Kitchen Faucet

I was cleaning up my photo account and found this video I took for someone who wanted to see the Kohler Karbon in action.    I thought I'd post it here in case anyone else is considering it.

I love the faucet - the look is perfect for my kitchen and overall, it's great functionally.  I don't miss not having a separate sprayer at all, and I love the fact that I can fill pots, vases, pitchers, etc. on the countertop and "fix" the faucet into whatever position I need.  On the con side, while it moves easily, it's not effortless/ballet-like as the Kohler videos would have you think.  Also, I'm often turning the joystick with a wet hand, so inevitably, water drips down on the escutcheon.   While it wipes off easily, water spots are quite noticeable because it's such a shiny and large escutcheon. 

...and then there was light.

My island light finally arrived, six months after I ordered it. It's the same light I had used in my kitchen on 24th, but I was surprised to see that they had changed the design. The metal arms are broader, and the glass sconces are heavy and not as delicate as before. I still like it, though. I think it fits the modern/clean feel of the kitchen while adding a bit of whimsy. The arms can be bent so that you can shape the light however you like. Right now it's still fairly compact, but I'll eventually play with it a bit more and pull some of the ribbons out to give it more of an unstructured look.

The kitchen as you can see is almost (finally!) done. The only thing left to do is to replace a few doors. One door is warped, and the cabinet doors above the double oven are too dark. Kiva had Merit make replacements, but the replacement doors were still not the right shade. Hopefully third time's the charm!

Getting a little closer to "home"

Ten weeks later, my shutters finally arrived. They were worth the wait - they look so much better than the blinds we installed in our master bedroom and the nursery. They're also more functional since they let in more light when open and are easier to clean. To save money we only did shutters on the ground floor (family room, library, and dining room) and in the two bedrooms in the front of the house on the second floor (i.e., windows that affect curb appeal). The remaining two bedrooms in the back of the house we opted for the less expensive wood blinds.

The shutters make a huge difference in the look of the house. The temporary paper blinds, as their name would suggest, gave the house such an unfinished, transient look. I'm looking forward to getting the rest of our back ordered items.

A few pics:

Reese's Room

Dining RoomLibrary

Getting there...

With tons of help from my sister, we're somewhat unpacked. I still have stacks of boxes to sort through, but they have been moved into the guest room so that the main living areas are clear. We're really enjoying the new house, and J and I both have commented on how it immediately felt like "home".

I've put off taking pictures for the blog since there are punchlist items to be done and I'm still in the process of hanging up my artwork. I've put a few pieces up, and it's really nice to move from the unpacking phase to decorating. Now the fun really begins! We had a ton of things in storage, and most of our belongings still work for the decor of this house. I did have a new couch made for the living room, but luckily we still like most of our furniture (side whine: I ordered the couch Nov. 2 and it's not going to be done until the end of the month!) I want to eventually replace our dining room table for something bigger since it only seats 6 and is a little small for the scale of the room. This purchase will have to wait since we want (and need!) to put the kibosh on unnecessary spending.

Anyhoo, I digress. Hopefully I'll get my act together and get the paintings off the floor and will take "After" pictures soon!

Kitchen

My kitchen is still in progress - it's been a huge cluster with the oven unit and it basically needs to be redone. The crown moulding is not installed, the doors need to be replaced because the stain is too dark, the cover that surrounds the double oven needs to be replaced (for the THIRD time), and the door on one of the ovens needs to be replaced.

In addition, the flooring people installed shoe moulding all around my toe kicks when I specifically told the builder not to, so when it was removed, there was damage to the floors and the toe kicks. Some of the toe kicks are being replaced and the flooring will be patched. My builder has already agreed to pay the $1100 bill if we need Kiva to install new trim if the patching doesn't work, but I think it'll look fine.

And of course, my really cool light fixture that goes over the island is on back order. Story of my life.

Anyhoo, enough whining. My designer asked me to take some in progress pictures for her portfolio, so I took the following pics. Even with the things that are unfinished/wrong, I LOVE the kitchen. It is, if I do say so myself, gorgeous and exactly what I had in mind. Moreover, it's completely functional. I have more storage than I know what to do with, and it's been great to eat with my family (including my sisters/parents when they've come over) at the island. I've even cooked a few times, LOL. Granted, I've just done spaghetti (twice), but I got to use my cool pot filler. I'm sitting at the island right now, actually. The kitchen opens up into the family room, and I can be with the family and watch tv while working in the kitchen.

Thanks, Rachele!

Double click on image for larger view:

Kitchen - February 9, 2009

Priceless email that made me smile

I sent my builder an email checking on status of the house this morning; I told him I had packers coming in this week and the movers coming in on Friday and wanted to see if we were still "on". His response:

"As of today I think we look fine for moving in on Friday. My only concern is still the power meter, but I was assured by Centerpoint that it would be in today, which means is should be in before Wednesday. Everything is ready to start up and the appliances will be in tomorrow, so given that we get power you will be fine. Glad you’re getting packers this time, I was wondering how you were going to do that. Not that I don’t think you could, I know you could still kick my a**, but I those boxes get heavy...."

Things that make you go, "hmmmm...."

They put the first coat of paint on the walls, and I noticed they painted around the paint samples. I told the painters it was okay to paint over the samples. They said, "oh, no, we have to sand it all down to make it smooth first." Hmmm, you'd think they'd do that before painting the first coat...

Ah, well, as long as it gets done.

*note: the first picture is the nursery. We ended up using a different color than the sample we put up, hence the color difference.

Update on kitchen island

Jim finally got in contact with Keith, the person in charge of our kitchen install. They've agreed to pay for the replacement decorator doors. He hadn't returned our calls because... get this... his house burned down last weekend and he and his wife and daughter "got out with just minutes to spare".

Crazy! I guess there IS someone that is having worse luck than me these days. While I don't feel bad about being persistent about getting the decorator doors replaced, I do feel bad for him and his family. That is just terrible!

Update, a little bit of venting...

Haven't updated in a while because things have been crazy hectic with hitting my eight month of pregnancy, trying to finish the house, and a huge work project all colliding.

This is undoubtedly the most hectic and stressful part of house building - the last month where everything comes together (or doesn't come together). Steven still thinks we can get in by the end of the first week in November, but we'll see. Some things will still be unfinished, but if we can get to the point we can actually move in before I have the baby, I'll be thrilled.

I won't get into too much because I'll start getting pissed off again, but some of the headaches:

• Island was built such that I only had 15" of leg room on one side of the eat-in table. It's fixed now, but getting someone to commit to fixing it was a process I should NOT have gone through.
• Wrong size decorator doors were applied to the island on the sink wall - still debating with Kiva (the cabinet vendor) on who will pay for the replacement doors. It's obvious to me that I should not have to pay.
• The backsplash tile that was supposedly "in stock" and available immediately was actually back ordered. It's custom-made to order and the manufacturer was not able to get the materials. We placed the order at the end of August, and now we're looking at the first week of November for delivery. My builder says he can work around this. He'll paint over the backsplash and return to tile when the material is available. Since it's glass tile, it's less of a messy installation and that works in our favor.
• We're running a week+ behind the post-Ike schedule. A week doesn't seem like a long time, except when you're scared you're going to deliver early.
• The upper balustrade arrived yesterday. It doesn't look like the rails we designed; it looks like the previously design we discussed. We still need to discuss this with the builder. I vacillate between being supremely angry on principle (um, what's the point of a custom order if it's not going to be what you want?) and just taking it in stride. I actually like what they delivered (it's very similar to the final design and obviously one of the designs we considered), so I'm trying to let go a lot of the anger I have because of "principle". If we had more time to move in, I'd probably demand they redo the rails on principle, but this one isn't worth pushing (at least today).
• They delivered the wrong stonework for the house and had installed 80%+ of it before I caught it - it's been removed, but the replacement stone is still not on.
• The standing seam roof is still not installed (it covers the roof line over the dining room). Because it wasn't installed, we had water damage during Ike. Until they install it, they can't re-sheetrock, so they can't paint that room, blah, blah, blah...

This last point alludes to what keeps me up at night. Some issues may seem minor, but there's such a domino effect when you're building. I've also been pretty busy running around meeting vendors - working with the landscaper on the design, finalizing the light order, selecting/ordering the remaining pulls/hardware for the house, tracking down the right slabs of marble for the kids' bath, and meeting the shutter folks to choose style and have measurements done.

I know it'll be worth it in the end, but it's such a headache right now. I'm mostly a bundle of negativity, but I do see how things are going to come together. I love the kitchen cabinets despite my overwhelming non-love for the vendor. My frustrations with Steven are tempered with acknowledging why we chose to use him again - we couldn't afford to build a custom house of this quality with another builder, and he's a great overall designer. I guess there's also something to be said for him taking my abuse (although he shouldn't put me in a position to want to abuse him!). I've had friends where their builders refused to talk to them after a while and completely ignored their requests.

Even with all the headaches, I already know we'll go through this again. It's hard for me to move into a house where I didn't choose everything. Even with the spec house we built (where I did select the finish out but kept it more neutral to for mass appeal), I would have changed out half the things we did had I actually had to live there. Maybe I'll get less picky as I get older… or having two kids destroy this house will reduce my need to have everything "exactly like I want it", LOL.

A few teaser pics. Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures of the final product in the not-too-distant future.

Interior Paint Colors

Believe it or not, it wasn't too hard to choose paint colors this time around. I mean, I only had to put up 16 different samples up this time. Part of the reason it went a little less painfully was that I reused two colors I loved from 24th street house (in the same applications as well - Benjamin Moore Sweet Caroline in the nursery and Ben Moore Smoldering Red in the library).

• Trim color - Sherwin Williams Alabaster (SW 7008).
• Library - Benjamin Moore Smoldering Red (2007-10)
• Powder room - Sherwin Williams Grassland (SW 6163)
• Master bedroom - Sherwin Williams Amazing Gray (SW 7044)
• Nursery - Benjamin Moore Sweet Caroline (478)
• Reese's bedroom - Sherwin Williams Loveable (SW 6590)
• Children's bathroom - Sherwin Williams North Star (SW 6246)
• All remaining rooms/hallways - Sherwin Williams Worldly Gray (SW 7043)

The library and stained doors will be done in a dark stain (custom mix that looks like Minwax Jacobean). I still have to select a floor stain, but I have a few ideas in mind. We originally wanted a really dark floor, but because of natural lighting issues in the house and the vary dark cabinets, we'll go with a lighter color. From this palette, I'll likely start playing around with Provincial, Early American, and Chestnut. We'll have to see how the stain looks on the oak floors/in context of our lighting.

Kitchen in a box...

...or lots of boxes as the case may be. A truck full of boxes arrived at the house today - my kitchen cabinets! Woohoo! They start installation tomorrow, and I cannot wait to see how they look.
I was pretty surprised to see the number of boxes that arrived (I couldn't get a shot from a good angle, but there are boxes stacked behind the two tall boxes in front all the way back to the windows.)
For some reason I'm a bit nervous, as if it's one of my work projects about to kick off. Hopefully it'll come together without any major issues, and if something does go wrong, at least I'll be on the client end and not in the hot seat.

Art Wall

I saw some pictures of Taylor & Wood's Frames Wallapaper a while back and had it in my mind that I wanted to use it for an art wall for Reese (at the time Sprinkle was not in the picture). Now that we're building, I've been toying around with different ways to incorporate it into the design - from wallpapering the kids play room (which will also double as an office/guest room) to wallpapering large wood panels to mount on their bedroom walls.

I finally decided to wallpaper the coffee bar wall (which will inevitably become the juice box bar) in between the two girls' rooms. The left wall will be Reese's art wall and the left, Sprinkle's (adjacent walls to their bedrooms, naturally). We'll probably just have pictures of Sprinkle on her side until she's old enough to create her own art.

I think it will be a nice whimsical (and personal) balance to the contemporary feel of the house. I can't wait to see it filled with little scribbles!

Kitchen Essentials

I just ordered two Stokke Tripp Trapp highchairs for the kitchen island. You know, because I NEED them. And when I think about it, they're reasonably priced since they individually cost less than 9 sq. ft. of backsplash tile ;-)

Weathered the storm...

We made it through the storm - thanks for everyone's prayers and good wishes. Our extended families in the Houston area are fine as well. We were fortunate enough to have power and water restored about 24 hours after they went out.

On Sunday, Jim rode his bike through our neighborhood and to where we're building. The damage to Houston is amazing - I've never seen anything like it in my 33 years of living in the area. It's nothing compared to the areas that were actually in the storm surge, but still surprising to see.

What's more amazing is that we had very little damage to our three properties in the Heights. Our house has some water damage where the standing seam roof had not been installed, but nothing major. I was fully prepared to find major damage since we have several mature trees right next to the house. We were very lucky, indeed.

Some pictures Jim took during his bike ride:

Hurricane Ike

me: Can Kiva deliver the kitchen cabinets on Friday, Sept. 19th?

builder: If the house is okay after the storm than it should be fine, but who knows what's going to happen.


Niiiiice...

Now that we have walls....

We met with our builder this past weekend to review the built-in configurations since they're starting trimwork (which includes moulding, built-ins, and cabinetry). Steven had some good suggestions, and I think everything will turn out well. I'm particularly excited about the built-ins in Weezie's room - a long window seat with floor-t0-ceiling shelving/cabinets flanking the windows. I had originally wanted the bench seats to have lift-tops for storage, but Steven recommended that we just have open cubbies underneath for baskets. The baskets are easier to access, and as Steven astutely pointed out, "if you do lift-tops, at some point one of your children will be inside the bench and the other one sitting on top of it."

We also discussed the interior stairs, which are made of steel (they're unpainted right now and have temporary treads, so pretty ugly). I want to do horizontal balusters which the building codes make difficult. As a workaround, we're going to clad them in Plexiglas to pass inspection and then remove them from the stairs once we're in the house. Depending on how good (or crappy) they look, we may keep them on the upper hallway because I have no doubt I WILL have kids trying to climb those. If we don't keep the Plexiglas on the upper stairs, we'll likely use mesh screens as some of our friends did in their house.

I had described to Steven how I wanted the rails to look, but I was lucky to happen across some stairs that looked exactly like I want at a local store, High Fashion Home. A picture is worth a thousand words, especially when you're doing custom building. Oh, I did ask... and apparently commercial building codes are more lenient than residential codes as far as the baluster orientation. Doesn't make sense to me they would be more lenient, but a lot of the building codes don't make sense to me...

Upper Hallway at High Fashion Home

Stairs at High Fashion Home

Master Bath

I'm going for a calming, Zen/spa feel in the master bath and am working on finalizing the details. I have the fixtures, cabinets, and flooring selected, but I still have to decide on the countertops. We're using 18x18 travertine on the floor (same travertine we used on 22nd Street, see image below), and I'm looking for a countertop that complements that as well as the cabinetry I've chose (Merit Whistler Cabinets in Carriage Black).

I was thinking about limestone, but when I went to look at the limestone slabs, two other options caught my eye: Crema Marfil marble and Bianco Romano granite. I like the Crema Marfil because it has the same look as limestone but is more polished; it definitely goes with the travertine while acting as a counterpoint to the dark wood cabinets. On the other hand, the Bianco Romano granite has some really interesting grey veining which I think adds some interest. Normally I'm not a big fan of granite in bathrooms (I use them in our spec homes because buyers tend to get excited over granite, but in my personal home I prefer not to use it.) This particular slab seems to fit for this installation, though. Interestingly, Bianco Romano is usually very grey, but they had a random unusual lot that is more creamy in color. The one downside is that it's $425 more expensive than the marble. The old Vy would have said, "what the heck, it's just $425 in the grand scheme of things," but I've said that so many times in picking out appliances, lights, and bath fixtures that I'm starting to feel the need to compromise. We only plan to be in this house for five years, so I don't feel as compelled to spend the extra money if I don't HAVE to (i.e., it'll keep me up at night if I don't use the "perfect xyz".)

They're holding a slab of the Bianco Romano for 30 days, and Crema Marfil can be found anytime, so I have some time to decide...

Kohler Chord Wading Pool Sink with Purist Lavatory Faucet

Merit Cabinets in Carriage Black

Travertine that will be used for flooring (image from 22nd St. project)

Crema Marfil Marble (I'll select a slab that leans more yellow/cream rather than rose)

Bianco Romano Granite (Slab is more cream colored in person)

...and that's why I love the Heights

Many of our friends and family think we're insane to spend what we do to live inside the Loop, specifically the Heights. For one, we like the diversity that the children will be exposed to living in the city. I mean, where else are they going to see million dollar homes, crack houses, and farm life all within the same block?

Neighborhood "Guinea Gang" seen wandering on our construction site

Kids' Bath

I had decided to go with the Kohler Pinstripe suite for the children's bathroom (a Jack-n-Jill configuration), but I recently took another look at Kohler's redesigned Margaux line.

I have to say, it's a much sexier faucet, and I would personally use it in my own bathroom over the Pinstripe. So... once again I'm tempted to change my mind, and now's the time to do it. I'm going with a retro look in the children's bath, with white subway tiles on the walls, black/white hex tiles on the floors, and marble countertops. The Pinstripe suite is a perfect fit for this look, but the Margaux suite is so... pretty. There's not a huge difference looking at them online, but when I compared them side by side in the showroom, I much prefer the look of the Margaux look even though it's not as traditional. I am doing traditional with a modern twist on the rest of the house, so I design-wise I could get away with it. I also like the higher neck on the Margaux faucet. The other compelling factor on the Margaux line is 1/3rd the cost of the Pinstripe. Really, at the end of the day, it's the kids' bath, so do I really need to spend the extra money on the Pinstripe line? I think I'm talking myself into the Margaux, aren't I?

Pinstripe Faucet


Margaux Faucet



Pinstripe Shower/Bath

Margaux Shower/Bath

I hate the City of Houston

The City of Houston has really stringent building codes, and while I suppose that's a good thing to prevent shoddy building, it's a real pain when I want to incorporate certain designs or elements in our plans. It's made worse by the fact that many of the inspectors will err on the side of red-tagging you if there's any doubt in their mind (due to their lack of knowledge or familiarity with the product you're trying to use).

My latest gripe is that I had wanted to use horizontal cedar slats in lieu of traditional vertical balusters on the front and back porch, again drawing inspiration from the Gamble House. Since this could be potentially used as a ladder by a child, the City won't allow it unless I clad the railings in Plexiglas or other material. Besides being an additional cost, it would be ugly and completely contrary to the Arts&Crafts "one with nature" look we want with the exterior. Grrr.