Testing the lights

This week marks the first time we’ve been at our house after dark.  We’ve been taking loads of boxes over every evening and then spending some time unpacking, so as to minimize the chaos on Friday (ha!).

Being in the house at night means that we’re testing all those lights we (okay, I) agonized over for months.  The good news is that virtually all of the lights are just a bright as we’d hoped.  The not-really-bad news is that a couple of lights need brighter bulbs, which we’ll get around to correcting at some point after we take care of about 117 other things.

Here’s the view this evening:

Okay, so not a great photo, but the point is, that even with just a few lights on, the house is clearly well lit.

It was nice driving up to the house and having the porch lights already on — hooray for photosensitive lights!  The garage light is motion sensitive and came on as we walked up the stairs, thereby startling one of children, who jumped about a foot in surprise.

Lighting was important to us because we’ve never lived in a house with good hardwired lighting.  We’ve always had to make do with lots of strategically placed lamps.  In this house, we were able to have as much light as we wanted, which is why there are six different kinds of lights in the kitchen alone (dining area, peninsula, center of kitchen, over the sink, cabinet task lighting, and a pantry light).

We are schlepping stuff over every day and things are slowly, slowly taking shape.  The moving crew arrives on Friday.

Amazing!

I skipped going to the house yesterday, so when I went by today it had been 48 hours since my last visit.  In that time, so many things happened!

First of all, here’s a better photo of the floor color in the man cave:

There’s really no other way to describe that color than “creamy pumpkin.”  I like how warm and bright it makes the room — much better than the original depressed-needing-Prozac gray.

Up in the girls’ toy room, the very last little detail was completed — the wood  trim on the half wall overlooking the stairs:

This is a seemingly small thing, but we’ve learned that all those little things add up!

(The pieces of blue tape are to mark places where the paint needs a little more work.)

Speaking of the stairs, the cable railings are done in the foyer:

Yep, it’s a lot of cable, but now we don’t have to worry about anyone going over the edge, particularly our young nephews or other little friends.  For code purposes, we will also need a railing on the wall, but we’re working on that.

We also have cable railings outside:

All of this is a mere trifle compared to the Big News:  The kitchen is essentially complete!  That’s right, the counters were installed today, along with the rest of the lights.  Woot!

Check it out:

After agonizing over the endless choices — granite, quartz, stainless steel, slate, Fireslate, laminate, and more — we ended up going with a slate gray Formica with a subtle pattern in it. We (or at least I) hope to put in a tile backsplash of postage stamp mosaic glass tiles in mixed colors at some point in the not-so-distant future, so we wanted a simple counter that wouldn’t clash.

Formica was admittedly not the most eco choice we could have made, but the  company has improved its processes in recent years and is now more environmentally friendly.  Furthermore, we went with a higher grade that should last for a long time and won’t need replacing.  And for those of you who say that laminate doesn’t last, we’ve had our current cheap white laminate for nine years and it looks great, so we know what we’re getting into.

If you look at the first photo again, you’ll see the large piece of diamond steel we had put on the front of the peninsula.  Shiny!  We needed to put something there, as it was just the rough backs of the cabinets, but felt like wood would eventually show wear and tear.  Pete and I have always liked the look of diamond steel and we’re pretty sure that it can withstand just about anything our family can dole out.

On a related note, the bar stools we ordered came yesterday.  That was another one of those long searches that I agonized over.  I found something I liked, but Pete didn’t.  Then he found something he liked, but I didn’t.  Once the diamond steel was installed, we decided against getting shiny metal stools and turned our attention to something that would be noticeable.  We ultimately decided on unfinished wood stools that one of the guys is going to paint fire engine red for us.  I’ll post photos when they’re done.

In the second kitchen photo, if you look above the kitchen sink, you can see the pendant light.  There are three more like it hanging over the peninsula, but I didn’t get a good photo of them.  As I mentioned here last month, I shopped for months for the peninsula lights.  I knew exactly what I wanted and apparently it did not exist in this universe.   So we bought some simple lights, only to be told by the electrician that they wouldn’t work, which led to an eleventh hour order at Home Depot’s website.  They’re simple chrome pendants with white shades.

I think that pretty much covers it for today.  Hopefully, we’ll have news on the driveway and garage doors soon.

After a hiatus, some action

The crew was on vacation last week, but they’re back and just as busy as ever.

Here’s my favorite new thing:

This is a wall in the children’s toy room.  It’s the first thing you see when you come upstairs  and you can see a bit of it from the bottom of the stairs.  We had been talking about doing something interesting and this idea came from Jeff the Builder.  The primary purpose is actually practical, not aesthetic — Pete and Jeff the Builder are going to put a small climbing wall for the girls on the right side and we needed something solid to drill everything into.  (Note to my mother:  Don’t worry, this will be safe and we’ll have mats.)

If you can’t remember what the lights look like in this room, click here.  They are linen-like shades from Ikea and there are two blue and two green.  For the rug in this room, I am currently looking at samples from FLOR.  I have seriously considered La Fonda del Sol in Verde (the colors look washed-out online, but are brighter in real life), but am also considering Toy Poodle and Striped Poodle.  Or, I might mix up two of the three aforementioned styles.  This is one of those rare areas in which I find myself unable to make a decision and keep waffling among various possibilities.  I have over a dozen FLOR samples strewn across the desk at this moment and adore them all.  Also, if  I buy something clashes with the lights, it will irritate me more than you can possibly imagine.  I think I’m going to take the samples over to the house and see what looks good and then place an order before I have a chance to change my mind.

Anyway, moving on…

Across the hall in the girls’ bathroom, I wanted to show you the cabinets:

The cabinets are from Ikea.  I need to get a close-up of the drawer knobs, as they are gorgeous hand-blown glass.  Blue with swirls of white.  They’re made by a local artist and, unfortunately, she does not have a website I can link to.

More soon!

Let there be light, part 3

Ready for more photos?
This is the view that greeted me when I went over to the house on this dreary, cold, wet day:

That’s the light in the dining area and here’s what it looks like closer up:

The lantern is from Pearl River Department Store in Chinatown, New York City.  I love the look of white paper lanterns — they give off such a nice soft light.  And you may may remember from yesterday’s post that we put a large round lantern in the craft room.  Furthermore, we also have three small ones in the living room:

(Lanterns from Ikea.)

I have to apologize once again for my bad photography.  These photos simply don’t convey how great these lights are.

Alas, that’s it for the lanterns.  Pete asked me not to go overboard with them and five is probably pushing it.

It turns out that the lights we chose to hang over the peninsula aren’t going to work for some technical reason or the others, so we picked out others online last night.

Oh, and here is a not-so great shot of the lights on the front porch:

Do you see that rain coming down?  It is nasty out there.  At some point, I promise to take more photos of the porch, because we used some interesting materials.

Also , I can finally show you these marvelous photos of the shelves in the pantry:

Yes my friends, we have GORGEOUS L-shaped poplar shelves in the pantry.  I’m never going to want to close the beautiful pocket door that I begged for.

Jesse and Tom asked me what I was going to do with so much shelf space and I told them it was going to be my Armageddon Pantry.  They thought I was joking.

More soon!

Let there be light, part 2

Today, when I went by the house, there were lots of lights on!

I should mention that we made a point to buy only energy efficient lights, so it’s all mostly fluorescent, with a few LED lights  thrown in.

As promised from yesterday, the sconces in the upstairs hall:

(Sconces from eBay.)

Also upstairs, the lights in the girls’ toy room:

(Lights from Ikea.)

One thing I’ve always wanted is a light directly over the shower, so we now have one:

Here’s a photo of light in the craft room.  Sorry about the bad photo quality — the room is actually much brighter and airier.

(Light from Ikea.)

The laundry room now has an abundance of light due to this enormous fluorescent tube that’s just above the doors:

Downstairs, this is in the study:

(Light from Ikea.)

And, in the foyer:

That’s actually a square, not a triangle.  (Like from Ikea.)

As for yesterday’s puzzle, the poplar wood is for the pantry shelving, which looks wonderful.  I’ll post photos tomorrow.

Let there be light, part 1

Interested in seeing some of our bee-yoo-ti-ful lights?  I thought so!

Today, I’ll focus on bedrooms and bathrooms.

Here’s the ceiling fan in the master bedroom:

I first saw this  months and months ago, but then decided to put myself through the torture of spending more months looking for other possibilities before finally realizing that I was right from the beginning.  (Found at Home Depot.)

And, in the girls’ bedrooms, we have these fans:

We had originally planned to get all the same fans for all three bedrooms, but when I saw these,  I thought they would be fun for the girls.  It also helps that they were significantly less expensive than the one in our room.   (Originally at Lowe’s, then discontinued, so bought piecemeal off eBay.)

We put the same vanity lights in all three bathrooms:

Okay, that’s not a very good photo, because the inserts look mottled, but these lights are cool.  I spent months searching for the right ones and it was so frustrating because all the sleek, edgy, great lights used halogen bulbs, which we were trying to avoid.  At the 11th hour, I found these on eBay.

In the hallways and staircases,  I wanted to use sconces, because they cast better light.  As with the bathroom lights, it was a long process to find the right ones and then finally eBay came through for me.  I don’t have a great photo of them, so will post one tomorrow, along with photos of all the other lights.

In the meantime, here’s a brain teaser for you.  Can anyone  guess the purpose of these huge pieces of wood:

I’ll give you a hint:  It has to do with my favorite room in the house.

More soon!

Updated to add:  Shelves, yes.  Craft room, no.

Decisions, decisions

This part of the construction process is seemingly quiet. There doesn’t appear to be much going on, as there’s nothing going on over at the construction site.

It’s too soon to get the construction permit from the city, but we still believe that we’ll break ground in a little over two weeks. The builder has also filed the application to have the meter hooked up for water and sewer as quickly as possible. There’s some urgency to this, as we just found out a couple of weeks ago that the fees will triple on July 1st — going from around $2,000 to $6,000.

In the meantime, Pete and the builder are meeting with different local companies to get bids on the HVAC system. The plumber and electrician are also on the list, although I believe the builder may already have taken care of those.

Now on to the fun stuff (for me) …

We have a lot of decisions to make about finishing details inside the house.  Cabinets, lights, paint colors, and so much more.  I have an opinion on pretty much everything, including the outlet and light switch covers.  We’ve been shopping and researching for months and have started to make some decisions.

First off, we finally chose our kitchen cabinets, which involved a lot of thought.  We’re going with birch cabinets that are very sleek, with no moldings or ornamentation of any kind. We’ll have an almost unbelievable amount of storage space in the kitchen, including an 8′ long peninsula and wall cabinets that will go all the way to the ceiling (9′ tall). Oh yeah, and the 5′ x 10′ pantry. Mustn’t forget to mention that little bit of Nirvana.

We’re still debating different counters, including Fireslate and a good quality laminate. Fireslate is a counter that is used in labs and is very durable. It looks like slate, but costs less. The laminate we’re looking at is a dark gray/almost black. It looks really good with our cabinets. The up side is that it’s a fraction of the cost of Fireslate. The down side is that we cannot get a piece of it large enough for the peninsula (3′ x 8′). We’ve thought about using laminate everywhere except the peninsula and then using Fireslate there, but I need to do a side-by-side comparison of how the two materials would look in the same room. Picky, I know, but for a project like this, we have to be.

We’ve also chosen almost all of the light fixtures. We’ve found most of the lights for the kitchen, including over the peninsula, but not over the table. We’ve also chosen lights for the foyer, living room, study, and children’s toy room (very fun!). We’re putting sleek chrome ceiling fans in the bedrooms.  What remains is some task lighting (pantry, laundry, etc.), sconces for the halls, and lights for two of the bathrooms. I know what I want and have good candidates for most places, but want to search a bit more before deciding.

We’re still working on paint colors but think that we have most of it decided. The exterior of the house will be grey and we’re thinking about cobalt blue for the front door. Inside, most of the rooms will be a creamy white. The girls are still planning their bedrooms but right now the older one is leaning toward lavender and the younger one prefers pale pink. Their bathroom and ours will be some shade of pale blue, but I’m waiting to pick out tile before I decide on the paint.

Ah yes, the bathrooms… We chose a sleek glossy red cabinet for the half bath on the first floor. Very sexy. Upstairs, the two bathrooms will have glossy white cabinets with glass and chrome doors. The hall bathroom will have some sort of mosaic glass tile for the tub surround, and I’ve ordered several samples. We’re leaning toward mixed blues, but just haven’t decided which ones yet.  We haven’t picked out tile for the master shower yet.  Well, that’s not true.  We picked out some but then got an estimate for the project and decided we’d look around at other options.  We might use the fun tiles for the floor of the shower and then basic white subway tiles for the walls.

So that’s where things stand for now.  We’ll post again when we have more to share.