The “L” Shaped House…Last weekend in August

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!

Glass…Dining room hutch

Paul Winters and Nate have continued working on some of the little details throughout the “L” Shaped House. The photos below show the upper cabinets in the dining room hutch after Nate finished installing the clear glass in the doors and tempered glass shelves. Paul insists on installing the glass using a little bead of clear silicone all the way around the inside perimeter to eliminate any “rattling” when the doors are opened and closed…its a nice touch!

The dining room hutch has a halogen “puck” light installed in the top of each cabinet, a set of Xenon under cabinet lights illuminating the countertop, and a provision for LED rope lighting above. Combined with the 14 electrical outlets in the space between the upper and lower cabinets we might be (fairly?) accused of going a little overboard!

Glass…Kitchen cabinets

Nate picked up the fluted glass for the kitchen cabinet doors and installed it late this afternoon. The photos here show both cabinets with the new glass installed in the doors.

Nice…

 

Plumbing…The bath accessories

The Steinkraus Plumbing guys had us order all of our bath accessories directly from Ferguson plumbing supply. I ran up to their Plymouth location and picked up the towel bars, hooks, and toilet paper holders Deb ordered and delivered them to the house.

Painting…Day 69 (evening report)

Pete and the Carmichael decorating crew spent the whole day working at the “L” Shaped House. The photo below shows the front of the house after they got almost all of the finish coat of white stain on the cedar framing and railings. The fresh white paint and new red doors give the house a nice finished look.

In addition to all the work going on outside the Carmichael crew has also been busy inside. The first photo below shows the window seat in the living room after Pete re-finished the maple tops.

Pete has been filling and painting all sorts of little imperfections throughout the including the ones seen here on the back wall in the basement family room. He started on the second floor a few days ago and is working his way through the whole house…room by room. This wall is also one of the places where we had Paul install a “picture rail” molding for hanging artwork in the “L” Shaped House. Walker Display in Duluth MN sells an entire system of art hanging accessories that work with the molding.

The final photo shows the last corner to be painted in the bonus room above the garage. With this space and the living room downstairs complete…I think we are ready for more carpet!

Carpentry…Doors (from the inside)

I took this extreme panoramic photo from the landing on the front stairs to try to capture both sets of exterior doors and the fireplace in one wide image. The photo provides a fairly good sense of the “open” feeling in the space and shows off the additional light let into the room nicely. Paul Winters took advantage of the incredibly nice weather today and has all the windows and doors open.

The whole house felt wonderful!

Painting…Day 69

Pete and his crew from Carmichael Decorating are working all around the “L” Shaped House today. The first photo shows Pete (in the far corner) and the guys enjoying the screen porch as they break for lunch. They had the finish coat of white stain on almost all the cedar on this end of the porch by noon and were heading off across the porch as I left around 1:00 pm.

The next photo shows inside of the screen porch door after painting with the finish coat of white stain. The third photo shows one of Pete’s guys working his roller into far the corner of the porch.

The last photo shows most of the trim pieces that will cover the edges of the screen on the front porch drying in the sun after the Carmichael guys painted them in the garage. The plan is to attach all of the trim holding the screen with trim-head screws making it easy to replace any torn sections of screen.

Carpentry…Porches (day 10)

Landon and his Solid Construction crew are back today working on the side breezeway porch. The first photo shows Landon as he installs the last few screws holding the “code Rail” on the right hand stair railing. This set of stairs is pretty much the last major item they will build before moving on to the spindles in the railings and the screen for the screen porch.

The next photo shows the sample section of railing Paul Winters put together to help us as we selected a spindle color. After looking at this assembly in a few positions around the front porch we chose the white ones!

Furnishings…Helen’s dresser

Helen’s cousin Matthew came to the “L” Shaped House this afternoon and assembled her new IKEA dresser. The photos below show the assembled dresser centered up on the wall…all ready to go!

What a guy…

Carpentry…The front door

Today was a special day…Landon (Solid Construction)  installed the front door on the “L” Shaped House. The first photo shows the solid Simpson door and side lights shortly after Landon finished installing the door handle and deadbolt. The mahogany stain looks really nice and it feels great to finally have a proper front door.

The next photo shows the front door standing open into the foyer. The third photo shows Landon as he worked installing the strike plate on the door jam.

 

The last photo shows the new front door and side lights from a spot in front of the island in the kitchen. In it we see the cherry stain we selected for the inside surfaces of all the exterior doors as well as the Poplar door leading into the coat closet off the foyer. The windows in the door and side lights let a lot of light in and really brighten up the front entry of the house.