It still sounds reasonable and it still seems you are on your way to a home run.
In the end I decided to keep the dark trim in the main living areas. We will probably have white interior trim in the bedrooms. I chose the Espresso Beans color because it had a little bit of brown to soften the black. But, when there was paper and plastic everywhere covered with overspray it looked awful because the lighting turned everything to ‘brown’. I was patient and waited until everything got cleared up and I think the trim coloring is just right.
Reason I had to go with dark trim is that white trim would have just washed into the wall color and the windows and doors would not have ‘popped’. Choosing any color in between would have created a design dilemna and too much over analyzing. So, the final choice was to match the exterior color and sheen (satin… thanks for the suggestion) of the aluminum clad exterior of the windows and doors.
In the upcoming week I have to purchase the floor tile for the jack/jill bathrooms and the laundry room. And the tile for the bathtub surround. I think I need to go with something neutral and traditional. Still contemplating whether to lay down my favorite shape which is the 12 x 24 but that might look too contemporary. These are just functional areas and I don’t want to spend a lot of money for floor tiles in kid’s bathrooms and the laundry room. Pretty sure I’m not going to be taking marketing photos of the laundry room 
Want to save the budget for a Wow master bathroom.
Most likely I will get the bulk of the square footage from Lowe’s because I have a big coupon and a store credit there.
It’s looking lovely. I love the trim color, it’s dramatic but in such a narrow band that it doesn’t overwhelm. I love the views from the upper deck. Wishing strongly that I had the $ to buy this lovely home.
Ship lap deck ceilings - sounds great!
Do the deck ceilings need a ceiling fan or is it always breezy enough?
Recessed lights on deck ceilings or a fixture?
Believe me…no ceiling fan needed on deck. Constant ocean breeze because we are on a small canyon and winds are funneling up. However we did install ceiling fan boxes with strong holding inside the bedroom ceilings. I will not install ceiling fans because I think they are ugly (especially in photos). But easy for buyer to install fans in the future if they want
I am still deciding on deck lighting but I really have to make my decision in the next couple of days. Wall fixtures?? But no walls available at big patio door area, just above cabinet and dumbwaiter area. Or recessed lights?? but not sure I have enough depth to put in the cans. Or hanging or flush lights but it’s hard to know exactly where buyers might put their table. Plus too dangerous to have a hanging light because of wind and storms on west side of house
LED strip lights?
That’s what I was thinking; some kind of strip light. Since string lights are probably impractical! Is this discussion only for the upstairs deck?
By code, I have to install at least one light on each deck with switch inside by the door. The large deck by living room has two wall lights installed outside by the French doors. There are outlets available if buyer wants to run some overhead string lights. The small master bedroom balcony will probably have a recessed can in ceiling because there really isn’t any wall space available for a sconce style light.
The upstairs covered deck is the one I’m worried about because there is a dumbwaiter, refrigerator and cabinet that need lighting plus buyers will probably set up a dining table. I might put a small can above countertop area tied to the switch, but don’t know what to do with overhead lighting.
I don’t think I can put up string lights because they cannot connect to the switch.
Could you have two switches for lights on the top deck? One for wall sconces that aim down at the dumbwaiter, refrigerator and counter and a different one for over the main space? That way, if they want to sit and enjoy the view without lights they can leave the wall sconces on to see necessary stuff and not bother with the overhead light or lights.
For the overhead lights, is it possible to get a really shallow can light, like you might use for a halogen light? That way it can be flush with the ceiling and protected from the elements and only 3-4 inches deep. We have some recessed can lights that are covered by old attic vents - the kind that are round and look a bit like lacy doilies - but they are standard depth can lights with LED bulbs in them. I think they might be candelabra bulbs and that may be slightly smaller than your usual can light. With an ocean breeze, do you need to cover the fixture with glass so nothing gets corroded by salt?
Is it possible to have some sort of uplighting that is either mounted on the floor, or around nice planters?
There isn’t enough room on the upper deck to have planters. It really is a rather small space that will only handle a dining table or a small seating arrangement. One part of the railing (hard to describe where it is) will have a wide railing top to sit at like a bar type thing
I think shallow recessed lighting is the right thing to do. I will install the ‘moisture’ ones that are like the type you put into a shower. I purchased a couple of shallow housing lights for the sloped ceilings in the kitchen. Only issue is that the deck ceiling continues the sloped vaulting and I need to make sure they are not going to shine light in an odd way
RAINING
I was very carefully watching the rain forecast and the radar. Last night at 10pm, the rain and thunderstorms from the Mexican storm system were forecast at 20% for late Monday. Went to bed thinking that we could worry about the plastic on Monday as we watched the system
3am… wake up to a thunderstorm and pouring rain. I had to rush to the phone and start calling the guys. Believe it or not my carpenter was already awake, slamming down some coffee and on his way to the project!! Rain only lasted 5 minutes but I knew it was just enough to possibly cause damage. Our issue is that there is no roof on top floor. The plywood floor boards have an intentional 1/8" gap for expansion. Rain can get down into that 1/8" gap very easily and get into the insulation and drywall that is set in the main floor ceiling. This would just be a petri dish mold incubator inside that ceiling, not to mention the drywall could get so soaked it would just collapse off the ceiling.
Luckily no more rain came but all hands were on deck (including me) at 6am sunrise. We are the luckiest construction project in the world!! Somehow the strong rain missed the neighborhood pocket and it was just damp at the project. No damage, hardly any water in the yard, etc. But we are not taking any chances, putting plastic up this morning because I can see another pocket of rain coming up the coast on the radar.
I can put two switches in on the deck… I think that is a good idea. The wall sconces over countertop could be on a dimmer switch and a separate switch for the ceiling lighting.
Once again, your carpenter proves that he is a gem!
Wow!! I can’t believe he was up at 3:00 AM to help you!!!
That guy is worth his weight in gold.
I’m guessing it goes both ways! No one gets up at 3 a.m. for their employer unless that employer is fabulous!
CB…kudos to you…and your team!
Well, he is feeling really bad because we are going backwards to pull out the roof trusses and reset them perfectly. I told him nothing could be done since rain had just passed and it was pitch dark, but he needed to be at the project by 6am to survey damage and start wrapping the plastic.
Today 2 guys x 8 hours pulled out the roof trusses and got them reset perfectly.
Then 2 other guys x 8 hours followed along stapling plastic to the roof and sides of the house. They also put lengths of wood over the plastic and nailed those into the framing. We did not finish until 4:45 this afternoon. My nightmare is that a lot of wind will be involved with the storm and all of our plastic will just rip off in shreds and end up in all the neighbor’s yards.
And, my roofer showed up again without my request. He crawled up on existing roof and added even more protection and checked everything the other guys were doing.
We got another coat of drywall mud on the main floor addition but it will probably not be able to dry overnight, even though we have two fans running all night. So we may end up one day behind on the drywall.
Painters worked all day in our paint factory in the garage. They are finishing up all of the doors so that they will be ready to get installed. Unfortunately, when they went to take plastic and paper off the small fixed window in dining room they pointed out a hefty crack in our window. Believe it or not, one of the brand new windows is cracked and now I need to order a replacement Stat
Some photos of details loaded
Are you still deciding whether or not to replace the two old kitchen windows, now that you need to replace the cracked window and repair stucco anyway?
Well, right now the kitchen windows are ’ out of sight, out of mind’ because the cabinet boxes are covering everything up in there. Today we are moving everything out of kitchen and living areas to get ready for flooring. So, I will be able to see the windows again and try to decide.
The cracked window in the dining room is actually plain dual pane glass sitting inside the trim framing. We only have to pop out the wood trim to replace that glass, we are not going to have to break up stucco for replacement. But, I have so much broken up stucco everywhere it wouldn’t kill us to have to break out the kitchen windows. I’ll try to make my decision soon because we will have the flooring and cabinets in soon to see if the tan windows are horrid.
If I do replace them, I will just replace with vinyl windows with the chestnut bronze exterior and white interiors. I think the white interior will look better in the kitchen because they will just blend into the walls. Don’t really want them to pop like the living area windows. One of the windows can be seen from the living room deck and that is another piece of the decision. All of the other windows visible from the deck are the chestnut bronze coloring.
One of the key decision factors is that I think I am going to use white subway tile as the main backsplash in the kitchen. I think I mentioned that I have some extremely expensive hand formed white subway that a friend gave me left over from their home remodel. I was going to use it in the hall bathroom but I needed to purchase another 30 sq ft. Called up the fancy tile store where she bought it and it was $13/sq ft and 4 week lead time. Are you kidding me?? Skipped that idea and there are still boxes of the stuff sitting in the basement waiting to be used somewhere. Don’t want to make decision on backsplash until I can see the cabinets in place with the lighting/flooring etc.