Townhouse Update #6

Well, Happy Monday, everyone.  We hope you had a great weekend.  Mike and I made a road trip to Memphis for a friend’s wedding.  Memphis is full of positive energy, but boy, was it hot!  Today’s temperatures were to be 95 degrees but feel like 105.  I guess we came home just in time.  We have some real progress to show you on our townhouse remodel today.  There are lots of photos so grab something to drink.  Will our place be ready when we move in next week?  No way!!!  Are things happening?  Thankfully, that’s a yes.  Let’s take a look at the Townhouse Update #6.

The Bathrooms

We stopped by the house on when we arrived back in town from Memphis, and learned that our tile installer worked all week-end.  He is finished other than adding marble tiles to the existing fireplace in the living room and the new fireplace (which is not finished yet) in the new addition.  (We’re going to call that addition the family room.)  Carlos is our tile guy, and he is so very proud of his work.  He had opinions, took the liberty to select a grout he felt would look better than the one I picked (it did), and he knew when I would or would not like something.  This is the master shower with the new 12 x 24 tile that I selected.  It is a steam shower.  There’s a nice bench for seating.  By the way, all of the bathroom floors are heated except the one on the third floor.

 

The third floor shower is looking great.  It is ready for the fixtures to be installed.  The glass man is coming Wednesday to measure for the shower doors for three bathrooms.  We are going to put a shower curtain in the guest bath because it will be easy to bathe the little grandbabies without the hindrance of a shower door.

This is the cabinet that has the step on the bottom for the toddler grandkids.  We added bead board to this bathroom.  Since this house is in the historic district, I think a third floor (attic) bath would have had bead board in the old days.

This will be their bathroom since it is across the room from the “dorm.”  It will be the bathroom we use when we move in next week.  We ordered the sink top that goes with this vanity.  I think it will be installed this week.  You can get a better idea of what this bathroom will look like in this post.

This is the dorm where we will be sleeping.  We are going to set up two of the twin beds that I bought.  I showed them to you in this post.  The third floor, other than the bath, will be carpeted.  We cleaned the floor and painted it, but we aren’t installing the carpet until the whole place is completely finished.  We don’t want the construction dust to get into it.

Our intention was to put the same hex tile that we used on the bathroom floors here in the laundry room, but we ran short on that tile.  It was a special order that was also on back order, and we didn’t have the luxury of time on our side.  So, we opted to go with the tile that I decided not to put in all of the showers.  It was too busy for my tastes.  I discovered this after the guest bath was already installed.  Carlos told me when I went to the house that day, “You’re not going to like it.” He was right.  However, he promised to select more muted tiles for the laundry room floor, and it turned out just right.  This laundry room does not have a window, and there was no way to install a solar tube in there.  We tried and tried to find a way.  A bright floor makes up for the lack of natural light.  I wrote in this post why we are not putting real marble in this house.  It’s porcelain all the way.

Two things I want to point out.  If you think the bathrooms look alike, you would be right.  I want a cohesive feeling in our home, and one way to do that is to use like or similar materials in rooms.  So, there’s a lot of same-same but different going on.  The second thing is that the tiles I selected look REALLY busy in these photos, but in person, they are not.  Also, when other things are in the rooms, we won’t focus in on the tile so much.

The Addition

The addition now has walls and windows.  We were able to finally turn on the air conditioning so the workers can be more comfortable.  The framing is complete, but the roof just has a cover on it. When it rained yesterday, some of the water came in.  At this point, that’s okay.   I’m standing at the back entry for this photo.

The electrical inspection is complete, and the next step is insulation and then drywall.  The solid door there in the back will be a Dutch door with sidelights when it comes in.  Dutch doors are so popular, but our window/door guy said this is the first one he has ordered in 25 years!!!

The Exterior

This is the exterior of the addition.  The same siding that is on the dormer widows in the front will go above the brick.

 

The form for the fake chimney has been built, and the brick will go on that this week.

The breezeway has been enclosed.  Those door frames will be squared off, and siding and lights will be added here, too.  We are adding HVAC to the enclosed breezeway (we’ll call it a porch), but those doors will be open with screens on all good weather days for sure.

 

Townhouse Update #6 is in the books, and we hope to have a lot more to show you next week.  Everything has to get bad before it gets better, and although this still looks kind of rough, we are definitely making progress.  If you are still reading this, thank you so much for following our blog.  We appreciate each of you.

 

Take care.