Deck, bead board and door...

Deck, bead board and door....

January 16th -- In the morning light it was easier to see the piers for the deck (see the photos below).  The deck framers showed up before 8:00 am to take advantage of the relatively warmer temperatures today.  

 Here is the pier that will anchor the porch for the entry to the back of the house.

By the end of the day, the substructure framing for the south side deck was done and the pillars for the pergola were in place.

The framers were starting to scroll the ends of the timbers that will form the top of the pergola.

The actual decking material that will be installed on top of this framing won't arrive until next week.

The drawers are done, but the finish carpenters will need to add the hardware sliders for the drawers and the drawer facings.  The chest of drawers is really coming together.

The box for the AV cabinet has been roughed in.

The door to the basement was hung and is now operable.

 And, one of the finish carpenters spent a good part of the afternoon installing the bead board in the bathroom off the guest suite.

 Once the bead board is in place, a piece of "chair rail" trim will be installed at the top edge of the bead board.

Another finish carpenter was busy today on the construction of the floor-to-ceiling bookcases. Some of the components of the bookcase are shown in these photos.  The head finish carpenter now has all the components for the library ladder and we're all excited to see how that will come together.

 Although the finish carpenters thought they might be finished by the end of  this week, I'm not so sure as they still have the built-ins for the mud room.  I love having these guys around the house because they are so meticulous and do such great work.  I will be elated when they have completed their work, but I will very much miss not having them around the house.

I also met this afternoon with the painter to finalize all the paint colors for the various rooms.  I won't divulge my choices until the rooms are done and you'll see them in a future post.

The painters have been waiting for the carpenter and the tile setter to finish so that they can come back to work.  We are still waiting for the tile that is being shipped from out of state, but the painters should be back next week and will be able to begin finishing the various details of the drywall.  When that is done, they will begin painting in the master bedroom.

Stairs and piers.....

Stairs and piers....

January 14th and 15th -- The finish carpenters are still on site as the tile has not yet arrived, but should be here before the week is over.

The finish carpenters are so meticulous and have such a good relationship with the contractor that they have made suggestions that turn out to be improvements.  For example, there is a small ledge between the wall of the gathering room and the stairs to the basement that the contractor was going to finish in painted wood.  The finish carpenters insisted that the ledge should be an extension of the oak hardwood flooring, and voila, they made it so, as shown in these photos....which is a much nicer look than painted wood.

Similarly, the finish carpenters were tasked with replacing the "temporary" stairs to the basement with both threads and risers.  So, yesterday when I came home I was a bit surprised to see that the stairs had disappeared.....

And, I was pleasantly surprised to see that new stairs had been installed when I came home today.

Another nice surprise is that there is now a door to the crawlspace under the gathering room.

Now that I have stairs, it is back to the piers....

Yesterday, two guys from the framing crew arrived with a giant gas-powered auger to dig the holes for the concrete piers that will hold the framing for the south-side deck and the back porch that will lead to the rear entry of the house.  We had a bit of snow and the temperatures had been chilly, but everyone was a bit surprised that the ground was so frozen that the auger barely scratched the ground surface, so to speak.  They came back this morning  and had more success as shown by these holes, but they also had to use a post-hole digger as well as a pick, as shown below. 

When I got home tonight, after dark, the holes for the piers were actually filled with the concrete piers, which you can see -- if you look really carefully -- in these photos, along with the timber that will be used to create the frame for the decking planks that will be delivered next week:

The finish carpenters were also working on details inside and made great progress on the fireplace mantel in the gathering room, which mirrors the design of the fireplace in the master bedroom.  Eventually there will be a row of tile that will be set around the fireplace:

Finally, in this photo you can see the drawers that have been built for the custom chest of drawers that is in the master bedroom.

Tomorrow the finish carpenters will begin work on the AV cabinet that will go next to the fireplace in the gathering room and then they will begin work on the floor-to-ceiling wall of bookcases and the built-ins for the mud room.

If I had a hammer....

If I had a hammer....

January 13th -- If I had a hammer there is no way I could ever do what these finish carpenters can do.  While still awaiting for the trim materials, the head finish carpenter and one of his crew showed up this morning ready to start on the custom carpentry and the built-ins.  The plan was to first come up with a design and then while the head of the carpentry company went to another job site, one carpenter would work to build the custom chest of drawers that will fit between the western wall and the fireplace in the master bedroom.

They drew their design on a piece of board, called me in to discuss their thoughts, and to ask for my contributions.  After they sketched things out and discussed measurements, the rest of the day was spent on building the chest of drawers.

The board that they sketched their plan on is actually the bottom of the cabinet, as shown below:

  

Here is the location of the chest of drawers.  It needs to be custom made because the height of the mantel and the height of the chest should meet and be smooth, as well as fill the space below between the fireplace and the west-facing wall of the master bedroom.  The overhang of the mantel and the chest of drawers will meet, and below the trim will be a designed gap so that I have access to the electrical control switch on the side of the fireplace.

By the end of the day, the main structure of the chest of drawers was built, with each of the drawers and the installation of the drawer hardware to come tomorrow and the next few days.

 

As you can see, there will be two smaller, shallow drawers at the top of the chest, with three deeper drawers below.  The chest trim will align with the fireplace trim.

 

 I am just blown away by how skillful these carpenters are and how much they seem to enjoy their work.  The guy who spent the day building this chest of drawers was signing along to the songs on the radio as he worked.  When I him how much I admired his work he smiled, and then said that the more difficult part was to come with the building of the actual drawers.

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.