Electrical…Day 13

Luke from Wire-Rite was back today installing under cabinet lighting in the kitchen and first floor laundry room. The first photo below shows the under cabinet lighting  installed in the laundry room (switched on in the low setting). The second photo shows the lights installed into the opposite corner of the laundry room. The xenon lamps give off a nice warm glow (2900K color temp) under the cabinets.

Next is a photo of Luke’s box full of task lights. The fixtures come from GM Lighting and are available in a variety of lengths.

The last photo shows the back wall of the kitchen with most of the under cabinet lights installed. We are having Luke pull the lights toward the front of the cabinets as he installs the fixtures to get a nice even illumination of the countertops. Each light fixture has a rocker switch with high, low, and off settings that provide a nice range of lighting options under the cabinetry.

Landscaping…Day 34

Jay and his landscaping crew are are hard at work setting pavers after spending part of the morning cleaning up after Last night’s rains. Although some of the granite sand set last week washed away the new driveway surface came through the rains with only a little erosion at the edges. The first photo shows the crew laying pavers in the field as they work their way toward the front side of the breezeway porch.

The next two photos show the new paver surface in front of the breezeway porch as Jay and his crew continue the edging toward the front. In the first the white accent stripe can be seen along the front edge of the garage doors as it disappears to the back of the property. The second photo shows the area in front of the breezeway porch with new pavers laid almost to the end. The stairway leading to the breezeway deck and entry door will run straight up to the deck from this new paver surface.

The Water Wars…9.5”/60 Days

Monday night brought nearly an inch of rain to Minnetonka. In the last 60 days we have seen 9.65” of rain (2.5” in May, 6.25” in June, and nearly 1” already this month). The rain days have been spread across the calendar fairly evenly keeping the site of the “L” Shaped House wet and muddy pretty much all summer. Combined with the “lost October” last fall these rains have cost us a lot of time…especially on the driveway building project.

Near the end of this entry in Paul Huttner’s Updraft Blog he talks about the tropical conditions we are enduring this summer and possibility of some relief around the corner…Oh! I hope he is right

 The sweaty air mass will linger through Wednesday, before a drier Canadian air mass eases in Thursday and Friday, bringing relief to sweaty Minnesotans.

Landscaping…Day 33 (weekend report)

I took this series of photos early Saturday morning showing the progress Jay and his crew made Friday. They spent most of the morning working through the details of the paver edging…and then installed it all around the back end of the driveway in the afternoon. The results are fantastic!

The first photo shows the front wall of the garage shot from the back corner of the driveway with the alternating paver edging and white accent “stripe” winding all around the driveway surface.

The next photo shows the paver driveway from a spot a little further back under the Norway maple. Here the white accent “stripe” and alternating edging nicely defines the driving surface.

The next two photos show some of the details of the paver edging as it transitions around the end of the driveway beyond the back wall of the garage. In the first photo we see the accent “stripe” curve away from the front wall of the garage into the “turn-around” pad at the back of the driveway surface. The second photo shows a close up of the sharp corner shot from the opposite direction. Jay and Kevin have achieved a simple elegance in this installation that I think is remarkable!

 

The next photo shows the some of the cutting Kevin had to do as they installed pavers around the inside radius at the back end of the driveway. Cutting and setting these radius sections is a lot harder than it looks and requires both attention to detail and an artistic sense.

The last photo shows the progress on the driveway as of the weekend. The area in front of the last three stalls has had granite sand applied and been “set” using the vibrating plate. They plan to be back Tuesday morning to continue working toward the Cottage Lane.

Carpentry…More doors

Paul spent the day Friday installing exterior doors at the “L” Shaped House. The first photos shows the french doors leading into the living room from the screen porch on the front of the house. The panels on either side of these new doors will get in-operable versions of the same Simpson exterior doors making this a virtual wall of glass along the front of the house.

The next photo shows the new french doors from the back corner of the living room. The light coming through the glass doors has already made the living room a much brighter place…It’s going to be amazing when the two additional panels are installed!

This next photo shows the back breezeway entry door. With both doors installed the breezeway space has been transformed into a bright and cheery place. I especially like this view out into the back yard with the upper patio and deck in the foreground and Jim Danielson’s old shed way back in the woods.

The last photo shows the same lighting transformation happening in the basement family room. Here the light streaming into the room through the patio doors is absolutely wonderful!

Electrical…Day 12

Luke was back Friday afternoon installing electrical fixtures at the “L” Shaped House. The first photo shows the fan Anna selected for her room installed in the ceiling.

It is simply Spectacular!

And a video of the fan in action!

The next two photos show some of the new bathroom fixtures Luke installed. In the first we see the sealed shower light and ceiling fan assembly installed in the master bath. The second shows the fan and light in the kids bathroom.

The last photo shows the new sconces on the outside wall in the book nook at the top of the front stairs. Deb and Dianne (Cartier Lighting) picked these fixtures from World Imports. The pleated shades surrounding the iron fixtures looks really nice in this space.

Landscaping…Day 33

Jay and his guys are back this morning working on the paver driveway. The first below photo shows jay’s crew setting pavers in front of the first garage stall. They have consumed almost 20 pallets of pavers as the work has progressed across the front of the garage. The second photo shows the alternating paver edge at the end wall of the garage. Here Jay has done a awesome job of aligning the accent stripe in the paver edging with the MiraTEC garage door trim and is starting to cut the pieces for the curved section of pavers at the end of the driveway. This “inside” radius and the “outside” radius on the opposite corner require a whole bunch of fussy cutting work to make the pavers fit nicely.

The video below shows our old friend Kevin…who Jay pressed into service as the “saw guy” on this project to cut tapered sides on pavers as they set the alternating edge around the back end of the driveway.

Carpentry…Exterior doors

Paul Winters has been busy installing exterior doors around the “L” Shaped House. The first photo below shows the new exterior doors at the back breezeway and basement walk-out. All the exterior doors are Simpson Mastermark Collection doors finished with a mahogany varnish from Sikkens.

The next photo shows a close up of the Simpson patio doors at the basement walk-out. The last photo shows the breezeway door above the back deck and patio. The mahogany stained doors look very nice set off against both the cloak grey siding and the pavers in the patios.

Landscaping…Day 32 (evening report)

Jay and his guys spent the afternoon setting pavers in the driveway along the front of the garage at the “L” Shaped house. They were still hard at it when I stopped by around 6 pm and Luther told me they plan to keep going until they get pavers all the way to the first garage stall. The first photo shows the work continuing on the new paver surface from the back corner of the driveway.

The next photo shows the paver surface from the back end of the driveway.

The next two photos show some of the edge details in the new paver surface. In the first we see the edging pavers and the white “stripe” that together make up the border at the apron of the garage. The alternating pavers along the edge have a cool “interlocking” look…I really like it!  The second photo shows the white “stripe” as it curves away from the front of the building at the back corner of the garage. The alternating edge pieces will follow the “stripe” all the way around the driveway surface.

The last photo shows Jay’s landscaping crew working to install pavers in the field in front of the second garage stall. All the required elements of a paver driveway surface are nicely visible in this view…the crushed limestone base…the grey granite sand course…pallets of stone pavers…and a group of hard working men!

Landscaping…Day 32

Jay and his landscaping crew started setting pavers in the driveway at the “L” Shaped House this morning. I took a series of panoramic shots at noon of the area in front of the garage in an effort to capture the progress they are making. The first shot shows the garage wall of the house from the back corner of the driveway. Jay and his crew decided to lay the first pavers at the corner between the third and fourth stalls and have about 500 square feet of paver surface installed.

The next photo shows this same area at the back of the driveway from a little lower angle. Here we can see that Jay is laying the pavers in the field but leaving the edging for later. If you look closely you can see how the edge of the paver surface is going to curve out and away from the fourth stall to the back edge of the driveway. Jay will circle back and install the edge detail we selected yesterday all the way around the perimeter of the paver surface.

The last photo shows the sand base Jay and his guys have installed in front of the next two garage stalls as they prepare to set more pavers this afternoon.