mirror pieces in it, and we found this green glass tile.  We thought it might be cute for the laundry room – super clean feeling.

Sparkling white quartz - maybe an option for the laundry room!

Sparkling white quartz – maybe an option for the laundry room!

We found this arctic ice glass subway tile (the top one), that is super clean and fresh looking.

We found this arctic ice glass subway tile (the top one), that is super clean and fresh looking.

Here's a close-up of what the slab and tile look like together.

Here’s a close-up of what the slab and tile look like together.  Both of these look so much prettier in person – but it gives you an idea of the look.

Week 17: Framing Continues and Interior Selections – Flooring, Counters & Some Tile

Posted in Countertops, Decor, Exterior Design, Framing, Great Room, Kitchen, Laundry Room, Mudroom, Tile by

This week they focused on more framing on the house.  The gable on the front of the garage was completed and the roof sheathing was finished up.  They also framed both of the shed dormers above the laundry room and the master closet.  It’s looking pretty good, and it’s exciting to see what it feels like with a ‘roof’.  I was out there earlier in the week talking with Matt about locations for blocking for things like towel rings and millwork.  There’s so many details – and things you normally don’t have to think about – like which side you like the toilet paper holder located on.

The front of the house is getting pretty far along. The gable is up in above the garage and the roof line is finished above the laundry room shed dormer.

The front of the house is getting pretty far along. The gable is up in above the garage and the roof line is finished above the laundry room shed dormer.

The gable above the garage was worked on this week. I think it turned out great!

The gable above the garage was worked on this week. I think it turned out great!

Here's the progress made on the back of the house.

Here’s the progress made on the back of the house – the sheathing is all finished!

The view of the back of the kitchen windows.

The view of the back of the kitchen windows.

Here's what the back of the house looks like from right underneath it.

Here’s what the back of the house looks like from right underneath it.

Here's a panoramic of the back of the house.

Here’s a panoramic of the back of the house.

The shed dormer was put in laundry room this week.

The shed dormer was built to finish up the laundry room roof this week.

This wall will eventually have our stove centered between the doors. The opening on the right leads to the butler's pantry & dining room. And the opening on the left leads to the pantry, laundry & mudroom.

This wall will eventually have our stove centered between the doors. The opening on the right leads to the butler’s pantry & dining room. And the opening on the left leads to the pantry, laundry & mudroom.

This is a view from the kitchen into the great room. The opening on the left will be a pass-through with cabinetry in front of it.

This is a view from the kitchen into the great room. The opening on the left will be a pass-through with cabinetry in front of it.

Spencer came with us today to check out the progress on the house. He said that the house is built, it just needs a 'couple more things'!

Spencer came with us today to check out the progress on the house. He said that the house is built, it just needs a ‘couple more things’!

There's Joel - checking out the kitchen!

There’s Joel – checking out the kitchen!

Here's a view of the kitchen windows. Joel and I can't decide if we want built-in benches here and where to add them in the space.

Here’s a view of the kitchen windows. Joel and I can’t decide if we want built-in benches here and where to add them in the space.

The great room looks really good - although the ceiling is too high, so we decided this week that we're going to drop that down.

The great room looks really good – although the ceiling is too high, so we decided this week that we’re going to drop that down.

On Saturday, we scheduled our first trip to pick out some of the finishes.  My mom and I went up to Everett to CFM which has a lot of selections to choose from.  We spent a couple hours with the designer (Jodi) and really didn’t get a whole lot picked out.  We settled white oak floors finished on site.  That’ll be the main floor covering for the upstairs and downstairs.  Because the downstairs is a slab on grade we had to go with an engineered hardwood.  But we can actually get engineered wood that can be finished onsite so we can have it exactly match the upstairs – love that!  I’m pretty sure that we’ll go with a hardwood stain that’ll be pretty close (maybe a touch lighter) than natural white oak, but since it’ll be finished onsite we’ll get to choose the stain color after it’s installed.

Here's an example of the color of white oak that we'll have. Since we're having it finished onsite it won't really exactly look like this, but it at least gives us an idea of what the finish will ultimately look like.

Here’s an example of the color of white oak that we’ll have. Since we’re having it finished onsite it won’t really exactly look like this, but it at least gives us an idea of what the finish will ultimately look like.

Other than that, we decided on the type of carpet (which was a super soft one from Shaw), but haven’t chosen the color yet.  Jodi is going to get us a bigger carpet samples in the colors we like so that we don’t have to choose from mini carpet squares – and even that we’ll wait until after the hardwood stain has been chosen and we can see the carpet in our house.  It was so difficult to really see the true color of the carpet samples anyhow, so I’m glad we’ll get to choose once we’re more finished with the house.  We tried to pick out some of our tile, but Jodi was bummed that we didn’t have our counters picked out yet since that really determines the backsplash and floor tile colors.  We looked at a bunch of tiles while we were there, but it was difficult to find exactly what we were looking for.  And it’s surprising how fast 2 hours speeds by!

So, after a couple hours with Jodi, my mom and I went on our own.  First we headed to United Tile just down the street where we actually found the floor tile that we’re going to use in the mudroom.  We ended up going with the Crossville Buenos Aires Mood Porcelain in the color Pilar.  It will be a 12×24 tile – laid at a brick pattern.  And we might end up putting some tile around the border of the room – same tile, just a different size.  We’ll see!

We chose this tile for the mudroom flooring. The flooring in the background is the hardwood that we're going to have.

We chose this tile for the mudroom flooring. The flooring in the background is the hardwood that we’re going to have.

Then we headed down to Georgetown in Seattle to look at slabs for countertops.  We now realize that it’s a priority for us to pick those out before we choose any of the other tile, so we were on a mission.  The first place we went to was META and we found the perfect slab for Joel’s bar downstairs.  It’s a Fantasy Brown Quartzite with a Leathered finish.  The bar cabinets are going to be gray, with a wood bar top, so this is the perfect blend of gray/white/brown to tie everything together.

Joel's bar countertop for downstairs.

Joel’s bar countertop for downstairs.

We found it at META Marble & Granite in Seattle - it's called Fantasy Brown Quartzite with a leathered finish.

We found it at META Marble & Granite in Seattle – it’s called Fantasy Brown Quartzite with a leathered finish.

We went to so many places – MSI, Oregon Tile & Marble, Pental, Daltile and META and didn’t find any that we liked for the rest of the house!  Last year when we were looking at slabs for my mom’s kitchen I found this quartzite and totally loved it!  I should have just bought it back then, but hindsight’s 20/20 I guess.  We couldn’t find any gray/white quartzite that I liked in Seattle.

Last year we found this amazing Silver Storm Quartzite...should have just bought it back then!

Last year we found this amazing Silver Storm Quartzite…should have just bought it back then!

Next we headed to Kent to check out a couple of places we knew about. And we ended up finding this quartzite at Cosmos.  It’s just ok – I don’t think I’m a big fan of how splotchy/spotted it looks.  I like the colors, but the patterning of the stone isn’t something I’d be happy with in the long run.

This slab of

This slab of “New Super White” Quartzite had the right colors – but was too splotchy and not quite right.

After passing on the stone at Cosmos, we checked out Marble & Granite Specialties and found this one.  LOVE!!!  Isn’t it great?  Gray/white, simple, clean – exactly what we were looking for.  The problem though – M&GS is a fabricator and they own the slab.  That means that if we want these slabs, then we have to use them to fabricate them (cut & install the slabs).  And that means we can’t use Jodi’s fabricator – and since Matt’s never used them before we really have no clue if they do a quality job or not.  Such a bummer.  We have a call into Jodi so see if she could find it elsewhere for us.  Cross our fingers.  If she can’t find it, we’ll have to choose if we want to wait to find something different that Jodi can get and install for us, or if we want to take a chance and have the other people fabricate it.

This Absolute White Quartzite is perfect! Hopefully Jodi can find it for us so we can use her fabricators.

This Absolute White Quartzite is great! Hopefully Jodi can find it for us so we can use her fabricators.