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 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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March 12 - Footers Poured

The forms are all complete, the driveway is done, and the concrete for the footers have been poured. The foundation walls (and all the exterior walls for that matter) will end up sitting on the footers and the concrete slab will be poured up to them. There's actually a bit more involved in a footer than this indicates (i.e., beyond the concrete and wood, there's a vapor barrier, mesh, gravel, and rebar for reinforcement).

Low level view of footers. On the main level, looking from back to front on the left side, bedroom4, dining room foyer, great room.

Low level view of the footers at the front of the house. Eventually, the main entrance will be about 2.5 feet off the ground.

Detail of the garage footer.

Stones for the temporary driveway is now spread out (making it functional) with excess concrete on the stones.

Front left of footers (bedroom 4 on main + garage).

Footers at the entrance looking back to the garage.

Wilbert (who Preethi used to report to), the dogs, and Preethi (somewhat hidden by Wilbert) look at the footers. We bring people out to the lot... a lot. In fact, we like showing the lot so much, we made a blog!

At the garage looking down the slope at the back of the house. We're walking down to the stream to show Wilbert the rest of the lot.

Dirt pile looking down the farm road. You can kinda see the acre or so clearing through the trees in the top left of the photo.

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March 10 - Forms Start

At this point the hole is completely dug out (due to the slope, it's level with the ground on the back right as viewed from the road and 7ish feet down on the front left). The forms (framing for the concrete in the footers) are going in. At this point, forms still need to be layed out for the garage and the inner trace of the forms needs to go in.

Looking at the forms from the garage entrance. That square at the top is where the main entrance will be.

Stones for the temporary driveway (so heavy equipment like the kind that carry concrete won't get stuck) where the permanent driveway will eventually lie.

Looking north-northwest from past the garage.

Mmmm... Stump pile still there. Eventually to be burned.

Preethi surveys the work.

View from the farm road looking back (northeast),

Looking down on the forms that will be below the great room and kitchen (main level). The great room is our favorite room in the house (or will be) and is what we're spending the most time on modifying the design. I've been doing some CAD modeling to help with the modifications which I'll post later.

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