Final Electrical Inspection and Final Buff and Coat on hardwood floors

Today we had the final electrical inspection for the main floor and basement.  Everything went well.  We have rescheduled to have the final buff and coat of the hardwood floors done tomorrow 8/10/11.  Once dried, we will be able to move in our stuff.  Yea!!  We have been anxiously awaiting for this to happen.  Moving in...

We will have help from Paula and Wes this weekend, so that will work out nice.  They have their own bedroom and kitchen area in the basement, and a working bathroom!

Built-In Refrigerator is installed...it looks so nice

Here is a picture of the built-in refrigerator.  It really looks nice.  Chris and I worked on getting it installed last night.  We put the handles on too.  I love it!

The electricians, Terry and Cory, from Dependable Electric came over yesterday to finish installing the light fixtures.  We need to schedule a final inspection of the electrical for next week. 

Kitchen Appliances and Backsplash Pictures

Here are some photos of the new kitchen backsplash...

Finally picked out hardware for cabinets, shower doors, lighting...waiting for delivery...yeah!

Sorry it has been so long since my last post.  I have been busy picking out so many final items.  I picked out the backsplash tile for the kitchen and it was installed this past week.  I also picked out backsplash tile for the bar area, but it is on backorder, so I have to wait until it gets in stock (might be a couple more weeks:(
I have been laboring over the hardware for the cabinets throughout the house.  We have been to Home Depot, Lowes, and Menards, so many times, changing our mind (okay, I am the only one changing my mind).  I just know it is something I will need to live with for a long time, so I want to make the right choice.  A friend at work told me about a place called nob hill, so I went there at lunchtime on Friday.  I really liked the place and it only sells knob and pulls for cabinets.  Some are pretty pricey, but the friendly lady that helped me, looked at the pictures on the blog and made a couple suggestions.  Still a little over my price range, but when I got home, I scoured the internet at decorglamour.com and found them cheaper (about 40% off).  Still a little over what I would have hoped to spend, but at least it was in my ballpark.  I picked out hardware from Schaub and Company from thier Siena line.  I am going to use the round knobs for all the cupboard doors, medium size pulls (8") for the kitchen drawers, the cup pulls are for the bar area, and the large pulls (12") will be on the the refrigerator and dishwasher panels.  What do you think?

This selection will help me with lighting in the kitchen too.  Initially, we thought we were going to have brushed nickel knobs and pulls in the kitchen (had them all bought too), but when I went to pick out lighting, I didn't like any options that were brushed nickel.  I only liked the oil rubbed bronze options.  Picking out these new knobs has opened up my selection of lighting.  I also picked out and ordered the shower doors for the basement and main floor bathrooms.  I went with Sterling Shower Doors (these are made by Kohler) and bought them online at HomeDepot.com.  They had a 15% off sale on all Sterling items, plus they had a buy more, save more sale going on, so I ended up getting $240 off and free shipping to our house.  Here are the pictures of the shower doors (the bypass door is for the basement bathroom and the pivot door is for the main floor bathroom):

We finally moved in some of our old furniture in the basement.  It is nice to have a little space to do some things.  We brought in our leather furniture that was in the living room before.  We also brought in our dining room table and chairs and put them in the basement too.  The kids love to hang out in the basement now.  Last weekend, we hung the new TV mount above the fireplace and installed one of our old TV's.  Today, Chris and I fixed all the door handles (that happened to get installed wrong) and also figured out the new mirror for the bathroom in the basement.  Everything is starting to come together, but we still have a lot of loose ends to tie up and finish.  Friday after work, Chris and I figured out how to install the custom panels on the refrigerator in the kitchen.  We need to get the top panel for the fridge before we can finish, but once we read the directions, things went in very well. 

Little, by little, we will get there.  Hopefully, we can finish before the kids go back to school.  They want to have a party with their friends before returning to school, so maybe by mid August, we can make plans to have a fun party.

Stay tuned...I'll take some pictures this week and post them!  I am in Pittsburgh on Monday and Tuesday this week, so I won't post until later this week.

Updated photos & backsplash in kitchen picked out...what do you think??

They pulled off the paper from the hardwood floors today.  It is nice to see the finished floors again.  The electricians were working hard putting in lights, outlets and switches today.  Most of the quarter-round was installed yesterday and today.  They started to install the faucets.  I need to pick out a couple soap dispensers.  After I get the tile selected, I need to pick out light fixtures and knobs/drawer pulls for the kitchen cabinets.  I also need to finalized my selection for the staircase spindles.  Too many decisions to make right now.  It is also tough because we are on a tight budget, so I don't want to break the bank which makes decision making even tougher.  I want to pick out furniture, not hardware and tile.  Anyhow, here are the updated photos...

Here you can see the paint color from the living room.

Door from the dining room to the entry & basement

New bar area in basement

Tile backsplash options for the bar area (samples came from Ceramic Tileworks, Maple Grove)

Bar Sink and faucet (I used my old kitche faucet...looks pretty good)

Fireplace in family room off of kitchen and entry

Maple steps going to the basement

Here is the backsplash tile I picked out for the kitchen (picked up from The Tile Shop, Plymouth, MN)  The small tile on the left is for behind the cooktop area, the other tiles will be placed in a subway style on the main part of the wall between the cupboards and countertops. 

Granite INSTALLED! Need to pick out backsplash tile...

The granite countertops were installed today.  Boy, do they look nice.  We went with Chain of Lakes Granite in Richmond, MN.  We picked out opalescent granite with a honed finish for the kitchen and command center.  The basement bar area is a peacock granite and we have a remnant for the bathroom which is called yellow river.  They all look really nice on the cupboards.  I can't wait to get barstools and sit up to the counters.  There was a minor measuring error in the basement, so they are cutting a new piece and plan to deliver it on Thursday for the basement bar area.  We originally wanted the bar to stick out 10" for the stools, but then when we visited, we changed our mind to make it 12" overhang.  Well, they changed most of the dimensions, but one still had the overhang on one side to be 10".  They quickly realized the mistake and plan to cut another piece and make it work.  Yea!  I highly recommend Chain of Lakes Granite (http://www.chainoflakesgranite.com/).  They are owned by a husband and wife.  Their daughter works there too.  Small town atmosphere and awesome customer service.  Laura, the wife, was so nice to us when we visited and picked out the granite.  We picked out sinks too and I just love what I picked out.  I can't wait to get the faucets hooked up, as well as the rest of the appliances.  It will be nice to have a fully functioning kitchen again.
Well the holiday weekend brought us awesome weather.  We had fun on the boat Sunday, tubing and swimming in the lake with the kids.  On Sunday, we went to a friends neighborhood party and enjoyed the band, games and great food to make our fourth a memorable one.  WooHoo!

Shower Tile, Front Door, Keyless Entry and Carpet in basement

Lots of activity this week.  Staining and varnishing main floor woodwork is done.  Started painting the main floor (it is sooo hard to pick out paint colors).  Chain of Lakes Granite measured for the granite countertops and they will be installing them on Tuesday, July, 5th, 2011.  Stay tuned.  Installed the keyless entry on front door (front door was free on craigslist).  Tiled the shower in basement.

Some photos:

Cabinets with crown molding, lockers, and tile in basement

They laid the tile on the floor in the basement today.  It looks nice.  The carpet was measured and will be installed next week.  They measured for the countertops today, should be here next week.