Oh goodness CB. Get some rest, please.
If it wasn’t so hot, I’d make you some chicken soup.
^ 6 degrees this morning when I left for work. It’s supposed to drop below zero on both Saturday and Sunday.
Send some heat our way. 
Hope cb and her lead are feeling better.
Official temp is 79 but our backyard thermometer says 69. Cooler by the shore! If I could send the heat, I’d send it to DS in Chicagoland.
Hey, I’m just catching up, and maybe you mentioned this, but is it legal for your neighbor to have a shed butting up right on the property line in full view like that? I know it isn’t legal where I am, there are set backs between lots.
It just seems like such a large structure…
That is a garage and it is not legal right on property line. I spoke with the owners and it was there when they purchased 15 yrs ago. But the concrete stem wall is newer concrete so I don’t know how they got away with building that garage.
We are back in business going strong. Yesterday my carpenter was able to come to work but he was not 100%, but he insisted. I told him to stay home until Monday, but I guess he thinks he needs the money or something. He finished the fence and we are going to town tearing apart the Hall Bath. After much review we decided we just could not save the original tub. At first I thought we could re use it, but it had been embedded in about 2 inches of concrete around it and the 2 inch lip of crud was just impossible to try to get off the tub. Also, it was rusting on some edges and it just was not worth trying to save. I feel bad about it, but we needed to make decision because dumpster is going away on Tuesday morning and we certainly didn’t want it laying around in the yard or something.
The Hall Bath is going to get reconfigured. If you view the current layout in the photo in the Flickr group, I might be able to explain it…
The hall closet to the left of the entry door (viewing from hallway) got closed up in the hallway and the wall was opened up to bathroom. The small closet in the bathroom was opened up. This creates a perfect toilet vestibule in the bathroom. The toilet is going to move into the combined closet areas. Haven’t decided whether to wall it in with a pocket door or build a nice pony wall to separate it.
The bathtub is moving parallel to the window wall. At first we were going to keep the existing bathtub and it is configured as a ‘left drain’ which means that the shower head would have been right at the existing window. So, when I pulled the permit to do new windows, I had moved the window to the other side of the exterior wall. Ordering a new smaller window for the bathroom. But now that I’m buying a new bathtub, I really don’t need to move the window because I could get a right drain tub. However, the existing window is just too large and would get full of water. I need to rethink whether we are going to spend the money to move the window.
Then a nice large 48" vanity will fit into the bathroom along the eastern wall.
In the end it will be opened up with lots of light and plenty of floor space. The length of the exterior window wall is 6 ft and a bathtub will be 5ft so we will have room at foot of tub for shelves and a nice product ledge.
I am currently focusing on coming up with a fireplace design. This is something we can work on while we are waiting for permits and stuff. We tore out everything surrounding the old fireplace and discovered some of the bricks are loose. We will get that fixed and then I have to decide what we are going to do with a surround, mantel, cabinetry and shelves.
Here is a wood surround and TV cabinet design that I like. But, not in the dark grey. It will be in crisp white and I’m going to put 12" deep cabinets with shelves on both sides as built ins for TV equipment, etc. We are going to wire with HDMI cables and outlets up above the fireplace so someone can mount a TV without all the wires showing everywhere.
http://www.houzz.com/photos/298646/Project-in-Tiburon-traditional-family-room-san-francisco
^^Nice. I like it very much. Tile work over the brick, or leave the brick as is?
Haven’t decided what to do with the brick portion of the fireplace surround. Either paint the brick or cover it up with tile.
Also, I am replacing the vinyl windows with fixed windows in same style as the three that are to the right of the front door - wood true lite grill. So, I can only put in about 40" high cabinets on each side of the fireplace as built ins. I will be able to purchase standard kitchen upper cabinets with shelves. Probably white shaker style
Love that fireplace, cb.
One of my other key decisions I am mulling over in my head… paint the living room ceiling planks white with dark wood beams?? Or leave as a natural wood ceiling. Trying to make my decision.
When I view Spanish Revival living room designs I see that they keep the ceilings all wood. When I view coastal living room designs I see that the entire ceiling is painted out white. Hard decision to make because the house isn’t really total Spanish Revival and it’s not cottage style. It’s some kind of abomination of thick Spanish style plaster with Spanish style arches inside, but with grill style wood windows (on the few original windows that are left) and a French Normandy style steep pitched roof with concrete tile that looks like cedar shake.
I’d wait on a decision about the LR ceiling until much more in the house has been completed.
“paint the living room ceiling planks white with dark wood beams”
that is a good compromise in my opinion.
you are not “restoring” a true Spanish Revival home here.
Painting the ceiling planks white will expand the room visually.
And I would paint the fireplace bricks the same color white.
Here are links to some of the examples that are similar to the project living room style
http://www.houzz.com/photos/1291043/Hollywood-Hills-Home-transitional-living-room-los-angeles
http://www.houzz.com/photos/3232322/Living-Room-and-Bar-mediterranean-living-room-other-metro
I think I will wait on a decision for ceiling until it comes together more. However, I do need to decide on fireplace design because it is something we can work on right now without a permit. My concern is that the wood fireplace surround and mantel might not be the right style for the living room. It’s lovely and functional… but might not look right in the thick plaster, old style window, thick beam room 
Tomorrow we are starting massive landscape drainage project throughout the whole yard. Need to get that done before I can do the shotcrete onto the slope erosion and start building retaining walls on the slope. But, there’s going to be a whole crew coming in to do that so I want to carve out a full project for my carpenter while we are waiting for permit approval on windows and doors. I cannot even order the windows and doors until permit is approved, so it will be another 4 weeks before he can start replacing.
We had our TV mounted over our fireplace and had built ins made similar to the picture you showed. While I like the fact the TV stuff is hidden there are things I don’t like about it. Mostly it’s the fact that when ever we have to do something with the tv or cable stuff I am stuck sitting on the floor reaching in to fix it. Also I have to start the gas with a key which is in the cabinet too. Honestly if I had to do it over I don’t think I would have mounted it there.
I personally don’t care for televisions over fireplaces, although I am getting used to it. However, there is not a wall in this living room that a television could be mounted. The north wall will be opened to dining room and the east/west walls are full of windows and doors.
The reason I have to think about this really fast is we are in the middle of re wiring the house and I need to make decisions on where outlets, switches and cable wiring are going. Never a dull moment
I have to say, while I really like the look of the fireplace you posted, coralbrook, I hate seeing TV’s mounted over the fireplace. I see it all the time at open houses, and it really turns me off.
It’s really the wrong place for a TV, viewing-wise. TV’s should be more or less eye-level when you are watching them.
And it takes away any “oomph” from the fireplace, which should be the focal point.
Just my pet peeve.
IMO, a flat-mounted TV has one big disadvantage: the screen cannot be turned towards the viewers if the viewers are sitting to the side of it. A pivoted mount will solve this problem, but it defeats the whole flat-mount look. I prefer the euro TV setup - on the top of a low TV cabinet where all the receivers and DVD players can be hidden. This setup puts the screen at the viewers’ eye level. I do not think you need to worry about your future buyers’ wanting to mount the TV on the wall, just provide a couple of options for TV placement.