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.

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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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August 7, 2009: Tree falls, and more painting

On the 6th, a storm came through and knocked over a tree onto the house. Nothing significant happened to the house (a gutter got banged up). Preethi said it meant the choice of brick paid for itself.

In the meantime painting continued.

The tree, now laying across the drainfield.

Where the tree broke off.
In addition to the painting, the pipe for the culvert was delivered. Eventually, it'll look like this.

View of the great room where the first coat of the wall paint has been made. It's kinda blotchy at this point, but will look better later once a second coat is applied. You can also see some of the trim beginning on the fireplace (the firebox is pretty big - 42").

View of the kitchen.

View of the dining room. Basically, the kitchen, dining room, and great room are blue while the rest of the house is off-white.

Deer came right up to the backside of the house to munch on leaves. Never left even though they saw me standing 5 feet away (but inside the house).

Another view of the deer.

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June 10, 2009: Bricks and Drywall (and a lot more)

On Wednesday, the bricks progressed until it started raining, the basement step rough-in was completed, the front entry slab was poured, the whole house fan was installed, more dirt was delivered, and... whew. That's a lot!

View of the house from the northeast corner of the lot. Bricks have gone up on the garage side and a bit on the front.

View of the bricks on the garage side.

Close up of the soldier course and iron angle above the garage. Pretty, but weaker structurally than the staggered pattern.

We had some insulation added around the master bed room to cut down on sound wafting up from the great room.

The master bed room all insulated in.

More drywall in the great room with the dormer filled in.When you hang drywall from the top down (as you're supposed to) and you have a 24 foot ceiling, it takes a little bit to work your way down.

The kitchen drywall was mostly completed (except for the mudding).

Looking out from the kitchen towards the great room.

Looking from the kitchen towards the dining room.

The pantry.

The dining room.

The main level (guest) bedroom.

The main level bath.

Some more dirt was delivered for finishing the filling around the house after the brick work is done.

Our whole house fan. The concept is to expel all of the air in the house out through the roof and replace it with air from outside in about 3 minutes.

View of the basement stairs from the main level.

View of the steps from the basement.

The front slab was poured, but is covered to protect it from the elements.

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May 7: Windows begin

We didn't make it out to the lot until late on the 7th (something about having jobs...) but windows had gone in and the dormer work was effectively done.

View of the entrance to the house. Bottom left is the dining room and the right (installed!) twin window is in the great room. The gaping hole is the entrance. We were still deciding on what we wanted to do for a door after our quest for an openable (hinged) sidelight fell through.

Here you can see where the dormer framing was finished off. The two smaller windows are bathroom windows. The bottom one was not on the original plan, but umm... I'm under no illusions that my sh*t doesn't stink.

Inside the great room looking from near the main entrance. Lots of windows. The plan originally only called for singles on the back wall (which Preethi is facing). We changed that to doubles. Additionally, there was not going to be any windows on the right side, which we thought was a bad idea in general and a travesty given the back yard. So we added the matching French doors flanked by singles. (Only had so much space coming back on that wall as there will be a fireplace sans chimney and needed some place for a TV)

Preethi and the dogs check out the sliding window in the kitchen.

One of the smaller windows for light in the great room. Eventually there will be 3 such windows (originally 2, but there was also originally a chimney).

One of the shower/ bath units dropped into place.

Another change to the plan, originally the space over the entrance was just closed off. But we noticed that there was more than enough overhead clearance to add a door to then use the space as a walk in closet. The original, adjoining walk-in closet may now be used for a kid's desk or maybe just more storage. Options are good and it's easier to build them in now than later.

A detail of the underside of the roofing transition from master bedroom roof to bumpout roof. No windows there yet, however...

Looking down into the greatroom from above (this will be closed off). Sorta like how Mike Tyson would flash before punching you in PunchOut, cyborg dogs' eyes will glow right before they pounce. Or maybe it's just red eye.

View of some of the supports for the roof. One of the many differences between a stick-built roof (do what you want with the shape) and a trellis roof (mostly prefab).

The "dining room" windows are quite large, 6'2, and they're triples (as opposed to singles or twins). Here's Preethi standing next to them and the hole where they'll be put in tomorrow. I say "dining room" because the room may or may not actually be used for dining. Right now we're thinking more along the lines of a formal living room, but we'll see.

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