Bathroom Finishes

I've been working through some of the finishes, mainly the bathrooms.  Vanities have been chosen and are set to arrive next week.  We also have all of the faucets and shower trims, which I ordered online a few months ago.  I've decided on the tile for the ensuite shower, the kids bathroom shower and the powder room back splash.  The area where the washer and dryer go has a drain, so it will be tiled, with a stainless steel surround about four feet high.  And we're thinking about using a product called tadelakt in the ensuite shower.  It's basically a waterproof plaster.

Here are some of the sketches to determine tiling quantities and details:

I'm hoping to use this on the ensuite shower floor:

For the kids tub / shower (with lighter grout):

 For the powder room backsplash:

 A mock up of the powder room to decide between the two hexagon marble tiles:

 The drawer from the ensuite vanity ... testing it out with paint colour and tile:

The paint colour choices (the whole house will be the same colour):  Benjamin Moore White Dove, BM Cloud White, or BM Moonlight White.  Otherwise known as white, white or white :)

Primed

(This is for you, Adrienne!  Thanks for the push :)

The difference in this post's photos is subtle.  If you look very carefully, you'll notice that the walls are now all white.  They have been primed.  We have this great team of four ladies that primed the whole house in just over a day.  They are a stark contrast to mostly every other team of contractors we've had as they talked about their kids and ate homemade banana bread that one of them brought in.

Front entrance.

Doorway to mudroom.

Looking toward kitchen/dining area.

Looking up main floor stairwell.

Kitchen/dining area.

Looking east toward side (east) entrance.

Dining area.

Living room.  The kids and I had fun moving in some real furniture.  Notice the crate 'coffee table'.

Basement stairwell.

Den.

Looking toward front entrance.  Yes, that's a construction entrance (i.e. temporary).  It's going to be there for a while since we haven't figured out what style of door we want yet:  wood?  glazed (glass in it)? sidelites? cambered top? steel instead?  Lots of details. 

Master bedroom.

Upstairs hall and master bedroom.

Kids' bedrooms.

Upstairs hallway.

I've also been updating my list of favorite designers and architects at right.  Have a look.  Atelier AM doesn't have much of a website but they're worth googling.  Their interiors are absolutely stunning.

Drywall - Part 2

The drywall is now finished.  After all the boards were installed, the team started to "mud & tape" them:  apply corner beans, tape seams and then apply several coats of drywall compound to each joint.  This took about a week.  They were seeking such a perfect finish that the last two days were spent holding lights about two inches from the walls, looking for imperfections to fill and sand.  The two brothers did an amazing job.

Kitchen / dining room.

Looking east down corridor.  Pantry at right.

Close-up of pantry.

Living room.

 Living room and dining room.

In front entrance.

Den.

 Den looking into living room.

Den looking toward front entrance.

Close-up of archway at entrance into den.

Master bedroom.

Shower in master ensuite.

Tub / shower in kids' bathroom.

Kids' bedroom.

Kids' bedroom.

Close-up of window detail.  We did a 'drywall return' so that's the finished look, no trim.

Next up is priming the walls and ceiling.

Stairs

A talented friend of Josh's created a set of beautiful white oak stairs for the house.  The wood is from a tree he helped cut down and was milled on one of Josh's sawmills.  It was quite a process as we watched him work away on them for days.

Stairwell before.

Stair parts awaiting installation.

Starting to install.  Pieces of drywall inserted at sides as placeholders for permanent drywall.

Stairs fully installed.

Detail at bottom.  We decided to have stairs encroach into hallway to minimize the steepness of the stairs.

With drywall installed and protectors in place (several other tradespeople will be up and down stairs with their tools and equipment).