The Family Room
This covers the fireplace demolition along with the lights and audio/video installation in our family room.
Day 87—The TV
November 25, 2008
Julie came first and finished painting the walls.
Frank sanded and painted the closet and installed the wall mount and TV. He also finished up the electrical so the fan is running in the closet and we don't need the extension cord for the freezer in the garage. He also installed the outdoor patio speakers.
Hopefully the Direct TV installer will be here earlier rather than later, so Frank will have time to finish hooking everything up after they leave. We are looking forward to high definition TV and being able to watch it in the family room again. Everything is looking good for Thanksgiving!
Day 86—Paint & Wiring
November 24, 2008
Julie came and started work by painting the trim around the new slider. When Frank arrived, she helped him finish running the wiring into the closet while she installed and painted the baseboards. She also painted and window sills and touched up the paint around the upstairs linen closet. Frank continued with the wiring, adding the drop plug for our freezer in the garage and running the cable for the living room TV. He also replaced the shelf in the closet and patched the hole. The new shelf is lower and deeper so there is enough room to house all the audio/video equipment and has holes in the back to allow air circulation.
Julie will be back tomorrow for more painting and Frank will continue to work on the electrical and audio/video. Direct TV is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon to install our new equipment.
No ETA on the tile yet, but it should be in this week or next. The place is really coming together now. Jack did a nice job over the weekend hanging some artwork.
Day 85—Wine holders
November 20, 2008
Richard from Alpine Cabinets was here bright and early to install the wine glass racks in the bar. He also drilled some holes in the cabinet under the island countertop. Somehow one column of holes had been overlooked originally. We had him look at one of the bar doors as it didn't seem to line up perfectly. He took it off the cabinet and saw that the lyptus had twisted. Apparently lyptus does that on occasion. He will order a new door for us. He also took one of the pantry doors as the finish wasn't perfect. We should have it back before Thanksgiving. We are still waiting for the panel for the trash compactor. Nobody seems to know what's happening with it.
Frank installed the molding around the slider and ran more wires. He also discovered another electrical issue in the garage. It looks like one of the previous homeowners had added an electrical plug and didn't do it correctly. Frank took care of that. Frank has to fix a problem with a leak at another clients so he won't be back until Monday.
Day 84—Closet fan
November 18, 2008
Frank installed the fan in the hall closet where all the audio/video equipment will be located. He also finished off the pipe stuff out front.
Richard from Alpine Cabinets is supposed to be here first thing in the morning to install the wine glass holders in the bar.
Day 83—Digging
November 17, 2008
Frank made the holes a little larger and installed the last 2 speakers in the family room. Then he spent the rest of the day digging under the concrete walkway to run a large pipe for the cables we will need going into the living room. All the rocks in our soil up here make digging difficult.
HomeTime came out and installed the new slider. It fits so much better and even though it's only a couple of inches larger, it really seems noticeable.
Frank will be back Wednesday.
Day 82—Mirrors
November 14, 2008
Frank and Julie were working for another client today, installing their new entry door again. Hopefully Home Depot got the size right this time.
Mountain View Glass came out and installed the mirrors and glass shelves in the bar. Julie would have just ordered the glass, but the wall on the one side has a bad bulge and it glass needed extra work to look right. The mirrors look very nice and really dress the bar up. Now we just need the tile on the sides to finsh it off.
We had friends over for the weekend for the agility trial here in Rancho. The new kitchen worked great! The layout is so nice and open! It's wonderful how easy it is for multiple people to be working in the kitchen and not be in each other's way. Being able to visit while working in the kitchen was so nice!
Day 81—Painting
November 13, 2008
Frank and Julie spent the day painting the ceiling and walls in the family room. The walls need another coat after the baseboards are reinstalled. The piece by the slider will need to be replaced due to water damage. Frank installed the bulbs and trims in the lights too. He'll have to install the 2 rear speakers for the surround sound next week as the holes weren't quite big enough and the paint was too wet to do it today. Everything is looking good for company this weekend!
Jack came home for lunch today so we could discuss the family room tile again as well as make some decisions on the rest of the audio/video equipment. The tile for the post is being a bit difficult as each side is a bit different in size. While he was home, Jack temporarily hooked up a couple of the Sonos units for the weekend. It sounds really nice.
The glass people are supposed to be out in the morning to install the mirrors in the bar and Hometime will be out Monday to install the new slider.
Day 80—Spraying the Family Room Ceiling
November 12, 2008
They came out this morning and sprayed the family room ceiling. Then Frank did some more wiring, including adding the power plugs to the closet. He also installed the speakers in the bedroom.
Tomorrow Frank and Julie will be here to paint.
Day 79—Preparing for texture
November 11, 2008
Frank sanded the patches on the ceiling & walls, finishing getting prepared for the drywallers tomorrow.
We ran into a snag with our plans for the tile in the family room. The trim pieces turned out to be very expensive. Julie and I decided to go out and do some more shopping this afternoon. We found something else that we liked as well that may work out better and be in our budget. I'm waiting for Jack to say if he likes it.
Day 78—Priming the Fireplace
November 10, 2008
Frank primed the fireplace and the ceiling. The drywall people will be out Wednesday morning to spray the texture.
Frank also did more work on the wiring. There will be lots of electronics going into the hall closet for all the audio/video equipment.
Day 77—A bit more wiring, electrical
November 7, 2008
Okay, I've finally caught up! Now if I can stay that way... Thanks for your patience with the delays posting updates the past two weeks.
Frank finished running the wires for the TV we will be mounting above the fireplace. He also patched the holes in the ceiling. Next week we should have the people out to spray and texture the ceiling.
Franks also installed the plugs and light switches in the kitchen along the backsplash. We decided to go with dark plates instead of the while ones we had before the backsplash went up.
Day 76—Backsplash grout
November 5, 2008
Julie came and worked on grouting the backsplash. We also discussed and finalized several things including the plans for the tile around the fireplace, post and backsplash for the bar. We also decided what we were going to do about a mantel. We decided not to have a mantel and to go with something simple around the fireplace in case we want to replace the fireplace in the future. Something we would like to do now, but not sure we have the budget for it.
Julie and I also spent some time looking for the contractor that installed our sliding glass door four years ago. With her help, we actually located them in Oregon under another business name. I called and talked to the owner and informed him that the window they installed was not the size in the contract and it was not installed properly. I'll be sending him photos and letters from For Your Walls Only as well as HomeTime documenting all the problems. Hopefully he will make it right...
Day 75—More wiring
November 4, 2008
Frank installed more wiring and the set of garage speakers.
Day 70–74—The backsplash and wiring
October 27–31, 2008
Thanks to everyone for their patience and checking back for updates. Jack and I were on vacation to Scottsdale for the USDAA Cynosport World Games last week. Frank and Julie were on their own and I've been catching up with everything that piled up in our absence. Frank took some pictures and emailed them to me, but I never got the time to update the website, so we'll play catch up now...
Frank started installing the backsplash tile, then Julie finished most of it while he worked on wiring and lighting in the family room. For the backsplash tile, we had selected Oceanside Glasstile's Painted Desert in a random mosaic pattern. When we returned, we met with Julie and selected the grout color for the backsplash as well as discussed final decisions on the bar and fireplace. Julie will be here tomorrow to grout the backsplash.
Frank has installed some of the speakers in the family room and kitchen. There are wires going everywhere. He will be installing the audio/video equipment in the hall closet. We had several decisions to make when we returned and we are still working on some of them
While we were away, Sonos came out with an app to control the Sonos system from the iPhone. It only took a minute to install and setup and now I can control all the Sonos options from my iPhone. It is very cool! They also had a software update and added and improved some features. It will be really nice when everything is completely set up, but I'm having fun playing with what we currently have.
Frank figured out why our slider has leaked during heavy rains since it was installed 4 years ago. They didn't install it correctly and not only that, it isn't the correct size! Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, the company is no longer in business, so we can't do much about it. We discussed options and costs for reinstalling it correctly and had Nick from Hometime come out and give us an estimate for replacing it with the correctly sized slider. They will cost us about the same, so we are opting for having it replaced with the right size.
Day 69—Getting ready for the backsplash
October 23, 2008
Frank installed the backing in preparation for installing the backsplash. He will be back next week to finish installing it.
He also installed some stops for the doors in the "charging station", finished off the trim between the kitchen window & the granite countertop and re-measured the shelves for the appliance garage and took them back to Alpine cabinets to be adjusted as they don't quite fit.
Day 68—The Fireplace
October 20, 2008
Frank continued with the fireplace and finished removing all the bricks. We really need to make a decision soon on whether we are going to replace the fireplace or just clean things up. Either way we will have drywall above the fireplace so we can put a TV on the wall. Frank was very considerate and adjusted the plastic when he left so we can get to the slider as well as down the hall to the garage, etc.
Frank also installed the trash compactor. We still need the wood panel for the front of it, but it is nice having it where it belongs.
Jack spent some time away from the office this weekend setting up the new Sonos system. He has the Sonos playing through our Bose surround sound system as well as the two Bose Wave radios—one in the office and one in the master bedroom. We can listen to the satellite TV, Sirius or Internet radio from any of those units. There are other options, like iTunes, Rhapsody, etc. but we haven't explored them yet. Right now it's wireless, but Frank will be running cable and wires later. It's pretty cool.
Frank will be back tomorrow and will probably start installing lights and speakers in the family room.
See construction for more info.
Day 67—The Family Room
October 17, 2008
Frank started working in the family room by removing the brick above the fireplace. He had originally planned on just taking off a couple of rows of bricks, but ended up removing about half of it.
Before
The family room before the demolition starts.
