September 8, 2009: Staining and driveway begin

We made it out to the house on Monday, though not much visibly had been done (Dan was busy prepping for the seeding guy, but that was mostly smoothing out the soil). On Tuesday, however, floor staining and the driveway installation began.

The stained great room floor and stairs. The stain color is English Chestnut. This (and all the floor stain pictures) were taken leaning into the front door as we can't walk on the floor for a while.

The dining room floor.

Looking across the great room.

The driveway was graded and crushed stone began to be put down (by the garage), but then a rather large rain storm came up. Not so conveniently while I was there making a small change on a corner of the driveway.

From Monday - the ridge was stained and the dormer was painted.

The outside units for the air conditioners were installed on Tuesday (no inside pics - mud + stained floors),

On Monday, I also noticed that electrical boxes were put in on the kitchen island.

On Monday, we also took some "family" shots on the front porch. From left to right: Fritz, Preethi, Silver.

And here's Fritz, me, and Silver.

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June 29, 30, 2009: Hardwood and Gutters (and window frames)

I got out to the house on the 29th (Monday) and the 30th (Tuesday), but only had a chance to post pictures today so there's a little bit of a mix.

This week, trim is going up around the windows, the flooring is starting, and the gutters are going up on the outside.

Silver checks out the hardwood (oak) going in the great room and the dining room. We looked at bamboo initially, but didn't like the colors it came in and didn't have the option of staining it ourselves. There will be tile in the foyer, so there's a kinda square cutout there. In case you're curious, the subfloor (black) is asphalt felt and the board direction is perpindicular to the floor joists. (A quicky how-to guide is here.)

Detail of the 45 degree (mitred) joint at the corner of the foyer tile area. We'll eventually sand and stain the wood a fairly dark brown. But that won't be for a while (almost the last thing done).

Wood on the main stairs landing.

Also wood in the hallways on the second floor. All the bedrooms will be carpet and the bathrooms tile.

Cutouts for the vents. They may look small, but we wanted more a diffuser to limit the amount of dog hair and other dirt that ends up in the vents.

The staggered pattern for laying hardwood.

The great room with the wood all down (next day)

View from the dining room looking back into the great room. All the hardwood for the house was laid in two days.

We're using a mix of picture frame and stool and apron styles for the window trim. Our bathrooms are a little small (intentional) so we went with the slightly less intrusive picture frame there but with the more formal stool and apron elsewhere. (All about window trim trim here). This is a stool and apron trimmed window in the garage.

More stool and apron trimmed windows, but in the master bedroom.

A picture frame trimmed window in the master bathroom's "throne room".

Window in the guest room with its stool and apron without the head or side casings. This is the normal order they're installed which allows for a perfectly seated butt-joint by resting the side casings on the stool.

A follow-up picture to the rounded drywall edges on the kitchen arch.

Gutter installation started on the west side. Mostly the down spouts (click here for gutter terminology / installation) will be positioned to be on the sides and rear of the house to be less visible from the front.

Close up of a downspout and run on the outside of the greatroom (northwest corner). As you can see from the shadow in this picture, there's a lot of trees around the house, so the gutters will have the aptly named, "Leaf Solution". I don't know that I'll be able to get a good picture of that though.

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May 19, 2009: Electrical Rough ins Done, Heating / Cooling Begin

We didn't make it out to the site on Monday, but did on Tuesday. Some more work had been done on the shingles, plumbing, heating / air, and the electrical rough-ins are now "finished".

View of the house from the tree on the north east corner. Most of the shingling is done now.

View of the shingles on the back of the great room.

Electrical rough-ins on the outside were also completed. This one is next to the garage door.

Preethi inspects some of the cans for recessed lighting in the great room. More cans have been hung in the back.

Cans for recessed lights in the kitchen. There's two over the sink, two over the range, and two over the kitchen desk. (You can only see two in this photo).

Stair light rough-ins. Effectively night lights so you don't fall down the steps.

The huge set of wires that will go into the electrical panels in the basement.

Pipes for water for a bath/shower. Hot and cold are mixed and sent up the single pipe.

View in the shower/bath. Still need to add some fixtures (faucet, shower head).

A different view of a shower where you can see the water pipe extending above the the top of the surround for the shower head.

Underneath a shower rough-in.

Tubes that will eventually be filled with freon to connect a compressor with an air handler (we're dual-zone).

Cold-air intake on the main floor situated on the side of the pantry closest to the dining room (for the lower zone).

Cold air-intake at the top of the stairs (for hte upper zone).

3 vents in the master bedroom. On the top floor, the vents will be in the ceiling as the air handler will be in the attic.

WIth the vents, plumbing, and electrical rough-ins in, it's starting to crowded in a few places.

View of the registers in another upstairs bedroom from a closet. You can also see a wire hanging down that will eventually power a fluorescent light.

On the main level, the vents are currently on the floor. However, we wanted them off the floor to cut down on the amount of dog hair that falls into the ducts.

View of the main level vents from the basement,

More of the freon-filled (eventually) tubing that connect air handlers and compressors. One of the air handlers will be in the basement.

Fritz checked out the basement on his own.

Silver verified that the silt fence had been fixed after last week's storms.

Probably close enough to merit cutting down, but it's leaning away and it's a real nice looking tree.

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May 13, 2009: Electrical Rough-ins begin

On Wednesday, we got out to the lot fairly early, which should mean better lighting and better pictures, but I apparently screwed up a setting on the camera, so the pictures were blurry, which I didn't notice until later. The electrical rough-ins began (intentionally started after the plumbing rough-ins under the theory that it's a lot easier to adjust the path of a wire than the path of a pipe) and some light carpentry (opening for false stairwell to attic, roughing-in the front doorway).

Some more backfilling occured around the front.

A few more pipes were run in the main floor bathroom.

View of the master bedroom from the stairwell. You can see where a lot of the wires were already run. A lot of the electrical roughins on the top floor occured on the first day. (Cable, phone mostly happened the next day.)

View of one of the bedrooms from the stairwell.

Looking back through the previous bedroom.

Looking through the laundry room to the master bedroom.

Master bedroom and closets.

Master bedroom ceiling with the fan / light roughin. There will also be a couple recessed lights on the shelf.

Rough-ins around the master bathroom.

View of the laundry room from the master bedroom.

Looking up into the attic from the master bedroom. The higher blue electrical box is there to hold the smoke detector for the master bedroom.

Rough-ins in another bedroom on the top floor.

A vanity light roughin in the jack & jill bathroom.

The opening for the false (pull-down) stairwell to the attic in the top floor hallway.

Some holes drilled in stairway supports tha will eventually have wires running through them.

Preethi, Fritz and Silver hanging out in the great room.

Roughing in the front door. I can't find a picture of it online, but it's really a rather cool looking door that doesn't have all the superfluous (from our perspective) grill work.

Wires coming down into the basement where the electrical panel will be. Basically it's underneath the kitchen in what will someday be a basement office / bedroom (not during this construction) so we'll likely have to build a little closet around it. This is after one day; there will be a lot more wires later as we'll be using a double panel.

A view of the house from the West that emphasizes the varying roof lines.

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