The renovation project continues. The workers have torn out the marble in the entry and prepared the floor for the “new” marble. Why replace the existing marble, you ask? I asked the same question. As it turns out, once the colors and fabrics had been chosen for the furniture and window treatments, we noticed that the existing marble contained a distinct pink hue. So, for that matter, did the wall color… as I’ve said before, everything is connected.

Of course, whenever undertaking such a project, one never knows what might appear under the old tiles. In our case, it was an unorthodox method of “floating,” all of which needed to be removed and replaced with correct sub-flooring.  It was a lengthy and messy task  but we’re ready now (knock on wood, pun intended) for the new 16” marble tiles.

The walls are being “skimmed” as I speak and will probably be sanded and ready for paint in a week or so. It’s all European “smoothwall” so the process is somewhat exacting. Our designers have recommended paint colors and we’ll look at sample boards next week to get a better idea of how the color might appear over a large area (visualizing color over an entire landscape from a small color swatch is not one of my strong suits.) 

We decided today to cap the floor outlets and replace them after the carpet, area rugs and furniture are installed. Improper placement of floor outlets would be disastrous. We picked carpets Monday; a solid for most of the areas, a cut pattern for the stairs, landing and upstairs bedroom, a commercial carpet in a darker shade in the gym and a dark, patterned one for the study. We may also use the cut patterned carpet in the master suite. The baths will be another project down the road, probably a natural stone.

Of course, no project of this magnitude can proceed without an occasional hiccup. In our case, there are numerous delays associated with virtually all our window treatments. I won’t go into them here, but we’re concerned the windows may not be treated by the time everything else is finished. But, all in all, we’re proceeding well and, thanks to a very capable and responsive general contractor and good design team, have had very few “issues.”  

We’ll be refinishing the wood floors in the kitchen and breakfast nook as well. The contractor will dovetail all this together so it plays like an orchestra. Glad I’m not handling all the scheduling and timetables. I’ve embedded a couple photos of the entry during demolition (they’re popups, so click on them for a larger view) and will post more,  perhaps even a slide show, when the project is further along. Keep your fingers crossed everything continues smoothly.