Saturday, September 12, 2009

September 12, 2009: Hardwood and Backsplash

On Saturday, we thought the floor would be dry enough for us to try out some backsplash tile, but that also meant we could take some pictures of the hardwood from different locations.

Preethi tries out the tile pattern for the backsplash. A white veined marble with granite insets (absolute black instead of the angola black on the counter top but it's pretty close). We're going with a different edge though - lots of little stones.
A thermostat was put in on the top floor.

A view of the stained hardwood on the top floor. It still has another coat and a sealing layer to come.


A view of the stairs. There's a lot of dust in a new house as shown by the railing.

Friday, September 11, 2009

September 11, 2009: Garage, Floor Sealed

On Friday, I went out to the house after work. The garage door was in, the hardwood had been sealed and a few things other things were done.
View of the house from the road.

A doggy door was put in on the garage back door. It locks on the inside.

The garage door was installed. Wasn't operational when I was there, so this is the best picture I have.

The hardwood floors were sealed, so we can't walk on them until Monday.

However, I could peek in again at the front entrance. Here's the great room. All the sunlight reflecting off the floor is skewing the light sensors in the camera making the floor look lighter here than it actually is.

Stairs. This is a bit more representative of the color.

Dining room floor.

Great room looking towards the fireplace.

A "temporary" railing was installed on the front porch. We are thinking of doing concrete railings long term, but this looks pretty good so we might put that off for a while and maybe just stain the railing to match the door.

A close up of the condensers (dual-zone)

The freon tubes coming out to the condensers.

And inside the house where the freon tubes go outside.

The driveway was graded a bit, but won't be finished until Monday.


Tuesday, September 8, 2009

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.

Friday, September 4, 2009

September 4, 2009: Let there be light

On Friday, we did not make it out to the house until after the sun went down. Fortunately, the lighting fixtures were installed which really go a long ways towards making it look like a finished house. For whatever reason, the flash on the camera seemed to make rooms look a lot yellower in the picture than in person.

View of the great room and kitchen. You can see the track lighting on the great room wall (where we'll hang paintings), recessed lights in the ceiling, and pendant lights in the background in the kitchen (there are more lights in the kitchen than you can see in this picture). In the background, Preethi is fiddling with the remote control for the great room fan.
This is the fan Preethi was controlling. It's rather large and moves a good bit of air even when not spinning very quickly.

A different view of the great room which let's you see all three recessed lights on the south side of the great room. There's a total of six recessed lights in the great room. Interestingly, we found that the track lighting did a much better job of lighting up the room (brighter and more even light) than the recessed lights, probably because they aim up towards the reflective white ceiling while the recessed lights aim down.

The track lights.

The kitchen all lit up (except for some recessed lights). We'll have to lower the pendants over the island a little bit.

Lights were in the closets too (here, the pantry)

Light over the sink in the main level bath.

Stairwell lights. Effectively nightlights so you can see the steps in the dark.

The hanging light in the stairwell. Preethi was there when they hung up this light. She said it only took 2 minutes.

Light/fan in one of upstairs bedrooms.

Lights over the tub in the master bath.

The shower in the master bath.

Lights on my side of the master bath.

Lights in a different bedroom on the top floor.

View of the stair light from that same bedroom. Note that smoke detectors are also in.

For perspective on how many lights were put in Friday, here's the boxes for the lights.

Last of the outlets were put in in the basement.

Insulation in the basement. Still a little more to add in a few places like the preceding pic.

The whole house fan is now operational (we tested it for fun).

Laundry room. The last of the hookups were cleaned up.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

September 3, 2009: Last Concrete Poured

On Thursday, we went out to the house during lunch (no pics) while they were pouring concrete and then much later in the evening when the concrete was done.

Preethi looks at the sidewalk. The lines in the concrete are regularly spaced control joints.


Sidewalk viewed from the driveway.
Pads for the propane tank (front) and condensers (back).
Basement stoop. Note that the smaller concrete jobs don't get control joints.


Garage stoop and apron. These have control joints.

Heat exchanger has now been wired up for the basement and main level (the other one is in the attic for the second floor.)

A little oval framing was done on the jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom

The water entry point for the house was sealed.