Carpentry…The Details

details…details…details. Paul Winters and the Solid crew have been immersed in the details of window, door, and stair trim for the last few days. The photos below show many of these details up close. In the first we see the trim around both the main and closet by-pass doors. 

The next photo was taken standing in the master bath shower looking out into the room. Here we can see the trim around the pocket door that leads to the walk-in closets and the door to the toilet at the far end.  The third photo shows the door leading into the master bedroom.

The next two photos show the trim around the second floor windows in greater detail. The first  is the small window in the book nook at the top of the stairs. The second in one of the corners of the double hung windows in the master bedroom. The details of the trim and sill are shown here nicely. We have chosen to extend the sills…both to the front and beyond the sides of the window casing…to create a more interesting window trim detail. Having stained windows and enameled trim presents the obvious challenge of where to “draw the line” between the two. For the moment we have that “line” at the margins of the sill.

The last photo shows the beginnings of the front stairs. Dan (from Solid) has has risers and treads installed on the first four steps. The treads are oak and will be stained and varnished. The risers are made from poplar and will be painted. The treads have temporary plywood covers protecting the hardwood.

Carpentry…Day 1

The Solid (gottabesolid) finish carpenters are hard at work inside the “L” Shaped House. They will be installing doors, hanging cabinets, finishing the stairs, and installing trim throughout the house for the next couple of weeks. Dan (seen in the first photo) and his crew spent the morning distributing materials around the house this morning and were hanging doors on the second floor around noon. The second photo shows the first door (in Anna’s room) installed from the inside.

The next photo shows the inside wall of Anna’s room with the main door to the hall hung and the closet bypass doors underway. The solid core poplar doors have a nice substantial “feel” and look great.

The last photo shows the trim details on the outside of Anna’s door. All of the trim on the second floor will be 2  1/2 inches wide while the trim on the first floor will be 3 1/2”. We elected to install trim in this manner because the ceiling heights change from 9 feet on the first to 8 feet on the second. All of the doors will be stained to match the windows and the trim will be painted with white enamel.

Ceramic Tile…Day 17

Matt continues to lay ceramic tile in the laundry room, hall and first floor bathroom. In the first photo I caught Matt as he was working in the laundry room closet around noon today. The second photo shows the transition between the 12 inch tiles in the hallway and the octagon/square tiles in the bathroom.

Painting…Day 8

Rick from Carmichael Decorating primed in the the bonus room this morning. The paint was still a little wet when I stopped by around noon to take a few pictures. It’s amazing how much different the room looks when it is all one color.

Ceramic Tile…Day 16

Matt Sletten started laying ceramic tile on the first floor this morning. The first photo below shows the 12 inch tile installed in the hallway outside the laundry room. The second photo shows how Matt plans to make the transition to the octagon/square tile at the doorway into the bathroom. I think the tiles that Katie and Deb selected look fantastic together and cannot wait to see the cork floor in the kitchen next to it.

Carpentry…Day 0 (continued)

Scherer Brothers delivered the first round of trim to the “L” Shaped House this morning. The Solid carpentry crew plans to start setting doors and applying trim on the second floor tomorrow. The first photo shows the bundles of primed poplar for the base, window, and door trim stacked in the living room. The second photo shows boxes of oak stair treads next to the stacks of interior doors.

Painting…Day 7

The Carmichael Decorating crew continues to work on the windows in the “L” Shaped House. In the photo below we see Rick applying the final coat of polyurethane varnish to one of the double hung windows in the bonus room.  They have all the second floor windows sanded and hope to be done upstairs later today.

Sheet Rock…Basement Prep

Paul Winters has been busy preparing the basement ahead of the drywall installation. The photo below of the West wall of the family room highlights some of these preparations nicely. The corner on the far left had to be sheet rocked prior to the installation of the gas fireplace. Blocking between studs has been added to the wall in the center where the home theatre television will mount and the framing on the right has been modified the accommodate a 12 inch deep built-in media shelf. The Big Sky Construction guys should be following right behind with drywall.

Ceramic Tile…Day 15

Matt Sletten started preparing the first floor for ceramic tile this morning. We will have tile running the length of the area above the crawl space including the mudroom, breezeway, laundry room, hallway, and first floor bathroom. The first photo shows the laundry room with Durock in place on the floor.

The next photo shows the hallway outside the laundry room leading into the bathroom. All of the the floors in these areas will use the 12 inch square tiles seen in the third photo except the bathroom which will have an octagon/square pattern (also seen in the photo).

In the last photo we see the Schluter Systems drain that Matt intends to install in the “emergency-pan” areas under the washing machines in both the first floor and upstairs laundry rooms. This drain system incorporates a wide flange and a membrane to protect the floors in the unlikely event there is a water leak. The drains are plumbed to exit a wall in the basement and run into one of the floor drains (no traps).

Sheet Rock…Day 27

The Big Sky Construction guys have been busy finishing up the sheet rock in the stairwell to the bonus room. They spent the last couple of days on the fussy angles associated with the short walls of the stairs and sanding in the heights above. The first photo shows a long shot of the stairwell with the winding staircase to the bonus room.

Next a close shot showing many of the funny angles and surfaces that are a part of the stairway.  The last photo shows the area under the stairs where the walls, ceilings, and stair support come together in a kind of complicated mess.

Ceramic Tile…Day 14

Matt Sletten continues his tile work in the second floor bathrooms. The two photos below show the master bath shower as the tile work gets closer to completion. The first is a wide shot showing almost all of the tile elements together. Its hard to capture the colors perfectly but this photo comes pretty close and does a nice job of displaying the range of products.

The second photo shows the back wall of the master bath shower with two of the corian shelves installed. There is a third shelf mounted high in the front corner. The shower looks absolutely great in person.

Painting…Day 6

The Carmichael crew is back today apply sanding sealer to the freshly stained windows. They have a staining/painting station set up at the top of the stairs and were about half way through the second floor windows by noon. They are carefully getting all the exposed wood treated in this operation…especially the edges that will live just inside the weather stripping.

Carpentry…Day 0

Doors!  Scherer Brothers delivered the interior doors that will be installed in the “L” Shaped House this morning. After extensive discussions (Scherer Brothers, Paul Winters, Steve Carmichael & Jim and Deb) we decided to have the doors made from Poplar. Because we are going to use a dark cherry stain on the doors everyone agreed a wood with a more prominent grain might look better. Seeing the grain structure in person makes me think  poplar was good choice…They look great!

Painting…Day 5

After finishing up the bonus room yesterday…Steve Carmichael and Pete have moved their staining operation down to the first floor in the “L” Shaped House. They plan to put the first coat of sanding sealer on the upstairs windows tomorrow afternoon. The first photo show the guys hard at work in the music room.

The next photo shows the bay window in the dining room after staining.

Sheet Rock…Day 26

The Big Sky Construction guys have the last coat of mud on all the sheet rock joints in the garage and stairwell to the bonus room. They will start sanding tomorrow and probably have this part of the house finished up by the end of the week… Then its on to the basement!

Ceramic Tile…Day 13

Matt Sletten is back today working on the shower floor in the master bathroom. The first photo shows the whole shower from the opposite end of the bathroom with the 2 inch tile installed on the floor. I think all of Katie and Deb’s design choices are coming together very nicely as the master bath takes shape!

 

The second photo is a closer shot of the shower base. Matt has done a very nice job of cutting the tile in around the stainless steel square floor drain we decided to use in the showers.

Painting…Day 4

Pete from Carmichael decorating is back staining windows today. By noon he had all of the windows on the main part of the second floor done and was heading for the bonus room. The first photo shows the three double hung windows in the hall just outside Sam’s room stained and ready for sealer.

The second photo shows the window in the kids bathroom. The dark stain on the wood looks very nice set off against the ceramic tile surrounding the bathtub.

Sheet Rock…Day 25

The drywall guys are working their way through the garage and stairwell with tape and mud. The photo below shows the back wall of the garage, stairs, and work area beneath the stairs with the second coat of mud applied to the joint tape. They have the whole 24 foot back wall of the staircase to deal with as they work their way up to the bonus room.

Painting…Day 3

Steve Carmichael and Pete showed up today and started staining windows at the “L” Shaped House. The photos below show Steve replacing one of the windows in Sam’s room after applying stain and the same window after he was done. The dark stain looks very nice set off against the white walls and beautiful winter weather outside. It felt a lot like Spring standing in the room with the window wide open!

Sheet Rock…Day 24

The drywall guys have almost all of the tape installed in the garage and have started mudding the joints they covered late last week. It’s amazing how much better the room looks with the holes filled and tape on the joints.

The stairs to the bonus room and the work area below provide plenty of angular challenges as the sheet rock and taping continues.

Hot Dawg…Garage Heat!

The heat in the garage is being provided by a Hot Dawg (Modine) garage heater. The American Air heating guys hooked it up earlier this week and its been nice and toasty inside since. It has been especially useful for driving moisture out of the house and garage. The photo below shows the heater hanging from the ceiling in the back end of the third garage stall.

The heater is a Hot Dawg model HD100 power-exhausted unit heater rated at 100,000 Btu. We chose a unit heater bigger than necessary because we plan to heat the garage only occasionally and want to have quick cycle times.

The video is an attempt to give an idea of how much noise the heater makes while running…it also provides a nice virtual tour of the garage at the “L” Shaped House.

Garage Doors…Wrap-up

After visiting the “L” Shaped House this morning and taking a few more photos of the garage door installation it seemed appropriate to add a few more details to the blog. The first photo shows a panoramic view of the mudroom end of the garage. The first two high lift doors and automatic openers are visible on the left.

The next photo shows one of the automatic opener controls on the wall adjacent the mudroom entry door. The controls include an open/close switch across the top with lock and light functions below. The third photo shows the blocking and wiring  contingencies we have added to both the third and fourth stalls in case we decide to add automatic openers to these doors later.

The “action packed” video shows the first garage door in operation. The Liftmaster 3800 operator is really quiet and seems to open the doors plenty fast (a complaint I heard). The loud “click” at the beginning and end of the video is the electronic lock activating.