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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July 31, 2009: Steps, tile, and paint prep

We actually visited the house on Thursday and Friday, but I didn't get around to posting pictures until after Friday's visit, so there will be some progress shots of the same room in this post. Work focused on completing the steps (done, except for staining), tile work, and prepping for painting, which begins in earnest on Monday.

The completed steps (well except for staining, which is why the feet are above the steps) viewed from a low angle in the great room.

View of the great room. And Preethi.

A couple steps were built in the garage to lead into the main house.

Some casing around the garage opening was added.

Tiles in the laundry.

Tiles on the floor in the master bathroom.

Another view of the tiles in the master bathroom.

Yet another view of the master bathroom. You should generally stay off of the tiles while the thinset is curing, hence the slight barrier.

Tiles in the downstairs bathroom.

A view of some of the channels in the drainfield from the master bedrooom.

In prepration for painting, the tiles were covered.

Covered tiles in the laundry.

Actually, from the painters' perspective. they've already started painting as they caulked the trim around the house, which you can see if you look closely at trim around this closet door on the second floor.

The caulk is a little easier to see when the trim isn't also white (it will be painted white along with the rest of the trim).

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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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June 6, 2009: Bricks, drywall, and insulation

I was out of town for a week-and-a-half (3 trips, 2 *very* brief stays in Lynchburg) but it rained quite a bit so not so much happened on the outside, though several things happened indoors.

View of the front of the house. Bricks have started. The doors are open, presumably for airing out the house.

One of the keystones that will be going in the jack arches over our windows.

Bricks wrapping around from the front to the garage.

The brick ledge underneath the windows.

It was too muddy to walk out into the backyard to take a picture, but this is what the back looks like leaning out from the basement.

Insulation in the garage. Except in a few places, the insulation is done.

We had the ceiling of the shelving wall in the main-level bath lowered.

Stairs out of the basement have started. That's the framing for landing that you're seeing on the left.

View of the landing from the basement.

Preethi is standing in the great room and the insulation is in. More importantly, the opening for the whole-house fan is now in.

We had to cut back on some of the shelf space in the master bedroom to make room for some venting in the attic. This also meant we had to eliminate a recessed light (just hanging for the moment)

Insulation and duct work in the master bathroom looking towards the shower rough-in.

The rough-in for the arch in the opening between the kitchen and the great room. Loosely, this is supposed to mimic the arch at the front of the house.

Drywall for the kitchen ceiling is in. Also a recessed light was moved a little for balance on either side of the window.

Drywall going in on the great room ceiling. As you can see, we're leaving the ridge exposed. It'll eventually be stained to match whatever color we use on the floor.

All of our drywall is being screwed in as opposed to nailed in. This should cut down on nail pops, though screw pops have been known to occur.

The first room finished with hanging the drywall (but not the mudding) was the attached closet (originally just wasted space) over the entrance.

As you can see some water got into the house in the heavy downpours (roofs not quite finished). So here's the front door open wide (both sides open up to give us a 5' wide opening to move through furniture) to help air out the house a little.

Before they packed up, the workers got the gypsum boards off the ground to avoid the water.

A new pile of dirt to for some of the remaining grading (I think we'll need at least another load to do both the back by the garage and the front).

In addition to the rain, the house was attacked by a tripod from War of Worlds. Or maybe this is just duct work waiting to be finished off in the basement.

Two flooring colors we're considering for the hardwood. Currently we're somewhat conflicted as we like the darker color, but it's smudging too easily (as you can see if you look closely). So we'll need a different hardwood solution.

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