In Reading our kitchen remodel is moving into the final stages of the project. This week the tile installers were there last week installing the floor and the wall tile in back of the counter top. For the wall tile the owners went with a 5 inch tall by 3 in wide white porcelain. When installed it will visually make the gap between the cabinets and the counter top seem larger. Mixed into this pattern are 2 inch by 2 inch green tiles that have been turned 45 degrees and placed at the corners of every other intersection. This will add an accent to the walls and break up the pure white feel that it would have been created with the tile and white cabinet combination.

The larger back splash behind the stove has a centerpiece that is rectangle made of 6 inch by 6 inch tiles that were again turned at 45 degrees. The Tiles are a mix of emerald green and grey. The green tiles will tie into the 2 inch accent tiles along the wall and also match the 1 inch chair rail tiles that act as a boarder for the centerpiece.

Making up the rest of the back splash is a mosaic made of 1 inch by 1 inch tiles. To help pull all the colors together our designers suggested reusing the same emerald green and grey from the centerpiece and white from the wall tiles. This gives the kitchen a cohesive feel while again breaking up the visual feel of the white cabinets that it is set into.

This week the finish carpenters are working to install the cabinetry and the island. They will also be building the custom wine rack that will go above the refrigerator to help better utilize that space. The electricians are there installing the recessed lighting and hooking up the new appliances. That will bring the kitchen to substantial completion so that the homeowners can start using it before we come in to finish the punch list.

The addition in Manchester-By-The-Sea is starting to wrap up. Last week the tile installers were working there laying the custom mosaic tile in the bathroom. The mosaic is made up of large Cerrera Marble tiles with small diamond shaped Verde St. Denis marble tiles mixed in. The Verde St. Denis marble has been mixed in throughout the bathroom, including the vanity counter top and the tubs’ decking. This is a classic design type that keeps in line with the same design style as the rest of the house.

The tub in the bathroom is a soaking height Whirlpool Tub that has been custom mounted underneath a slab of the same Verde St. Denis marble. This will give the bathroom a smoother appearance and tie everything in together. Carrying the same wall pattern through the shower walls will open up the area and not visually break up the room. Using large tiles and thin matching grout lines will also help make the room look more uniform.

Although current trends are moving away from full tiled walls in bathrooms some styles remain timeless. White marble with matching accents has been an elegant design choice since the days of the Roman Empire and is still just as eye catching today. Choosing this style will add appeal and value to a home and will never look dated when the time to sell comes.

A recent bathroom that we renovated in Winchester is a good example of using these design ideas to enlarge a room. The bathroom was wider than it was long when you walked in. To help visually correct this, we used a design technique of installing longer tiles to give the room more visual depth. The tiles that were chosen were Dal Tiles Eastside Brown Concrete Connection porcelain tiles. These tiles usually come in 20inch by 13inch pieces. Although this is already a long tile, we had them custom ordered to 6 ½ inch by 20 inch pieces to add to the effect. The Eastside Brown color is a dark grey with minor light grey accents. Since there is very little variation in the colors of the tiles it gives the floor a more seamless look, which also visually stretches the area.

Another way to make the space seem larger is to install a walk in shower with a clear glass door. This will extend peoples line of sight more than a curtain or a frosted glass door will. This naturally will make people feel like room is larger while not extending the footprint of the room.

The final design method used was putting in a pedestal sink. While still allowing for the same size sink, this also extends the line of sight because the base is open. A vanity would have taken up more space in the room but have given more area for storage. To compensate for that, an inset medicine cabinet was installed instead of a mirror. This allows the homeowner to keep the same amount of storage while still opening up the bathroom.

Due to these design techniques the bathroom kept the same footprint while having a more spacious feel.

The first step in this remodel was to demo the existing addition. The air conditioning for the house ran through the crawlspace of the old addition to the compressor on the other side. Seeing how the air conditioner will not be in use during the winter build, we had our plumbers come and cap off the pipes to the compressor before the crawlspace and then moved the compressor out of the work zone, saving it for re-installation. Once that was completed we sent in the excavator to demo the old foundation and dig out the ground for the new basement.

The new foundation will abut the old one, not only on the side of the house but also on the front. To take care not to damage the existing foundation the excavator used machinery for most of the digging but also used shovels to clean up the area around the foundation. Although that method is more labor intensive and is a little more costly it is the only way to make sure that the job is done correctly with no damage to the current structure.

To better utilize the space both inside and outside the owner decided to expand bedroom and make a bathroom next to it. The bathroom will include a walk in shower with a separate tub underneath a bay window. This will let additional light in the bathroom and is a classic design concept for bathrooms. The stand alone tub with a shower next to it is a style that has become very popular recently and the mixture of these two styles will give the bathroom a look that is recent but will not look dated in the years to come.

One of the nice features of this project is the remodel of the old utility closet. This is going to be turned into a walk in closet for the basement bedroom. The walls have been plastered over to give it a finished look but since there are pipes and wires that may need to be available to the homeowner, there have been access panels included. Finishing the closet will not only add functionality to the house but having a full basement suit will also greatly increase the homes value.

The outside space will have a redone patio with a grill. The grill is going to be built into bricks which match the restraining wall next to it. This will give the owner a nice outside area overlooking the water which he can entertain guests in.

We were able to do this because of our Bath Renovation Group. The Bath Renovation Group is a division of Andover Renovation Solutions who, as their name suggests, deals only with bathroom remodels. Most bathroom remodeling projects are planned around the holidays which means that the bathrooms that were started after Thanksgiving are being finished this week. Due to most of the bathrooms being ahead of schedule and finished early, the Bath Renovation Group was able to lend some of its work force to this job.

Due to the added workers, the finish carpenters who would have been working on the bathroom moved to the master bedroom and were able to apply all the finishing touches to it. Inside the bathroom the sconce lights, medicine cabinet, towel bars, and bathroom tissue holder was installed yesterday. In the bedroom, the plug outlet covers and light switches were put in along with the master closet having the shelves cut to size and installed. Today they are painting the closet and the bathroom and outside the shutters are being hung. This means that the job will be at substantial completion by the end of the day.

With the added manpower of the Bath Renovation Group the home owners goal of being finished by Christmas Eve will easily be accomplished and their party can go on as planned.

The painters are there now putting the final coat of paint on the bathrooms. The owners let their children pick out the colors for their own bathrooms. The girls bathroom is being painted bright yellow with pink trim and the boys is going to be a blue with red trim to match his bedroom. Once the painting is complete the toilet toppers will be installed and the bathrooms will be complete.

Downstairs the half bath off of the kitchen was completed yesterday. Since room in this bath was at a premium they decided to go with a pedestal sink and a medicine cabinet instead of a vanity. This will give them the storage space they need while making the room look more open. The homeowner is installing the tile for his own back splash and as soon as that is completed we will be installing all the appliances. Once they are in place all that will be left to do is install the mantle around the homes living room fire place and tile and paint the homes mud room.

 
When the previous company installed the lights for the kitchen, they connected them to the old wiring using a function box, which was then covered over by the new ceiling. Although this was the standard procedure for light installation back then, now it is out of code. Since it was exposed during the bath renovation the home owners are now required to update this wiring to the current code of having all junction boxes easily accessible. This means there must be a way for them to be reachable without removing the ceiling or recessed lights. Usually what will happen is the junction boxes will have an access panel in the ceiling, which looks like a plug cover without the outlet.

 
Seeing how the homeowners have three recessed lights they would need to have three of these blank panels exposed in their kitchen. Not only can this be an unsightly addition to the kitchen, but with an electrician coming in to move the junction boxes and a carpenter doing the work to the ceiling, it can also be costly.

 
Luckily since Andover Renovation Solutions has an electrician on staff who was already at the home he was able to fix the problem before it became a major issue. Instead of adding the access panels the home owner decided to eliminate the junction boxes by running new wires from the homes main electric panel to the lights. This brought the kitchen lighting up to the current code while helping avoid any further work being done to the kitchen. Due to having our own in house electrician the home owners were able to keep their kitchens seamless look and get the upgrade done for a fraction of the cost.

Also, there are two teams of masons working on the exterior. One team is putting up a brick facade on the building. The bottom half of the town houses will have a brick finish to make it so they match the brick finish that was originally on the mansion. To make sure that it has a seamless appearance with the mansion, we are using recreation 1900 bricks. Every 3 feet the masons are putting in an accent strip of 2 inch by 2 inch bricks. This will visually break up the wall and give the exterior more character.

The second masonry team is putting in the stone stairs and front landings. This is being done using a mosaic of large stone slabs. The slabs come in uniform sizes, so the workers are cutting them down into unique dimensions so they can fit together in a seemingly random order. To do this they plan out each landing before making a single cut then they use an 8 inch gas powered saw equipped with a special blade to easily cut through the stone.

Once the exterior and plastering is done the finish carpenters will be coming in to complete this building before the end of the year.