day 301: snow

first snow of the season


fireplace stone still drying


driveway

day 299: lots of progress

the pocket door to the pantry is finished now that it has a door pull, and the Steves trimmed out the kitchen window, which might have been the last window. The countertops on order won't be installed for quite a while, so they opted to put in some OSB temporary counters and get the sink hooked up.


Overall kitchen view with temporary plywood counters and completed toekicks and cabinets. Looks like it just needs a few pulls installed.


Most of the trim work is complete, so the Steves started outfitting the closets. (Left) the linen closet in the 2nd bathroom, and (Right) a coat closet in the entry foyer.


Progress continues on the fireplace stone and mantel.


the excavator laid out a parking lot and brought in some ground-up blacktop to give everything a solid base.


dad painting the rooflet and the built-up driveway


smoothed out lower yard


the door at the back of the garage now has a stoop. this is one of the unearthed concrete slabs.

day 291: mantle

Eric, our stone guy, installed the solid cherry mantle beam. the chunks of cherry wood sitting there on top will be mounted under the beam as corbels, even though they apparently won't actually be doing any work holding up the mantle. but that is the idea. Eric also installed the stone arch.

day 283: fireplace stone

Dad got the guys down the street to cut the mantle and corbels for us, and there has been some progress on the fireplace stone. see Dog?


Dog wants to move in, or at least a ride home.

day 260: millwork

dad hired someone to install all the fireplace components. the metal pieces still laying around are part of a trim kit that allows you to cover the fireplace with stone and keep a crisp edge. we have a stone mason coming to install the (real) stone veneer and the hearth stone. i wonder how they are going to get that slab of limestone into the house. we've only used moved it using a tractor. it's so heavy i even put extra floor framing at the hearth.

Kevin Bertocchi from SMD Custom Cabinets installed the cherry wood cabinet next to the fireplace. The cabinet is nine feet high and at least three feet wide and two feet deep, so it's quite large. The lower part is made to hold firewood. i covered the bottom with raised metal bars to keep the cabinet from getting scraped up too badly.

day 17: errands

today i ran errands and no one worked on the house. however, i saw that the plumbers completed the drains in the basement floor. they are just waiting for the inspector to come out. then we can warm the place up and pour a slab.

I met a tile installer in the morning to show him the project. it was so cold that after i set down my yogurt for a few minutes to talk, i ended up having frozen yogurt for breakfast. i had to go warm up after that. i transported the chimney and fireplace parts down to the house, had a pulled-pork sandwich (thanks mom!), priced out some doors at a few places, went out and bought a used torpedo heater after some research and telephone calls, and had a cinnamon roll at Panera while updating the blog. i'm still doing that now. i guess i had better go drop that off that torpedo heater before it's completely dark.

upper screen porch done

windowless house is really just a big advertisement

light shelf in the living room / hearth area / dining room

lots of framing, lots of ceiling heights

drains in basement gravel

bathroom in the walkout basement

chimney and accessories for the fireplace

lumber