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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June 19, 2009: Bricks, roof, and drywall

Due to travel, Friday was the first chance I had to visit the house in about a week. During that time, the bricks were finished (except for the front steps which have to wait on the ground to settle as they’re not on the foundation), the shingles were finished, the last of the dry wall was hung with two courses of mudding and taping (one more course to go, then sanding), and the last air handler was installed in the basement.

View of the house from near the Northwest corner. The front porch with its two arches was completed. The arch is kind of a repeated design element as we replicated that launch angle of the arch in the arch that divides the kitchen from the great room. The cinder blocks you see are used because they’re cheaper and will either be below grade or covered with steps.

View from the driveway. The last part of the shingles that needed to be installed were the portions where the brick walls extend above a roofline. If you look closely, you can see the brick step flashing which is one of the various things added to either keep or vent water out from behind the brick.

View of the west gable where you can see the gable vent and where the shingles meet the brick.

Close up view of the brick flashing above the front entrance.

The airhandler in the basement (zone 2).

Some of the duct work in the basement.

Preethi walking up the stairs in the basement. We like the open stairs landing we have in our current townhouse and carried over that element to the new house.

Looking up the stairs into a bedroom.

One of the bedrooms on the second level.

Preethi walking into the master bedroom.

View of a bedroom on the second floor.

View of the great room.
View of the East attic gable vent through the opening to the attic.

Yet more dirt delivered for backfilling in around the foundation (think cinder blocks).

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