Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Tile grout versus no grout
Here's the progress of our kitchen backsplash so far. Notice on the left how there's grout. The rest of the tiling has no grout.
Toilet Dilemma and Bathroom Counters
Yesterday night, we ordered a sofa for the family room from Ikea. Delivery scheduled for this morning between 9am and 1pm. Thankfully, the work crew could sign for the delivery so we did not have to physically be at the house waiting.
However, I needed to visit the house in the morning due to a toilet and warming floor issue. Turns out that our toilet needs 4 holes drilled into the tile. Our master bathroom has a warming floor. We were supposed to receive two warming pads, one for the main area and one for the toilet area. Well, turns out that there was an ordering mistake and we got one large warming pad to cover both areas. As a result, we have the warming pad extended to the rear of the toilet (which I did not want). So to drill the holes, the workers were afraid of damaging the warming pad. If that were to happen, the flooring of the whole master bathroom would need to be redone because we would need to replace the entire warming pad. *sigh* I told them to go ahead and drill. Otherwise, the toilet will not be properly installed.
After a long planing period, they went ahead...the workers did some very careful calculations and based on touch, they determined that there were no heating coils around the area they needed to drill. With great caution, they proceeded...and succeeded! :)
Note: If you wanted a skirted toilet, let the GC know beforehand so they can position the piping properly.
Note: Let the GC know what kind of toilets you're using (Japanese versus American) because the Japanese brands need the extra 4 holes drilled in the back.
After making that drilling decision, I had just started driving home for 3 minutes when my GC called and told me that the counter installers were at the house(!). They were scheduled for 1pm but I guess they wanted to finish before lunch so they arrived around 11am. I had to stay for the whole install and checked their grouting work. For the master bathroom, we had bought larger sinks. Apparently that was a minor issue because the sinks were too big for the cabinets - too wide. The installers had to cut away on the sides of the cabinet to get the sink to fit properly. The only damage you can see is if you look towards the sink when the bottom cabinet is open. Most of the damage is hidden by the sink anyway. Thankfully!!
Note: Always know how large of a sink your cabinetry can accommodate before purchasing the sink!
However, I needed to visit the house in the morning due to a toilet and warming floor issue. Turns out that our toilet needs 4 holes drilled into the tile. Our master bathroom has a warming floor. We were supposed to receive two warming pads, one for the main area and one for the toilet area. Well, turns out that there was an ordering mistake and we got one large warming pad to cover both areas. As a result, we have the warming pad extended to the rear of the toilet (which I did not want). So to drill the holes, the workers were afraid of damaging the warming pad. If that were to happen, the flooring of the whole master bathroom would need to be redone because we would need to replace the entire warming pad. *sigh* I told them to go ahead and drill. Otherwise, the toilet will not be properly installed.
After a long planing period, they went ahead...the workers did some very careful calculations and based on touch, they determined that there were no heating coils around the area they needed to drill. With great caution, they proceeded...and succeeded! :)
Note: If you wanted a skirted toilet, let the GC know beforehand so they can position the piping properly.
Note: Let the GC know what kind of toilets you're using (Japanese versus American) because the Japanese brands need the extra 4 holes drilled in the back.
After making that drilling decision, I had just started driving home for 3 minutes when my GC called and told me that the counter installers were at the house(!). They were scheduled for 1pm but I guess they wanted to finish before lunch so they arrived around 11am. I had to stay for the whole install and checked their grouting work. For the master bathroom, we had bought larger sinks. Apparently that was a minor issue because the sinks were too big for the cabinets - too wide. The installers had to cut away on the sides of the cabinet to get the sink to fit properly. The only damage you can see is if you look towards the sink when the bottom cabinet is open. Most of the damage is hidden by the sink anyway. Thankfully!!
Note: Always know how large of a sink your cabinetry can accommodate before purchasing the sink!
 |
| Glue below the counter |
 |
| Master counter top |
 |
| Installed! |
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Carpet fiasco
Our GC could not find the contact information for his original carpet guy because it's been 10 years since he last had a client who wanted carpet. :p
But our GC made the mistake of assuming that he was going to use Home Depot for the carpet installation. After going to different stores, he decided that he didn't want to deal with the Home Depot guys for carpet. Therefore, he proceeded to call around for carpet installers to come to our site. Out of the four he reached, only one was willing to come out. The rest were on or going on holiday or something.
My Nghe Carpet & Flooring in San Jose on Tully Road -- Chinese guy who does not shy away from work during the holidays.
We had a meeting with the carpet guy today. Turns out that carpet comes from Georgia so we would need to wait 7-10 business days for the carpet to come out. As a result, we moved back our original move-in date by almost 2 weeks. After measuring the rooms, he took our carpet sample (from Home Depot) to his warehouse to see if there was anything similar. If he had carpet in his warehouse, then he could install immediately.
While he went to his warehouse, I picked up DH and headed down to the carpet guy's office. Peak traffic hours = long car ride. He found two carpet samples that were similar in color and pile to our sample but they just were not plush enough to DH's liking. Therefore, we selected new carpeting: Shaw Silken Dreams II in the color 100 Pearl.
But our GC made the mistake of assuming that he was going to use Home Depot for the carpet installation. After going to different stores, he decided that he didn't want to deal with the Home Depot guys for carpet. Therefore, he proceeded to call around for carpet installers to come to our site. Out of the four he reached, only one was willing to come out. The rest were on or going on holiday or something.
My Nghe Carpet & Flooring in San Jose on Tully Road -- Chinese guy who does not shy away from work during the holidays.
We had a meeting with the carpet guy today. Turns out that carpet comes from Georgia so we would need to wait 7-10 business days for the carpet to come out. As a result, we moved back our original move-in date by almost 2 weeks. After measuring the rooms, he took our carpet sample (from Home Depot) to his warehouse to see if there was anything similar. If he had carpet in his warehouse, then he could install immediately.
While he went to his warehouse, I picked up DH and headed down to the carpet guy's office. Peak traffic hours = long car ride. He found two carpet samples that were similar in color and pile to our sample but they just were not plush enough to DH's liking. Therefore, we selected new carpeting: Shaw Silken Dreams II in the color 100 Pearl.
 |
| 100 Pearl in the center |
Tile fiasco
After the grout in the master shower dried, the stones had turned a shade of brown. There is no brown in our shower!! So I called the tile store to see if this was a defect of some sort, and they said that it was an installation error.
Turns out that if you use epoxy grout, it'll be absorbed by porous materials such as stones (which is what we have). You need to pre-seal the material before applying the epoxy grout otherwise the material color may change. And once the epoxy is sucked into the material, you cannot extract it.
Needless to say, we need to redo the master shower floor. Booooooo...
Turns out that if you use epoxy grout, it'll be absorbed by porous materials such as stones (which is what we have). You need to pre-seal the material before applying the epoxy grout otherwise the material color may change. And once the epoxy is sucked into the material, you cannot extract it.
Needless to say, we need to redo the master shower floor. Booooooo...
 |
| Brown pebbles versus original grey pebbles |
 |
| What our master floor should look like |
Monday, November 21, 2011
Kitchen backsplash
They started laying out tile for the kitchen backsplash. In the first photo, you can see our new counters with the faucets installed.
 |
| Cooktop area |
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Granite installation
Today, workers came over to our house to install our granite! :)
For the tools, it's very nice to see that they have this gigantic level. :)
The round clamp on the bottom left of the picture is used to hold up the granite while they apply their glue underneath. I missed out on getting a video of this.
Note: Get all kitchen faucets ready before the granite installation. I had to run over to the plumbing store while they were installing to pick up our kitchen faucets. They don't know where to drill the holes for the faucet otherwise. (Unless you have a faucet that only requires one hole to be drilled.)
Also, for inspection reasons, we got an extra hole drilled near the prep sink on the island near the dishwasher. It's the air gap for the dishwasher that is required. Since our dishwasher (newer model) does not actually need an air gap, we will be using that hole for our water purifier faucet.
 |
| Installing island |
 |
| Island with sink cutout |
 |
| Using a jigsaw to cut out sink |
 |
| Tools and cooktop cutout marked |
For the tools, it's very nice to see that they have this gigantic level. :)
The round clamp on the bottom left of the picture is used to hold up the granite while they apply their glue underneath. I missed out on getting a video of this.
Note: Get all kitchen faucets ready before the granite installation. I had to run over to the plumbing store while they were installing to pick up our kitchen faucets. They don't know where to drill the holes for the faucet otherwise. (Unless you have a faucet that only requires one hole to be drilled.)
Also, for inspection reasons, we got an extra hole drilled near the prep sink on the island near the dishwasher. It's the air gap for the dishwasher that is required. Since our dishwasher (newer model) does not actually need an air gap, we will be using that hole for our water purifier faucet.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Pendants and blinds
Our pendants arrived today so I went to pick them up from the lighting store. That took only 3 weeks. woo!
Had an appointment for window shades. We're going with Hunger Douglas because of their cool retractable cord option - very kid-friendly. Picked a style and color. Going with Duette Architella honeycomb shades in daisy white. Black-out shades in most of the bedrooms. From the time of ordering, it'll take about 2 weeks to arrive.
Had an appointment for window shades. We're going with Hunger Douglas because of their cool retractable cord option - very kid-friendly. Picked a style and color. Going with Duette Architella honeycomb shades in daisy white. Black-out shades in most of the bedrooms. From the time of ordering, it'll take about 2 weeks to arrive.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)