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.
Continuing the theme from last night’s posting…the photos here show more of the results of last week’s flurry of activity at the “L” Shaped House. The first photo shows the dryer in the first floor laundry room after Paul finished hooking up the newly routed venting that allows a closer fit to the back wall.
The next photo shows the tall upper cabinet above the washing machine in the first floor laundry room after Paul cut a hole through the ceiling to connect to the laundry chute above. The third photo shows the basement microwave cabinet after Luke (Wire-Rite) finished installing the electrical outlet in the cabinet above and routing the power cord to the microwave.
the fourth photo shows the stacked washer and dryer in the second floor laundry room with nearly every detail completed including paint touch-ups, window hardware, and plumbing hook-ups.
The fifth photo shows the first floor bathroom after Luke (Wire-Rite) finished wiring the light fixture…Pete (Carmichael Decorating) repainted the wall…and Paul mounted the mirror Deb selected. Paul and Nate also removed, re-scribed, and re-mounted the cultured marble vanity top to get a better fit along the back wall.
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The sixth photo shows the lockers Paul is building in the mudroom. He has all of the maple trim attached and is just about ready to start sanding and filling. The 18” high upper cubbies and 8” deep hanging wire baskets underneath the lockers should give us plenty of storage for our day-to-day clothing accessories.
The seventh photo shows the French doors and side lights leading to the screen porch from the living room after Paul removed the plastic film protecting the glass. The view through this “wall of glass” at the front of the living room is fantastic and it feels like the amount of light streaming in has increased ten times.
The eighth photo shows the master bathroom after Pete (Carmichael Decorating) finished touching up all of the little “imperfections” he could find (there are still a couple pieces of masking tape on the wall). He has worked the last few days touching up “here and there” throughout the “L” Shaped House.
The ninth photo shows the collection of paint in the basement storage room Pete has to sort through as he works his way around the house touching up walls, trim, and ceilings. It kind of makes you wonder what we are going to do with all these cans of paint after they leave…
The last photo shows the mechanical room in the basement with…I’m pretty sure…all of of our plumbing and mechanical systems in place. Jeremy (Steinkraus Plumbing) finished up all of the “loose ends” on the plumbing system including the drain for the water softener early in the week and Gordie Buhrer showed up Friday to plug it in and set up a program for softening.
The last few days have brought a flurry of activity in and around the “L” Shaped House. Most of the sub-contractors have been in and out as they finish up items on Nate and Paul’s list. I took these photos as I wandered around this morning catching up on the progress and decided to put them all in one blog posting. The first photo shows the steel I-beam post in-between the third and fourth stalls in the garage after Paul got it partially installed. The post attaches to the 8” I-beam in the ceiling and is designed to carry 25% of the weight of the back wall of the bonus room above.
The next photo shows the back corner of the mudroom under the new lockers after Matt Sletten finished installing and grouting the ceramic tile sanitary base. With this last bit of tile in place Matt is just about finished working at the “L” Shaped House!
Speaking of Paul’s nice mudroom lockers…The third photo shows the collection Minwax stain Paul was able to produce after a couple of minutes of digging in the back end of his pickup truck. He wiped some stain on a few samples and Deb picked Golden Pecan 245 for the lockers.
The whole process seemed a little like a magic trick ;-)
Luke (Wire-Rite) has been in and out all week working on various projects. The light fixture above the sink in the first floor bath has been uncooperative all along. The fourth photo here shows the fixture installed on the wall all ready for action.
The fifth photo shows one of the cranks on the casement window above the kitchen sink. Steve Carmichael’s guys have been re-installing all of the window hardware as they finish up their work at the “L” Shaped House.
The sixth photo shows the pile of Deckorators aluminum balusters (spindles) and connectors for the railings on all three porches at the “L” Shaped House. Paul estimates that the Solid Construction guys will need 336 spindles to complete all three railings.
The last photo shows the view off the front porch after I finished up mowing the front yard for the first time using our new John Deere lawn tractor. I had the sprinkler system turned off for four days before attempting to mow and it was still a little softer than I wanted but it had to be done. I dumped the clippings bag 10 times as I worked my way SLOWLY across the thick jungle of grass!
As the carpenters, painters, and clean-up crew make their last pass through a space in the “L” Shaped House it is transformed into what Deb and I have been dreaming about for a year and a half. This series of photos show the first rooms that can be considered “done”. The photo below shows the back wall of the master bath with lights, mirrors, and plumbing fixtures all in place and ready to be used!
The second photo shows the same back wall of the master bath from just outside the hallway leading to the walk-in closets off the master bedroom. This view captures the “feel” of our new home nicely. Deb and Katie's decorating choices combined with the great workmanship throughout the building process have produced a really wonderful space. The last photo shows the washer and dryer installed along the back wall of the first floor laundry room. This space has honestly exceeded our expectations considerably. Neither Deb nor I were convinced it would be large enough, and getting the right laundry machines was frustrating…but in the end the room looks like it is going to be perfect!
The “L” Shaped House saw a lot of change over the last week. While going through the photos I came across a couple of projects that merited publishing. The first photo is an extreme panoramic taken in the mechanical room after everyone (plumbers, HVAC, electricians, and home automation) finished up projects this week. The nice neat work everyone has done contributes to the “organized” feeling in the room.
The second photo shows the last stall in the garage after Luke installed the first two fluorescent light fixtures in the ceiling. We plan to make a couple of “tweaks” to the fixtures before he moves into the remaining stalls but the placement and “amount” of light will stay the same.
The last photo shows one of the Barn Light Electric exterior gooseneck light fixtures above the garage doors. I’ve included it here just because I like the shot!
Luke from Wire-Rite was back today installing lights in the “L” Shaped House. The photo below shows the wall sconce he installed above the right hand sink in the master bathroom. Or at least this is what it looked like at about noon…Deb showed up later this afternoon and made him turn the fixture 180 degrees (something about the light shining down…).
I just like this photo better than the one I took later.
Edit…The two photos below now show the wall sconce “upside-down” and “right-side up”.
I left the “L” Shaped House after dropping off some networking gear and got to see the Barn Lights above the garage doors after dark for the first time. The combination of the lights, the cloak grey siding, white trim, and paver driveway make for a very nice scene.
Enjoy…
During our evening walk-through last night Helen encountered the chandelier in her room with light bulbs installed for the very first time.
She likes it!
Master Luke and Paul Winters spent a few minutes going through the “L” Shaped House formulating a plan for “device-ing out” the electrical system. As a result of their efforts yesterday we get our first look at the hutch in the end wall of the dining room with the wall sconces and in-cabinet lighting shining brightly. When Luke is finally done…the hutch will have a light and power strip installed under the cabinet and a switched outlet for rope lighting above.
The next photo shows the Kichler sconce installed on the wall adjacent the dining room hutch. Deb worked with Dianne at Cartier Lighting in Plymouth as we picked out lighting fixtures throughout the house. The kitchen, dining room, and foyer all have fixtures from the Hendrik collection of lighting. Dianne’s patient guidance made this sometimes contentious process easy, productive and fun!
We highly recommend Dianne for your next lighting project.
I forced our camera shy construction supervisor (JLM’s own Paul Winters) to hold one of the sconces Deb picked out for the dining room up on the wall to see how it looked. Here are the results…the sconce looks great and Paul’s reflexes are still pretty good!
We started looking for lights to hang above the garage doors way back in December of last year. Along the way we considered many different lighting fixtures from a wide variety of manufacturers. The folks at Barnlight Electric make a line of “rustic” light fixtures that just seem to fit in perfectly along the garage wall of the “L” Shaped House. Mike Kloti and I exchanged a couple of messages about the Barnlight Electric fixtures and finally decided to purchase four 16” diameter “Original” gooseneck lights in a galvanized finish. Mike produced the drawing below as we considered sizing possibilities.
The Barnlight Electric website has this nice image that shows the “Original” gooseneck fixture in the middle and an example of the galvanized finish on the right.
And here it is!…one of the Barnlight Electric gooseneck barn lights set up on our dining room table this morning as Deb and I struggled through yet another marathon lighting fixture selection session. They arrived via FedEx a few days ago…to be installed after we paint the outside of the house.
