After missing one day at the “L” Shaped House (yesterday) I returned to find that the Big Sky crew has made a lot of progress on the second floor. The first photo shows the archway in the book nook with the first couple of coats of mud applied. It looks really nice!
The second photo shows their staging area in the master bedroom with freshly applied tap and mud all around. They plan to get started with sheet rock on the first floor tomorrow morning.
The Tappe siding guys wrapped up their work on the house a couple of days ago leaving a few details to be finished later. I snapped a couple of photos in between snow flakes today showing where they have left things on the front porch. The first photo shows the porch from the West end. In it you can see the open joists on the floor and freshly installed bead board in the ceiling. The trim pieces inside the rim will be added after the Permacast columns are installed along the front edge. The trim above the front door (that also extends to the front of the porch) is an continuation of the “thin white line” that wraps the entire house. The Azek decking, screen porch, and railings, will be installed once the “big” access afforded by the open porch is deemed unnecessary.
The next photo shows some of the porch details around the front door. The James Hardie siding, MiraTEC trim, Azek blocking, and bead board ceiling all come together in this corner nicely (the grey MiraTEC above the door is only primed…not finished like the rest of the trim). I'm sure the front porch will become a favorite destination for us as the project finishes up in the early spring!
Day one of the ceramic tile work at the “L” Shaped House finds Matt Sletten working in the upstairs bathrooms. He and the Big Sky drywall crew are coordinating their efforts as they try to stay out of each others way. The first photo shows blocking Paul Winters added in the outside wall of the kids bathroom as a contingency for a handicap railing at the end of the bathtub. The second photo shows Matt at work installing Durock on the walls surrounding the tub. He will probably actually start some tile installation early next week…Exciting!
The drywall crew from Big Sky has the heat on and Christmas music blaring from their boom box as they work taping sheet rock on the second floor. The first photo shows the book nook archway with the sheet rock installed in the foreground and taped joints on the walls behind.
The panoramic photo below shows the drywall staging area in the master bedroom. They have tape on most of the joints and are starting to move around the second floor on their stilts applying mud.
With the cold temps (high today 33 degrees) and snow flurries today felt like a day of transitions. We have reached the point where outside work is almost certainly done for the winter and the inside changes will be harder to see. During my late afternoon visit today I opened the door to warmth and the smell of sheet rock taping…It was a good feeling. The sheet rockers, the insulation guys, and our old friend Matt Sletten (our ceramic tile guy) were all working inside.
The first photo below shows the insulation truck out front and the tube blowing fiberglass running up into the attic. The insulating crew arrived late today and will be back in the morning to finish up the job.
The next photo shows the framing for the first floor closet we have decided to add in the laundry room. This is coming after a whole bunch of thought and careful consideration as we have been planning kitchen and laundry room cabinetry. Deb felt (and I agree) that there was not an adequate closet on the first floor for things like our central vacuum hose set, mops, buckets, and the like. We’ve decided to turn the broom closet in the kitchen into a cabinet style pantry and build this “real” closet in the laundry room. The last photo shows the upstairs laundry room with the sheet rock taping underway.
Tim and his drywall crew have pretty much completed installing sheet rock on the second floor of the house. Everything is ready for the blown-in insulation installation scheduled for tomorrow morning. The first photo shows bonus completely rocked waiting for taping. The bonus room is going to be 1200 square feet of sheet rocked and painted nothingness!
The second photo shows the second floor hall from the laundry room looking toward the master bedroom. Here you can see the extent of the sheet rock. They plan to spend the next couple of days getting the taping of the upstairs underway before moving to the first floor.
Arsenio and his crew have just about finished up the siding and trim at the “L” Shaped House. They will go home this afternoon leaving only a few items to be finished after Paul installs the columns on the front edge of the porch. The first photo shows the front side of the house with pretty much all the siding and trim elements installed.
The next photos show the trim and siding details on each end of the front porch. The guys were just finishing up the bead board ceiling at about 1:00 pm. The porch will have two stairways (one in front and one on the bay window end) and a railing running all around. We plan to use Azek decking which will be installed much later in the project (once the mud and grime are defeated!).
Andy and his crew finished up the first part of the mulch and trail work last night. The panoramic photo below shows the trail winding it’s from the back door entrance to the basement walk-out door. They have installed hard wood mulch along the edge of the trail to help control the mud.
The next photo shows the trail and mulch from the rear corner of the music room. Here we can see how trail winds down from the back porch to the paver patio. We will work on a plan for plantings in this area over the winter and hopefully get started early next spring.
The Tappe guys are almost done with the siding and trim at the “L” Shaped House. At noon today they had most of the front wall above the porch completed and were working on the fascia and soffit details between the bedrooms. The first photo shows the from the West driveway. Siding and trim has been installed all the way to where the screen porch column will live.
The next photo shows the house from the East side of the front yard. Here we can see the siding details as it wraps around to the front of the porch. The Tappe guys will now install the bead board ceiling under the roof and finish the trim and siding across the front.
Tim and his crew continue to install sheet rock in the second floor at the house. They have worked their into the bonus room above the garage and should be for the insulation crew on Thursday morning. The first photo shows the laundry chute in the wall outside the kids bathroom. Almost all of the second floor is completely covered and the crew is working on the details. The second photo shows sheet rock installed in the stairwell to the second floor from the garage. This is a very tall space and requires no fear of heights.
