Pool Table Lights, Pet Friendly Flooring, Rain Garden

The pool table lights have been installed. They need to be rotated 90 degrees though. Because of the direction the peak runs, the long way of the ceiling plate was run along that peak. Which puts the light going across where the table will sit, instead of the long way of the room. The electrician had to have known this installation was not right. Something Steve will have to fix... Anyway, the lights are pretty and go great with the colors in the room. These lights are also used for my pendants in the kitchen. You can also look through the archway and see ceiling fans have been installed in my kitchen and living room.

The flooring has been installed in the pool room. This is the Pet Friendly Flooring. It looks great! You can also see the rain garden on the north side through the door/window.

And Steve stepped outside and got a better picture for me, since it's looking so pretty now. The Fringe Trees on either end are blooming nicely. The female is on the left and the male is on the right. The Service Berry tree (in the center of the bed, to the left of the PVC site tube) got beaten up during the ride from Hampton to here, so I'm glad to see it is greening up.

Wilsonart Countertops

The Wilsonart Countertops on Mom's side are in. I don't think the production/installer did a very good job. They didn't template and ended up with a big gap at one end of the backsplash. So they filled it with a huge bead of white caulk. We weren't too happy with that. They have since done something to make it not be so visible. I don't have a picture of the fix, but this is what it looked like after the installation.

Grading, Shower Tile

Steve has been working on grading the back yard. He's got a nice slope to the woods.

The dogs are going to love having all this room!

The tile in the 4-way bath shower is finished:

Foyer Ceiling Lights

I've got several flush mount ceiling lights. I previously spray painted them to match other oil rubbed bronze fixtures throughout the house. I wanted the foyer lights to look more dressy though. So, I got some drum lamp shades, built some diffusers out of flexible cutting boards with linen modge-podged onto them, and installed them.

The end wall of the foyer also has the accent wall painted now. It's blue but it almost looks lilac.

Laundry Room

This is Mom's laundry room. She's got a cabinet above the washer and a hanging bar above the dryer. The part above the bar is to hide the dryer vent. It was made with some bead board that was left over from the islands. My laundry also has the cabinet and hanging bar.

Rain Gardens (Bioretention Devices)

I got all of the rain garden plants home in decent shape. I had to keep stopping and adding more rope to the tarps and I bought a heavier cover (a pick-up bed cover) at an AutoZone along the way and added that to the trailer. The normally 3 hour trip took 5 hours because I stopped periodically to tighten knots and add rope. Some of the plants' branches pierced the tarp and those tips are gone. But otherwise, the plants did ok. I'm going to give them some time to rebound, then I'll go at it with the pruning shears. I only had 2 days to get the plants in the ground. This was my plan for the beds, reviewed and approved by the county. (These beds are a requirement for storm water management.) You can click on any images for bigger views.

Each bed was prepared with 3 tons of compost/manure, tilled in by Steve. I made the runs to Lowes to get the material. Steve drove the bobcat right up onto the trailer to move the pallet back far enough that he could get it out. It was lifting my Explorer's rear tires off the ground!

My sister Kathy helped on the first day and took these pictures of the north bed. The north bed is 10x28 feet.

I don't know if these pictures are in chronological order...

Kathy couldn't stay all day, but helped with all of the planting. I put in the edging, shade cloth, and tree stakes, and started putting in the mulch by myself. (The shade cloth is for the shade plants on the north side of this bed, which will be in shade once the trees are bigger and leafed out.)

Mom came out after a bit and helped with the mulch.

I'm glad I brought an extra pair of gloves, the mulch is dyed brown and would have stained her hands...

The next day I went out to tackle the south bed by myself. This bed is 10'x26'9". I wasn't out there for long when Mom showed up. What a trooper! She stayed out there with me with minimal breaks until dusk. And we got it done! Mom spread a lot of the mulch while I did a lot of the digging. She did do some planting as well...

This bed doesn't have any trees because we can't shade the southern roof because we are putting in solar panels. Mom helped me set up the sprinklers and now a timer will do the rest. As long as people don't mess with the set-up...

The white PVC in the center of each bed is a sight tube to check the levels of sand and rock below the planting soil. These beds were excavated 5 feet deep, with the layers of sand and rock needed to remain free of debris. I'm going to look for some fake rocks or something to hide them. The area to the left of this site tube has some Hardy Hibiscus (Swamp Rose Mallow), which grow big and tall each year and are then cut back to the ground. And I'm still looking for 4 Maryland Senna plants to go in the bottom left corner of this bed.

I'm so glad this job is done! I bought some of these plants 3 years ago thinking we were going to start construction -- but then hit more red tape. I've had to baby them through freezing winters and hot dry summers. I've lost a few plants that had to be replaced, but had a pretty good survival rate over all!

Here's my list of plants in these beds. They had to be native (Maryland) water-loving plants.

Quartz Countertops

My quartz countertops are installed! They are beautiful! The island has a couple of pock-marks that need to be filled, but otherwise, I'm very happy with them! Drilling the hole for the faucet.

Pictures taken from different angles. Spacers are temporary to make sure there's the right amount of room left for the dishwasher and stove. I think I need to take better pictures of the countertops to show how pretty they are:

  

Paint, Tile, Vinyl Sheet Flooring

Things are moving right along. A lot of finish items are getting done now. Here's some pictures. This is the 4-way bath:

Office/exercise room. This is a nice green with a hint of blue.

I was going for jelly bean purple in the master bedroom and bath. It's popping!

 The foyer is painted, the boob lights are installed, and the flooring is in place. However... The wall that has the door is supposed to be an almost lilac blue and I'm going to dress up those boob lights...

The flooring in my kitchen is done. I think the colors go great. Can't wait to see the counter tops!

The flooring is down in the spare bath/laundry/utility room. Those walls are all the same blue, they just look different due to the lighting.

Same room. This is the air handler for my side.

 They had to do some patch on the floor on Mom's side, so the flooring will have to wait for it to dry. You can see some of the flooring color.

They laid out the flooring while the patch continues to dry. I think Mom's colors look great too!

Mom's bathroom has the same flooring as my kitchen. I think it looks great with that paint!

The doors are painted the neutral color so they will stand out. This is Mom's front door. The inside of Mom's kitchen door gets the same color.

And the inside of my kitchen door is also painted the neutral color for my side.

The pool room came out great!

The patio has cracks! I'm so not happy about this!! I'll post more about this... I'm not sure what we are going to do about it.

I just noticed that the crown molding is in place in both kitchens!

Here's a couple of pictures of Mom's bathroom.

The big pile of dirt is finally gone from the back! I think the back of the house looks as nice as the front!