Our beautiful new tv cabinet and bookcase in the office!

 Progress is moving a little slowly since the last post…..but the work that has been done is amazing!  We have our new tv cabinet in the office 90% installed…..minus about two days worth of electronics installation.  At this point, in my opinion, BIGGER IS BETTER!  Wow!  What a difference 17′ of glossy black cabinetry can make in a space!  Instead of shrinking the space, the floor to ceiling cabinet has truly blown the roof off our room!  It is amazing the lift this cabinet gives to the space.  This is going to house so much of our collection of antique accessories, it is unbelievable!  Plus, it will hold all of the electronics for tv and sound for the entire house, as well as a fax machine AND printer for the office.  I am so excited to be getting this piece in our home.  It truly is a beautiful marriage of form and function.  John McGilvray and his crew have worked tirelessly to complete this, and they have done an amazing job.  The effect that the air conditioning soffit had in the room has been completely eliminated, and this room has started to feel larger, more cozy, and it now has details that are consistent with the rest of the house.

Guys from McGilvray Woodworks working on the cabinet installation. They were perfectionists!

So in addition to the nearly completed cabinet, the ceiling, crown, and base moldings are complete in the office…..so tomorrow, Dan Border and his crew will start putting the finishing touches on ceiling and trim paint.  Hopefully by mid week we will be ready for wallpaper in this room. 

Antique heart pine floors, nearing completion.

Max Wood Floors worked ON SATURDAY to complete the floors in the kitchen and den.  The floors are fantastic, and they did a really great job of fitting them together perfectly.  It really has given these rooms the patina they lacked before.  We have trim work details like shoe molding in both the kitchen and the den to complete.  In the kitchen, the trim work will be a little more difficult since we have to marry a slightly lower new floor to the position of the cabinets.  This can be overcome with new base pieces on the cabinets, and a new molding at the base of the island.  Once again, John McGilvray and his crew will be rescuing us from what could have otherwise been a tricky predicament. 

Kitchen floors are complete.....and just lacking a little trim work

Dan Border and his painting crew are making steady progress.  The upstairs bedrooms are in the process of getting their new colors, and windows still continue to be completed.  They are doing a great job……and delivering a silky smooth finish.  The former “green” bedroom, will still be called the green bedroom…..but the walls have gone from green to cream.  The master bedroom is getting a much more dramatic treatment.  We had a neutral tan tone in the bedroom that was matched to the toile wallpaper behind the bed, and a perfect blend with the carpet.  I wanted to change the color to give us a fresh look, and really wanted to do a lighter color.  What I realized…..as I lived in an empty house for the past two months…..it wasn’t the lightness of the color I disliked.  It was the fact that the color was so blah.  Just beige…..it wasn’t dramatic or exciting, and it really didn’t add anything to the room.  I am not opposed to light wall colors, and we have lots of them in our house, but in the master bedroom, the color just seemed to be flat.  Our solution……GLOSSY NAVY BLUE!  Can’t wait to see this going up tomorrow.  The painters are stealthy, and don’t make a huge mess, and are quite while they are here, so it is sort of difficult sometimes to tell exactly where they have been…unless they are making a major change in wall color, which they have done today.

Another shot of the new bookcase and tv cabinet

 Home Choice continues to disappoint on the window front.  Andy, the guy who has done such an amazing job installing the windows and putting up the window trim is M.I.A.  He was here Wednesday of last week for part of the day, and it is now Tuesday and he is no where to be found and will not return Seth’s (our job foreman) phone calls.  Sounds really professional, right?  In an effort to get our job complete, Seth and Schmid and Rhodes have enlisted the help of John McGilvray to complete the window trim in the house.  There isn’t a lot left to do….just a little bit of molding on the upstairs windows, and about half of the new dining room window.  Seems like Home Choice would want to be finished with this job…..but that doesn’t seem to be the way they operate.   John is anticipating completion tomorrow! 

Another view of the office.....with the new V-Groove fireplace. Mantle should be installed this week!

This week, our goals are to complete painting in the office, finish electrical work and get all recessed lighting installed, get electronics installed in the office, get new counter top in the basement bathroom, get wallpaper installed in the basement bathroom and office, get trim work complete in kitchen and den, and hopefully get painting complete in the upstairs bedrooms.

New bookcase and tv cabinet in process of installation....and a COMPLETELY installed ceiling!

LOTS of progress over the past week.  The mess seems to have grown today….but that is part of the progress.  Great strides have been made in the former office space.  The random width V-groove ceiling is completely installed, and the painting is well under way.  We have crown molding now in the office space, and the backboards for the fireplace are installed.  For the backboards of the fireplace, we used 8″ wide V-groove and installed it horizontally.  I think this is going to be a great effect once the mantle is in place.  Still to do is to paint the existing brick gloss black.  John McGilvray of McGilvray Woodworks is responsible for building the beautiful cabinet as well as installing our wood ceilings and mantle.  He has also done a fantastic job on the custom baseboard and crown in the office.

Paul McKee with Audio Video By Design has done an amazing job of getting all the wiring installed for house sound and the new tv….and my favorite new toy, CAMERAS!  We will now be able to see what is going on all over our house from anywhere in the world that we have i-phone service! 

All of the windows are installed, and window trim is nearing completion.  Andy from Home Choice, and all the guys from Schmid and Rhodes are really doing a great job and making sure we are happy with every single detail.  I have been a little disappointed in the window ordering process from Home Choice.  Schmid and Rhodes is taking care of all the errors with the window order so that I do not have to deal with the vendor…..and I am most appreciative of that, but the owner of Home Choice did not listen to our requests, and several mistakes were made that will ultimately cost him money.  There were no divided lights on the functional doors in the office, so those have to be replaced.  Over the front door, the window panes are a different size than the ones on the rest of the front of the house, so those two panels have to be replaced.  Our new dining room window was to be fully stationary, and the panels open…..this isn’t a big deal….just there was no need to have these functional, and now we have to take an extra measure to secure them.  Our screens are fantastic phantom screens that slide from the side, and completely disappear into the window frame when open…..but that was a pricey detail.  We had selected specific places where we thought it would make sense to use them, but we have ended up with them on almost every window….again, an expense we weren’t counting on.  None of these things really make that much of a difference, and the quality of the product is amazing….but a little communication from Home Choice would have been appreciated.  Still….even as I write….no call from the owner apologizing for the mistakes.  My words of advice here…..go over your window order multiple times to look for errors.  Our order appeared to be written correctly, but there were changes made to what we approved that we were never informed about.

Above is our new mantle back board made from horizontal V-Groove paneling…..partially concealed behind a mountain of bookcase parts!

My FAVORITE thing in the renovation thus far is the new dining room window.  Schmid and Rhodes did an AMAZING job of removing brick from the outside of the house to be able to enlarge this window.  I always felt that the dining room window shortened the view of the outside.  We have put a lot of effort over the past few years into making the backyard really special, and it was simply disconnected from the main floor of the house.  The new TALLER window really has made a huge difference, and just pulls you toward it so the backyard becomes a real feature of the main floor. 

Our new dining room window.....partially hidden behind our kitchen appliances!

After living with no floor in the kitchen and den for a month now, the antique heart pine flooring started going down today….and it looks GREAT!  This is what we should have done when we moved in 8 years ago.  I think it is “aging” our house beautifully.  This will be the perfect touch to make us feel like we have always lived here….and that the floors are original. 

The beautiful antique heart pine flooring going down in the den!

The large cabinet in the office should be complete by Monday, and next week, we should be complete with painting in the office.  Counter tops get installed in the office bathroom on Wednesday, and Bill Armstrong….our wallpaper installer, will start hanging the fabric on the walls in the bathroom on Thursday, and work until finished on the grass cloth wallpaper for the office.  Painting should start on the walls in the upstairs bedrooms next week.  We have a move in date set at this point…..TWO WEEKS!  Keep your fingers crossed that we make it.  There are a lot of loose ends to tie up before then, and a whole lot of cleaning….but I think we can do it, if we continue to see progress like was made this week!

Nothing like a refrigerator in the foyer to say "Welcome Home"!

Parquet.....gone

Lots of great progress today!  The first “layer” of parquet was pulled up in the den.  Evidently, the way this product was produced, there was a thin layer of wood over a plywood base……and this thick layer of black tar that joined the two together.  It went down in one piece, but it comes up in two!  Tonight, we have the black tar layer exposed, and tomorrow that should be gone.

We also discovered that part of the soffit in the basement can be removed without totally redoing all the duct work, so we will be able to get draperies in that room now and really add a great deal of softness to the space. 

Four windows were pulled out and replaced…..at least positioned in place and secured.  There is lots of trim work that has to be done at this point, but at least the new windows are in two of the bedrooms. 

Paint on the door details continues to move slowly, but the result is fantastic, and we are really pleased with the look. 

Marble fireplace covered for protection

January might not be the best month to change out windows

First stages for window removal.....take off the trim

Foyer chest all wrapped up for safe keeping

 Another great day today!  Schmid and Rhodes is doing a really great job, and they are being so careful with our house……even in its current state.  Every day when I come home, my desk is uncovered, and the floor swept. 

The floor came completely up in the den today, we got a real head start on wiring for house sound and for security cameras on the outside of the house, and the old tv cabinet in the office got removed.  The rain definitely slowed the window installation process, but they did a lot of prep work in taking off trim on the windows so more will be ready to change out tomorrow.

Down to the subfloor in the den

We will be able to move this duct up to get a flat ceiling in the new media room

TV cabinet.....gone

One of the new windows....notice there is no "crank" All you have to do is raise the lever and push the window open

Push out handle.....ready to open

Easy to open!

The start of wiring......

Finish samples for the new tv cabinet/bookcase. The body will be the antique black with wood stained trim, and the back will be the antique white v-groove

Pinder Lane

A derelict cottage on an unassuming lane in the heart of Old Town Key West is the site of a new project.  Construction will start in less than a month converting this home into a beautiful new space in paradise.  The project will combine this house with a recently renovated adjacent house to make a wonderful vacation retreat.  The house shown will become in large part a “dining pavillion” for entertaining, and a new guest house will be attached to it.  The landscape will be redesigned to make both residences seem as though they were planned to work together.  Stay tuned for updates on the progress.  Tom Pope is the architect for the project, and the landscape design is being done by Craig Reynolds; both from Key West.  Remember, anything is possible!

The back of the Pinder Lane House

Soon to be a beautiful garden

Side view of Pinder Lane

Cabin Floor Plan

A couple of weeks ago, I posted the start of a before and after project, called “The Ultimate Before and After.”  It can be found further down in the Blog.  I have spent the past weeks formulating a plan for what to do with the space, and following is a photograph of the floorplan we have come up with for the space. 

There was a giant pantry that divided the living area from the kitchen.  The first thing we did was to remove that and open up the living space.  The tv will be placed over the fireplace, and we were able to get a full size sofa and a love seat in the space, along with two comfy lounge chairs, one with an ottoman.  A nice large rug will unify the seating area.  Behind that is a dining area that will seat six, and can expand to seat eight for entertaining.  The kitchen is completely open to the space, and we are planning on using an antique work table as the island.  We added windows across the back of the house that will go from near the ceiling to the kitchen counter, so this will be a really light and bright space.  There is a spot near the dining room for a tall china cabinet for storing dishes. 

To the left of the great room is the office.  This holds a nice large desk, about 3′ x 5′, and a cabinet that can be a filing cabinet.  This will be the perfect place to work on a computer and to use as a home office.

To the left of the kitchen is a space we created from a back porch.  This will be the new sunroom, and will provide access to the back yard, as well as access to the parking area just outside the side door.  This space will have a brick floor, which will be perfect to keep the character of the log cabin as well as provide a durable surface for a house on a farm.  We were able to get a small breakfast table in the space, as well as a small sofa.  Opposite the window wall is another large piece which can serve as additional pantry storage for the kitchen.  The two side chairs on each side can be the additional side chairs needed in the dining area when the table is expanded. 

The bedroom furniture arrangement is simple, and pretty much dictated by the available space and existing window placement.  The front bedroom gets the addition of a new bathroom with a tub/shower combination, a nice vanity, and an additional closet.  The closet shown in the bedroom itself is original to the house and will be restored. 

The master bedroom gets a much enlarged bathroom with a nice vanity and an enormous shower with a bench at the back.  Also this room gains a nice size closet where we will put a stackable washer and dryer and a small laundry sink.  Corner windows will be in keeping with the original architecture, and will allow some natural light into the master bath and closet.  A pocket door will divide the space from closet to bath.  This is a great solution for a door and will take up no floor space.

The next step is to work on specific kitchen design, cabinetry details, and select appliances.  We will follow that with bathroom fixture and tile selection, and then do an electrical and lighting plan.  This will be a wonderful space when complete.  My client was thrilled with the proposed plan, and workers were at the house today starting demolition.  Stay tuned for more updates

Completed Deck Railing with Decorative Screen at Bottom

Rail Cap Detail

Plinth for Lantern on Deck Rail

For the perfect deck railing, you should consider how the deck will be used.  Most decks are used for entertaining, and that involves drinks and food.  Sometimes there is not enough seating space for guests on a deck, so the rail is a great extra spot for guests to sit drinks and small plates. 

Make the top of the deck rail nice and wide.  We used a 2×6 with a routed bottom detail and a rounded top edge.  It is positioned on top of a 2×4 plain.  Our deck railing is made from 4×4 material, so the 2″ pieces together equal the thickness of the rest of the deck material.  It has a nice solid look; provides a place to put a drink or small plate, and feels substantial enough so that guests won’t feel like they are going to fall off.

I like the concept of porch lights looking like candle lanterns that have just been set on the railing.  To achieve this look, we added a 12×12 piece centered on top of the hand rail.  It got the same top and bottom details to make it consistent with the rest of the cap rail.  We drilled the center of it for wiring, and placed a custom lantern from McLean Lighting Works on top of that.  This is their Arts and Crafts lantern, which we felt had the same artistic design as a simple old French farmhouse lantern would have.  The base of the lantern is attached to the plinth, and the top is removable for changing bulbs.  Since the lantern was custom, we had the option of making the candles varying heights.  This is a great touch which adds a sense of real candles to the lanterns.

Last week, a client called to ask if I would assist her remodel a “cabin” on her property.  I have known her for years.  She has a lovely home in a picturesque setting by a creek in the middle of 1000’s of acres of farmland.  So romantic it is to drive through and enjoy the views from the road approaching her house.  When she said it was in desperate need of repair, I totally did not believe her.  “There is no way she would own something that was so bad”, I said to myself.  Yesterday, there was a fax in my office with the following inscription, “Wear boots.  It is muddy.”  So I thought, rainy season in East Tennessee, no big deal.  A few puddles never hurt anyone, but prepared I came none the less.

Today, when I rolled up on the “cabin” I was in shock.  It was totally derelect.  Unoccupied for 25 years.  There is now a hole in the kitchen floor where I fell through while taking measurements.  When my car was safely parked….across the road and in another driveway, I met the client.  You needed a tractor to navigate the yard, not a BMW.   She was laughing at my awe that she really was telling me the truth about the condition of the place.  Hysterical with laughter described me.  Attached below are some photographs of the place.  One shows the outside, another the kitchen, including the hole created by moi. 

I typically would not share this much information on the front end of a project, but there is enough completed work in the portfolio section of my website to illustrate my capabilities.  So, here it goes.  You can follow this project through to the completion when her two sons move in for the summer.  The plan is just now in the formative stages, but it will involve a new roof, new logs to replace any rotten ones, a new bathroom addition, enclosing a porch for a sunroom, complete renovation of the kitchen, complete gutting of the interior, and I am sure the list will grow as we proceed.  Work is to start on December 7, so stay tuned.  And, if you are wondering, “why save this dump?” It has sentimental attachment.  Her husband grew up there.  Her sister in law loves it.  There are recipes used by her mother-in-law hand written on the inside of the kitchen cabinet doors.  I am honored to be part of a love affair with a house that will cause someone to be so moved to restore something they love so much; and thankful for their faith in my guidance. 

Front view. Can anyone say Green Acres?

That fabulous kitchen! Note the large hole on the left side of the cabinets

Those charming recipe doors. My heart melted.