Ceramic Tile…Day 38

Matt has been working to install the  finishing touches in the upstairs bathrooms. The first photo shows the toilet area in the master bath with the new tile installed front of the shelves as well as the matching bull nose sanitary base running all around the walls. It looks really quite nice!

In the next photo Matt mocked-up the tile arrangement he is installing at the shower curb as he explained some of the details. Here he likes to extend a bull nose tile across the top of the sanitary base so that the joint at the wall is not exposed to water from the top. This tile arrangement is not only going to look very nice…it is going to work well too!

Landscaping…Day 15 (evening report)

Jay and his landscape crew finished up the underground PVC piping in the breezeway patio area and got started back filling and grading around the “L” Shaped House. The first photo shows the back of the house adjacent the breezeway steps where most of the HVAC and plumbing connections penetrate the foundation wall. The PVC piping for the sump pump (in the foreground) and the gutter downspout (near the wall) are now plumbed to the main drain pipe that runs to the backyard drain system. This system of pipes is meant to carry any water collected in the roof gutters and basement sump pump out beyond the backyard away from the foundation and landscaping walls.

The next two panoramic photos show the East side of the house after Jay and his crew back-filled the area under the breezeway porch and did a little preliminary grading in front of the garage. They are going to install an underground PVC drain pipe system along the front of the garage that will drain all three downspouts on this face of the house. This drain system will carry water collected in the gutters under the driveway surface to a point beyond the hill in the back yard.

Its amazing how much better the place looks after spreading out a couple dirt piles and cleaning up a little!

Painting…Day 42 (evening report)

I stopped by this evening and took a few more photos of the progress Rick and Jordan made in the basement this afternoon. The first photo shows the basement stairs and one of the patio doors stained and ready for the first coat of polyurethane sealer. The whole basement feels more finished with the stairs stained.

The next photo shows the back wall of the guest bedroom in the basement with the casement window stained ready for varnishing.

Landscaping…Day 15

A JLM landscaping crew went to work in the back yard of the “L” Shaped House early this morning. They are working on the beginnings of the patio and dog run outside the back breezeway door. The first photo below shows the initial elements of the run-off water containment system as they start the installation process. The black plastic drain tile pipe in front of the dog run will join the with the white PVC draining the downspouts on the corners of the garage stairwell. Water exiting the downspout at the end of the breezeway porch will wash across the dog run on it’s way to the drain tile.  All of the water from the roof will eventually exit the buried PVC that “looks-out” the hill  beyond the back yard.

The next two photos show the details of the PVC drainage system for the downspouts. The pipes run along the back of the garage wall and connect to the previously buried PVC pipe well below the grade.

Ceramic Tile…Day 37

Matt Sletten is spending a few days catching up some of the tile areas in the “L” Shaped House as he nears the end of his work in the bathrooms. The first photo shows the floor tile installed yesterday in the basement bathroom. He has worked all the way across the floor to the shower and plans to start on the base shortly. The next photo shows the toilet area in the master bath. Here Matt is preparing to install floor tile in the area in front of the shelving unit we decided to install against the outside wall instead of flush with the divider.

Painting…Day 42

Rick and his crew sprayed the final coat of polyurethane varnish on the stained cabinetry in the basement yesterday afternoon. They are working this morning preparing the first floor and basement walls for enamel and wall paint. The first photo shows the basement kitchen with the final coat of varnish.

The next photo shows the basement cabinetry and some of the drawers and shelving that were a part of yesterday’s marathon spraying operations. The last photo shows the by-pass closet doors in the basement guest bedroom after varnishing. All of the stained wood elements look very nice!

Ceramic Tile…Day 36

Matt Sletten is back getting  started on the ceramic tile in the basement bathroom. He is going to install another shower base and tile the shower walls and floor of the bathroom. The floor is a 12’ tile Deb and Matt picked out quite a while ago. The shower base will be a 1” mosaic tile with glass accents and while the walls are 12” x 18” panels. This bathroom is the only space in the house where we did not consult Katie Hunsley as the selections were made (she had some sort of excuse about being busy having a baby…)

The Backyard…It's all about the Dogs!

The “L” Shaped House is going to be a “dog friendly” place!

The mudroom, breezeway deck, and backyard dog run are specifically designed to accommodate dog ownership and meant to enhance the lives of our four-legged family members and any of their friends who may come to visit. The first sketch below shows the elements of the “dog friendly” design. The dog kennels will be housed in the mudroom which is connected to the breezeway deck and backyard dog run by a dog door in the outside wall. Wren and Phil will have un-fettered access to the far end of the deck and dog run when they are left behind. The deck area will be partitioned with a set of flexible barriers (bungee-corded cargo netting) that can be moved about to expand or contract the dog area. The ramp will lead to a fenced dog run covered in a specially engineered artificial turf product from K9 Grass. Waste will automatically drain away under the surface of the grass and be carried out beyond the back yard in the 4” PVC  drain pipe already in place for the downspouts.

The dog kennels will be placed under the counter at the end of the mudroom in front of the wash down area. The dog door is a double flap Endura Wall Pet Door from the Pet Door Store.

    

The (crude) Photoshop creation below is meant to give a reasonable idea of the scale and placement of the dog door, ramp, and fenced run outside the back breezeway entrance.

The final drawing is the engineering sketch I put together to help the (somewhat reluctant) landscape crew and K9 Grass guys understand exactly what I want. I think that everyone is going to be especially happy with this unique element of the “L” Shaped House!

Landscaping…The Big Picture (part 2)

Matt Wolfe has published an updated landscaping plan for the “L” Shaped House that includes some refinements to the original plan that are the result of a continuing discussion over the last few days. This new plan includes some minor changes to the driveway and adds a breezeway patio in the backyard. We have also decided to install some flat stones in the back yard to extend and connect to the existing limestone pathways. We plan to execute the “hard surfaces” elements and “phase 1 of the landscaping as a part of this initial effort. The JLM Landscape folks have scheduled the work begin on Monday, May 10th.

Click on the sketch to see it big.

Some of the elements of the driveway and paver sidewalk to the front porch are shown in Matt’s colored sketch below. In this new plan the driveway widens just in front of the breezeway stairs and breaks toward the property line where the crabapple tree used to stand. Phase one of the landscaping plan includes all of plantings shown surrounding the house and the lawn in front.

The backyard breezeway patio, dog run, and stone path extensions are shown in the sketch below. The breezeway patio will be be built using the same paver materials and design elements as the lower patio and will connect to the limestone path at the entrance to the dog run. The patio will provide a hard surface for our barbeque grill and an umbrella table. The stones in the backyard are meant to “suggest” the path to follow through the low-mow turf without imposing a disciplined limestone path on the yard.

The Fireplace…“Distressing” the Mantel

Sam, Anna, and I traveled to Saint Paul this afternoon to meet Dan Guion at the Mendota Mantels workshop. We went planning to help pick out a stain color but ended up getting to help Dan with the “distressing” process as well. Dan started by showing us the mantel assembly and walking us through some of the steps involved in making it.

Dan then put Sam and Anna to work “distressing” the mantel. Sam got to beat on the mantel with a stick…Anna got a chain in a cloth bag to pound with. After a few minutes of instruction we were off and running.

The “distressing” video…

The photo below shows a close up the mantel after the distressing. Here we can see the re-sawn timber face of the mantel and the very nice (faux) mortise and tenon detail. The hand-worked finish Dan produced using a draw knife is hard to capture in the photos but looks great in person.

As soon as we approved this stain sample Dan had prepared he got busy staining the mantel and returns.

The antique timber soaked up the dark stain and was absolutely transformed right before our eyes. Dan plans to continue the finishing process by coating the mantel with boiled linseed oil later this evening. Eventually the mantel will get a couple of coats of polyurethane and finally polished using a natural wax.

Before leaving Dan gave us a tour of the shop and showed us their stock pile of recovered timbers. It was very interesting to hear about the different types of beams they use and to see examples of some of the construction techniques used to join the timbers together.

All in all…I think Sam and Anna would agree that this lived up to Dan’s earlier promise that this would be the best part of the Mendota Mantels “experience”.