Tile and trim: screeching halt.....

Tile and Trim:  Screeching Halt.....

January 9th & 10th --  Yesterday the tile setter started packing up early, and when I mean packing up, I mean packing up.  It is amazing how each of the different craftsmen brings his particular set of tools and materials to the job site.  When they are here for several days and are not working at more than one job at a time, they will leave their stuff until the next day.  That was not happening with the tile setter. A few hours later the contractor stopped by to explain what had happened.  

We ran out of a very specific trim tile that is needed to complete the master shower as well as the tile around the soaker tub.  Unfortunately, none of the suppliers in my state -- yes, not city but the entire state  -- had any of the trim tile in stock.  The best we could get is an expedited delivery from a tile supply house that is three states away!  We are hoping that the tile material will arrive in 7-10 days and that the tile setter will be able to stop whatever he is doing to return to this job.  The contractor told me that this happens all the time, so I guess that means I'm not special.  Below is a photo of the shower wall in the master bathroom that is patiently awaiting the trim tile.

Two finish carpenters were on site today.  In addition to the mill work around the window, they are adding a second trim piece so that the mill work in the new construction will be close to the original mill work when the house was built.  What this means is that the brown-colored trim has been nailed onto the window and door trim, as shown here.  

This attention to detail and the time it takes is just amazing.  In addition, in the dining room there are four doorways -- to the kitchen, to the sliding door to the future south deck, and into the guest suite (shown in this photo), with the fourth doorway containing the original mill work that is between the dining room and living room.  The finish carpenters added another piece of trim so that the width of the new trim would approximate that of the original trim.  In this photo you can see a white strip of trim to enlarge the width that the second (brown) trim was attached to.

But, early this afternoon the finish carpenters ran out of the smaller, brown trim.  So, there are windows, like the one shown in this photo that have been partially trimmed.

 Nevertheless, the finish carpenters worked on what they could, including the "box" shown in this photo because the original wall by the door to the guest suite closet was "out of plane" with the new wall that was moved and rebuilt.

They decided that they will add a vertical trim piece to the front side of the fireplace in the master bedroom to match the column on the front, but we'll only do that at the right-most edge, since the vent for the fireplace is in the way on the left-most edge.

The shelves were installed in the pantry, and here is a view from the doorway where you can see the shelves on the north wall of the pantry before they wrap around to the east wall.

 Here you can see how the pantry shelves wrap around.  They are really great and include a brace underneath to support the weight of whatever I want to put on these shelves.

  It isn't easy photographing the pantry, but the photos below show the space for the vacuum cleaner with shelves above it.

 They also had to rebuild and trim the window over the sink in the kitchen, which is shown here:

And, the windows in the southwest corner of the mudroom at the rear-entry of the house, required special trim since there is a confluence of windows and door in a very small space.

Although the trim work has stalled out because they ran out of material, the finish carpenters have begun to stage the construction of the built-ins for the mudroom (e.g., benches, cubbies, coat closet, etc), the floor-to-ceiling wall of bookshelves for the north wall of the gathering room, the mantel and AV cabinet on the west wall of the gathering room.  Below they have set up saw horses and building materials have been delivered.  They will move their table saws out of the dining room and master bedroom when it comes time to build.

There is also the trim for the windows in the stairwell to the basement, which they have already finished, as shown here, but

the door at the stairwell landing that will lead into the basement and the door to the crawlspace beneath the gather room, remains to be hung and trimmed.  This won't happen until more trim material arrives next week.

The architect was here today and we discussed the progress to date.  He was very pleased with the work and how the design is coming together, which I have to agree with.  However, he wasn't happy about how one of the corbels was mounted outside and told me that he will have that changed.  Geez...I had no clue.  

As we talked, he made me realize that the scope of this project is really much bigger than I had ever realized.  Also, there are factors beyond our control, such as the great demand for skilled workers as construction work is increasing with the stability and improvement of  the economy.  Besides the trim work that needs to be completed, along with the custom built-in work, there is still drywall, painting, tile work, sanding and finishing the hardwood floors, electrical and plumbing fixtures, and that doesn't even include the deck, porches, gutters, and green house that remain to be built. There is also a skylight that will go into the stairwell between the main and upper levels, and there are three rooms -- the bathroom I am using, my office/bedroom that I am living in, and the living/temporary kitchen room that will require work on the walls, paint, and floors.  All this is leading to the architect's best guess that this house project will not be completed until sometime in March.  Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but that is a realistic estimate, and I am just hoping that somehow the master bedroom and bathroom can be completed before March so that I can sleep in a bed again soon.

There will be no one working this weekend, so I'm hoping to spend some time 

vacuuming up the dust, in preparation for the workers who will come back next week 

to make even more dust.

  

Hmm, right now it is time to stop as a nice bottle of red wine is calling. 

The ongoing saga of trim and tile....

The Ongoing Saga of Trim and Tile....

January 7th and 8th -- Everyday more of the detailed trim work and tile work is done, and while there are clear signs of progress, it feels like there are so many details that I can't even imagine when everything will be done.

The latest signs of progress can be seen in the baseboards in these next photos taken in the guest suite....

Here is the baseboard around the wall that separates the dining room and the kitchen...

And here is the baseboard along the west wall of the master bedroom near the door that leads to the covered deck.






There are so many new walls and pieces of baseboard that have to be installed that it is staggering, but the finish carpenter are making great progress.


The cleats for the shelving in the pantry are up, and the boards that will be the shelves will be cut soon.

 There are still windows that are being trimmed, and the brown molding along the edge of the white mill work below is being added to each window and door to make the mill work more "period appropriate" to match the age of the house.

 

The pocket door in the bathroom has been hung

 

And the fireplace and mantel in the master bedroom is taking shape

The head finish carpenter and I discussed the design of a "semi-built-in" chest of drawers that will be built to fit into the space between the fireplace and the west wall of the master bedroom in the spot shown below.  It will be "semi-built-in" because there needs to be access to an electrical switch on the side of the fireplace to operate the fireplace and there is an electrical outlet on the wall below that would be difficult to access with a built-in.  The chest of drawers will have 3 deep drawers, two smaller drawers on top, and will match the height of the fireplace.  The advantage to it being "semi-built-in" will permit me to move it if I ever decide I want to.  It would be too difficult to find a chest of drawers that would be the right height and width to fit in this spot.



The tile work continues in the master bathroom, with the sub-way tile installed in the shower

   

The tile floor has been laid where the toilet will be installed



And the tile is in progress around the soaker tub: 

Here is the tiled bench inside the master shower that will have granite on the top of the seat

The fabricator started to create the template for the granite that will be the kitchen counter tops, and here is a better peak at the sink, which will be under-mounted

All of this progress is great, but the house is such a mess with table saws set up all over the place that a table saw and a tile saw are competing for space in the master bedroom

 And another table saw sits in the dining room.

While the original claw foot tub awaits re-glazing, it sits between two saw horses in the guest suite.

In addition to these saws, there are air compressors, piles of lumber and trim, tools, tools, and tools everywhere.

The two finish carpenters who are spending the most time working on the trim are great to have around -- they are pleasant and funny, especially as they make up lyrics to the country-western songs that are blaring on the radio.  Often their made-up lyrics have to do with the work they are doing on my house that are actually pretty hilarious, such as "I love my job, but this house is killing me," which is likely to appear at the top of the country-western charts on a radio station near you.

But, among the laughs, I look around and simultaneously marvel at the progress, while being horrified by the saw dust, dirt and "stuff" everywhere.  I can't help but wonder if my house will ever be clean and return to normal?   

I keep telling myself that at some point in the future all of this will be a repressed memory.

More tile, trim and pantry shelves...

More tile, trim and pantry shelves...

January 6th -- It was too cold and snowy for anyone to work over the weekend, although the bitter cold did not stop the tile setter from going ice fishing, which you have to admit is ironic, especially since he told me on Friday that he didn't want to come to work over the weekend because it was supposed to snow on Saturday.  Who wants to go to work when it is snowing when you can go ice fishing in single digit temps!  LOL!

The tile in the master bathroom was set today, as shown in these photos, and matches the tile floor in the shower that I showed in a prior post.

The grout has been applied to the tile in the 3/4 bathroom off the gathering room as shown below

 




And the subway tile that will go from the floor to about 1/3 up the wall behind the toilet and next to the vanity, will be installed soon.


















The head finish carpenter and I discussed a few revisions to the built-ins in the mudroom that make more sense.  The coat closet will be moved to the east wall of the mud room (instead of in between the windows on the south side of the mudroom) with cubbies and a place for the bike next to it.  A bench will now run from the south west wall of the mudroom to the second window on the south wall, with some coat hooks and a shelf with cubbies above it.  On the north wall of the mudroom there will be more coat hooks with a shelf with cubbies above it.  


There was only one finish carpenter on site today, but he had his marching orders and got a lot done.  He re-framed the doorway to the guest suite bathroom which will now open into the bedroom instead of the very small bathroom.  He also set the vanity in the guest suite bathroom, as shown below.

Then he started preparing the pantry for shelving.  Below you can see the strips where the shelves will go on the north wall of the pantry.

The east wall of the pantry will also have shelves that wrap around to the north wall except for a section, shown below that is a large "cubby" where my vacuum cleaner will go.  There will be shelves above the vacuum cleaner, which have been penciled onto the wall on the other side of the vertical board in these photos -- how cool is that?    There will also be a cleat board installed for hanging brooms, dust mops, and the like.  The head finish carpenter is indeed a closet/storage/shelving guru!

 The painter also made a surprise and always welcomed visit.  He provided some very helpful and valuable advice regarding my struggle to choose paint colors.  His timing could not be better and he was very helpful. He will return on Wednesday to begin sanding around the windows.  He will need to wait until the tile is done and the finish carpenters have completed the trim around the windows and have installed the baseboard before he can return to the drywall work that remains.

And, the gutters will be hung as soon as it warms up, which should be tomorrow.  Once we get a few days of warm weather, the piers for the south side deck will be dug and poured.  I am waiting to hear from the deck store to know when the decking material will be delivered.

I continue to hope that all this good progress continues and the weather cooperates.