Feb 16, 2011: The Deck Begins

"Hey", you thought, "wasn't this house already done?"

Well yes and no. We had put off adding the deck until later. Now is later. So I'm going to update this blog with pictures as the deck is built.

Forms (boards) and footers (boxes) being prepped for pouring concrete later.

It's not officially a construction project until the porta-john arrives.

When we built the fence, we put in a gate so equipment could get in easily (primarily for bushhogging the back lot, but also for this deck work). Guess where I'll be reseeding in a month?

View of the forms for the deck from West side of the house.

Fritz (right) and Wolfie (left) checking out the deck on the South side of the house. It's a wrap-around about 1/2 up each side (slightly more on the West, slightly less on the South)

Dirt mounded up to fill in and level before the gravel and concrete. Also you can see the Romeo and Juliet balconies we left in anticipation of building the deck later.

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September 29, 2009: Cleaning near done

Went out to the house on Friday and Tuesday. Between the two days, glass was put in the cabinets, grass was growing well, bricks had been cleaned, railings had been stained, and the last of the locks were put on the doors. Essentially everything is done now (we have a Certificate of Occupancy) except for some touch ups so I'll probably only update this blog once more when all the touch ups are done.

Most of these pictures are from Tuesday (29th) unless otherwise noted.

View of the house from the front. The bricks have been cleaned and grass is now growing.

Glass installed in the cabinets (from Friday)

Another view of the kitchen.

The outside railings were stained. Also see where the locks on the front door were installed. The front doors still need to be stained.

View of the great room from the dining room. Some painting had been touched up on the steps.

Another view of the steps.

View of the basement from beneath the dining room looking towards the area underneath the great room. All the insulation is now in.

Basement underneath the main level bedroom as seen from the basement underneath the dining room.

View from the East on Friday. It was raining. Mulch had been delivered and spread out in front of the house.

View from the fron of the house.

View from the Northwest

Straight on view from the side.

View from the side yard.

View from the backyard.

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September 23, 2009: Closets, Backsplash

I went out of town at the beginning of the week again and dropped by the house Wednesday evening. The backsplash, outside ground spots, logs for the fireplace, and closet shelves were all installed while I traveled.

Outside lights, including ground spots were installed.

The light post and the garage lights.

The ground spots used to light up the outside of the house. We'll eventually hide them in the landscaping. The boxes are there to limit mud splashing back on the bricks while the bricks are washed (to knock off excess mortar) on Thursday.

We have a street number! Which makes this a real house.

The house from the road.

Backsplash - a mix of marble with absolute black granite insets and some random 1" tiles we found at Home Depot for trim at the bottom.

Another view of the kitchen with the backsplash. After we move in, we'll track down some outlet covers that match the marble so you don't get the jarring white/black combination on the backsplash.

Closeup of the backsplash.

Pantry. Closet shelves were installed.

Coat closet on the main level. With shoe racks at the bottom.

One of the closets (his / her) in the master bed room.

The tub was installed and tiling touched up around the tub.

The covering paper was also pulled up so you can see the master bath floor for the first time in a long time.

Fireplace, now with screen and gas logs.

Switch (Fire switch?) for the gas logs.

The gas line to the outside of the house was hooked up. It'll run to the fireplace and to the range. We don't have a propane tank, yet, however.

To get a Certificate of Occupancy, we had to put railings to block exit from the main level doors that will eventually (year? two years from now?) open onto a deck.

Grass is coming in.

Glass shelf in the main level bath.

Perhaps the most important thing to be done - the water is all hooked up.

Outside faucet on the backside (basement). We can mix and match hot and cold water so we can bathe the dogs in the winter.

The driveway with surface treatment (tar and gravel). We'll pave next summer (not to save money which is why we delayed other things, but to let the ground settle first)

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September 18, 2009: Range vent, carpet, and quarter-round

We made it out to the house late Friday night and the grass seeding was done (I think), a vent for the range hood had been installed, insulation was put in the attic, and carpet was put in over the padding.

Spray-in insulation in the attic.

The outside portion of the hood vent.

The hood vent running through the garage.

And the hood in the kitchen.

Carpet on the floor in the main level bedroom.

Carpet in the top floor bedroom on the east side. If you look closely, you can see that there's plastic sheeting on the floor, presumably to mostly keep the carpet clean during construction, but possibly also for the paint touch ups to come.

Vents on the walls on the second level.

Bathroom hardware to be installed next week.

Fritz looks at the seeded backyard. In the back, you can see a leaf-filled gutter. (The gutter guard was missed out on when fixing the gutter after the tree fell. The gutter guard will be added back and the gutter cleaned, I think next week).

Seeding on the south lawn (over top of the drain field).

Seeding on the north east corner of the lot.

Quarter-round in the upstairs hallway

Quarter-round in the great room.

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