Not in but out.

We have been so busy, I didn't realize it had been so long since I blogged about the house. We are still not in yet - just waiting for the railings which have taken longer than we thought, but hasn't everything? We've made a little outdoor room in the back yard with pea gravel and rock walls done by Ed Chesney.






The iron railing came from Jack Hadlovic on Route 57 in Stewartsville who has all kinds of neat stuff like the iron railings and iron pots, bird baths, firebacks, etc. I have to wire brush and paint the railing black - a good winter project.

Kitchen Cabinets!

Finally, the kitchen cabinets were installed. Vito, Haviva and Chris from Showcase Kitchens in Bloomfield guided me in the beautiful design and Tom and John did a wonderful job installing.




Installing the soapstone countertop.

Painting

Now comes the fun part of picking out paint colors. We decided on blue for the master bedroom because I have never had a blue room. I never realized there were so many shades of blue. After many samples we chose Sherwin Williams Quicksilver which has just a hint of blue.




The rest of the house is two different shades of beige that go well with the stone walls. The upstairs bedrooms are a light green and of course, pink for my daughter.

Countertops

We took a trip down to Kennedy Tile in Jersey City to pick out the marble for our countertops for the kitchen island and baths. The owner of Kennedy takes a trip to Italy every month to pick out slabs and tiles. Surely he must need some help. I volunteer.


This is Calcatta Gold for the kitchen island.


We chose Nevada tile for the kitchen floor, also from Kennedy. ADO tile installed all the tile in the house. This is Admir putting down the tile in the kitchen against the stone wall. A great job.





Then it was off to Texiera Soapstone in Hackensack, NJ for the kitchen countertop.

More beams

Sean and Brian from Fleming Construction rented a Genie lift and the beams went up pretty easily.

The big beams

We managed to get the twenty-two foot beams for our living room from JLT Millwork out of Mendham. The beams are originally from a barn in Ohio. We picked them up from a yard in Irvington and towed them to our house.

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The owner of JLT Millwork is Janice Tupper aka Lumber Jane in the beam business.


Into the house they go.

Workin' the hood

When the contractors were installing the copper roof over the porch, I had a minor brainstorm. If they could install copper on a roof, why not on a plywood range hood in the kitchen? I asked John from Creo Roofing if he had ever done that before and he told me he hadn't but why not, he would try it. He sent Carlos and two helpers and we came up with a design and made it in about four hours. I like the rustic look of it - I think it goes well in an older home.







You can see a little of the beams we installed in the kitchen ceiling. These were the original beams in the living room which we stained and recut.

Flooring

The tile work is being done by Ado Tile and Marble and Admir is doing a great job for us. The tile in the master bath is Durango travertine with accent tile by Encore Ceramics in Riviera blue.


The kitchen flooring is called Nevada from Italy.


The hardwood floor in the living room and first floor is wide plank cherry which will be stained vintage walnut and installed by Joe from Ace Hardwood Flooring.

We are now putting in the septic system and finishing the stone work on the house. We have known our excavator, Kevin Wulf since he was about 12 years old. His dad, Al did all the excavation on our present home.




Can you see where the stone was dumped? Hint: not by the sign.


These are the two Cornell students, Reid and Carl, we were able to get to do some work with us. I don't think they will be doing this in a few years. It was a good experience for them and they were always willing to do anything. Very nice boys.


I can't believe the stone is almost completed. Vince and crew have been working on this for almost a year. I think it came out great.

Sheet rock

It was the long awaited day today to begin sheet rocking - to finally see the rooms defined. What a huge difference! Senad, owner of ABS Sheetrock, and company are spectacular sheet rockers and spacklers. This was not an easy house to sheetrock and spackle as you can see by the photos. Our last house was a disaster compared to the job on this one. Big globs of spackle to conceal nails (instead of the screws that we requested), tape showing through, crooked seams, and a lousy sanding job. Senad really brings it to a higher level.




The kitchen: