Things have slowed down at the house over the last month while we wait for our updated plans to be approved by the city. At the end of January we failed our gas inspection because what we did for heating (gas powered furnaces, one for each floor) differed from our approved plans (radiator heating). Until the updated plans are approved we can’t close up the bathrooms which means tiling cannot start. We have a meeting scheduled with the DOB on Tuesday so hopefully things will get back on track.
In the meantime, here are some updates to share.
Firstly, all but one of the windows arrived this week and have been installed. These include the door in the kitchen that will lead out to the deck (still to be built) and the skylights in the master bath, kids bath, and top floor hallway. With both bathrooms on the top floor in the middle of the house, it was important for us to get light from somewhere and the roof provided the only option.
Kitchen doors
Kids’ skylight
Master skylight
Our master bath is close to the neighbor’s wall so during construction we decided to move it off the wall a little. Unfortunately you still get a good view on the graffiti some kids left as a house warming gift just before we closed (another thing to take care of before they finish up the work). The HVAC guys also turned on the heat this week in preparation for our new floors arriving on Tuesday. The flooring will stay in the house for a week or so while it acclimatizes to the house.
Next week taping will being since most of the sheet rocking is complete. That will mean we will start having to make paint color decisions. Of the hundreds of decisions we’ve had to make over the six months, these are the kind we dislike the most. When you have an unlimited number of options, it’s always hard to make the final decision.*
Last week the architect, contractor and engineer met to discuss placement of the condensers (needed for air conditioning). Since we are placing them on the roof, there have been a number of things to consider (sitting on steel beams vs. bolted to roof, placement around the neighbors chimney and back). This decision delayed finishing up our bedroom (if we had selected bolting to the roof, it would have been over our bedroom, and would have required many additional roof penetrations; one of the reasons we decided to go with the steel beams). Now, that the decision has been made and approved by all interested parties, work has continued on our master.
Master bedroom
One ‘special feature’ of our master bedroom will be the kitchen venting running straight up through the closet. The kitchen is below our bedroom and we have to vent our 1400CFM hood (also arriving on Tuesday) out to the roof. The venting is big and will be eating into Brownstonegirl’s closet, but it’s a small price to pay to have a super-efficient but quiet venting solution.
Hood venting from the roof
Finally, we’ve made the last of our lighting purchases. In all, there were about 20 lights to purchase. Brownstonegirl gets all the credit for our selections (another one of those unlimited option decisions x 20). We’ll share pictures once they are installed.
* Speaking of unlimited choices, we appreciate everyone’s feedback on our granite dilemma. In the end we went back out to Jersey to confirm our super white selection and put down a deposit so it would be ready when our kitchen cabinets are done (eta end of March). It’s interesting how varied their supply can be from month to month. Had they had the super white when we first went out there a few months ago, we likely wouldn’t have searched further, but they’d only had remnants at that time. We were lucky that when it finally came to decision time, they’d just gotten in a large, high quality shipment. Thanks again for the feedback!
So despite going into our renovation 100% certain on the direction we planned to go for our kitchen countertops, when the moment to officially commit, we stalled. To make a long story short, we’ve had sourcing issues on our preferred countertop and thus decided to look for an alternative. That sourcing issue has ultimately turned out to be a miscommunication, but we’ve now got two vastly different ideas and we’d love your opinion!
Our kitchen taste is what I would call classic but my mother apparently calls “milk toast,” so we feel that adding one element of real visual interest will make that item shine. The question is: should that shine come from the countertops themselves or a snazzy backsplash?
Choice 1: Super white quartzite with a snazzy backsplash
Super white is more classic and also less expensive than our other selection. The difference in cost means we would still have room in the budget for a fancy backsplash, and probably a design need for it anyway to spice up the room.
With our snazzy backsplash from New Ravenna (still not entirely sure of the color scheme, but this would be the pattern:
And the wildcard: Chatham New Ravenna in stone. The pattern sort of mirrors the lighting we’ll have in the kitchen in a nice way.
Choice 2: Fusion granite with white subway backsplash
The fusion granite is pretty wild and thus would need a really neutral surround to let it shine on its own (it’s also considerably more expensive, so not much room left for other options anyway). We therefore would opt for a subdued white subway surround. I’m posting the actual slab we saw plus a photo of a similar usage of fusion granite found on Houzz.
Fusion granite: yellow barrier not included. This photo makes the grays appear rather blue, but the underlying color definitely leaned to the gray side.
Fusion granite in a white kitchen. Our backsplash would just be plain white subway.
First, the crew has finished removing the back wall on the parlor floor. The opening is huge and we can’t wait to see the doors and windows go in. There will be a 9 foot wide window over the cabinets, and a 5 foot wide set of doors beyond the dining table with 17 inch high transom windows above both, so it will feel almost like an entire wall of glass.
Kitchen opening
We met with the contractor today to go over additional details on the back half of the parlor floor. There’s lots to fit in this space being shared by the kitchen and dining room, so we firmed up the cabinet depths, island and dining placement and the lighting fixtures. All of these details had previously been set by the architects, but now that we know exactly how much space we have to work with, we had to make a few minor adjustments here and there. Our contractor also brought over a sample cabinet for us to look at. He’ll be building custom cabinets for our space; it was great to see the quality of work that went into building it and to be able to make a couple of minor adjustments to the look.
Sample cabinet
The HVAC system is mostly done and so there were also a few tweaks with the placement of the registers (where the air comes out). One area that will need a little more attention is the registers above the kitchen cabinets. While we are lucky to have 10′+ ceilings, it’s still a tight fit with the ductwork, the cabinets, hood and counter tops. We might have to adjust our crown moulding selection so things aren’t bumping into each other.
Duct work running into the kitchen
With the back wall gone and the new wall framed out, the plumbers were able to return and start working on the plumbing lines that run along the back of the house. This also includes them adding the drain and the water lines for the island prep sink which you can see marked out below.
Island placement
The other big news of the week is that the walls have started to go up. After one final confirmation of the data and outlet locations, the sheetrock went up in the kids’ bedrooms, the office and the gym.
Space for gym
Office space
Kid bedroom
The last picture shows the challenge we have left with the center window splitting the two kids’ bedrooms. Originally we thought we would do a zig zag layout so that one bedroom would have an extra window and the other space would have more room but our architect suggested splitting the window with a fixed glass panel covering the portion of the window showing in each room. We still have to figure out how it’ll work with a shutter but the regular shape of the bedroom will make it easier to place furniture.
Next week we plan to file our updated plans with the city so that we can get our gas worked signed off. That’ll allow us to close up the bathroom walls and start tiling. There will also be more sheet rocking and more brick work on the back.
So, we’re happy to report that we passed our plumbing inspection (hooray!), but we need to file an amendment for review of our gas lines. This was more or less expected, as the system submitted in our plans to the DOB for heating and cooling was ultimately not what we chose for the house. Here’s hoping our architects and expediter continue to have the magic touch and get it all through quickly.
Second structural opening began today, and so far, so good. Sheet rocking should begin tomorrow, heating will continue, and hopefully tiling will begin next week!
Big week for us at the house – we have new windows and the start of the new heating system! The structural work has also begun, and we’re set for our first plumbing inspection on Wednesday. 75% of the tile will be delivered this week as well. Lots going on – fingers crossed for the week to come.
First up, our new windows. After considering various brands and models, we ended up going with the Andersen A Series windows. About half the price of Marvins, these windows are Andersen’s top of the line double pane windows. They are beautifully crafted inside and out, and we couldn’t be happier with the results. There’s still insulation and other finishing details to complete, but the initial impact really exceeded our expectations.
We’ve opted for black on the exterior (our architect approves), unfinished pine on the interior so that the trim throughout will be uniform. Here are some photos:
Window – Andersen A series in black.
Window detail.
Window: inside view.
We’re sorry the work on the heating began on the coldest week of the year thus far, but we are glad it has finally begun! After a 2 week delay in our HVAC guy’s arrival, they have made up for it by having 3-4 guys in each day to complete the job. Our prior heating system was a forced air system, and although we could have, in theory, updated that system with new duct work, given our desire to have central air and heat, plus humidification internal to the system, replacing the entire system turned out to be the best solution.
One of the nice things we were able to do when not having to retrofit work into an old system is to split the system into three separate zones; we’ll actually have three individual furnaces in the house. This will allow us to cool or heat each level independently, which will of course save us a great deal on bills in the future. We’ve also been in houses where the heating on one floor would also heat another floor, and we more often than not just chose to stay cold or overheated to avoid acclimatizing an area not being used. Here’s to comfort without guilt!
Trane furnace in the top floor.
Heating and cooling outlet in one of the bedrooms.
Ductwork in our master bath.
It’s really kind of an amazing thing to really see absolutely everything going into our walls and all that it takes to make it happen (and happen right!).
The other big event of the week was the start of the structural openings in the back of the house. The garden level will have double doors to the garden, and the parlor level will have a wall with three ganged windows, french doors and transoms over both like this inspiration photo:
Inspiration photo for our kitchen windows and doors. Ours will not have the grill work, but the overall finished look will be very similar. This photo is of a prior project from our wonderful architect, Ben Herzog. Isn’t all that light dreamy?
so steel beams were a must have, as was a structural engineer to define the plans. The larger structural opening on the parlor will be done later this week, which will then allow for the remaining windows and exterior doors to be finalized. Here are the photos of the basement structural work completed:
Opening for the sliding doors on the garden level.
A peek at the steel beam support that runs the length of the back wall.
Next up this week: plumbing inspection tomorrow (fingers crossed!), more structural work and the start of sheetrocking.
Hooray as we pass the half-way point in the renovation! (Famous last words).
Over the last couple of weeks the electricians have been busy running the lights and outlet boxes throughout the house. It’s amazing to see what will be behind the walls once the sheetrock goes up.
Wires on the parlor floor
The plumbers have also been busy getting ready for the first plumbing inspection. They are concentrating on the bathrooms which will allow us to start tiling shortly (the tile starts arriving next week). Having enjoyed Manhattan water pressure for so long we have made every effort to ensure we get good water pressure throughout the house. We are most excited about the dedicated lines running to separate shower heads in the master bath. Like our previous renovation we’ve ordered shower heads from the creatively named highpressureshowerheads.com.
One set of pipes for the master shower.
The plumbers also finished off work in the laundry. Since the laundry is on the top floor (with the bedrooms) they’ll installed some extra safeguards in case the machine overflows. We have a drain and an additional system that detects when water hits a certain level on the floor and automatically shuts off the water. Hopefully these two will combine to protect us against any flooding in the house.
System to protect laundry from flooding.
The guys running the internet cables arrived on Friday to start work. I met with them to go over our requests and they were kind enough to indulge us with our specific requests (at last count we’ll have 34 data ports in the house). We had them upgrade their cable as well for faster speeds throughout the house. While our current internet (Time Warner – boo – hiss) doesn’t support the fast speeds we are hoping that one day someone will and given this is our only chance we want to do everything we can to prepare.
Placeholder for data cable.
The HVAC guys are coming on Monday (we hope!) to start their work. They were supposed to come a couple of weeks ago but haven’t showed up (much to our frustration). They are the last steps before we can start sheet rocking the non-bathroom rooms. With temperatures dropping well below freezing later in the week let’s hope they can work fast and provide the workers some heat. The heating guys will also be working on the venting for the hood over the stove and the make-up air system (which we’ll try and write about in another post).
Sheetrock waiting for the heating guys
Last but not least the skylights in the top floor bathrooms have been marked out. There were some last minute changes as we were concerned that the skylight in the master would not provide much light since the house next door is one floor higher. After some back and forth with the architect (there’s a building code requiring a 6 foot clearance on the roof from the front of the house to the back) we were able to relocate the skylights to a better location.
Master bath skylight.
Till next time…
p.s. We were pleased to see the level of personalization companies now go to when sending out building supplies.
Anyone who knows us knew that the place where we’d really be focusing our attention is in the kitchen. The kitchen is the heart of any home, as they say, but this goes double for us. To give you an idea, the best Valentine’s Day gift I have ever received was this bad boy, the Sumeet Multi Grind:
Sumeet Multi-Grind. Best countertop appliance ever.
The Multi Grind takes anything you put into it and makes it into a fine powder or paste. Ground spices, nuts, grains, curry pastes, you name it. It was love at first site for me and the Multi Grind (discovered at an Institute for Culinary Education glass in Thai Curries), and she’s had a place of pride on our countertop ever since. No flowers and chocolates for this girl (well, ok, no flowers, but I’m more than happy to receive seriously good chocolate)!
So, where do we begin? For a refresher on the floorplan, cabinet style, island stone and backsplash, take a look at our backsplash conundrum post (and feel free to continue to weigh in on that one…we’re opting to wait on that decision until after the cabinets are in). For the lighting, take a look at our kitchen lighting, blue or grey post (we’re going with grey – thanks again everyone!). For our rocking faucet, head to the bottom of this post.
Here are a few highlight photos for those just interested in the eye candy:
White fantasy quartzite: our likely countertop choice.
Beaded face frame cabinetry. Ours will be a whiter color overall with concealed hinges.
Modern aire PS-26 hood in brushed stainless with polished steel rivets and bands. Ours will be about 18 inches wider to accommodate the larger rangetop plus some overhang for more power.
Floorplan of our new kitchen.
Character Grade Natural Finish American Walnut. This will be used throughout the house, including the kitchen.
Waterstone Gantry faucet. We’ll have a matching faucet in our prep sink in the island.
The grey dining room light from Niche Modern. Ours will be the one with 4 bulbs. At 13 inches in diameter, it turned out to be larger in person than it looks online, which is perfect.
The clear Bella pendant light. We’ll have two over our island. The light is the narrower bell-shaped light with the light saber bulb.
What’s left? Nothing, I guess…oh wait! The appliances and cabinet inserts. We spent a ridiculous amount of time researching appliances, as one should, as well as where to buy them. We’re ultimately going with AJ Madison as they offered great deals for bulk purchases through our contractor. We wanted to go with a smaller mom and pop place in NJ, but between the sales tax (which they couldn’t waive), delivery fees and overall pricing, plus a tremendously antiquated paper-based system, AJ Madison turned out to be the winner.
So without further a-do, here are our appliance selections:
Rangetop: While we were momentarily lured by the fire power of the Capital Culinarian, the Bluestar range was our first and final choice. Fans of the product on blogs like Gardenweb (which, if you are looking at anything kitchen related without reviewing this blog, it is something akin to trying to hone a wheel out of stone with a butter knife), as well as various videos demonstrating the Bluestar’s general awesomeness sealed the deal:
In the end, we’ve opted for a 48 inch rangetop, which includes 6 burners and a 12 inch indoor grill (there was some hesitation about whether the grill, which receives mixed reviews, is worth the trouble, until we spent a mosquito-infested summer in Brooklyn an decided we were less enthusiastic about grilling outdoors). Here’s a visual:
Burner configuration.
Bluestar rangetop. Ours will not have the griddle.
Ovens: Why double wall ovens instead of going with a full range (including the ovens)? Unless you are getting a 60 inch rangetop, you’ll end up with one large, one small oven. The discomfort of bending over and attempting to view the contents of said ovens with an island directly behind you is also less appealing. With small children, we can also run the top oven without as much of a safety concern. Most of all, though, is that electric ovens are generally considered to be better for baking than gas, and we do a great deal of baking. We have opted for the DCS Fisher-Paykel electric wall ovens:
DCS Electric Wall Ovens
The hardware in the oven itself was far superior to many of the other options, and it includes great features like a built in probe thermometer, proofing functionality and the best broiler available on an electric oven at half the price of Wolf ovens (generally considered tops for electric ovens). We briefly toyed with the idea having one regular oven and on Gaggenau steam oven or combi oven (both of which offer great options for bread baking), but in the end, the great price and excellent features of the DCS ovens made them the winner.
Dishwasher: Having spent some time living overseas, we can attest to the vast superiority of European dishwashers. They simply do a better job and are quieter to boot. The general consensus was that Miele are the best but are about double the price of Bosch and require Miele trained staff for install and repair, so we scratched those off the list. However, you can’t just buy a Bosch dishwasher and assume you are good to go. After careful research, we discovered that there are two lines of Bosch: those made here, and those still made in Germany (the Bosch plus line). We opted for the German model for the quieter function volume, hidden controls (great with kids), cool rack configuration and great reviews:
Bosch 800 Plus Series SHX7ER55UC.
Refrigerator and Freezer: Years of living with other peoples’ tiny fridges with variously awful configurations made us a little nutty on this particular set of appliances. We’re going with a 36 inch fridge and a 30 inch freezer for an outrageously silly 5 1/2 feet of cooling capacity. We actually would have preferred a smaller freezer at 24 inches, but the brand we decided upon doesn’t offer a 24 inch model, so 30 inches it will be. The brand will be Miele:
Miele refrigerator.
Sinks: Having had a stainless sink in our last apartment that looked scratched and beat up from the jump, we wanted to go for a porcelain sink this time around. However, we also have seen the typical apron-front, farmhouse sink stained and mottled when the standard white model is used. We found a great option with the Blanco Silgranit line, made from 80% granite, which promises to be stain free. We’ll be using them for both the main and the prep sink. We were able to score an unbelievable price on both sinks at Hayneedle through regular searching and dogged persistence (a week later and the price has increased there by 40%)!
Microwave: We toyed with various options and locations for the microwave, and after reading the pros and cons of every possible option, we’re going with a cheap, non built-in option that comes highly recommended. This is your average Panasonic model with none of the bells and whistles we don’t need (convection oven, oversized capacity, etc.) and the one we can’t live without (a mute function…truly, if you have kids, this is a godsend). We also considered Sharp’s line of drawer microwaves, but we were turned off by the price and user complaints about the door and the ease of putting things in and pulling things out. One final tip for microwave selection: with built-in microwaves running well over $2000 (Yes!), you can buy a trim kit for less than $200 that will work with your $200 microwave and achieve the same look.
And here are a few of our favorite cabinet insert selections:
Utensil organizer:
Utensil organizer.
Above the oven cutting board storage:
Spice racks for the pantry:
Spice racks.
Under sink organizer:
Under sink drawer.
Under sink pullouts:
Under sink pullouts.
Pantry design:
Pantry design (ours will have french doors). Yes.
And my personal favorite, the baking station:
Baking station.
Designed to accommodate both bread and pastry baking, this will be brownstonegirl’s personal corner of heaven in this kitchen. The perfect height for kneading bread by hand, the wooden board need not be dragged up to counter height; it’ll easily be stored away underneath when not in use. Awesome.
The stuff dreams are made of, indeed. What are we looking forward to the most? Just having counterspace again – such a luxury after several consecutive rentals with limited space!
The plumbers and electricians were busy at the house this week. Most of the plumbing that is required before the plumbing inspection is complete (once the sheetrock has been put up and the tiles have been installed, they’ll come back to install the finishes (toilets, faucets etc.)). The electricians have finished all the outlets and most of the boxes for the lights. We are looking forward to when they will install the lights since we have about 10 big boxes from lighting stores stuffed into a corner of our son’s room.
Next week the heating and cooling guys are coming to start putting in the ductwork, and the data guy is coming in to run the computer cables through the house.
We are also bracing for the biggest task of the project: removing most of the back wall in the house which we are opening up.
Since a bunch of wires and pipes aren’t that much fun to take pictures of we’d thought we return to look at the design of another room in the house.
The kids’ bathroom is pretty small but we are squeezing in a shower/tub combo, a double sink and a toilet. We spent some time looking for tile inspiration and finally settled on a high border pattern like the one shown below.
We like the penny tile combination where the floor is white with a colored grout (which doesn’t show dirt as much) and there’s a colored penny on the border with white grout. We are doing a light blue for the border instead of the color shown in this picture. We also think the owls are cute but not sure if we’ll go that far. What do you think?
We have about 42″ to fit in the vanity and we’ve found one that we think will work. There aren’t many options when you want a double sink for that small a space but we’ve found this option from Lacava. They can run a little expense so we are searching for a cheaper version.
Over Thanksgiving, we were able to grab some great deals on Toto toilets and a tub. Researching toilets deserves a post on its own since the forum discussions around this topic are so interesting (no really, I mean it!). It was helpful to read about the difference between round and elongated toilet bowls, eco versus non-eco toilets, two piece versus one piece models, etc. There was clear agreement that kids are much more comfortable with round bowls, so we’ll be doing that in the kids bathroom.
The final thing to note about this bathroom is that there’s a shared wall between the bathroom and the master bedroom. In our old apartment we installed sound insulation bats between walls and they hardly made a difference. This time we are going with quiet rock which people much prefer. Here’s a quick video that demonstrates how well it works.
So, we have a moratorium in place in our house on discussing our kitchen backsplash, as we’ve gone over it a thousand times already with no answer in sight. We were thinking of waiting until the kitchen is complete and making a decision at a later point, but our contractor has indicated it might be best to begin setting whatever we choose before the cabinets and countertops are installed, giving a more seamless look.
So, first, here’s the floorplan of our new kitchen (a broader post on the kitchen itself will happen soon):
Floorplan of our new kitchen. Big. Dreamy.
The only area that will actually have a backsplash is the wall with the rangetop. The remainder will be finished with millwork and a dreamy wall of windows. Here’s a view of the part of the kitchen that contains the backsplash:
Range wall with backsplash area.
As you can see, we’ll have some heavy hitters on this wall: a 36 inch column refrigerator, 30 inch freezer, 48 inch commercial rangetop and a 54 inch stainless hood. All great stuff, but lots and lots of metal going on. The backsplash, however, is quite small (The cross-hatched area is the only area where we will have the backsplash). Depending on the trim we use for the range, it might be 10-20 sq ft at the most.
The layout will look fairly similar to this inspiration photo (including the limited amount of visible backsplash, plus our cabinetry will be similar, and we’re using the same lights in clear glass over the island):
So, here are a few elemental photos to get you in the spirit of the design (again, more will be a general kitchen post very soon!).
Color scheme:
Cabinets will be white, countertops will be grey and white granite or quartzite (white fantasy or super white granite), floors will be walnut. Here’s a photo of a white fantasy quartzite:
White fantasy quartzite.
Stronger than marble but with the look of marble, we used this beautiful stone in our old master bath and loved the look. We hope to find a slab with more of the swirling bits when it is time to purchase.
The overall color scheme will therefore be something like this:
Hood and hardware:
What will go directly above the backsplash? I imagine this is an important factor to consider. Here’s our new baby:
Modern aire PS-26 hood in brushed stainless with polished steel rivets and bands.
With some jockeying back and forth, we were able to eek out a great deal. Isn’t she pretty? We’ll also likely be using similar polished chrome cup style pulls, albeit with different knobs on the upper cabinets.
Cabinet style:
We’re going for an updated traditional/transitional look throughout the house, so the cabinets will be an inset, concealed-hinge beaded face frame design. Too technical? They’ll look something like this, but with hidden hinges:
Beaded face frame cabinetry.
Backsplash choices:
So, that leaves us with the ultimate question: what to do with that 10-20 sq feet of backsplash? Our beautiful lights, the wonderful light from all the glass at the back of the kitchen, the hood and of course, all those wonderful appliances will be enough to take center stage, but that wall will need some sort of protection. Do we therefore go with:
White subway: classic, but boring? If we go with white subway, do we go with white grout or dark grout for a more period look?
White subway backslash with white grout.
White subway with darker grout.
Gray subway: many options here (ceramic with some color variation, glass, opalescent, or high gloss. Too much gray?
Grey subway option #1: ceramic with some color variation.
Grey subway option #2 – glossy with no color variation.
Stainless – range panel only:
Stainless panel with shelf just behind the range. Our range and hood will be 24 inches narrower, but the finishes will be similar.
Stainless – entire backsplash:
All stainless backsplash. This has been the frontrunner, but our concern is the 66 inches of stainless fridge/freezer wall directly next to it, plus the 54 inch stainless hood and 48 inch stainless range all flanking it. Too much metal?
Pattern: The variety of patterns abound, of course, but we have narrowed it down to one that we are still considering:
And the wildcard: Chatham New Ravenna in stone. The pattern sort of mirrors the lighting we’ll have in the kitchen in a nice way.
If you aren’t familiar with New Ravenna, their stuff is stunning but pricey. However, given the small area we’ll need and the relatively more affordable pricing on this particular tile, it is still in the running. I also like how it complements the shape of the lights we’ll be using in the kitchen (see the blue or grey post for more on that).
So, dear readers. Do tell: what would make your heart sing when you walk into our fair gray and white kitchen? We’d love your input.
Lots of work to report this week as the plumbers have started putting in new drain lines and the framing of walls is nearing the end.
Garden level looking to back.
When we walked through the house last week with the GC and architects there was a lot of discussion around the parlor floor. We are fitting in a coat closet, powder room and pantry between the kitchen and living room and the space is tight (again our 18.75′ house width). It took a little adjusting but we were finally able to work everything out. We were a little nervous that we had ordered a toilet that sticks out too far when we lost a few inches in the parlor room. Fortunately when we got home we saw that the toilet we ordered was a round front which are a little shorter than the elongated front. (We should have waited to order the toilet but got a great deal over Thanksgiving and couldn’t wait).
Parlor floor looking back to the kitchen
While the powder area is tight, our concern from the beginning was how the top floor would feel with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a laundry. Now the framing has gone up things look good. The master bath is a little snug with our desire for a double shower but everything else feels OK. It was also great to be up there on a cloudy day in the middle of winter and still have great light.
Master bath.
Kids bath looking to the front of the house.
Next week the plumbing work continues and the electricians get started. Work also begins on opening the back of the house. That piece requires close coordination between the GC, steel guy and structural engineer.
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