Painted Ends

The finish wood for the windows arrived.

What a Christmas-y look.  No that's not snow.  I wonder what those colors mean?

The first occupant has moved in.  Not much luck on the fly hunting so far.

Tom is making really good progress on the trim.  Here's what the living room windows look like so far.

The tiling is moving ahead.  Here's the shower wall in the downstairs master bathroom.  They're doing a great job of working with the tile variation.  If you're trying to figure out what color the grout is, so are we (it's not in yet).  We think it'll be white with this tile.

The guest bath is a little more straightforward, and is looking really good.

All the bathroom vanities are in.  This is the upstairs master bath (like I said last entry, it's not nearly as big as it looks here, it's just a really wide angle lens).  The floor tiles are also all in, but you can't see them, because they're under that protective cover.

Meanwhile, there's a pile of decking laying outside, so we may have a deck soon.  The hardwood floor folks will be showing up on Thursday.  They'll lay the floor, and then let it acclimate for around 30 days before sanding and finishing it.  And, tiling will continue for a while yet.  As always, stay tuned...

Snowed Under

Snow on the beach!  How often does that happen?

It gave us an excuse to go for a walk and see how the house was progressing from that angle.

And from another angle.  This could go on and on.  The snow was so cool, though.

Meanwhile, on the inside, the drywall is finished and the house is starting to look real.  Here's the living room.

The upstairs bedroom.

And the attic.  Not bad for an attic, eh?

The tile guys are getting started.  Here's the downstairs bathroom.

And the upstairs bathroom.  It's not really that big, that's just the wonder of wide angle photography.  Notice the shape of the round pail.

A lot is happening now.  The tile squad is moving ahead, the cabinet guy is going to put in the bathroom vanities, and the floor folks will soon start laying the hardwood.  What a crowd!  Stay tuned...

Caution

The cement is all in!  It's not dry yet, but it's too late to leave hand prints.

Here's the rest of the concrete.  The raised part on the right side of the sidewalk will be a planter.  The fence posts are all in, too.  They're all tall because we're still figuring out how high the fence will be in various places, which is complicated, because the lot has a bit of slope in various directions.

Meanwhile indoors, the drywallers are nearly finished.  Probably a day to go.

Here's the kitchen, though you still have to use a lot of imagination.

The powder room...

...and the upstairs bedroom, with a sunset on its way.

The real stairs are getting closer.  These brackets will hold the steps up we hope.  That yellow wire is for one of the step lights.

Next up is the tiling, which should start this coming week.

Padded Room

In fact, the whole house has been padded.

  

 The insulation folks stopped by...

 

They did all the interior walls, too, for noise reduction.  Same for the space between the first and second floors.  Everything looks different now that you can't see through the walls.  Now that the insulation is finished, the window trim is being installed, so the dry wall folks should be able to start this coming week.

Meanwhile, the correct garage door showed up to take the place of its temporary stand-in.  Stay tuned, more stuff should happen this coming week...

The Doors

Yup, the doors showed up.  Here's the front door.

And here's the bathroom door, installed even, which will be really cool once the walls are.

The exterior wood ceilings are being installed.  The cedar is pretty cool.  Here's the front...

And here's the underside of the balcony.

Here's what the ocean side of the house looks like these days.  It's starting to look more like the renderings...

First Coat

The house is entirely covered with its first coat of paint.

For anyone who thinks the color is maybe a little too far on the pumpkin end of the spectrum, we think so too.  Luckily, that's only the first coat, and it needs two, so there's room for change.  Here are a couple of options, but we're thinking maybe somewhere between these.

Meanwhile, a lot has been going on inside.  The electrical work is mostly finished, and the insulation folks coated the inside with a layer of foam.  The house will be really tightly sealed.  It's interesting how much quieter it is with that layer in.

The Key to Happiness

Well, not exactly, but the key to the house anyhow.  All the doors are in!

Including the garage door.  But only semi-including the front door, it's temporary until the real one shows up.  So we (and all the random sight-seerers) can't just wander in through whatever opening is available anymore, we have to use the key.

And we have a roof!  (as of 10/9)  So, besides being ready for the next storm, the internal finish work can begin.

Meanwhile, painting is underway.  Here's what the front of the house looks like today.

After the Storm

Wow, that was an unexpected storm for this time of year (winds hit 75-80 mph).   Once it ratcheted down from monsoonal to normal (mid-week), the siding resumed progress.  Unfortunately, the folks manufacturing the roof had a snafu, causing it to be delayed by three weeks, so it's now scheduled to be installed sometime this coming week weather permitting.  That's delayed other work that needs to wait until the house can be kept dry.  In any case, now that the weather is better (way better, it was a really beautiful weekend), I could take pictures without risking bodily harm.  So, here's how the house looks now:

Here are the windows I mentioned last week.  Also, the balcony has been waterproofed.  It now has a fiberglass coating, done by a guy who used to make surfboards but has transitioned to balconies (and does a really nice job).  But that's not what Mary is thinking about...



Here's what Mary's thinking about.

Windows!

While we waited for windows,

we had a great trip to Wisconsin to visit family.

When we returned home,

 the windows had arrived!  And, the siding was being installed!

Unfortunately, a very unusual storm rolled in this weekend (like record-breaking unusual) so it was really hard to take pictures (I got soaked taking this one), but here's the obligatory picture from the front as of today.  But that's not all that's been going on.

We have water.

 We have  gas.  Er, the house has gas.  Installed.

And now that the windows are in, we have electricity!   Well, wiring anyhow.

So, it's making good progress.  Next up is the roof.  Stay tuned...

Please Stand By

The plan was to temporarily cover the window openings with plastic, so the electrical work, dry walling, and so on could continue while we waited for the windows to arrive.  Unfortunately it gets really windy on the coast, and particularly lately, so that plan turned out to be too risky.  So, we're waiting 4-5 weeks until the windows show up. The delay has an upside, since it'll allow us to catch up on all the detailed choosing we're supposed to have finished by now (we're slow).

But not everything is on hold.  Check out this upwardly mobile Wisconsin rhubarb in our front yard that we thought was deceased after the lot was excavated.

Not Quite a Full Deck

The framers mostly finished on Thursday.  A lot of the work has been inside, only a little has changed on the front.

More changed on the back, where they finished framing the deck and balcony.  Now all we need is the actual decking.

The furnace guy has been busy, which is exciting but maybe not as photogenic.  Wow, that looks complicated!