Day 87, Oh My Granite!

OMG... Oh My Granite is something we have be waiting for since we purchased three sisters (Yellow River Brushed) and an orphan (Blue Bahia) a year ago on 9/20/2012.

This is a huge milestone to get these stone tops installed on our cabinets. We have been working up to this moment like the oak flooring.

ABOVE,  Craig looks at the cutout for gas cook top as he wonders what the new granite looks like and how well will it blend with the rest of the Kitchen finishes.


LEFT, Darrell scan his new smart phone looking for lost messages and scheduling subs for post granite tasks.


BELOW, the Granite wagon arrives with all our stones ready to be installed.

This day is dedicated to the seasoned installer, George, the red shirt and Eric, the gray shirt, trusted assistant. Together they lugged heavy stone slabs, fixed edges, tilled them to cut rough board, glued them, sealed them, caulked them, drilled holes for fixtures and cut hole for sinks and appliances.

RIGHT, George prepared stone to hide any trace of a cut line on the granite. Further down the blog see the color kit.

LEFT, Craig checks out the new deep utility sinks. Sandy lobbied for the largest deep sink she could fit in that cabinets.


I am testing the drain hole to insure good flow. You can almost give a Maine Coon cat a bath; watch out, Will and Grace.

 The crown jewel of the stones to be install is the Blue Bahia topping our island counter. We guessed it weighs in excess of 400 pounds. George leads the helpers as they head the slab to the front door.

Buba assist his team to position the slab as it will rest in it's new home.

It is important that the sink hole aligns properly on the island counter top cut out.

 

George and Buba check the critical dimensions to insure the slab is sitting just where it suppose to.

Buba and Eric slides the slab till every element is in perfect alignment.  Now, George can apply the silcone adhesive on the rough board and drop the slab back into position on the island counter.

The Steeles have that rare situation they are both taking photos at the same time on this key remodel phase. Sandy is using a flash to capture her construction candid poses. Craig is shooting with available to document his phase of this construction. 

By the end of day we shot over 500 action images.

Darrell and Buba discuss a critical detail concerning using the stone to create a backslash shelf combo. Part of the conversation is discussing the stone mini counter on the other side of the Kitchen window.  George is checking how level the stone is as it sits on the new cabinets.

RIGHT, the building colleagues agree to what are next steps; then laugh at some past installations or just joke about their current clients, Craig and Sandy.


I am sure their work has never been so documented like this remodel.

RIGHT, Eric and George prepare the rough boards by rounding the edge before slipping the stone slab into position.

Fabrication involves so much of small handheld power tools. You are cutting, drilling, vacuuming,  trimming, etc. for each phase of the installation process.

The following are some of the tools of the trade to get the results you come to expect from craftsmen dedicated to client satisfaction.

LEFT is diamond blade cutting saw
used to make the cutout for the gas cook top.  Note the vacuum nozzles catching the fine cutting dust

The surrounding three photos show how George achieves the correct color match as he fills the seams between slab to mask their are separate stones. It is quite an art requirement mixing a base color and troweling into the seam and when satisfied with the color add the hardener to the initial resin for the permanent sealer.

BELOW, Can you see a seam?

RIGHT is the gluing the 'L' shaped slab into place. After this piece was glued the sister slab was butted up and aligned into position.

ABOVE, the final check to make sure the new fixture fit.

 We had one problem needing to be fixed. Darrell discovered in unpacking the fascets for the bathrooms that they would be hit by the door swing of the mirror... Ops. So Stacy had to rise the medicine cabinets 3-1/2" to clear the door swing.

BELOW, is a partial view of the Blue Bahia in the Hall Bathroom.

ABOVE, are two key products to keep our stone looking good over the years.

BELOW, what the counter now looks like at Five AM.  

Check out the first picture in this blog to see the difference, OMG!

NEXT: I will be off on a road trip for three days so look for the next blog

 on Thursday PM or Friday AM.

Day 84-86, The Oak Floor Installation

This blog is dedicated to getting the new oak floor installed. This is a critical milestone in this project because of the project tasks stacked up behind this phase. Darrell and Stacy have taken a back seat while Dan and Scott do their thing to get the floor installation complete.

ABOVE, this is a view of the floor install from the Kitchen into the Living room (antique). Note the weave of old and new planks in top center of photo. Before the planks can be set in place a special paper is laid between sub floor and the oak planks.



LEFT, Scott lays last rows of planks as he reaches the front entry door. With his stapler, saw and boom box he gets closer to completion.

LEFT, Dan takes a critical look at the threshold between the new floor and the Hallway floor. This is a critical transition because this part of the original floors we are keeping and just re-finishing. Also this floor is mixture of three width of planks with 1/2" wood dowel plugs.

 

 ABOVE, Dan inspects oak plank bundles. We are past the half way point to installing the floors.

ABOVE, Dan and Scott butt planks up to the toe kicks of the pantry cabinets.

BELOW, Scott staples planks in the threshold piece going into the Hallway. You can get a good view of the old Hallway floor pattern and the new uniform planks pattern.

ABOVE, this is a series of photos of various areas in the Kitchen where the floors are installed. Note the cavities where this happens is the dishwasher and the wine cooler bay locations.

BELOW, the installers work their way completing the floors in the far end of the Kitchen towards the back porch and mud room.

 

 ABOVE, this is what the raw oak plank installation looks like. It will be another week before the installers return to sand the old and new planks and apply the finish stain and protective coatings.

BELOW, Here's the first glimpse of what sanding does to blend the old and new planks into a seam less collection of unstained and un-coated planks.

One of the critical operations is return the utility room to active duty. This means Sandy can keep up with her French laundry duties. So Darrell hooked up the unit and left for the day. However, Sandy reported a leak and Michelle came to the rescue. She went through a thorough evaluation and discovered the cold water hose needed tightening.

ABOVE, Michelle demonstrates her  skills to solve D-Built customers needs armed with her wrench and flashlight she got the job handled.   

BELOW, She reports back to her husband that the leak has been fixed and got the highest marks for customer satisfaction.

BELOW, is the island granite counter top at Buba's fabrication shop.  Note how the edges are finished with 3/8' reveal. There will be a copper sink cut into this slab.

Today,  Friday is a contractor free day till next week...

NEXT: Monday will be another milestone day as the granite counter tops will start to arrive and begun to be installed. There are four slabs worth of counter tops to be attached and fitted.

Darrel and Stacy will need to replace the current Kitchen rough boards with a 13 plywood to support the granite counter top cantilevered over the cook-top and sink sections.

Also, the plumber will be installing five sinks: two in the Hall Bathroom and Kitchen, one in the utility room plus hooking up the shower hardware. 

Mikey may make show up too. Hope he has a solution for these LED lights that stay on... 

Oh Boy, a driveway full of white Ford trucks all next week.