--pip aka pipdog

Here is a link that might be useful: Original post with all the details

A lot of my favorites are already posted, but here are a few more.

Brooklyn Limestone (soapstone):

rmkitchen (Calacatta Xtra marble):

firsthouse_mp (white princess honed):

smarge (Caesarstone raven):

alliern (soapstone and honed statuary marble):

niffy (aqua grantique and statuary marble):

pps7 (soapstone again!):

beekeeperswife (bianco antico):

joan2121 (giallo ornamental):

I could go on and on (and I guess I have!)

Here is a link that might be useful: See what makes 180fx different

However, on second thought, why not just nail your lathe straight into the box? I know at least one person has done that.

I'm not a carpenter though I've carpented some a bit in my past. Still, I can't quite make out whether it would be hard to secure 1/4" lathe by shooting in a nail at an angle or not. Would the channels be much easier? What about if the channels, which are 2.5" are too high? As they are "plated steel" I can't imagine they'd be very easy to cut. So that's what got me to thinking about just using the lathe directly.

Anyone have any insight? People who've done either, direct-install or channel-mediated drawer dividers? Carpenters? Lee Valley CS? There are lots of impressive pictures (e.g. bob_cville?) with and without the channels (can't remember who posted recently about dh's direct-install results. Beautiful!) ;)

Let me be more explicit about my questions:

1. Are the Lee Valley channels hard to use? One poster mentioned using a fancy squashing plier and that seems intimidating. I don't want to buy a new tool, I don't want to find it very hard to get the channels to grab wood. Did yours seat easily or require a 2-ton gorilla backup team?

2. Was just securing lathe directly to the drawer box as easy as fiddling with channels?

3. What would you do if the drawer box is less than the channel's 2.5"? Direct-insatll? Let the channels ride above the box (they'll still close, e.g.)?

TIA.

master bath, chandy is in. sconces are up to but they put them too high. still need more tile work done. i'm planning on hanging very full, silk drapes here.

guest bath. can never get a good shot. there's a shower in here too.

gallery from upstairs with great room below. this pic makes the fireplace look disproportionately tall but IRL i like it. the chandy in this room is very large, so the electricians are procrastinating.

this is my seven year old daughter's room. and don't worry! the pink will be toned down with predominantly brown (with hints of red and coral) fabric for shade and bed draperies. i wanted a red chandy but didn't think she'd go for it. luckily she's trusting!

the playroom has a niche we're going to top with a mattress and drapes. below will house a trundle bed for sleep-over central. the swings are from IKEA; a steel for $16 each! -i liked the cork floor here since this room is over the garage.

my daughter's craft room with really great vinyl floor for easy cleanup. it was originally supposed to be closed up, along with another space under the eaves but i had them frame it out w/doors. the other "room" is for my son's vast and ever expanding LEGOES collection.

i almost fainted when i saw the dining room. i was a little nervous to go so dark but the color is lovely! benjamin moore KONA, if you're in the market for beautiful brown.

i had a 36" shade made for the chandy in our breakfast room. when i saw it at the shop i was scared. it looked so huge! but when it was brought in and hung my fears were put to rest.

this is the breakfast room from above:

and this is my crazy closet. i have big plans here!

hopefully we'll be DONE (or closer to it) the next time i post. still need the patios done along with some outside trim. i'm just focusing on the finish and not dwelling over went wrong. this is the light at the end of that very dark tunnel.

motherof3sons: i don't have links up or floorplans. just the pics, sorry.
gharborwa: i chose to use the waterlox finish since it does not give the kind of "plastic-y" appearance that you get with polyurethane. i was teetering back and forth but couldn't really decide either way. it was especially difficult to make the choice since i hadn't actually seen a floor finished with waterlox IRL.
then one day i visited a friend in her "new" old home she had just purchased. many of the floors had been replaced and poly coated. but when we went upstairs i noticed the original, 100+ year old pine floors. they were truly stunning. such a difference from the new floors downstairs. since they were in great shape the flooring guys convinced her to keep them and they simply buffed and waxed the finish.
while reading through the waterlox product pages i came across a section that mentioned a waterlox floor will give the appearance of a more antique finish. so in the hopes of having my new walnut floors somehow mimic the look and finish of my friends, i called paintsource and ordered waterlox samples. i tested a few floor boards with the waterlox and also a satin polyurethane. there was no contest. i can't tell you how happy i am to have taken the time and effort to try out the waterlox. now, just the thought of using the poly makes me a little upset! definitely get the samples and try them out.

another big sell for me: if you scratch the finish on a poly coated floor you cannot "spot" treat the area. the entire floor must be sanded over again. waterlox is absorbed into the wood and the different coats applied during application meld together. it doesn't "sit" on the surface like poly. scratches are less noticeable and if you do need to recoat, you can simply spot treat without having to redo the entire floor. sanding in between coats is not necessary so the newly treated area will blend in. see the attached link for a great video on the benefits of waterlox. you can order samples through them as well.

my floor is not stained. i chose walnut for it's color and tonal variations so i would never consider staining it. waterlox contains tung oil which somehow brings out more amber hues. the color is noticeably richer with this one additive. the samples i coated with poly were lacking in richness and merely coated the wood. -but if you did choose to poly coat your floors, you could also add the tung oil.

good luck and let me know what you decide!

Here is a link that might be useful: paintsource.net

Still to do:

Two items remain outstanding: 1) backsplash (I know, so embarrassing after all the help and suggestions you guys gave me). I'll post separately on that issue soon, I hope to have something up by September. 2) island. In order to have a truly practical kitchen I need a drop zone in front of the pantry wall and fridge. We probably won't get to this until the winter, but I'm thinking about a wedge shaped island (or table) as drawn in the (clearly not to scale) layout of our ground floor posted below.

Credit Due:

I must thank all of you, for the inspiration, the ideas, suggestions, lay-out advice, everything. I used this board and your expertise heavily and I am truly thankful. We have a wonderfully diverse, fun, exciting and TALENTED pool of people here on GW! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't name everyone to whom I am indebted, but I'll try (apologies to the many I've missed): elizpiz, firsthouse, boxerpups, malhgold, mom2reese, sabjimata, florantha, plllog, rhome, buehl, cat_mom, kaismom, billyyc ...

The Story:

This house is situated a block or so from the confluence of two rivers and a waterfall. The house was built in 1877 as a home for the workers at the paper mill located at the falls. It was/is a simple two-story home. There have been four additions to the house over the years - for an urban home on a modest lot it is a decent sized house (about 2,100 or 2,200 sq feet I think), but certainly not a huge house. Perfect for our young family of four (well the kids are young at any rate!). Unfortunately over the years the original interior Victorian character was completely lost.

With the Victorian character long gone, two remaining elements of the house heavily swayed the direction we took with this reno. Eight gorgeous deco/FLW inspired stained/leaded glass windows (two of which you can see in the kitchen) and the MCM-style sunken living room. Given our love of modern design, we took these elements and ran with it for the renovation. I guess the style of the kitchen is "retro-moderne" or organic modern, I don't know.

This was a big job - major foundation work, interior walls moved, ceilings and walls rebuilt on two floors, new insulation, new kitchen, new powder room, moved laundry, etc. etc., it went far beyond the kitchen renovation. We moved out on November 1st, moved back in the first week of March.

The Love:

I love my kitchen. LOVE IT. I'm blissfully happy and my quality of life has been improved. I'm broke of course, but c'est la vie I guess. Here is what I love most:

1. The walnut cabinets
2. The prep sink area (including the veining in the quartzite counters around the sink, my utterly fabulous Kohler Karbon faucet and the round Ticor sink)
3. The floors. The floors throughout our ground floor are reclaimed 120 year old Birch brought up from the bottom of the river a mere couple of hundred meters from our house. They are stunning (IMHO).
4. My fridge. So awesome and a big, big splurge.

I also really love the lay-out and 'feel' of the kitchen. It is open, airy, bright and still very warm or organic feeling. I love that as you walk into the kitchen from the front of the house your eyes are immediately drawn to the long run with the shelves and pictures. As you get further into the kitchen your eyes go to the living room and the lovely garden beyond. You actually have to stop and deliberately look at the clean-up sink run as your eye does not go there naturally. I like this as the clean-up run is the messy part of the kitchen - the sink hides many sins, as does the short wall separating that run from the dining room. The sink run is not visible at all from the dining room and living room. I almost have the best of both worlds - open concept, yet the messy bit is largely concealed from guests and casual observers.

The Problems:

There always are some. The first doozy of a surprise was when we discovered that there was no foundation at all under the mid section of our house (that addition was done around 1900 - the addition was essentially just sitting on the bedrock). A real budget buster that.

The main kitchen problem related to the counter, a poorly placed seam (my fault for leaving that last detail to DH). The problem was corrected and I have an extra two small slabs of quartzite for future bathroom renos. A relatively minor kitchen problem: most of the ceilings on the ground floor are close to 9', close to 10' in the sunken living room, so I expected that kind of height in the kitchen as well. Unfortunately duct work and plumbing got in the way (literally) and the kitchen ceilings turned out to be just a hair higher than 8'. My cabinet maker adjusted plans in time so not a big deal, but I would have liked higher ceilings.

Finally: I was diagnosed with Celiac two weeks ago. It would have been helpful to know this prior to the reno, as the way I organise the kitchen has to change to accommodate my dietary issues. Sigh.

What did it cost?

I'm happy to share approximate costing if anyone is interested. I wrote out costs for everything and then deleted it - I'm not sure what the protocol is for that sort of thing here. Anyway, it wasn't the cheapest kitchen reno ever, but it was more or less in keeping with the value of the house. Let me know if you want me to share, I'm not shy.

The Details:

Cabinets: Walnut veneer, custom, local. The white cabs are painted something, I forgot for the moment - MDF maybe?? I can confirm if needed.

Counters: Quartzite Bianco (Ciot in Montreal was the supplier, Marble
Unlimited in Ottawa the fabricator)

Counters: Stainless Steel counter and integrated sink: P.E. Rail and Sons (local)

Flooring: Reclaimed birch, local: Log's End

Lighting: The undermount lights are by Eurofase. Our kitchen/dining room lighting setup is controlled using a six zone Lutron Grafik Eye unit. We needed to add a low-voltage dimming control unit in order for the Grafik Eye to control the under shelf lighting. Other lights: Alico Newton and Kendall mono points.

Faucets: Kohler Karbon, Kalia Elito Diver

Prep Sink: Ticor

Appliances:

Fridge : Gaggenau
Wine Fridge: Marvel
Everything else: Miele (the speed oven and oven were floor models at a deep discount)

Please feel free to ask anything that I may have overlooked for forgotten.

The Pictures (finally!) (I want him to take a close up of the shelves, I'll post that tomorrow).

Low wall separating the DR from LR

And now a few artsy shots from the kitchen:

On your list, for each issue indicate EXACTLY where the problem is located.... What room, what wall, Where on the wall, what the problem is, and what needs to be done. Eg., 1) Living room; on north wall, 4 ft from east wall & 18 inches above the floor; there are gaps in sheetrock around electrical outlet; need to patch gaps, smooth patch (or texture to match wall texture) and prime and painted to match wall. 2) 1st floor powderroom, floor 20 inches from west wall & 2 ft from south wall; cracked tile; remove and replace with good tile, regrout - make certain replacement tile is set level with surrounding tiles and that grout matches surrounding grout. The more detailed you are, the more likely the fixes are going to be done satisfactorily. So, a laptop with an excel program can be helpful for making your lists because you can copy and paste the correction instructions everytime you find yet another electrical outlet with gaps around it.

So, if it were me, I would ask to postpone the walk-thru with builder until after this weekend - even if that meant postponing my move in date by a week or so. Then I would take a couple of very persnickity (sp??) friends with me to the house over the weekend and spend several hours going over each room and making lists of punch list items. People seeing the place with fresh eyes will see problems that you noticed months ago, that your builder promised to fix, but then somehow never got around to doing. Keep a copy of your list and then check issues off as they are corrected. Otherwise, chances are, half the stuff you point out will never get corrected. Don't rely on your builder putting sticky notes on walls. Sticky notes have a way of disappearing without the work ever getting done!

Some things you need to check:

Whole House
_ Turn every light switch on and off.
_ If you have ceiling fans with multiple speeds, check that they work on every speed.
_ Test every electrical outlet (both top and bottom as we've actually found that on a number of outlets in our current house - which was purchased from a previous owner - only one half of the outlet has power and the other half is dead!)
_ Check that both heating and air conditioning work, and that you have an adequate flow of air from every register. This will require turning the AC down so that the house gets extra cold and then, after checking AC, turning the heat on to make sure that works. While it'll be a bit of a waste of energy, you don't want to find out that the heater isn't working the first night that temps suddenly dip below freezing.
_ Open and close every window. Make sure they open easily and close and seal completely. Look for any light entering around the edges of window (between the sash and the jambs.) If light can enter, so can water! If your windows tilt out to clean, check that function on every window as well.
_ Open and close every door, interior and exterior.
_ Check that all doors are plumb and square. The crack around an door should be even on all sides when the door is closed and you should not be able to see light coming from the other side except at the bottoms of interior doors.
_ Check that exterior doors close and seal completely. You should not be able to see any light coming in between the door and jamb or the door and the sill AT ALL.
_ Lock and unlock every lock
_ Check that walls are plumb and flat, that there are no nail pops and that the texturing and paint is even. BTW - nail pops are where the nails holding sheetrock to the studs back up slightly. You see them as little round bumps in the paint. You should not be able to tell where the edges of sheetrock panels are. Nor should you be able to notice any dips or high places in the walls where they taped and floated the sheetrock.
_ Check walls carefully around all outlet plates to make certain there are no gaps where the cuts in the sheetrock were made too large and then never fixed.
_ Check every piece of molding looking for cracks or gaps where two pieces of molding meet. Check the paint or stain on molding - particularly cut ends.
_ Check floors. Tiles should have even and straight grout lines; hardwoods should not have gaps between boards; seams on vinyl flooring should not be noticable; carpet should be tight and should not show seams; etc.
_While the house is quiet (late night is best), walk up and down the steps and across all portions of any hardwood floors. There should be no creaks or squeeks.
_ Check ceilings. You should not be able to tell where the edges of the sheetrock panels are.
_ Check stair spindles, balusters, and handrails to make sure they are solidly installed. No shakiness.
- Take a sprinkler with you and set it so that water falls down against your windows (simulating rain) and check for leaks on the inside. You should not see ANY water on the inside. (Caution - don't spray water UPWARD against your windows as you may drive water through the drainholes, set the spinkler so that water falls downward against the windows.)
_ If you get lucky and it happens to be raining while you are there, go into the attic and look for leaks.
_ Check that smoke detectors are working.
_ Turn everything in the house off and unplug the refrigerator, then check the electric meter. It should no longer be running. (Be sure to plug appliances back in afterwards!)
_ Make sure all water spigots are turned off and that your water heaters are full, then check your water meter. It should NOT be moving. If it is, you may have a leak somewhere in your plumbing system...possibly even under your slab.
_ If you have a real wood fireplace, build a very small but smoky fire (damp wood and newspapers) and make sure the chimney draws properly.
_ If you have a gas fireplace, light it and make sure all the vents work properly and that the flame heights are as you would expect them to be.
_ If you have natural gas or propane, find the inside gas cut-off valves. (NOTE that these should not be hidden behind an appliance - you need to be able to get to them easily in case of a fire!) Make sure the gast cut off valves turn easily. Light the appliance then turn the gas off at the cut off valve. The flame should go completely out. If it doesn't, the cut off valve is working properly.

Kitchen/Laundry Room/Pantry
_ Check that every appliance is working properly
* Refrigerator
* Freezer
* Dishwasher (run thru a cycle to ensure no leaks and that it actually cleans dishes. We bought a house once where the dishwasher seemed to work when we tested it but when we actually tried to wash dishes, they never got clean. It turned out that the water had never been attached and the little bit of moisture we were seeing was just moisture from the air!)
* stove top - check every burner
* vent hood - make sure it is actually hooked up and venting to the outside.
* oven
* microwave
* garbage disposal - put some garbage in it and make sure it chops it up.
* washer (again, run a cycle to make sure its not leaking and that it doesn't dance around)
* dryer (run a cycle with some clothes to make sure it doesn't dance. Also, make sure the dry vent is hooked up!)
_ Open and close every cabinet and every drawer to make sure they function properly.
_ Look inside each cabinet and drawer to make sure it is finished properly, that there are no missing shelves, etc. Also, look for scratches, nicks, and stains. Once you move in, you builder will assume that you made any mars on your cabinetry.
_ Turn both hot and cold water on at the sink. Fill the sink with water and then, after a while, check under the sink for evidence of leaking. Check around the sink to make sure that it is properly sealed to your countertop.
_ Check the countertop for flaws. Check the edges of countertops especially carefully as these can easily get chipped or scratched (depending on the type surface) during the building process.
_If you have a granite countertop, inspect it carefully. Run your hands over every inch feeling for any rough spots. Also, get down on your hands and knees and look across the granite from a height just an inch or two above the surface - places that are not properly polished will be more visible.
_ Inspect every light fixture installed by builder to make certain it was not scratched, dented, or marred in the process of being installed.

Bathrooms
_ Actually step into shower stalls and bathtubs to make sure they feel solid underfoot. Acrylic tubs and shower bases that "give" underfoot will crack over time.
_ Run water in every sink and bathtub and make sure they hold water without leaking. (Look under the sinks for leaks).
_ Run the showers.
_ Make sure you get hot water when you turn on a hot water spigot. Try it at every sink, tub, shower, and in your washing machine.
_ Run water at several locations at the same time to make sure you have adequate water pressure.
_ Test that bathroom fans work.
_ Flush all toilets several times to make sure they STOP running when the tanks refill. (Having a bunch of friends out for several hours also means your toilets may actually get "field tested" to make sure they really flush adequately... which not something you are likely to test while doing a walk thru with your builder!)
_ Make sure toilets sit solidly and evenly on the floor and are properly bolted down. There should not be any "rocking" motion when you sit down.
_ Have someone flush a toilet times while you run hot water in the shower and feel it. Flushing the toilet SHOULD NOT cause the shower water to suddenly get noticeable hotter.
_Make sure shower faucets are grouted properly so that water does not get into the wall behind them.
_ Check the cabinetry the same as you did for the kitchen.
_ Make certain that mirrors installed by the builder don't have flaws in the silvering.
_ Test that toilet paper holders and towel bars are firmly affixed to walls.

MISCELLANEOUS
_ If your builder installed blinds or operable shutters (inside or out) make sure they work properly.
_ Check that you OUTDOOR water spigots work.
_ Check all outdoor electrical outlets as well. These often get over-looked.
_ Check your garage door openers. Also make sure that, if something is in the way of the door as it comes down, that the door stops and goes back up.
_ If you have an attic access ladder, pull it down and make sure it works smoothly.
_ Climb into the attic and make sure you have the amount of insulation you are supposed to have.
- If you're really lucky and it rains while you are checking out your house this weekend, go up into the attic with a flashlight and look for roof leaks.
_ Make sure gutters are fully attached to walls and designed to drain water away from your house. Pull downward gently on the downspouts and make sure that there is no movement where they connect to the gutters. If downspouts have not been properly connected to gutters, they can fall out.
_ Check that ground around the house has been graded so that it slopes away from the house.
_ Get as high above the ground as you can safely manage and look to see if your roofing shingles appear to be flat and tight against the roof.
_ Check all exterior concrete for cracks.
_ Check the siding on the house to make sure everything that was supposed to be painted has been painted.
_ Check that exterior sprinkler systems work and that landscaping plants are alive and appear healthy.

This is all just "off the top of my head." I'm sure if you think about it you can add dozens of other things to check for. And, no doubt other posters will chime in with other things to add to your check list.
Ultimately, you don't have to insist that the builder fix every little tiny thing. If something won't bother you - or if you can fix it easily yourself and don't mind doing so, point it out to your builder anyway and, once you've gone over everything you can cross those items off your list as a way to show you're being reasonable but that the rest of the list IS important to you.

I've been waiting for it to be finished to take the final pictures, but I've come to the conclusion that if I wait for all of the "blue tape" issues to be addressed, for the cleaning crew to clean up the construction gravy and/or to borrow someone's wide-angled lens, well, then it will be filled with our stuff. And with baby #3 on the way, well, God knows how long before the boxes will be broken down and we're truly settled.

So, aside from a missing microwave, plastic still on the fridge doors (which are in the middle of their THIRD reinstallation) and general mish mash in the sandwich area - here's as close as we're going to get to photos of a finished kitchen this year : )

Details as follows:
Cabinets - Custom cabinet maker, inset shaker, SW Pearly White, Walnut Stained Trim
Floors - Teak hardwood stained Jacobean (very hard, does not absorb to typical Jacobean dark!)
Range - 48" Thermador Combo
Venthood - Ventaire with 1600 CFM roof-mounted blower
Sink - Franke
Faucet - Brizo
Pot Filler - DRATS I can't remember :)
Hardware Pulls - Amerock Highland Ridge, Polished Nickel
Hardward Knobs - Atlas
Countertops Island - Alabama White Marble 6cm slab
Countertops Perimeter - Caesarstone Pebble 2cm with mitered edge to 6cm
Island Chopping Block - Boos Block Walnut End Grain 4inch
Island Pendant Lights - Restoration Hardware Royal Seamaster (Discontinued)
Refridgerator - Thermador 30" Freedom Column
Freezer - Thermador 30" Freedom Column
Double/Single Oven - GE Profile
Backsplash - 4" Shiplap Wood Paneling whitewashed

I'm sure I'm forgetting lots... heck, I barely know my name. So if anyone has any questions, please let me know. You've all been wonderful, and I sincerely enjoy just knowing that a community of such substantial depth and helpfulness exists. I wish I could invite you all over for coffee!!

I am using Carrara marble and honed black granite for countertop. I'd love this backsplash (random size strips?) as Carrara. Any idea where I might be able to find that?

Thank you so much for your help.

Here is a link that might be useful: backsplash

It's a Progress lighting pendant similar to one at Pottery Barn.

http://www.lightinguniverse.com/foyer-lights/progress-lighting-p3617-88-3-light-hall-foyer-light-heirloom_g140356.html?isku=782211&linkloc=cataLogProductItemsImage