A lot of great progress has been made. On the top floor we decided to remove the exterior walls so they can be studded, insulated and drywalled. Then, to address the squeaky floors, we ended up removing the existing hardwood and putting down new T&G (Tongue and Groove) plywood that was glued and screwed down and then new hardwood:
Subfloor insulation (especially over the garage), and the finished floor.
The great room is coming along nicely. We decided to go with Silestone for the countertop. Even though it was a premium over granite, Silestone is non-porous, maintenance free, stronger, and rather heat tolerant - though granite will shine here. Countertop installation is scheduled for Tuesday by Counter Intelligence, Inc.
One challenge we had was that since a custom microwave cabinet was not available, we were provided a kit to build one on site. The one shown is the second iteration at 24" rather 27". That 3" difference allowed us to get a single slab of Silestone rather than having 2-pieces with a visible seam - we needed 120" and the slab in our color came in 118" lengths.Our Silestone color will be the one in the middle, Blanco Capri (aka Capri Limestone).
Here are some picture of the great room in progress. Before the spray foam, I wired the room for Dolby 7.1 surround sound but had to modify it with two headers so I could remove the stud that would have run have run through the center channel speaker. I also took the opportunity to wire in cable (coax), network (Cat6), and telephone (RJ11), and a HDMI and Coax bridge so it will be hidden behind the TV. I bought 12 guage speaker wire, wall and ceiling speakers from Monoprice.com
Looks great! I was just admiring some Silestone on Friday. I love that they have one that resembles marble. When we redo or kitchen, we'll use Silestone too. Very impressive that you wired the room yourself too!
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