Rushwood {take two}
Renovation projects are slow and this one is no exception. As I mentioned in my previous post, Rushwood has solid concrete walls and this has proved to be challenging on all fronts. Since we needed to change plumbing and electrical locations, walls had to “furred out” to run new wires and pipes. In other words most of the walls had to have wood framing built in front of them. This gave us complete flexibility for layout changes but it reduced the size of the walls in many areas that were already small. Here’s the progress of the sink wall in the guest bath.
Now that the framing is almost done, it’s time to order cabinets. These clients love color and I’m here for it. In the kitchen and laundry room we’re doing blue cabinets. For the bathrooms, they selected a quarter sawn oak cabinet with the perfect brown stain. Here are the selections we have planned for the guest bathroom above. I love the mosaic tile we picked for the floor and the fun soft green subway is going in the shower. The brown texture for the mirror is going to look great. I still have to select cabinet hardware and wall paint, but we’re getting close!
This past week I had a final design meeting with the cabinetmaker where we reviewed all of the drawings to make everything was right before the orders placed. She still does hand drawings so we try to get as many edits done at one time. Here’s a peak at the window wall in the kitchen and how it looked right after demo. They took the wall down between the kitchen and breakfast room to create a larger kitchen. Since we have a corner to contend as well as two different window heights, a mix of traditional wall cabinets and open shelving made the most sense. I now need to work on backsplash tile. I want to take it all the way to the ceiling, so it has to be really special and budget friendly.
Another “fun” challenge is the family room floor is lower than the rest of the house. Originally it was a garage, then it was converted into a mother-in-law suite and now it’s becoming one large space. There’s a peninsula that will divide the kitchen and new family room. The seating will be on the side with the lower floor, so the contractor has to make sure the floor difference is exactly 6” so we can use bar height stools to reach the counter. This is where planning is so important!
After my meeting with the cabinetmaker, I did a quick site visit to check on the progress and make sure the electrical was laid out like we had planned before the walls get drywall. Everything looked good! As I mentioned in my previous post, my clients live out of town so I make sure to get by the house as needed. It’s definitely not pretty, but it will be. Here are a few more before photos to appreciate how far we’ve come.
