Saturday, May 24, 2008

Cabinets Installed!

Another good week...the trim carpenters did so much the first couple of weeks they were essentially stuck until the cabinets arrived. Luckily the cabinets showed up on Wednesday evening so the carpenters got straight to work putting them in.
First some other random completion pics:

We went with some crazy 7" baseboard in the office

The tile in the master bath finally got all installed and grouted

The seat is all done

The floor is done

And all the little detail pieces are in

Here is a shot of the many shelves and racks they did in the master closet

Wednesday evening (around 7pm!) the truck with all the cabinets backed up to the screen porch back door and in came a truckload of cabinetry! It was all organized by room and wrapped in plastic. A lot of the pieces are fully assembled and only need to be screwed into the wall studs.
Cabinets in master bath:

Tons of cabinets in the laundry (probably the most individual cabinets in the house):

They filled up the room!

We had previously seen only small drawings of the cabinets - the real things are huge!

The island is one huge piece that took 4 guys to bring in (back side pic:)

(front side:)

The bookcases ready to install:

The guest bathroom cabinet is nice and small

All of the toilets in the house get lovely cabinets above them to hold important items like extra TP and reading material:

Over the next two days they installed virtually all of the cabinets in the house!
Here's a shot of the bar cabinets:

straight-on shot:

Those tall kitchen cabinets in place (the top doors will get glass door inserts)!

The stovetop and island cabinets:

A view from the breakfast room into the kitchen:

The laundry room takes three separate shots to get all the cabinets in:
1) welcome center and sink area

2) washer and dryer area

3) desk area

Finally a shot of the dresser cabinet in the master bedroom:


Next week the rest of the cabinets and trim will be done, the brick mason will start and the painters will be getting ready. We will be out of town but should have more interesting pics by the end of next weekend when we come back!

Saturday, May 17, 2008

All the Trimmings

This week has gone fast but with major progress. The trim carpentry guys had a lull in their appointment book so the equivalent of two crews spent all week on the house (5-6 guys). They worked very quickly and made amazing progress in a week.
Wood trim delivered and ready for action:

We decided to go with a suggestion from the trim carpenter of doing simulated crossed beams in the cathedral ceiling instead of the standard beams running down flush with the ceiling slope. Here's the first one going in:

Almost all of the doors got installed in one day. Here are a couple of different sized ones that are Vivi's closet and bedroom door (they are solid knotty pine):

Vivi's shower/bath for completely tiled and grouted:

Final closeup:

The carpenters moved a table saw into the great room. They brought their own door locks, so the house now gets locked every night finally:

Twin coat closet doors:

Part of the reason they can install the doors so quickly is because they are pre-hung and hinged in a frame so all the guys need to do is level and shim the frames in the doorway and nail them in. Here are a couple waiting to go in the master bedroom:

The master bath now has tiles on the wall and roof:

The guys have started working on the second set of crossbeams:

Another beam shot (these will of course be stained along with the center beam running the length of the room):

You can see the beams are simply hollow boxes:

There are sawhorses all over the house for cutting detail pieces in multiple rooms:

The beams are supported in the attic by a small board nailed between the rafters:

Window sills are installed on at every window in the house:

Tiling is all finished in the guest bathroom now that the 4x4 tiles are on the shower floor:

The beams are done (after only 2 days):

They don't dominate the room but they break up the cavernous airspace in the ceiling - they should look great stained (the camera lens won't be as dusty then)!

Vivi hanging out by the pond on an unusually calm day, watching ducks:

One of these ducks is Vivi's pet Carli (real) the other one is a decoy - can you tell which is which?

And now, more pictures of inanimate objects!
The stone got delivered on Thursday afternoon:

The brick got delivered on Friday. They used a forklift to drop pallete stacks of bricks on all sides of the house:

Most of them are on the front and back of the house:

Closeup of a brick pallete:

They have great color variation all through the group:

One day after we met with our builder and the trim carpenter on how our closets and pantry will be trimmed out, the pantry was already done as well as one of the closets! Tons of pantry shelves:

The other side of the giant pantry (taller shelves):

We have 6" crown molding in the great room, it looks pretty wicked:

The little detail tiles showed up for the master bath so they slapped them up real quick-like (as well as tiling the boxes in the walls):

On Friday a hummingbird got lost in the house by flying through the open door while the carpenters were working! He kept trying to escape by flying up but could not figure out why he couldn't get out that way. Finally he got so tired he landed on a piece of wood trim held by one of the carpenters and they let him out of the window!

Lots of bricks in the back in a semi-neat row:

The staircase has detail trim on the side of the steps and now has a handrail!

This is how much sawdust a week's worth of table-sawing makes!

On Saturday Ian went to clean up some of the little wood pieces and sawdust and trash (as usual on the weekends). It's getting hot out now so might as well park in the garage (shop) in the cool shade. Here are a couple of pics to give an idea of the shop size. Get used to your new bedroom!




Next week may even be crazier - cabinets should show up at some point, masons will show up to start bricking and rocking (rock on), tiling should be totally done, and trimwork will probably be close to done too. More pics of course as things progress!