from malaysia to our wall...

Etsy has been a source of a couple of great finds.  The newest comes direct from Malaysia.  We needed something to jazz up the wall behind the tub in the master bath.  See the wall that was in need of some design...

We received the package from Jin Fei on Friday and we ordered it on Sunday - pretty cool to see the DHL guy with our delivery from Malaysia!  The product is graphic wall decals - we only could fit 3 of the 5 trees on the wall.  It is exactly what the wall needed and looks awesome!

Watch the wall transform through photos taken with my phone.

Looks pretty cool.  After we ordered this and wanted these colors, I received an email asking if I was sure we wanted blue trees as they had never had a request for blue trees...I said yes, please produce the blue trees.  He was just looking out for us - which is pretty good customer service. 

The wall decals really add that graphic element that was needed - I wondered how he thought that lime green birds were normal since we weren't asked if we really meant to have green birds...  Funny guy!

we are beginning to see a finish line...

This post is going to be a quick update of many different topics - I haven't had time to do a lot of blogging since work keeps me busy, plus actual work seems to get done when I am out of town...

Floors

The floors look beautiful.  We chose a chestnut color - they are a bit shinier than I was hoping, but still beautiful.  Tom says they still have to put one more coat of varnish on...I wish they will also sand it and put a matte finish on it, but probably at this point what we see is what we get!

Master Bedroom

Loft Stair Leading Down

And I can't believe I am saying it, but I LOVE CARPET!!!  This is a Shaw Tuftex carpet called Promenade in Silver Lake color... check it out here.

Appliances



All of the stress we endured while the appliances sat in wait in the garage was unfounded...  They have now been installed and look awesome.  We even got a high five from the installer for installing the custom wood doors on the refrigerator ourselves!

The cleaning crew arrives on Monday to get the house in shape for the painters to do their final touchups.

Lights

The large drum pendant doesn't photograph well, plus we need to raise it about 5 inches closer to the ceiling.  The lights and the cabinet pulls really added some bling!

This summarizes about two weeks of work - cannot wait to have a professional take photos once the house is complete.  Stay tuned...

moving to their new home...

While I wish that this post was about people/dog people moving into their new home, meaning us and McKinney, that is not the case!  A couple of months ago, Tom, the builder, told us that the house would be ready mid June...that was the first time I realized that his perception of reality might differ from reality.  While we are getting very close (updates to come in a separate post), we are still very far away!   

So, as I jealously post this entry, our fish are getting to enjoy their new home before us...unh unh unh!  The only solace I get from this whole experience is that I would not be able to breathe underwater as long as they can!

The move began yesterday.  Thanks to the kind lady at Water Gardens Galore who provided us with fish safe bags and a pill for each bag that is supposed to like make them high or something so that they can manage the 20 minute ride in a bag filled with our nasty pond water.  Pond fish are quite high maintenance - when they get stressed they do this heavy breathing, really dramatic puffing thing. 

The pond that Dan built (awesome owner of Sublime Water Garden) is breaking in quite nicely...the bog plants are starting to do great things to the water.  If you do not know what a bog is, it is a natural filter with a lot of rocks that allow water to flow up through them to filter the water and then fall over the weir into the pond.

 All of the bubbles created by the waterfall oxygenate the pond...the fishies love the waterfall.  In addition, the bottom drain is aerated.  With 1200 gallons of bog filtered, aerated water, the new home of our fishies is quite an upgrade.  This is not to say that their former home was a dump...it just wasn't professionally installed plus it didn't have the modern equipment that makes it a sustainable, healthy environment.
 

The first three fish to move were basically the first three that we could catch and the other four evasive fish made their way this morning.  We also transported the pond plants to the new pond. 

Since the sacrificial lambs (fish given to us by Dan during the open house) and the first three fishies from our pond adapted just as well, I am most confident that the four today will think that it was worth the stress...however, from what I hear, fishies forget things every three seconds.

Stay tuned for when the real people are finally able to move to their new home...

diy update...

Well - after removing the forms, the concrete fireplace looks pretty good.  There are a couple of minor imperfections (places where the concrete didn't completely fill the mold) but we actually think that the imperfect look is kind of charming.  We will polish it up and see how it looks - if the holes get on our nerves then we will figure out how to use this paste or slurry stuff. 

I have posted the pictures below of the de-molding process.  I was actually expecting complete gaps where the concrete wasn't pushed into the mold properly...so we were pleasantly surprised!

Probably won't take any more pictures, but stay tuned for pictures that will have the fireplace to see the finished product.  I cannot wait to get the fire glass installed!

diy fourth of july...

We promise, we have sworn off DIY projects!  But, when we discovered that a polished concrete hearth was going to cost over 2000 dollars, we knew that wasn't in the budget.  After thinking it over, we decided that with the right product and with Tom's help, we might just do one final DIY project.  So, after talking to Tom, he said that he could have his guys build the mold for us and we could do the actual concrete work.  He made sure that if it turns out jacked up that it isn't his fault...we agreed that it would be our disaster and he isn't liable for the outcome. 

What better way to spend the Fourth of July 2012?  The mold will not be removed until Friday, so we do not know if it is going to be a disaster or not, but here is sort of a photo montage of the process.

We used a concrete product specifically created for countertops by Buddy Rhodes. You can check out his stuff by googling it...

The process is pretty straight forward - you basically buy these special bags of concrete, use color pigment (we chose smoke), measure some water, add one bag, add another bag, dig the concrete out and push it into the mold, kind of flatten it out, get more bags, add some water, get interrupted by a house stalker, try not to be rude to said house stalker, burn out a power drill, go to Home Depot to purchase another drill, try not to be rude to house stalkers husband, miraculously save the concrete that was in the middle of being mixed pre drill disaster, push that into the mold, and notice that it needs only one of the remaining two bags, measure half of the powder pigment, pour and mix one more bag of concrete, trowel it on and make it look as close to Buddy's finished products as we could! Sounds easy, right?

Like all awesome DIY projects, ours was no different...something always has to go wrong. If you followed along, our drill burned up in the middle of the projects and one of the warnings that is given by Buddy in his YouTube tutorials is not to stop mid project because you might not be able to match the color or it might dry weird or many other casualties of not completing the project all at the same time. Well, of course, our goal was to make Buddy proud of us and little did we know that the smoke rising from the drill motor was a sign of things to come. Oh yea, it died in the middle of the project. Unh Unh Unh...

Hope you enjoy the visuals if the above instructions didn't make sense!

I think Buddy would be proud of us...especially knowing the physical challenges we faced.  Only time will tell if the concrete filled out the mold properly...we will know on Friday when we remove the front of the mold... 

Stay tuned...

art and stairs...

Of all places, one of the biggest design elements of our house will be the stairwell.  If you cannot tell from the blog photos, there is a lot of wall leading to the second floor of the house.  We knew that even choosing the perfect color, it would still need something spectacular to bring the stairwell to life.   

We decided to commission a local Dallas artist (gallery is actually located in Oak Cliff...) to help add a wow factor to the expansive area. 

If you don't know Daniel Padilla's work, you should get to know it!  His whole family is artistic - Daniel and his brother and sister all have their art displayed all over the world, but you can also stop by and see it in person at the Padilla Gallery located on Davis, right by a great chocolate shop called Coco Andre.

Anyway, after he visited the house right after the drywall stage, he measured the space and developed a plan which we thought was going to be great.  Some time had passed and Daniel asked to visit a second time because he needed to see the space again because he said that he had thought of an even better idea which would take up more space on the wall and create an even more dramatic impact. 

Daniel finished the painting a couple of weeks ago and we cannot wait for him to deliver and install it in our new house.  He called it Beautiful World...and even though the two photos I captured on my phone are not the finished work, you can definitely see that it is quite beautiful!

The pieces will be hung on each of the three walls going up the stairs to the second floor.  The medium is hard art board and there are varying depths from 1" to 3" which will really have a great effect at night from the shadows cast by the lights.  In total there are 16 pieces - each piece is 8 ft tall.

 

These are not the finished pieces and were laid out on the floor of his gallery - he has since finished them by adding a shiny glaze which really brings out the colors.   

This was a very massive undertaking and we could not be more proud of the result - Daniel has told us that he will require about two hours to install these.  Let's just hope that he can maneuver a ladder much more gracefully than me!

quick post, lots of pics, not much explanation...

So, it has been quite a while since my last post, but I have been a bit busy.  As if building a house isnt't enough to keep folks busy, I recently took a new job with Accenture. 

For the first time in about a month, I was able to get the photos off of my phone and onto my computer so that I could provide an update on the progress of the build.  Plus, I have had quite a few requests, so here goes...

The pics are really not in a specific order or really organized in a way that makes sense and the descriptions will be brief so if you are curious, ask me a question. 

I will try to do a blog post each day this week in an effort to give details about the pond, furniture that is on order or received, art that we commissioned from a local artist here in Oak Cliff...  Notice I used the word try...executing may be a different story.

Entry - before grading of lot

Sidewalk - before grading of lot

Apron Sink - Kitchen Island



 

Handrail - taken from landing leading to second flight of stairs

Door Hardware

Upstairs Shower Tile

Upstairs Bath Wallpaper - Feature over Vanity (on order)

 

Master Bath Tile - Pebble shower floor

Kitchen after backsplash - Lights On!

Exterior - After Electricity

Grading and Pond Install

Driveway and Grading

Exterior after grading and electricity

Sidewalk and grading and electricity

Another grading

Pond location and grading and lighting

Utility - after tile and electricity

 

 

Penny Tile - Powder Bath before sealing of tile

These photos hopefully provide an update of all of the progress that has been made to date.  This week is supposed to be extremely productive - the deck is supposed to go in, the pond should be finished, air conditioning will be installed, plumbing and fixtures should be installed, appliances should be installed, our diy concrete hearth molds should be completed (I know I said no more DIY, but since we do not have to do the hard part which is the building of the molds and installing them on the wall, I think we can handle the concrete part - plus there are lots of tutorials online on how to use Buddy Rhodes products). 

I am guessing that maybe two of these things will get done...  But, we will just have to wait and see...stay tuned.