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Updated: 13 February 2011
13 Feb 11: Final pictures moved from Home page to here. Master Bathroom Before (On 30 August 2010)
Master Bathroom After (On 22 December 2010)
Master Bedroom
THE PROJECT IS COMPLETE!!!!!!! On 22 December we conducted a final walk through and closed the project. What a tough time this has been driving through the last few things that had to be done. But the outcome is exactly what we had envisioned, maybe even better. The delays in the project actually gave us time to think through a few of the pieces of the project and make some changes that were definately the way to go. For example, since the contractor did not plan to apply a decorative finish to the sides of the towers (which is what was in the pictures we gave him for design), we had the opportunity to have them install side mirrors. That adjustment in the design was the right way to execute these towers. There is much more light that comes in to the room and across the vanities. The past two weeks we got the shower glass completed, the side mirrors for Randy's vanities installed, and touch up of the paint and staining. About 8-9 hours worht of effort, with 6-1/2 hours happening on Tuesday the 21st! Project manager finally came over and applied some effort and supervised the project. If we had only had half that focus before we probably would have been done a month ago. It appears the company only pushes when it beconmes completely untenable for both the customer and them. But, we managed to get it completed before Christmas!! Final pictures and side by side Before and After are below.
This will be our last posting on the project!!! Merry Christmas Everyone!!
Updated progress 29 November - 12 December Two more weeks have passed and "You Got It" - We still are not done!! Can you believe it? I think they took me seriously when I sarcastically said maybe they'd get done by Christmas when they blew Thanksgiving! We are SO close. The past two weeks the shower glass folks replaced the scratched door, BUT they hung it upside down. When they came back out to flip the door, they chipped the transom! So now we are waiting for a new transom to be cut and maybe installed next week. While the frameless shower is absolutely the right way to go and it looks really wonderful, it has been painful getting it completed. Cabinets - the guys finally showed up with the side frames and mirrors. Well, since the project manager did not bring the cut pieces out to ensure they were measured and cut correctly (as we told him he should since there has not been a stage in this project where something was done right the first time!), guess what?? Yep - wrong! The side mirrors for both vanities were too large. Fortunately, the ones made for Randy's vanity towers fit mine, so they were able to use those. His are being re-done. We hope to see those installed this coming week. The drywall contractor fixed the opening between the tub face and corner wall, the finishers fixed all the drawers and doors. They have a couple of finish pieces on Randy's that need to be tweaked, but supposedly they will do those when they come back out to install his side mirrors. We also have bath hardware installed now. The right ones on the third try! SO when you look at the "What's left" chart from 31 October - 14 November you can see it's taken a month to get those few items complete and we still need Randy's side mirrors, replace the chipped shower glass transom, finish Randy's trim, and final repairs and paint and stain touch up. We've been busy during our two weeks. We got the new carpet installed on 2 December - looks fabulous! We hung new draperies in the bedroom. We found a table for the chair in the sitting area at a store closing sale and a lamp on clearance at our favorite lighting store. We also installed light kits on the ceiling fans as it was a bit too dim with only the uplights. We also found a three switch single pole switch and had the electrician change out their two pole switch. This allowed us to have the shower light and fan on separate switches. Electrician had not seen one before and took the manufacturer's box with him! Now we have all the lighting on separate switches, and the fan also. So, we are partially moved back in. We started sleeping in our own bed again on the 3rd and moved some bathroom stuff in on the 10th. We have lots to do with the move in process so it will probably be Christmas week before we get all settled. Never would have imagined that! I hope that the next posting on this page will be a "Completed, Finally" update!
Updated progress 15 - 28 November On Wednesday, 1 December, it will be three months since we started this remodel and we still are not done. After "We want it done by Thanksgiving" by the contractor, that did not happen! We did make some more progress this two weeks in that the electrical is basically completed, including hanging the new ceiling fans, and the shower glass was installed. That was a real nightmare. It took 4 tries at the glass that goes across the granite surface between the tub and shower. We've had the wrong cut, broke in the tempering oven, wrong cut again (actually they tried to short cut and just cut a straight edge and wanted to cut our granite tub surface!) and then finally a piece cut correctly. Now it looks fabulous but in cleaning it up we found glass rubs on the door. So we have to get that fixed or the door replaced! Mirrors for the vanities - well you'd think that would be easy?? Nope - they cut one mirror off the measurements and the other was measured wrong. But that's okay they broke that one on the granite as they were checking it for fit! SO waiting for a second try now. From the list we had below, the painters did come in a do the second coats on the crown moulding and baseboards, but they will be the last ones in for final touch up. Cabinetry is basically installed but there are still some issues with trim pieces for Randy's vanity and the drawers that don't fit and glide well. And the bath hardware - that's a real laugh! A few weeks a go a delivery guy brought "hardware" and it was Moen Brantford. We were told that our project manager had not ordered these, that they had sent out the list for pricing only! Okay.... Well on Friday the 19th, the finish carpenters arrived with "the hardware" and it was Moen Sage. Not even as close as the Brantford had been to our Kohler Devonshire! Incredible!! Now this mistake was supposedly made by the provider who priced the items we wanted, but sent the Sage instead because it is cheaper! Gads... how can people stay in business? So I have added checkmarks for what is "done". So here we are still not done. Very frustrating and I hate to even try to estimate. I somewhat jokingly told the project manager Wednesday that maybe we could get this done by Christmas? We have a house that looks like a bomb went off permanently, we couldn't have company for Thanksgiving, we cancelled the thought of an annual open house this year, and don't know when we will be able to begin to think about Christmas decorations except for outside (that way our neighbors won't think we are grinches!). They are supposed to get back in here Monday, but we'll see. Most weeks we get one or two days of effort and the rest of the time is wasted. If they would just focus.... We completed some more projects ourselves. We had the uplights ready for the electrician and they look perfect with the vanities. Randy re-worked the vintage clock and it runs like a charm. It looks perfect in the bathroom! We also found a vase and selected flowers for an arrangement. Carey put that together yesterday and it is exactly the touch we were looking for on the tub. We also found marble vanity accessories that look great too. And...Randy scheduled the carpet install for Thursday 2 December! That's a biggie for us as we could actually start moving back in to the closet. So, it is now the "Neverending Remodel" !
Updated progress 31 October - 14 November Well we are making incremental steps forward. We have completed all of our projects except for having the new carpet installed and hanging bedroom drapes. Draperies are already here and waiting. We had to postpone the carpet another two weeks. During the past two weeks we completed all the painting in the closet; installed new chrome closet rods; set up and tested the receiver, antenna, and Ipod dock in the linen closet; and purchased an oil painting and table lamp at a trunk show and sale at a furniture store. On Saturday we ended up in a second hand store and found a great vintage clock. It's an eight day clock that was made in the 1940's or 1950's. Works great with our bathroom design. If it doesn't run well we can change the internal workings to a quartz movement, but we are letting it run first and then may check with a clock repair shop. On the remodel project, we finally have the tub installed, plumbed, and powered. It looks fantastic and runs smoothly. The tile setter finished the tub face and the backsplashes for one of vanities so we are almost done with tilework. The third attempt on the cabinets appears to have worked, Both vanities have nice 9" deep drawers on the left. My vanity has two extra drawers in the center cabinet. Towers are up and stain is complete. The installers have to come back and install all the drawers and doors. Finishing the wood was a really messy business. They actually sprayed on the two layers of finish and the fumes were incredible. We had windows open and the fans running but it permeated the house. We opened a lot of windows on Friday to pull the worst of it out of the house. Not surprisingly, when Randy mentioned this to the project manager he said "he forgot" to tell us about that! At the same time the painters were in spraying, the glass team came to install the frameless shower glass enclosure. As they started to place the pieces they learned that the main piece of glass (between the tub and shower) was not cut right around the edge of the tub. Another mistake, but this one caused by wrong instructions from the project manager. We heard nothing on Friday and no responses to our voicemail or email so we are not sure if they got it resolved and we will have the glass team back early this week. The glass supervisor told Randy that it would be Monday at the earliest. They can't re-cut the glass as it has been tempered. They planned to re-cut Friday and send it to be tempered. So he thought Monday afternoon at the earliest. Friday the 12th was another complete no show day! There are a number of the small tasks that could have been worked, but no one came to the house. If they would just get organized and send the workers out each day we could get this project done. What do we have left? By our count this morning,
So, maybe we can get this project complete before Thanksgiving?????
Updated progress 11-31 October: And we still are not done! Another long three weeks with only some progress. You know I said the cabinet maker was doing good work, he just didn't execute what we wanted?? Well, he did not execute any of the fixes, ours or some other projects the builder had him working on! The re-worked cabinets were to be delivered on the 12th or so, and while Randy was called that they were on the way, it was a no show! So the next day the project manager went to his shop. Nothing had been done! So he fired him and they had to find another cabinet maker. Well it was nearly a full two weeks until the next pieces were delivered. When the carpenters started to install on Friday, the 22nd, they found that the drawers were too narrow and some other elements of the design had not been done. We spent the weekend thinking about the errors as well as the missing parts of the design. We also could tell that the tops needed to be uplit so the ceiling would catch some light and brighten the room. With only downlights in the bridges it would be too dark, especially at Randy's vanity area. The project manager came to the house Monday the 25th and after going through everything with Randy we got an email from the builder. He seemed to think we were making changes and did not appear to understand what had happened from his project manager. Since he personally had not been to the house since very early in the timeline he had not seen any of the progress, or lack of, and issues. It was time he come over himself. Randy met with him and the project manager on Tuesday, 26th, and finally we got it all straightened out, we think. Not much has happened this week but the cabinet maker was back out and the project manager took him through the fixes. Next week is supposed to be busy with buffing the granite, installing the tub (finally!) and hopefully the cabinets and shower glass. If we can just keep this on track maybe we will be done by Veteran's Day! We also decided to get working on "our projects" during this significant downtime. In order to be as ready to move back in as we can be, we've been working on the weekends. The painters had not painted the interior of the linen closet nor the small closet under the stairs where we store our luggage (it's in the master closet). The door handles needed to be changed from the bright brass to oil rubbed bronze. We also decided we needed to change the door hinges from the brass ones (many of which had been painted over !). We had to replace the large window blind as it was damaged when the painters took them down and laid them on the bed, then put the bed rails on top! Once we got the new blind up we realized we needed to replace the other three! The old ones were not very sturdy and now the wrong color. We also decided that while we can't afford to put in a closet system , we could re-do the rodding and re-paint the shelving to make it look better. The closet rods were just wood poles that have beent over time and do not look very nice. We also had the custom window treatments installed this weekend. While we originally thought the drapes would arrive after the bathroom was complete, it kind of worked out. Since the tub still has not been installed, there's a big hole available to set the ladder and install the drapery! Making lemonade out of lemons! Yes! I've set up a new table with pictures from our projects and also the custom window treatments. The table is below the remodel schedule and progress updates. So we'll see how this next week goes. I have to go to DC this week so unfortunately Randy's on his own with this. We both hope it is a very busy week with much accomplished!
Updated progress 25 September to 10 October: The past two weeks have been a real challenge. We should be preparing to move back into our bedroom and bathroom this weekend, but instead we will not be done until probably near the end of the month. The first part of the week of the 27th was quiet and then we had a major issue on Wednesday, 29th. They delivered "the tub" for installation and it was the wrong tub. The tub we ordered is a Kohler with bubble massage and chromotherapy. The tub they tried to deliver and install did not have the chromotherapy which is an increased cost. Kohler makes the tubs by order, so there is a 4-6 week lead time to just get it in to the builder's warehouse. Randy called me that morning and was so upset that he could hardly talk. When he told the on site project manager that it was wrong, he argued with Randy and told him it was what we had ordered. That did not make things better and Randy asked him to leave the house for awhile. I came home from work and pulled our working folder with all the documents and then found the email from Curtis that confirmed the selection and that it was part of the increase in the project cost from the first proposal. We had met with him and gone through the details and added a few things to the proposal, like the crown moulding in the room. I also had checked that he had not priced the chromotherapy and that we wanted it included. The email documented the differences between the first bid and the final bid that we ended up signing. Later that afternoon Curtis acknowledged that there had been a mistake and it would be 2-3 weeks before the tub would be shipped. The delay in the tub has a domino effect in the schedule. The shower glass contractor cannot template the glass until the tile is installed on the front of the tub deck. The tile contractor cannot tile the front until the tub and plumbing are installed. Once those steps occur, then it will be another 1-1.5 weeks before the glass is cut and ready for installation! So we are reeling a bit on the delay. That was not all. On Friday, 1 October, the cabinetmaker delivered the towers and arches. First we still did not have the granite top for Carey's vanity and then... Oops again! While the towers with installed medicine cabinets for Randy's vanity are nearly perfect, the towers for Carey's are wrong. The towers were supposed to have about a 4-5 inch false bottom to them. Inside that area the electrical outlets are installed so I have plugs on both sides of the sink. The cabinet maker did not clearly understand the design and made a 14 inch false bottom for the left tower and no false bottom for the right tower. He thought that the left had to be high as the location of the light switch on the wall. SO... again, phone calls to the project manager. We also looked and the arches were made as a false front with nothing behind. The arches not only bridge between the two towers but are to be boxed in order to hold the puck lights to light the surface of the sink. Let me say this though, the cabinet maker's work is wonderful. His detail and finish color is perfect, exactly what we wanted. The end result will be extraordinary, but it is just painful and frustrating to have to go through re-work. IT would be really nice to do things right the first time! The plumbers came and moved the drain for the tub and installed some of the plumbing fixtures. We can tell that our choices were perfect for the look we want. During the second week of this update the electrician was back out and installed the chandelier and most of the electrical work. He will have to come back after we get the cabinets installed. We hope that happens next week. The cabinets are now supposed to be delivered and installed on Tuesday, 12 October. The tile contractor came and laid the stone floor and finished all the grouting. The only tile work left to complete is the front of the tub deck. The crown moulding and baseboards were installed. These are ready to be caulked and painted. And finally, on Saturday, on overtime, the granite installers brought out Carey's vanity countertop. It is great and looks like it came from the same slab. The sink is centered now. We are ready for the cabinets to be installed. Photos and progress notes are in the table below!
Latest pictures and progress notes for 14-24 September are entered below. Scroll down to see the updated progress and photos. The past two weeks have been frustrating for us as there has been quite a bit of "dead" time and lack of communication from the site project manager. We know it is difficult managing sub-contractors and their schedules, but the work flow has been off the past two weeks and we really have not been told when and if a worker will show up. And several times when we have been told they would be here, no one showed or called. Randy is tied to the house 100% of the time. He calls it his "100 foot chain". Most he can do is walk to the mailbox IF he has the phone in his hand! It is not only courtesy, but important to keep a customer informed when schedules change or slip. There have been some days with no one here to work when Randy could have had some time out of the house to run errands or even to meet friends for lunch. That only adds to our personal frustration. The first real problem occurred on Thursday, 23 September. We've had little issues along the way, but Randy has been here and he has been able to intervene, consult or help correct mistakes before they became permanent issues. The granite contractor arrived on 23 September and installed the tub deck and the countertops for the vanities. Randy's was fine, but Carey's was cut with the sink offset. It was (and still is this morning) painfully obvious that the sink hole was cut wrong. They went ahead and glued it down and then left without a word to Randy. The project manager did come out and see it, thought that maybe we could "just change the design (no way!) and shift things to left?" while you can see that we would have to cut through the cabinet walls underneath in order to install the sink. Then he left. We've not heard a word since Thursday afternoon. The granite for the entire bathroom was cut from one slab which we had carefully selected for the shading of the colors and "pattern" arrangement". Some slabs were too pinkish, others not enough of the golds and greens we wanted to see. We are also concerned about the integrity of the cabinet base when they remove the granite and believe the base may have to be completely re-built. It's incredible that the installers did not check the alignments first before they glued it down! The builder and his project manager have probably been discussing their way ahead (we hope) and will have some answers for us in the morning, Now, there is some good news. The tile work is absolutely beautiful and just as we envisioned. It is taking a lot of time to install, but the tile contractor is extremely good and very precise. We've also had the painters in and the color we selected with Lorraine's help is also perfect. It's called 'Cargo Pants' by Sherwin Williams and it's exactly the soft shade of green with a hint of grey that we saw on the color chip. Sometimes the actual paint color is a little different than a card, but not this color. All the decisions we made pairing the paint, tile, and granite are absolutely right. So assuming the problem with the vanity gets resolved correctly the bathroom is going to be spectacular. We also contracted with Lorraine to have window treatments made for the bath. We're doing an Austrian Shade with a 2 swags and cascades top treament over the glass block window. There's a small window in the toilet room and we will have a roman shade over that window made from the same material as the top treatment for the glass block. It will be about 6 weeks or more from now before we get those, so the true finish of the project won't be until we have the window treaments installed. While we are doing the bath we also decided to work the rest of the suite. We had some problems with the ceiling in the bedroom and it needed fresh paint also, so that was fixed this week and the whole bedroom and bathroom are the same color. We painted the closet ourselves to match and are nearly done. We still need to paint the shelves and in the storage closet under the stairwell. We are also looking at changing out the hanging rods from the wood poles (that are bent and very old style) to metal. Another small project we can do ourselves. The last thing is to replace the carpets in the bedroom and closet. We've gone back and forth on the closet flooring looking at tile, wood, and carpet and finally decided that we should just go back to having carpet in there. That will help retain the consistent look throughout the bedroom, bathroom, and master walk-in closet. We have a separate company that we are working with to do the carpets as soon as the bathroom is complete. So, that's the latest set of updates. We are still hoping that this project can complete "on time" which is still projected for the 8th of October. Updated progress and photos are in the tables below.
This Olde Bathroom After living with a very basic master bathroom for the 7+ years we have lived in San Antonio, we've made the big decision to remodel and update the bath to current standards! When we bought the house we knew that it was not the bathroom we wanted to have, but one of the items we put "on the list" to deal with later. Two years ago we upgraded the kitchen with new appliances and island countertop. Still lovin' it! Now it is time work the magic on the master bath. This time we are getting more than a little help! We will use this page to document our progress through the project. We've contracted with a builder and are starting to make decisions. In a few weeks I'll starting posting updates As with all projects you have to take the "Before" Pictures, so we will start with those. Please note that all photos, unless otherwise identified, are the property of Randy and Carey Klug.
This Olde Bathroom ("Before" ) 12 July 2010
Beginning the Process May 2010: Randy and I had been thinking about this off and on for a long time. We had ideas about the vision of the bathroom, but it's not until you begin really focusing on it that you start to pull together the elements. We also were limited by the existing layout of the bath nor can we add on or widen the room. We began by getting a couple of magazines at the grocery store one weekend. Amazingly we opened up the first one and there was a bathroom remodel that really appealed to us in color, cabinetry, fixtures, and overall look. Then we took lots of measurements and laid it out in PowerPoint for a "rough existing layout" we could discuss with potential contractors.
June 2010: We knew the shower enclosure had to be fixed. The current walled in shower is actually starting to fail in some areas. We think the builder might not have used the right waterproof lining or just did it in a manner that has not lasted. Shower designs have changed through the years and most enclosures are frame less glass now. We saw several in the magazines and knew we liked the look. Changing to full glass opens up the room and makes it feel much larger. This will also allow for full view of the tub and deck surface as we know we are going to go with granite for the tub deck and countertops. We actually decided on the tub first! The current tub is apparently the lowest end, builder grade, one piece whirlpool you could ever hope to find. We've not even used it in over 5 years as the jets and lines never get clear/dry and you have to completely flush the system whenever you want to use it by filling the tub, running the jets to blow out the "mung", clean everything out, drain, and then refill the tub to take a bath or whirlpool. Nope - not very relaxing! So after much thought and research, we decided on a bubble massage with chromotherapy. We chose the Kohler Portrait Bubble Massage with Chromotherapy as it fits in the same space as the old one, yet has a large bathing well.
It's hard to see from this graphic, but the tub has tiny openings for the air to flow through and then lights around the inside that change color or stay steady. Pretty neat! A big seller to us is that the tub goes through a drying cycle after you drain it so the lines stay clean. We also knew we wanted to change all the fixtures from the shiny nickel and gold trim. So more research and we finally settled on Kohler's Devonshire line in oil-rubbed bronze. We actually changed out our hallway powder room a few weeks ago with a Delta faucet to see if we really like this finish. We do!
Graphics from Kohler Website
Mid-June 2010: So we did as much as we could without consulting help! It was time to find a builder/remodeler. Randy began researching remodelers. Randy discussed with several different companies and he really liked a couple. Around the middle of June Randy met with a couple different companies. He was very interested in one and asked the builder to come on a Saturday so I could meet him and discuss the project. We met a couple more times, talked through how he'd do the work and shared ideas. July 2010: We made our decision and signed a contract on 7 July with Ramey Custom Builders. The owner of the business, Curtis, will be managing our project. One of our challenges with this project is Randy and I are very good at knowing what we like when we see it, but how to put a tile design together for example, is a bit beyond us! Curtis brought in an interior designer, Lorraine Davis, to work with us. She met with us at a tile and granite showroom and helped us piece it all together. Then we looked at cabinets and also met with her at a cabinet showroom. Here's samples of the different elements we've selected and her initial sketch for the design of the tile.
As of 1 August 2010 Project Schedule The timeline for the project is 6 weeks from the start of the work. We anticipate that the project will start on 30 August. All materials for the job will have been ordered, designed, or scheduled for delivery prior to the start. This will enable the project to proceed on the planned timeline. The schedule is as estimated by Curtis Ramey and dates as are estimated by inserting a 30 August start date to the schedule. Plus or minus we should be complete by Columbus Day! We will track the progress of our project using the below calendars and schedule. As we update, we will upload photos, personal progress notes, etc, documenting our transformation from the "Olde Bathroom" to the "New Bathroom".
26 December: Project executed in 114 days, 73 days past scheduled completion date 26 September: The project started on 1 September. Today is shaded Blue.
Green cell color- Complete // Yellow cell color - Ongoing // Red cell color - Behind Schedule
Had to add a December calendar!
Here are photos from our own projects we've done for the Master Suite and the draperies
Page Updated: 3 September 2011 Page Created: 14 July 2010 |
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6 Dec
