Mistakes in our favor?

Week 26: Three more days and it will have been 6 months of construction. It has been a long process, but we are starting to see everything come together. This week we had more progress, more RAIN and even a brief snowstorm. The rain has been our biggest nemesis since we have started this undertaking. It is starting to put us a bit behind. We had hoped to have all the siding completed by now, but mother nature has her say. In the meantime, Joe has been installing the cabinets and vanities, and he even installed the double oven. John is out and connecting the power to the garage and getting the plugs installed for the kitchen appliances. We have our exterior railing installed as well. It was not what I wanted and what I had sent sketches of, but we like it and we came to an agreement on an adjusted price. The rest of the hardwood floors were installed and this is where we had a bit of a mistake. Not sure where the communication breakdown was, but the plans called for carpeting in the guest bedroom. Mainly to keep some of the price down and to have a warm floor in there, but they installed the hardwood in there. Mike said it was his mistake and would have them rip it out, but in the long run we would have put in hardwood so it made sense to leave it. No use in any extra expense and taking the chance that they could not salvage it. The stairs going to the second level were framed and drywalled and Paul was here to start the baluster install. He has created the frames with the balusters and they are ready for final install. The railings and top caps were also installed. Mike also said that Paul made the top caps at the thickness that the architect had sketched. This was another mistake in that we had decided to go with a thinner version to save on costs. Another mistake to our advantage since there was no additional cost for that as well. We are glad because it sure looks a whole lot better at the current thickness. The interior trim is delivered and awaiting install. Joe will work on that on the rainy days. He is busy on the siding and they were able to complete the wall on the north side of the house. They were starting to work on the southwest side and finish up the upper gable. We also met with Ken from Blue Pearl, (http://www.bluepearlstone.com/) to have the countertops measured. We then went over on Saturday to pick out the remnant for the master bath vanity and shower apron. It is nice and surprising that we have a store here is La Grange that is close to the house. Saturday morning we met with Creative Mirror and Glass (http://www.creativemirror.com/) to measure for the shower doors in the master bath and guest bathrooms. This upcoming week is busy and Mike is trying to get everything planned out for the upcoming holiday week. We should see more siding installed and the girls vanity should be delivered Monday. Ralph the tile installer will be back to finish up the girls bathroom. John is installing the exterior lights before the weather gets too bad. The fence will be coming down on Thursday and hopefully the final grading will start shortly thereafter. The stairs should be finished and who knows what else.

Here is the final look of the cabinets. They are open ended at the top. This is where the refrigerator will be. There is a pantry storage to the right and a cabinet to the left with the coffee maker.






This is the island which will have the microwave, the recycling can, and a nice bookshelf for our cookbooks.







The double convection oven. This is really a luxury for us. Will definitely come in handy next Thanksgiving.










Another shot of the kitchen.








Another shot of the oven.








Kitchen and mudroom. The refrigerator is in the back.








Here is the beginning install of our vanity.









The final install of the vanity.







This is the exterior railing. Not exactly what I wanted. I was trying to mimic the design of the interior railings. Oh well, still looks good and is functional.






Here they finished up the upper part of the new addition.








The north side in progress.








Here is the finished side and looks great.








as I said above, here is the snowstorm that hit while they were working on the siding.







Here is Joe on Saturday morning working on the west end gable.








The start of the upper south side of the new addition. This has been the hardest due to the rain and mud.







Hardwood installation.








The guest room and library.








Half way there.








The final look in the family room.








Continuing the guest bedroom.








The final library.








The final product going to the stairs. You can also see the framing of the stairs for the drywall.







Here is the framing of the stairs and wall leading to the second floor.







Here is the drywall to fill the stairway hole.








Here is the frame drywalled.








Here is the stairs with drywall and the small blocks to give the framed look of the balusters.







Here are the top caps and framing for the railings.








Here are the round balusters for the stairs.








Here is Paul working on the railings. We also have all the trim and baseboard boards in the middle of the picture and the exterior trim boards on the right. The trim boards are hard to find, so we had to get some unpainted ones and Joe painted them on one of the rainy days.




Here is the thicker top cap and rounded railings.








Here is another view of the cap and railing.








Here Paul is gluing and using wood biscuits to create the stair frames. the frames will have the round balusters in them and sit on blocks to give a frame look.






Here is the completed frames with the round balusters in them. The large is for the main stairs and the smaller one is in the kitchen over the stairs to the basement.






Here is John's nephew digging the trench for the conduit to the garage.







John was running the electrical to the garage and had the fuse box open. Got a shot of the professional installation. Very clean and organized.

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.