Garage…Sealing the floor

Sam and I spent the day Saturday working to get the garage floor cleaned and sealed before we move in on Tuesday. The first step was scrubbing the cement floor with a walk behind floor scrubber rented from Reddy Rents in Saint Louis Park. We then rolled out 5 gallons of concrete sealer on the fresh clean concrete surface.

Sam and his friend Harris moved a whole bunch of left over construction materials stored on the garage floor (ceramic tiles, fireplace stone, paint cans, carpeting, etc.) into the end of the crawl space. I have a feeling this might be the very last time we see the garage at the “L” Shaped House completely empty!

 

Cleaning…Day 1

We’ve engaged Steve Carmichael’s wife Amy and her mom (Jo) to give the “L” Shaped House a complete cleaning. They started in the bonus room Friday night and finished up in the basement late yesterday afternoon. The photo below shows Amy and Jo working to in the kitchen as they cleaned cabinets, walls, countertops, windows, and light fixtures…the place looks fabulous!

Landscaping…Compost station

Jason and his crew (Kevin) are back today working to finish up the very last landscaping details at the “L” Shaped House. The photo below shows Kevin sawing a modular block as he works to finish the compost station just beyond the back yard planting beds. In addition to this new feature Jason and his crew plan to fix up the front yard where the dumpster laid and top off the mulch throughout all the planting beds.

Carpentry…Breezeway porch fix

The Solid Construction folks came back early this morning to fix a stair tread consistency issue the building  inspector found during his visit the other day. The first step off the pavers fell just outside the 3/8” height variation required by the code. The Solid guys decided to carefully disassemble the treads and risers to allow access as they trimmed the tops of the stringers under the treads. The first photo shows the Solid guy working to reassemble a stair tread after trimming the stringer.

The second photo shows the breezeway stairs after with the “fix” applied. The tread adjustments are just barely visible along the left hand side of the stairs. Once we get the painters back to put another coat of white stain on the cedar no one will ever know the stairs were adjusted!

Fixtures…Railings and mirrors

From the very beginning of this project we have we have tried to be thoughtful about providing for handicapped accessibility in our new home. The first floor of the “L” Shaped House is specifically designed to accommodate persons who cannot navigate steps. The full bath and “convertible”  music room make first floor living a comfortable possibility. The photo below shows the first floor bath after Paul installed grab bar railings on the wall adjacent the toilet and shower. The inside shower wall will have railings as well.

The next photo shows Helen’s room with her new IKEA mirror mounted on the wall above the dresser. Paul has been mounting mirrors, hooks, and bars all over the inside of the house for the last couple of days.

Anchor Block…Photos!

Pat Berry from InsideOut Studios sent me image files of the paver driveway from the Anchor Block photo shoot on Tuesday. He has produced a pair of wonderful photos from both the front and back ends of the driveway. The images are going to be a great addition to our memories of this big adventure.

The “L” Shaped House has never looked better!

The “L” Shaped House…Wrapping up

A couple of loyal followers of this blog have asked “where have you been the last few days”?

Well…Paul Winters and the JLM folks have been busily working to finish up a few details required by the City of Minnetonka before issuing a “certificate of occupancy”. They have also been working to finish installing bath accessories and fixtures throughout the living spaces as they prepare the house for our arrival. The four photos below show the results of some of these efforts. In the first photo we see the house number attached to the front wall of the house as required by the city.

The next photo shows a landing installed at the bottom of the bonus room stairs that “corrects” a tread height inconsistency caused by my desire to have rubber tread surfaces on the first two stairs. The third photo shows one of the towel bars in the master bathroom installed by Paul as he works his way through the house installing towel bars, hooks, and mirrors.

The fourth photo shows new towel bars installed in the kids bathroom on the second floor. These finishing touches make the “L” Shaped House seem more like a home every day.

All this week’s activity provides a nice transition to the really big news that…

WE HAVE A MOVING DATE! 

On September 28th (next Wednesday) our friends from Two Men And A Truck are scheduled to show up at our current home and move our belongings to the “L” Shaped House (the big stuff…anyway). Deb…with a whole lot of help from both Ronda and Ingrid…has been busy sorting, purging, cleaning, and packing the contents of our home into moving boxes since the beginning of July this year. At last count there were more than 100 moving boxes packed and ready to go piled all over inside our home. Deb and Ingrid plan to pack and move the remaining contents of our kitchen into the “L” Shaped House on Monday and Tuesday next week.

Sam and I talked about how our lives will change as the reality of all this started to really sink in on our way home from Karate in downtown Hopkins last night. The next couple of weeks are going to be BIG!

Anchor Block…Paver photo shoot

Barb Falk from Anchor Block called a few weeks ago asking if we would allow them to photograph the paver driveway at the “L” Shaped House for next year’s catalog. We readily agreed and after a rain delay last week Pat Barry of InsideOut Studios showed up this afternoon to take the two shots Barb wants. The first three photos below show Pat, and his assistant Trev working to get the lighting perfected in the shot as Barb looks on. The photos also show some of the tools of the trade including the camera, lights, tethered computer, ladders, and the all important gas powered leaf blower.

 

The next photo shows Pat and Barb checking out a freshly captured exposure of the driveway and house as they work to get exactly the shot they want for the catalog. The image on the screen in the photo and a beautiful shot of the pavers along the front of the garage will soon grace the pages of Anchor’s promotional materials. It was really interesting (and more than a little humbling) to watch as these professionals worked together to produce a couple of fabulous photographs of the “L” Shaped House. 

The “L” Shaped House…September evening

Sam, Anna, Sophie, and I spent a couple of hours at the “L” Shaped House this evening working, running around, and playing Halo Reach in the basement. As the sun began to set I fired up most of the first floor lights and took a few photos of the house from the front yard. The house looks really nice with the porch all lit up and the lights inside burning.

Windows…Bonus room 2

Well…It’s in.

Paul finished installing the fire rated window assembly in the wall at the top of the stairwell in the bonus room. He made a valiant effort to find a  more esthetically pleasing window but  the constraints imposed by the building codes (steel frame, laminated safety glass, and maximum 42” dimension) made this sort of assembly the only real option.

Anna spontaneously referred to it as “the kind of window that’s in a jail”.

Nice…

Landscaping…Things to come

Jay and his landscaping crew started building a composting station just beyond the 6’ mulch strip in the back yard. The plan is to create a place for composting our lawn and garden waste that is hidden from view yet easily accessible. The planting beds and lawn areas at the “L” Shaped House are specifically designed to minimize  the amount of waste generated but having our own easy supply of composted dirt makes sense and fits right in with our sensitive and reasonable approach to being good stewards of this wonderful property.

The next photo shows a stone that has recently departed on what will be a long journey from Hedberg’s Plymouth yard to the front yard of the “L” Shaped House. Our new friend Janey Westin of Edina is taking delivery of this beautiful stone and plans to spend the winter carving a mysterious Runic message in it’s face. Next summer we will set it in place in at the bottom of the hill in front of the house and watch as the fun begins…

Windows…Bonus room

Paul and Nate wrestled the fire rated window assembly into place in the stairway wall of the bonus room. When I arrived around noon Paul was already mudding the sheet rock around the frame and getting ready to install the glass window panes.

Windows…The bonus room firewall

Paul picked up the steel frame for the window at the top of the stairs in the bonus room. This window assembly has to have a 20 minute fire rating because it is in the wall that separates the garage from the bonus room (i.e. the stairwell is part of the garage). Finding a fire rated window assembly that will fit in our opening (and budget) and look reasonably nice has been quite an adventure. After at least three false starts we finally settled on a window with three 19” x 42” glass panes set in a steel frame. The window panes are tempered safety glass and laminated with wire.

We’re already referring to it as Prison Glass!

Landscaping…Day 49

Jay and his crew came back today to put the finishing touches on the landscaping all around the “L” Shaped house. They worked on a whole bunch of little things like adding leaf guards to the gutters as well as working to solve a few persistent problems. The first photo shows one of Jay’s guys digging out the “saddle” in the back yard as they prepare to install a river bed of rocks to aid in draining the water that collects in this area.

The next photo shows the new river bed installed in the “saddle” from just beyond the back of the mulch bed. The third photo shows the river bed along the front porch after Jay and his crew added a bunch more river rock at the near end in an effort to slow down the water coming off the standing seam roof.

The panoramic photo below shows the back yard from the window on the landing in the front stairway. In it we can see the sprouting low-mow and the new river bed just to the right of the power pole. The landscaping master plan is coming together nicely in the back yard.

The next photo shows the back end of the garage from the top of our trail leading to the bike path. Here we can see the low-mow turf starting to sprout under the maple tree and the 6’ mulch border. The city approved removing the silt fence this morning and Jay’s guys took it down just before they left for the day. The whole back yard is starting to feel really nice.

The last two photos show the driveway out front with the my newest boulder placed along the the East side. I found this nice weathered limestone specimen at Hedberg’s Plymouth yard a couple of weeks ago while looking for boulders and just had to have it. It’s been strategically placed to “encourage” driveway compliance just like “Ann” a little further down…

Carpeting…Day 7

The Interior Design Carpet crew was back this morning to install carpet in the stairwell between the garage and bonus room. The first photo shows Jimmy as he cuts carpeting to fit the stairs on the paver surface in front of the garage. I picked this carpeting (it will be the only time) from the giant supply Rick Armstrong keeps in his Minnetonka warehouse.

The next photo shows the rubber stair treads on the first two steps up from the garage floor. We decided to use rubber treads to make sure any moisture from the garage does not get to the carpet. I think the combination of black treads, speckled carpeting, and grey walls looks pretty good.

The third photo shows the carpeting at the first landing as the stairs wind toward bonus room above.

Jimmy and his crew ran their 100 lb roller over the carpet in the bonus room again. Almost all of the bubbles disappeared after this rolling and he tells us that they will all go away once the glue is fully cured. The two photos below show the new carpeting from opposite ends of the bonus room.  This room looks amazing with the carpet in place…almost all the workers are threatening to move into the space!

Garage…Stairs

Paul Winters finished the carpentry work on the stairs leading to the mudroom from the garage early this afternoon. We plan to eventually replace these stairs with fabricated steel stairway that includes an integrated wheel chair lift. For the first couple of years I’m sure these will serve us well.

Glass…Day 2

Seth from R & R Glass was back today to finish up his work at the “L” Shaped House. The first photo below shows the basement bathroom with the glass shower door he installed today in place. We now have these semi-frameless doors in all three of the showers at the house. We chose to swing this door away from the wall to allow space for towel bars along the wall.

The next photo shows the Dance/Karate mirror on the end wall of the bonus room. Seth has provided a very reasonably priced full length mirror in two sections that even includes a cut out for the electrical outlet. The mirror makes this really big space seem even bigger!

Carpeting…Day 6

Rick Armstrong’s crew from Interior Design Carpet was back this morning installing carpet in the “L” Shaped House. The first two photos show the carpet runner installed on the front stairs after the edges were bound over the weekend. The first shows the runner from the cork flooring and the molding at the bottom flight. The second shows the details of the runner at the landing.

The Interior Design Carpet guys also went to work on the carpet in the bonus room. The first photo shows Jimmy spreading adhesive on the plywood flooring before they lay out the carpeting. We decided to use an 80 lb. commercial carpet without a pad in the bonus room because the dancers (Helen and Anna) and the Karate guy (Sam) don’t want a “spongy” surface as they work out.

The next photo shows the bonus room as the guys worked to fit the carpet to the room. They hauled two 12’ wide pieces up the steps from the garage that run the entire length of the room so that there will be only one seam (down the middle).

The last photo shows the door leading to the upstairs hall from the bonus room with the new carpet installed.

Landscaping…Growing grass

The Low-Mow turf is starting to sprout in the back yard of the “L” Shaped House. I took the photo below as I walked up from the street to check on the sprinkler system around noon today. The weather has been perfect for growing grass and the new lawn shows it.

The next photo shows the plastic edging and mulch Jay and his crew installed around the Maple tree in our neighbor Frank’s yard. We decided to provide the edging and mulch as well as some sod along the property line to fix up a couple of areas that were damaged during construction.