And the fun continues - the extended Walker family room renovation activity
The Background. Okay, so we renovated our kitchen which included putting in a new floor. We decided to extend the new floor into our family room as well. When our trusty contractors pulled up the old floor in the family room they found a little water spot to the left of the fireplace. They offered to repair, we said sure. When the pulled up the subflooring, they found a disaster! The original homebuilder had apparently neglected to flash the outside corner of the fireplace box allowing water to trickle down that edge into the joists and header for about 14 years. Result is what you might expect, the end of the joists and the header were rotted away. We ended up having to take out the fireplace, repair the floor and the wall and the siding... THEN one of the two skylights started to leak. So we had both of them replaced as well.

Finally in July 2005 the family room was structurally sound, now it was time to reinstall the fireplace. We talked to our designer and decided to order a new mantel that matched the cabinets in our newly renovated kitchen. And the adventure begins...

Mid-July 2005. The repairs to the family room are complete, the new mantel has been ordered, estimated delivery 9-12 weeks.

September 2005. We decided to paint before the fireplace installation. Romy preps for the paint job, John supervises.

Painting pretty much completed. Still waiting for the mantel

We move back in with some furniture pending the arrival of the mantel.

November 2005. We got a call in late October from our contractor informing us that the mantel had arrived. For some unknown reason they were not able to deliver it until mid-November. We were not pleased.

December 2005. After many phone calls, we got the contractors to come out and install the mantel.

The installed mantel, just in time for Xmas 2005. Platform for the raised hearthstone also installed. We decided to go for a non-traditional half-round hearth versus the traditional slab. Of course now we had to order the hearthstone...

March 2006. The hearthstone is installed. Very nice black granite. We thought some marble inside the mantel and above the hearth would look very nice. Talked to our designer, she came up with some options and we picked one. Of course now we had to order the marble...

April 2006. Marble installed. We realized that we needed some type of trim around the marble to finish the look. Talked to our designer, she came up with some options and we picked one. Of course now we had to order the trim...

While we were waiting for the trim we started fitting out the room with some real furniture. First major pieces were a new leather sleeper sofa and a matching ottoman. We put the sofa in front of the picture window, with a skylight above it is a great place to read on a Saturday afternoon.

July 2006. The trim is installed.

The fireplace is completed, the family room project is done! Gee and it only took a year to finish...

We bought a nice wine rack in Detroit when we were visiting, it was just the right size to fit on the connecting wall between the kitchen and the living room.

We found just the right bar chairs, match the floor.

October 2006. First fire in the renovated fireplace.

November 2006. We added some custom bookcases and a small LCD TV in the corner.