A floor to Stand On

Week 24: Well it is week 24 or 16 more days until the 6 month mark. This past week we are starting to realize the vision. The siding is looking more complete and the floors are being installed. The stairs are in and the tiling is almost completed. There still are many decisions to be made and we are slowly getting through them all, but is is nice to start to see the end of the tunnel. The appliances arrived and the kitchen and master bath cabinets also arrived. On the next rain day, Joe will be starting to finish the kitchen. We have more rain in the forecast, so that may be sooner than later. If no rain, then he will be working on the siding. We had to re-order some siding since they sent the wrong size, so that should be arriving this week. This week we should see the completion of the floor install, the last of the tiling until we get our custom made mosaic tile, which is supposed to be here on November 7th., then they can finish the girls bathroom. One gotcha was that someone dropped something heavy in the girls tub and it cracked the bottom. Mike is going to get the tub replaced at his cost so it will be a few days to get that in and then they have to tear up the ceiling below to unhook the drain and then the wall to get the tub out. I am meeting a local iron worker to start the exterior hand railing for the front porch. Hopefully no rain so we can get the rest of the siding up.

The siding has started. This is the 4" exposure horizontal Hardie Board siding. It is a cement board that is resistant to fire, rot, and insects. It looks more blue in this picture. It is the Iron Gray color.






The front of the house. The new addition has vertical looking siding.







It is hard to see the gaps in between the boards unless you are close up.











The south side of the house.








Here is Joe our carpenter. He also is doing the siding, here working in the back of the house.







Here is the back where Joe was working.








The horizontal boards with the red roof.








Here is Ralph the tile installer working on the guest bathroom floor.







Here is the guest bathroom shower.











The tile was finished in the mudroom first so that the appliances could be delivered and stored there.








The mudroom being grouted.








Here is the girls bathroom tile being installed. Abby watched him intently.







Here is the end product. They are going to need to replace the tub so they left a gap until it is replaced.







Here is the master bath with a cement coat on top of the liquid rubber waterproof membrane.







The tile in the master bath. The wires are for the radiant heated floor. We put heat in all the bathroom floors.








The shower/tub area with the first layer of tile. It looks darker than it really is.







Here is the bottom layers going on with the bullnose around the corner.











This is a picture of the stairs getting ready for install.








The stairs to the basement...finally.








Here they took out the temporary stairs and are starting the new ones up to the master suite. They had to cut through the ceiling below to glue the risers and shims.






Here are the stairs going to the second floor. They are starting the wrap around stair.







Here is the finished stair with the wrap around. The balusters and drywall will be put in later.







Here , the crew from Waz Flooring, is starting the install of the hickory hardwood floors. The house had to be dry enough to install the boards, so the furnace has been running and heating up the house. They put down roofing paper as the underlayment. They worked very efficiently. They finished the kitchen/dinning room pretty quickly and then the second day, they put down the floors in both the girls room, the master bedroom, and the stair landings.


Here are the first few rows of hickory.











Some of the final product. There is a lot of character in the boards.








On Friday, the kitchen cabinets arrived. They will be installed on the next rainy day that Joe cannot work on the siding.







Here is the corner cabinet that will contain the sink above it. The door is a dark ebony color.







The new refrigerator.











Her is one of the girls bedrooms.








Here is the master bedroom. The floor is oak due to we want to stain it a dark color to match the cabinets in the bathroom. Since hickory does not stain well we decided to go oak.






Here is another shot of the master bedroom floor. The box at the left contains the soaking tub. It is inching it's way towards the bathroom.






Here is the master floor next to the bathroom tile.








This is the white bead boards that will be installed on the balcony roof.