It Is Finished!

I am happy to report that the sale of the house officially closed yesterday. The house looked so good after getting all of the finishing touches and the deep cleaning treatment. There are lots of pictures available on the project web site. I’ll share a few of my favorites here:

Finished Exterior

Reclaimed Wood Decking W/ Marine Grade Finish

Finished Living Room

You may recall the interesting “zebra” floors from earlier in the project. They turned out quite nice.

Wonderfully Finished Floors

Nice Kitchen!

Spacious Master Looking Out On Balcony

Opulent Master Bath

Master Bathroom

All things considered, I feel very good about how this project turned out. Of course, it would have been nice to avoid the delays and frustrations along the way, but I guess that’s all par for the course. I am very proud of the final product on this one, and I look forward to doing even better the next time around. I never cease to be amazed by the difficult tensions that pop up when trying to blend new amenities and tastes with old character and charm. Many thanks to Rejuvenation for their help in achieving that balance. They will certainly be a part of my next project which is already underway. As with this project, I will be reporting on the progress by way of this blog, so check back in to see how The Loveleigh House takes shape.

Week 31 – Offer (05/25/09 – 05/31/09)

This project experienced an interesting turn of events this week. We got an offer on the house. It feels very gratifying to get an offer at this point. My mind naturally turns toward conjecturing about all the reasons this may have happened. Was it the nice weather? Perhaps someone read this blog. Was it any coincidence that an offer came in after the Rejuvenation fixtures went in? I think not . Whatever the reason(s) for the offer, I am grateful to have it. I look forward to working with the buyers of this property to finish it out to their liking and to hand them a set of keys to a really nice house.

What this means for this blog is that I will continue to post about the remaining progress that will be made on this property, but I will also be shifting more attention over to my next project. That project will break ground very shortly, so you’ll see some new posts popping up about that in the weeks to come.

Week 30 – Almost There! (05/18/09 – 05/24/09)

At long last, I finally got my carpet and light fixtures in. I’m very pleased with how it all came together. I didn’t have all the shades installed on the fixtures at the time of taking some of these pictures.

Living Room

Lombard fixture at bottom of stairs

Pendant fixtures in dining & kitchen

Dual vanities in master bath

Makeup station in master bath

One little challenge we ran into regarding the light fixture order was the fact that the ceilings on the top level are vaulted. In other words, the ceilings are an angled plane, rather than a totally flat plane. When this is the case, a normal flush-mount fixture looks awkward because it appears to be sticking out into the space of the room at an angle that is inconsistent with the plane of the walls and floor. I’ve walked through other people’s remodel projects before where flush-mount fixtures are used on a vaulted ceiling, and I think it looks very strange. So, I spoke with the folks at Rejuvenation about any ideas they might have to be able to mount a normal fixture on a vaulted ceiling without having the weird look of a fixture protruding at an angle. The solution was to order the fixture with a loop-to-loop neck, rather than a rigid neck. This would allow the fitter and the shade to pivot to a different angle from the base which is mounted flat against the angled ceiling. I think this was a really great solution. If they didn’t have this feature, then I would have had to install can lighting in the bedrooms that can be rotated to cast light straight down, even when mounted on an angled ceiling. I really didn’t want to go with can lights for the bedrooms, because I don’t think they match the period look that I’m going for with this house. So, I was very relieved to hear that Rejuvenation had a solution to this problem with the vaulted ceiling.

Base mounted flush on vaulted ceiling, while loop-to-loop feature allows fitter and shade to dangle perpendicular to floor

In other exciting news, the carpet showed up this weekend.

Basement Bedroom - very cozy with carpet

Upstairs bedroom, looking out to hallway

2nd bedroom upstairs

Master bedroom, looking out onto balcony

Master bedroom - Nice carpet!

Master bedroom - see how that light fixture hangs from the vaulted ceiling, over that nice carpet!

Master bedroom, looking into master bath & walk-in closet

Master bedroom, looking into bath & hallway, with sweet light fixture

Now that the light fixtures and carpet have been addressed, I am turning my attention to finishing the exterior decks and railings so that I can complete my final inspections, and then I’ll put my finish coats on the wood floors. After that, I will be having the staging company come in to set up furniture displays and make the house totally presentable. Quite a few people have already been coming through to take a look, even at this stage of construction, so I expect that the traffic will be quite prolific once all the staging is set up.

Week 29 – Taking a Break (05/11/09 – 05/17/09)

It rarely happens that things go according to plan. I had plans (or intentions) to do carpet and light fixtures this week. As it turns out, the light fixtures were ready around the middle of the week, but my electrician was not available at that time. So, I had to wait through the weekend before any progress could be made on light fixtures. Meanwhile, I met with my interior designer to get some help on selecting a carpet sample. She was delighted to meet, and gave some great input. However, I had to work things out with the carpet supplier regarding which variety was in stock and available. Consequently, I did not get carpet laid this week either.

I am tempted to be a little bit bummed out by how little progress was made on the project this week, but I’m not really too heartbroken about it. The reason for this is that I had plenty to keep me occupied with the purchase of another lot that will be the site of my next project. I have been working with my architect to get plans ready to submit. I will be blogging about that project as well under a different category on this blog. Look for the Morgan Street Project, coming soon to this blog.

Week 28 – Trying to Finish (05/04/09 – 05/10/09)

So, things didn’t quite come together for me this week like I had hoped. The light fixture order isn’t quite in yet, and I’m still waiting for a response on my carpet bids. Consequently, there wasn’t much that happened. I did make a little progress on getting the front stairs figured out and some paint work, but there is still more to do there.

A little bit of progress on the stairs

I also worked on little things I could find inside the house. For example, I got the makeup station installed in the master bath.

Makeup Station

Otherwise, I just enjoyed the days of good weather. I got to spend some time just taking in the enjoyable ambiance of a room filled with light.

Light & Bright Living Room

I think that I will have more progress to report next week. I am mainly hoping to get my light fixtures in and carpet laid. Those two things will further improve the interior look and feel.

Week 27 – Touch Ups (04/27/09 – 05/03/09)

It was actually a very calm week for the project. So calm, in fact, that I really don’t have anything new to show. There were just little things that happened, like touching up the caulking around the tile and paint touch ups and so forth. These little touches are important, but they don’t change the look of anything dramatically enough to warrant a new photograph. Sorry to be so anticlimactic about it. I am hoping that my Rejuvenation light fixtures come in next week. If that happens, then there should be some cool new pictures next week.

On another note, one interesting development for the project is that there was some considerable interest in the house expressed by a couple of prospective buyers. We’ll see what comes of that; maybe something, maybe nothing. Either way, it’s a bit flattering to have people making such positive comments about the house before it’s even done. Modesty prohibits me from saying that these buyers have good taste.

Week 26 – Wood! (04/20/09 – 04/26/09)

The main focus of this week was to get the wood floors and decking done. I will wait on the final finish coat for the floors until the very end of the project, but for now I am finalizing the installation of the wood and get the sanding and buffing done. Keep in mind, I am working with reclaimed wood, which has its own unique beauty and idiosyncrecies. I got some real nice wood for the front porch, which may be seen here:

Reclaimed (unfinished) wood on front porch

A closer look at reclaimed wood porch

The wood floors in the house have been a bit more challenging than the porch wood. The floors inside required extra sanding in order to get the coloring to match up with among the planks that came from various sources. It’s kind of interesting to see the evolution of the floors. See the pictures last week to see what they looked like previously. Early this week some sanding made them look like this:

Wood floors after initial sanding

And then more sanding…

More sanding

And after all the sanding is done, then a preperation coat is put on the floors:

Sanded floors with conditioner coat

As we near completion, a couple more coats of finish will be applied to the floors. Those finish layers will have some tinting to them in order to darken the tone of the floors a bit. This will probably reduce some of the coloration difference between some of the floor planks so that they will appear a bit more uniform.

When I first saw the floors after the first sanding I was worried that the coloration difference between the planks was too extreme. Subsequent sanding helped to diminish this some, and I am quite eager to see the finished product. As I’ve spent more time looking at it, though, I’ve realized what excellent character the color variation adds. Much of the wood in these floors was used previously as flooring in an old house, so the variation inherent in that wood helps to add a greater sence of authenticity to the look. Up until this point, the house definitely felt like a new house, even with a lot of the reproduction details. For exapmple, the trim and mouldings emulate the older style, but with a fresh coat of paint on them and not a single blemish to be seen, it is clear that this detail is not actually old. But with this older wood now exposed (with its flaws and variation), the atmosphere of the house now feels more genuinely old, because it is evident that the very floor you walk on has been around longer than you have been. So an aspect of the house that initially caused me some anxiety (i.e. the variation in the wood) now brings me a lot of satisfaction because of the way it helps make a new house feel old, which is more difficult to accomplish than one might think.

On a side note, we also got the landscaping done this week. It’s pretty simple, but definitely helps to clean up the look. It doesn’t look as much like a construction site as it did before.

Front landscaping

Rear landscaping

Week 25 – Inner Beauty 4 (04/13/09 – 04/19/09)

It was a very exciting week for the project, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I placed my order for my Rejuvenation lights. I can’t wait to see those beautiful fixtures in. Ordering lights is a sure sign that the project is nearing completion, so that feels exciting.
The second exciting thing is that the interior got painted. It never ceases to amaze me how much difference paint makes in the mood and vibe of a space. The abrupt switch from primered white walls to colorful walls was shocking, to say the least. The unfortunate thing is that my austere little digital camera hardly does the color and the space any justice. I’d love to say that a picture is worth 1000 words about this, but these pictures may only be worth a couple hundred words due to the low quality of the pictures. This space really is more impressive in person, but for the purposes of the blog, I will have to settle for unflattering digital pictures. In addition to the pictures below, more photos may be seen here.

Brown living room

Fancy Gray family room

Gray master bedroom

Lakewater bathroom

Pea Soup bedroom

Week 24 – Getting Ready (04/06/09 – 04/12/09)

Not much changed on the inside this week. A lot of the interior work was just clean up, drywall patches, caulking the trim, and making preparations for the paint. There was a fairly significant change to the exterior though. The support posts on the front porched were wrapped and decorated. They will also be painted soon. I think the detail on the post wraps helps to add even more character to the look.

Front porch post wraps

The update for next week should have a lot more sparkle and flare, since there will actually be paint on the walls, and it will look amazing! For the most up-to-date pictures of the paint progress, check in here.

Week 23 – Inner Beauty 3 (03/30/09 – 04/05/09)

The most notable change for this week was that all the trimwork got done. What a difference trim makes in the look and the impression made by the space. If I were to liken the finishing of a house to the dressing of a woman for a formal event, then the paint would be like the make up and the trim would be like the earrings, jewelry, and hair styling. Just as the jewelry and hair styling add a sense of class and elegance to a dressed up woman, so too does the trim work of a house. Needless to say, there are varying grades of trim. Some are very elaborate and detailed, while others are very plain and simple. I went with trim that is more toward the detailed and elegant end of the spectrum. I’ve got 4″ wide crown moldings, 4″ tall baseboard molding, and crowns and parting beads on the window casings. All these details come together to give a room a feel very similar to the old Craftsman houses that have similar trim work. Unfortunately, the detail of this great trim work isn’t very visible to a camera before being painted. Right now, the trim is primered and the walls are primered, so the details are pretty obscured. Preparations are being made for the painting over this next week, so the true beauty of the workmanship will become more visible after the paint is applied.

Fireplace mantel and windows trimmed out

Crown & parting bead on window casings

Crown Molding

On the exterior, I added some real wood rain barrels. This is just one little feature that is easy to do and helps to increase the sustainability factor of the house. Harvesting rainwater is a simple thing that virtually every household can do to help mitigate stormwater runnoff and the burden it places on municipal utility infrastructure. It was exciting to me to find a rainwater barrel that isn’t unsightly. These barrels are actually really cool looking, because they are genuine old wine casks. You may even notice some of the red wine stains at the drain point.

A new use for an old wine cask

A new use for an old wine cask