Hello, faithful readers. It's been a while, but we have some fun stuff to show you! We painted the pool bath. I like how the shelving turned out. The pocket door (blue strip) has been installed, too. We also got the rest of the tile from B & W. So, here we are, the pool shower is finished. We are waiting on Terrazzo flooring from Fritztile for the bathrooms. Things are moving quickly, which is nice to say, for once.
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More is happening to the half bath - turned - pool bath. Our contractor's drywall guys came by to finish framing in the shower and the shelving. Unfortunately, there are 2 parts of the house that are technically not part of the square footage, as there is no ventilation/air vents. The half bath - turned - pool bath is one of them. Well, we added a vent, as you can see here. What was once just an opening right into the bathroom is now a small hallway into a bath and the laundry room. This will *hopefully* be terrazzo tile. Tile time for the pool shower. Once again, we used the glazed 4 x 4 tile from B & W. Sadly, this will be the last post about the pool bath for a little bit - we ordered the wrong amount of tile, and need another five square feet to finish, which means that with the holiday we have to wait a while until B & W can send us more. Also, we are still trying to find an installer for the terrazzo flooring that we want in the bathrooms. So, until we get that settled, there are other improvements that are coming along. Stay tuned!
If you have been by The Gist Restoration at any point since February, you probably noticed that we have a lot of trees in our yard. Nathan has a background in biology, and grew up in a family that was passionate about growing their own fruit. Nathan only has two rules when it comes to trees - they either have to be native or bear fruit. In the backyard, we have two Rhus Lancea (African sumac) trees that we simply cannot tell if they were originally planted there, or they grew from seeds that dropped in from our neighbor's yard. Although they are drought tolerant, they are extremely messy and have not been properly planted or cared for, and have torn up a good portion of the planters in the northwest side of the yard. We took advantage of some *slightly* cooler morning weather to remove them. Most of the way done. Nathan nearly got heat stroke cutting the two down, despite the fact that he started at 5am. Be careful doing work outside during the summer, folks. You can kind of see how the brick planter (center of photo, left of palm tree) is a mess from the root system. Mostly done. We are looking forward to there not being a ton of Rhus Lancea leaves blowing into the pool.
So, earlier this week, we came over to the house to find a fantastic surprise... Some of the kitchen cabinet boxes have been installed! We are incredibly excited at this, because we can see some progress!!! Since Philippine Mahogany, the original wood for the kitchen, is long extinct, we had to settle for African Mahogany. However, the grain of the wood was very specific for Gist's homes, and our cabinet maker had to go to Phoenix to find the exact grain we needed. Here it is, stained a similar reddish tone. Outer trim pieces, pulls, and much more. All should be installed very soon. Time to get our backsplash and kitchen counters going.
So, the plumbing and electrical inspections for the new pool bath have been approved. Things are moving quite quickly with that bathroom. Here is the framing for the new shower and storage shelving for the pool bath. The shower will be 40 x 36, with the green tile from B & W lining the walls. Framing for the pocket door. This bathroom had no door, and went straight into the laundry (and the guest suite). By adding a pocket door, there is some privacy. As there should have been in the first place. New wall with drywall. A proper shower light fixture - a 4 inch wet-rated LED from Nuvo. In order to have an entrance to the pool bath from the pool, we needed to add a door. Thankfully, that was not a problem. This was originally an outdoor storage unit (with some pretty sweet, albeit heavily oil-stained, blue laminate), but it was not taken care of properly and had some significant wood rot. So we removed it, and removed the window that was over the storage area. As you can see, we kept the window, in case some other window in the house needed to be replaced. The new door has keyless entry, and will be frosted for privacy.
Things are coming along! ...before the cabinets are installed. So, we decided on a few colors for the kitchen and family room area, since they are mostly done at this point. That and, we needed to have the kitchen painted before cabinets were going to be installed anyway. Of course, most of the time was spent prepping the area to be painted - with the brick flooring nearly finished (our flooring guys said that once everything is done, they will do a final polish and seal), we did not want to get paint on the floor. The ceiling is Dunn Edwards Swiss Coffee, and the walls are Dunn Edwards Raindrops. We decided not to go too bold in color here, simply because the cabinets are meant to be the focus.
Sadly, although we had planned on having the cabinets installed this week, our cabinet maker got sick and is a few weeks behind. No problem, there is so much else to do in the house anyway. I can't stop staring at that glorious brick. Sometimes, it's best not to say anything, and just show pictures... Now, keep in mind that this is not sealed, nor the divots repaired, but we're speechless at how stunning this is, and even more confused as to why the previous owners covered it with white carpet and white tile.
HGTV is a bunch of liars. They always show you how fast and easy remodels are, and how lovely 'updating' your home is. The reality is much, much different. Kitchen remodels are frustrating, especially when you pull a permit. They take a long time, are expensive, and 'updating' without having custom cabinets looks cheap and horrible in a few years. That being said... ...we are no longer looking at framing. Firewall and sheetrock has gone up...and even better.... We are almost ready for cabinets. We need the brick flooring ground and sealed first, then we can have cabinets installed and electrical fixtures finished. THIS IS SO EXCITING, we may have a kitchen soon!
On Tuesday, we showed you the progress in the hall bath. Today, the master. And boy, this is the one we are very, very excited about. Sheetrock, sealant, plaster, and building the Roman tub. We were going to go with one more set of bricks for the Roman tub lip, but we decided against it. Looking good so far. Our tile guy went over the shampoo nook a few times to get the setting right. Everything set, just needs sealant and fixtures. Once again, a huge thank you to B & W Tile in Gardena, California for the blue 4 x 4, and to Merola for the lovely blue penny tile for the basin.
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About Us
In October 2016, Nathan & Rachel bought a 1958 Tom Gist custom home in the Mid-Century filled Wilshire Heights neighborhood in Tucson, AZ. This is our blog documenting the restoration! Archives
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