Sunday, July 29, 2007

Watch the clock!

I just reviewed the blog entries for July and everyone is after 10 PM. Ack! No wonder I am so tired; I work all day long for the Air Force, then work on the house and then come home and blog. Zoinks, I need some sleep.

Kitchen moves closer to completion

Here is today's work; since it's Sunday we try to get some rest and not work so hard. We have been just going to the house after church and letting the kids play while we get some things done. Today we got the counter under-layment and the tile backer installed. I also wired the kitchen island outlets and finished the kitchen circuits. The ovens are on, the lights all work (except for one that I wired wrong--the 'hot' wire that feeds it is connected to another switch so it's doubly switched). Catch that one later.

The seating at the end of the island is visible now; there's room for four to have breakfast or ice cream (or smoothies if feeling healthy). Linnea will work on the tile tomorrow and the oldest son and I will install the last kitchen cabinet tomorrow night.



The island and the pantry in the distance.



Here's the island from the pantry.



And the sink cabinets under the window.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Really quick pic

Here are some really quick pics to show what the kitchen looked like tonight. The ovens are on, the cabinets are in and the island has it's maple countertop. If anyone feels like dancing on the island, that's because we used maple flooring to make the butchertop. It needs the end walls finished and the edge treatment, but it works great.





Tuesday, July 24, 2007

The cabinets are coming!

Linnea took a run to the Cabinet Warehouse in Richmond, Indiana today to get our cabinets. This is a store that buys the odd lots, mistakes and returns from cabinet makers at really dirt cheap prices and then sells them to house renovators and real estate investors. They never have the same product two weeks in a row and you never will know what you will find, but we got about $8,000 worth of cabinets for $3,300. Some are slightly scratched, one already had holes for drains and water lines, but we got a great Kraftmaid cabinet with Blum 120lb self-closing drawers, with a great pull-out shelf for pans and pots for something like $120. Here are some pictures to show you what I got to see when they picked me up from work today.


Next is a photo of the first cabinet mounted on the wall. Microwave moves tomorrow to the house.



Here's a non-cabinet picture of the shower in the master bath--coming along nicely.


And finally, a great picture of the tiled kitchen hood over the gas range. The range isn't in place yet, but really soon. Maybe this weekend?

Thursday, July 19, 2007

The floor is started (cue triumphal music)

Here's a quick photo to show what the floor looks like in the kitchen. We have only one coat of linseed oil on it and some shellac for under the cabinets. The kitchen appliances are all upstairs now and waiting for cabinets to contain them.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Flooring underfoot

Linnea started the flooring Sunday night in the kitchen. We are installing it under the cabinets, so we are installing it across the area the cabinets will be in. We should take a trip to Indiana and the Cabinet Warehouse just across the border next week. Here are some pictures to show off the outdoor lights and the start of the flooring.




Linnea is working diagonally from the South-West corner.



The stack of 3/4" thick pine flooring. Aged about nine months since we got it. Looks good on the floor, even unfinished.



The tile for the whirlpool tub.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Watch this space, Part II

Here's the skylight finished with framing and drywall. We will try to get a good picture of it once it's finished with tape and mud and paint.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Here's a series of photos to show what we have been doing this long weekend. We rented a boom lift from Art's Rentals to let us skip the wobbly nightmare of scaffolding over the settling fill dirt. It's been a toss up, whether to finish the siding before or after the fill was done. Neither one has been really a decent base for the scaffolding. It's costing us a small fortune for the boom lift, but it's really handy and is allowing us to get it done in just a few days. I freaked out at about the 25' height, so Linnea has been working in the bucket and I have been cutting siding and getting it upstairs with the kid's help. Here are some pictures to show how it's gone.


Here's Linnea finishing up the dormer in our bedroom.



This is the dormer for the boy's room.



And working on the back of the house. Due to a shortage in the Hardiplank, we are going to 'celebrate' the area above the windows with shingles. It should look great tomorrow.



How it looked around 9PM tonight as we got ready to leave.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Photo progression

Here's where we are today. It's the American Fourth of July, our Independence Day, tomorrow so we are going to celebrate with a classic American cookout on the barbecue and then see a movie. Hope to get in to see the Transformers movie with Linnea and the kids--Linnea loved Transformers when she was a wee little girl.

This picture shows the dormers on the North finished--now we are finishing the Southerly ones.

Sunday, July 01, 2007

A week's work, not too much visual

After a week of week, including lots of backfill and siding, it seems like nothing happened in some ways. It's a constant balance between discouragement and perseverance--trying to remember that I am not in charge of the weather, the bank or even myself. God is the man, I am just following him in this seemingly never ending work of building a house.

Anyway, we worked on completing the siding this week--the three North dormers are done and we are started on the middle South dormer. Linnea is going to cut all the shingles for the remaining dormers and we will balance precariously on the tower of scaffolding to install them. The exciting part is leaning the ladder onto the roof from the scaffold and climbing across with a pneumatic nailer and shingles in hand--what could go wrong?



The finished North dormers



Here is the tower of imminent death or injury. Don't look down. Of course, my good friend Bob the Mason swings like a monkey on more wobbly scaffolding, but he's a professional and I am just an amateur faller.

My youngest son has been affected by building in small, insidious ways. Can you spot the psyche damage in this photo? 500 bonus points to the first correct answer.