Powder Room Remodeling

Designer Down!

2011-02-07T15:28:00.000-06:00

I got this email over the weekend:

Good afternoon Mr. Piette,

I am writing to inform you that Jill Doss had an accident Friday evening. She slipped on some ice and broke her ankle and leg. She has undergone surgery at St Mary’s Hospital and should be released on Tuesday. I am aware that you and Laurie are working with Jill on items and I want to do my best to keep the lines of communication open for you.

Please feel free to contact me regarding any questions or concerns you may have and I will do my best to assist you.

Thank you for your understanding and we apologize for any inconvenience as a result of the loss of Jill’s assistance at this time.

Respectfully,

Donna Spakowicz CCP, CAPS

We sent Jill flowers.

Week Two Photos

2011-02-07T15:13:00.001-06:00

Cool, eh?

2011-02-04T15:21:00.002-06:00

Matt:

Our company has been invited to submit one of our remodeling projects to be part of the Nari Spring Tour of Remodeled Homes. We were wondering if you would be interested in opening your house for public viewing?

What the weekend entails is that your home would be on a list homes open for the public to tour to view different remodeling projects from selected contractors. The hours both days would be 11:00-5:00. I would be on hand at your home both days to guide people through your home, discuss the work that was done, and answer any questions they may have. We would have photos and displays of “before” and “after” areas.

The week before the show, we would come in and go over the rooms (kitchen, family room, powder room, exterior) and address any items that may need touch up/repair. The day before we would come in to “stage” the areas. You would not need to do anything, as you would not be home during the open house. We would pay to send you on an overnight to a selected B&B or hotel in the area to have a little “get away” of your own. The end result, of course, for us would be to generate qualified individuals interested in remodeling their home.

Please let me know if you and Laurie would be interested in participating in this activity.

Regards,

Jill Doss

A Note From Jill

2011-01-25T12:37:00.000-06:00

Matt:

We passed insulation inspection yesterday (of course)

As you can see, the framing was installed behind the toilet.

The drywall will be going in tomorrow. He should be able to install, tape, and mud all in one day, There will be a return trip to finish things off.

Painting of the front foyer will be done on Thursday (before the radiator goes back in). The drywall work being done will not get in the way of the painting of the foyer.

Could you please go downstairs and recover the wall and ceiling paint that was used in the inside foyer so we can determine how much is there and whether or not more is needed?

We are on schedule for floor tile installation next week.

My heart rate has finally returned to normal after the game on Sunday (I guess no Jay Cutler showed up to play). I have decided to take the week off from stressing. I will start obsessing next week……J

Jill Doss

Senior Kitchen and Bath Designer

Artisan Kitchen and Bath Gallery www.Artisankbg.com

Week One Pictures

2011-01-25T07:46:00.001-06:00

Week one is done.

An issue with the boiler

2011-01-20T15:08:00.002-06:00

Jill--

The radiators are all venting a lot more than before. That was not unexpected this since the system was opened and air got in, although it did not happen during the last two times you had radiators out (curiously)
However, this morning Laurie niticed that a lot of steam was venting on the boiler itself. It looks like it's coming from around the fitting on the site glass. I can only assume that this too was cause when the two radiators were removed. I think that those fitting may need to be repaired or replaced.

Can you discuss it with your boiler guys? This isn't the time to have a catastrophic failure.

We like the tan-brown granite. I think it goes well with the floor. It was hard to see how it goes with the paint. What do you think?

Thanks.

MJP

I spoken with HVAC---they will have someone over at the house this afternoon to see what’s up. They will let me know if a repair/replacement of parts is needed. Obviously, removing the radiators causes the system to work differently, stressing parts that may have been at the end of their useful life. I will let you know what they find out.

The tan brown will look great with the wall paint color (same as in the front hallway). Also, the tan brown nicely matches the color of the front hall closet.

Jill

Word from HVAC, they tightened things down that had come loose which took care of the steam issue. They do recommend replacing fittings/etc along with the site glass, appears to be at end of useful life. The will get an estimate together.

I will let you know.

Jill

Day 2 Notes

2011-01-19T18:54:00.001-06:00

You will be surprised to see how much is in the dumpster. Pat reports the inside walls of the bathroom were filled with newspaper, food wrappers, old cans, etc. He took out 8 trash bins full to the dumpster of the stuff he found in just the inside wall.

The exterior walls had no insulation. I think you will be very happy with the change in the room temperature when the new insulation is installed.

In the meantime, you may want to hang an old blanket over the doors ways (it seems we always do work on your home during the hottest, or coldest, days of the year) to keep the cold out until next week.

I bet you wish you were going to Rome right now…..

Electrical tomorrow.

Jill

Matt:

The more we looked at the bathroom sink plumbing, the more we feel the pipe should be cut out and replaced “while we are in there”. I can get a plumber out on Friday, price would be $178.00 to rework the sink drain and also the supply lines from the wall out (the supply lines are starting to rot, also).

Should I go ahead and schedule?

Day 2 Note From Jill

2011-01-19T10:41:00.001-06:00

Matt:

Samples have been dropped off this morning—I left them on the kitchen table, I have marked my (2) favorites. Let me know what you think.

Put a post-it note on the area in question on the doorway—I will take a look at it tomorrow when I meet with the electrician.

Two things noticed this morning during demo (already):

1) We plan on leaving the tile floor in place, it is very secure and the new tile will go over it just fine. We will be using a spray foam insulation in the walls next week, instead of the standard batt insulation (this is the product you see on TV that get sprayed in and expands). Better product, improved R-value.

2) The piping under the sink looks pretty funky (rotted). Once the walls are open, we may recommend that this area be replaced/replumbed (not in the original proposal). I will let you know our thoughts.

Also, some plumbing materials are being delivered to the house today. You may need to find a home for them temporarily until they are needed.

I am going to have the electrician install the ceiling boxes in the same location that the lights are hanging currently, with the recessed light in the center (or as close to original based upon ceiling obstructions that we may find).

The top in the vestibule will go wall-to-wall. We will plan on installing it above the height of the mail door when it is opened.

All for now….

Jill

Starting January 18, 2011

2011-01-13T16:32:00.001-06:00

Here's the tentative schedule:

Matt:

Schedule for bathroom has been established (so far) as follows, all arrivals approximately 8:30. Please have spaced removed of all personal belongings prior to start. Will you be there the morning of the 18^th, or will you leave a key? We will install a lock box.

Tuesday, Jan 18^th, HVAC to demo radiators, measure for countertop for vanity and vestibule top

Wednesday, Jan 19^th demo and build new wall behind toilet (confirmed)

Thursday, Jan 20^th, rough electric (confirmed)

Friday, Jan 21^st, electrical inspection

Monday, Jan 24^th, spray insulation (confirmed)

Tuesday, Jan 25^th, insulation inspection

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday Jan 26^th-30^th, drywall (waiting on confirmation)

Monday, Jan 31^st, tile floor (subject to above)

Tuesday, Feb 1^st, grout floor (mirror tile cannot be installed until cabs go in and new window framing is installed) (subject to above)

All for now….

Jill

P.S. We will need to finalize granite for vestibule countertop. I have my eye on a couple of pieces of stone. You and Laurie will need to stop by during daylight hours to take a look at materials, the light in the storage barn is not sufficient after it gets dark out.

P.P.S. Ray wants to know if you may want to consider retiling the front vestibule “while the radiator is removed”, it would be the best time to consider redoing that area.

Agreed!

2010-12-23T13:22:00.000-06:00

We agreed on our final design and I put money down. Now we're committed.

Jill thinks that the cabinets, always the critical path, will be done in about four weeks, making our tentative start date around 1/24/2011.

We still need to pick out the granite for the radiator cover in the foyer. We'll do then whenever Jill has something cool for us to look at.

Here are the preliminary drawings. (The sink and fixture are wrong)

Close To A Design

2010-12-09T11:31:00.001-06:00

Jill--

Starting with your original design dated 10/13/2010, let's make the following changes:

Two piece Kohler toilet
No crown molding in either area
19" vanity w/ glass vessel
No picture light in the entrance way

We want to stick with the cabinets you originally proposed with the glass & LED lighting on the south wall and the bottom drawer on the vanity cabinet. We also want the glass, pendant lights (similar to the dining room).

A couple other repair items I'd like your to include would be the closet doors in the entrance was (the rollers are not working properly), a new latch on the 2nd floor medicine cabinet, and, as we discussed, the dishwasher mounting brackets.

I think that's everything that we talked about, but I'm probably forgetting something.

Let me know if you need anything else. Otherwise, I'll see you Tuesday.

--Matt

Cost Cutting Options

2010-10-28T11:16:00.000-05:00

I have been looking at the project to see where changes can be made to keep the design the same but bring down the price…

Alternatives would be to:

1) Delete lighting from top of back wall cabinet, just have solid doors (this would then avoid the up charge applied to the cabinet for interior finishing)

2) Eliminate crown molding from around the room

3) Replace the trim around the door and window, but not take it around the mirror. Paint trim around window to match door color (not vanity). Install a decorative mirror instead of the tile work/wood frame concept.

4) Standard two coat single color paint technique rather than decorative.

5) Delete pendant lighting and stick with recessed lights only above vanity.

6) Change to a standard, tall, two piece white toilet, rather than the one piece model

Do any of the above appeal to you?

Jill

Cost Estimate

2010-10-14T09:38:00.000-05:00

We met last night with Jill. We have a few things left to decide:What do we want for lights - recessed, pendants, or a combination of the two?

The color we chose for the cabinets is no longer available. What color do we want now?
Do we want a bottom drawer on the vanity?
Should we switch to an oval vessel sink so that we could go with a 18" vanity, saving three inches of space?

These are details. The big question is the cost. The total was just shy of $21K.

Do we want to spend that kind of money on a powder room?

Time to think.

Design Meeting on September 15th.

2010-09-16T09:04:00.001-05:00

We met with Jill at Artisan K & B yesterday.

Before our trip to San Francisco, Jill had dropped off some samples of cabinet colors, wall tiles, paint, and floor tiles. She also has a sample of a very interesting terrazzo product made of recycled concrete and cobalt blue glass (actually fragmants of Sky vodka bottles). They had recently installed counter-tops with that product at Miller Park. Laurie didn't really care for any of the tile choices, and we were both intrigued by the terrazzo.

We discussed this with Jill, and she suggested a grey for the cabinet color. None of the tiles she had really worked, we we went over to 21st Century Tile to look at options.

Every time I am involved in these things I thank my lucky stars to have the advice of people who know what their doing. I mostly watched as Jill and Laurie looked at different tiles for the wall and the floor.

We have a small window in the powder room that is stained glass and are incorporating that into the design. We're thinking of an over-sized mirror to the right of the window and framed the same. Inside the frame will be a 3" border of clear, cracked glass. The vanity top will be the blue terrazzo, with grey cabinet beneath. The floor will be 20" square, grey/blue tiles laid diagonally.

The lighting will probably be one recessed with a couple of hanging fixtures similar to that in our dining room. we'll also have lights inside the cabinets with glass doors on the south wall.

The design is coming together nicely.

Design Considerations

2010-08-20T13:00:00.000-05:00

We met with Jill at our house to discuss some options - counter tops, floor, cabinets, lighting, mirrors, etc.

Here is a note from her:

Matt:

I have set up a time for next week Friday (the 27^th) at the house with the HVAC person to stop by and look at the bathroom at 2:00. Can you leave a key available?

I have ordered the color samples and hope to have them by next week Friday. If I do, I will leave them behind for you look over and provide your thoughts.

We have a very interesting looking piece of Vitrazzo in the back in a blue tone right now (a recycled product made with glass and concrete) that I am hoping will work your new cabinet color. We used the material for a recent installation at Miller Park in one of the suite areas.

For the front hall, over the radiator, Soap stone would be an excellent choice, both in color and material. Soap stone is often used for making large, wood burning, fireplace cladding. The material absorbs and radiates heat and would work out well in that location. We happen to have some available right now….

Talk to you soon!

Initial Meeting

2010-08-02T15:45:00.000-05:00

On 7/29/2010 we met with Jill, our designer from Artisan Kitchen & Bath (the same people we used in our kitchen project and our den project) to discuss remodeling of our first floor powder room.

The meeting went well and we came away with a lot of ideas and questions.

Do we need to replace the radiator? Should we?
How do we access the shelves behind the toilet, reach or scootch?
The toilet and vanity will be at comfort height (17” & 36” respectively)
What is the orientation of the foyer floorboards, east-west or north-south?
Do we keep the door (how does it swing?)?
What about a big mirror above the vanity?
What about cupboards?

It's not going to be a very big project, but I don't want to guess on what the cost will be. Laurie and I differ by a factor of 2.5!

I will post 'before' pictures soon.