Our Remodel's Weblog

Basement Bar Finished

irvington — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 19:13:21 +0000

Here are some pictures of the finished (and stocked) basement bar. The bar top is Bubinga, and African Hardwood with very nice quilting.

Below is a picture of the finished floor, wainscot, picture mold, and stained doors. I stained the doug fir doors to match the mahogany. This picture looks through to the guest bedroom. You can even see the period style push button light switches.

Basement Lighting and Flooring

irvington — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 19:06:05 +0000

We installed the basement lights and the flooring. We bought and installed ourselves Kahrs flooring that is sustainably made in Sweden. It is a rustic grade of walnut. The color doesn’t quite match the red palate of the wainscot, but the basement does look good and the color variations are fun with low light.

This is a picture of the basement hall light.

Above is a picture of the main light over the bar/tv viewing area. it is from Arroyo craftsman. Notice how the ceiling is painted a bit darker than the walls. we will have the carpenter pit a mahogany picture mold on that seem. We couldn’t put the picture mold right next to the ceiling since the ceiling isn’t straight.

The basement bar has 3 pendants and 3 can lights, all on dimmers. You can see the wine cellar and the art glass relight window in the background.

Here is a picture of the freshly installed floor. The blue plastic is a waterproof underlayment with little foam balls on it. I took a knife to the edges and trimmed them up before the carpenter installed a base shoe. Since the baseboard is 10″ we went with a double sized base shoe.

You can see the kegerator on the left waiting for install.

Lighting Installed

irvington — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 04:49:46 +0000

Here is a picture of one of the vanities with the bowl sink and the vessel faucet. The two vanity sconces are from Schoolhouse Lighting.

Although they are from the same family, the other vanity has a double sconce instead of two single sconces. In this picture you can see the hand painted green band better.

Around the corner, is the closet and here is one of the two lights for it. Most of the rest of the lights were purchased at Rejuvenation. Generally their prices on just about everything are twice everyone else but their lighting is really nice.

We really hate can lights. They reek of spec home cheapness. They also produce a ton of heat and no interesting light. For this reason, nearly all our lights are custom made art pieces. Here is a view from the library to the master bedroom.

There are two of the above lights in the library and here is a close up of that master bedroom chandelier.

Basement Bathroom Fixtures Installed

irvington — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 04:31:09 +0000

Th pedestal sink in the basement bathroom was installed. We were a bit worried that the white sink would not fit with the earth tone palette of the walls and the tile but as you can see, it looks fine. The fixtures are good old Price Pfister.

Finish Carpentry

irvington — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 04:19:31 +0000

Here are some pictures of the moldings and woodwork that the finish carpenter is installing. The picture below is of the basement bedroom egress window. It looks toward a hedge and a rose bush then beyond to the driveway.

Below is the main basement window. You can see the basement entry door through the window. At the top of the casing is a piece called the lintel. In the rest of the house, there is a routed piece but for the basement we thought we would just keep it more simple and craftsman with a 2″ square lintel above the head.

Below is one possibility for the wainscoting. inside the stiles will be a piece of veneer. After the carpenter installed this mock-up, we decided to make the stiles one inch wider to emphasize them and have less veneer.

We justlove the grain of the wood.

Basement Bar Finished!

irvington — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 04:04:50 +0000

The basement bar and the wine cellar have been installed. This week the bar top was installed. It is a giant piece of 2″ Bubinga that the cabinet maker finished and installed. It has some sapwood on the ends that turned a golden hue with the application of a polymerized tung oil. In the background, you can see in to the wine cellar, which was also installed this week. It, like much of the rest of the newly installed woodwork is made of Mahogany.

You can also see that the carpenter has finished many of the casings around the doors. Here is a close-up of the Bubinga bar.

Here is the copper sink was installed in to the Ipe (Brazilian Walnut) counter top.

Finish Cabinet Hardware Installed

irvington — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:20:29 +0000

We chose similar hardware for most of our cabinets. The drawers are a Mission style D pull with a back plate. In the master bedroom built in we chose the oil rubbed bronze. In the bathroom we chose satin nickel finish. Cabinets doors will have a similarly Mission styled pyramid knob which you can see on the vanity pictures.

Granite Vanity Tops Installed

irvington — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:14:12 +0000

We chose a granite that has a similar but darker shade of green than the marble flooring. The wall color is also green but such a bright white shade of green that in bright light it looks white and only in the evening obstructed light does it hint at green. The marble also has a buttery color that picks up on the antique yellowed color we painted the trimwork.

Here is an up close of the granite. Notice also the quartz veins in it.

Staircase Railing Installed

irvington — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:55:04 +0000

The carpenter finished the railing above the staircase on the 3rd floor. We had to sand the floors under the railing because they would not be accessible once the railing was installed. The hardwood floors will eventually be refinished once the finish electrical and plumbing are done. For the railing we matched the main staircase railing bu using a McCoy Millwork historic railing plus some extra custom pieces to achieve the exact match. We will clear coat the handrail and paint the rest the same color as the trim work.

The picture below is taken in the morning accentuating the warm light in the library.

Since the floor was sanded and it doesn’t have the finish on it yet, we decided not to paint the railing.

For reference, here is a picture taken from the yellow Schoolhouse Lighting bags back toward the landing window.

We did learn one thing about painting and that is you should try not to get caulk on the blue tape because it makes tape removal more difficult. Repainting this existing window was also a good time to trim with a straight edge the gobs of peeling caulk and old paint on the exterior. Painting the exterior will have to come at some point but we’ve got our eye on finishing this project as soon as we can.

Attic Access

irvington — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:28:39 +0000

Originally, there was a normal door that went up to the 3rd floor ballroom but we wanted a more flowing design so we extended the casing to the ceiling and removed the door. If someone where to ever want to replace the door, they could install one with a leaded glass transom on top. There will still be privacy upstairs since the bathroom has a door and the bedroom is separated form the library by french doors.

(there is a board jam fit to keep the cats out until we clean up the space)