Monday: Flooring samples (6/20/11)

On Monday, the builder's flooring guy came to give us some flooring samples.  He started by sanding a large patch of our original flooring to confirm that it's red oak.  It looked so much better sanded, that it's a pity it's not really salvageable without lots of effort and time spent.

We're trying to match the color of the cedar that the decking will be made of (sample on the right) as closely as possible so that the floor will look sort of like it continues out beyond the living room windows as decking.  The stain colors were applied to the original flooring, from the top, Cherry, Colonial Maple, and Natural.

And here's the cedar next to the new red oak pieces - Colonial Maple on the bottom and Natural on the top.  Hmmm.

Sunday: Siding samples (6/19/11)

This is a photo of the original siding samples we got...

...and this is a photo of the new cedar siding samples from a different manufacturer.  Much better!

Wednesday: Window trim (6/15/11)

We've had one guy here on a pretty regular basis working on the exterior cedar window trim.  On the front of the house, we have the big living room window...

And the hallway window that's in the carport.

Here we have the South-facing living room windows...

...the North-facing courtyard windows...

...and at some point (not sure when) they fixed the back door trim.

Sunday: My new best friend (6/12/11)

We were looking for a utility sink for the walk-in pantry, and were pretty mortified at the quality we were finding.  So Jack happened upon a used restaurant counter/sink combo on Craigslist which will be perfect.  After making sure we could disassemble it and get it in, we brought it home and tried some different products to clean it.  The new products we bought really didn't succeed, but the old Bar Keepers Friend I had lying around (and had never used) made a dramatic difference.  It also helped that we did all this outside and could just hose it off...

So this is our latest little used treasure.  It's strong as all get-out, and it came very clean.  We just need somewhere to put it while they're working on the floors and walls...  (Fear not - this is when it's fully disassembled - it does have legs, faucet and even upper shelves!)

Sunday: The new "face" of thirteen (6/12/11)

We have a teenager on our hands.

Tuesday: Catching up on last week (6/8/11 - 6/9/11)

The activity level at the house has been a bit slow, but then I realize that other things have gone un-noted here.  On Wednesday, the architect said that he was willing to drive almost two hours to see for himself how this trim was built, so I offered to send him as much information as I could and see if that was enough.

This crazy drawing resulted, and within minutes of sending it to him, he sent a solution to the builder.

On Friday, they coated a lot of the cedar window trim boards with the Sikkens sealant, and I just LOVE the tone.

Also on Friday, I picked up the fireplace burner insert.  It will be installed in the square channel in the concrete (behind the carboard, in this photo).

Friday: Water woes (6/10/11)

At the end of May, we found a water stain on the porch "ceiling" near the chimney and have been keeping an eye on it since.

They removed the panel so we could watch what happens in future rain storms.

Then, on Thursday, we had a deluge late in the day.  Water marks appeared around three of the living room light electrical boxes - don't know if before or after the rain.  It was also 100 degrees that day, and the builder is wondering if condensation is forming at the bottom of the insulated roof panels.

I have to start keeping track of the rain.  Jack's been wanting a weather station for years - I fear I'm enabling him in this purchase...

Tuesday: Base coat (6/7/11)

Progress has been slow lately, but I've also fallen behind on posting.  On Tuesday, the stucco guys came and did the base coat on the fireplace wall.  I hope they're done, because it smelled to high heaven and got really, really hot in the house, trying to air it out.  Kind of cool though (no pun intended).

Here's one side...

And here's the other.

Also, the electrician came and installed two of the Bruck monopoint lights.  I love them, but there seems to be an issue with the lamp type that we were sent.

The light streams out from above the "glare reduction ring" which I don't think is supposed to happen...

...and there's a slit in the base of the light which shines onto the ceiling.  I don't think that's supposed to happen either.  Hopefully easily fixable...

Friday: Primed for success? (6/3/11)

The last few days, they've been doing more spackling and sanding, which I've neglected to photograph.  On Friday, they put the first coat of primer on.  We somehow doubt that they used the low VOC paint they're supposed to use...

Here's the pantry, with a small handful of furniture, kitchen hoods and boxes of spices and stuff we couldn't fit elsewhere in the meantime, covered in plastic.

The kitchen (with a stove mostly covered in plastic)...

The dining room with our successfully tested, but not yet installed, replacement speaker...

The hallway...  You'll note that almost all of the windows are once again covered in plastic, which is practical, but kind of a drag.

I guess I also forgot to photograph the new cedar ceiling panels on the carport ceiling.

Here's the carport ceiling from the front.  Maybe that one lighter panel needs to be changed out.

And we almost missed the fact that they'd trimmed out the back door.  We'll have to see what the architect has to say about the little angle to the left of the top of the door.  Wow, is that the ugliest siding you've ever seen, to the right?!  Yikes.

Don't worry.  No one will ever see the back of the house, right?