What to say....

In the 2+ weeks since my last post a lot has changed.  I finished my last day at Belmont, cleaned out my room, drove to Auburn and dropped off my boxes in my dad's... no, "my" room.  Weird.  Since then it's been 16 hour days every day.  The past week, Sue took the kids to York, ME while Amy and I stayed behind and worked together every day.  Here's the latest pictures:

The start of the hickory flooring in the living room.  Massive frustration that the boards weren't milled as precisely as the bamboo I was used to.  Once I got over that, the net effect is really neat.

Thanks to dad and Amy we finished wrapping the beam between the kitchen and dining room.

Finally got around to laying the tile for the wood stove hearth.  With some minor adjustments to grout widths, the 6x4 tile grid fit perfectly in the space I left in the bamboo flooring.

While I was in tiling mode I did the basement/garage landing as well.

John came down for a day to help (and play golf).  Just as we were getting going, the appliances showed up, so we spent a few hours unpacking and moving the fridge, stove, oven, and dishwasher.  But after that, we go 2 of the 3 sides of the family room boxed beam done.

Amy contemplating the layout.  Notice the undercounter oven sitting on the floor in the foreground and not in its place next to the sink... more on that later.

Anni and I took a trip to Lexington to buy some cabinets from Craigslist.   We got 3 base cabinets (probably will be used in the laundry room for an ironing station) and a bunch of cherry shelving and crown mouldings. When we dropped them off she wanted to learn how to use the central vac.  Looks like Amy has a new partner in housecleaning.

The specs we gave Dean for the opening for the oven weren't for the oven we ended up buying.  Luckily then width was the same.  Unfortunately, the opening needed to be made taller.  So I had to cut out the floor of the cabinet, drop it 3/4", rip down the base trim to get it to line up with the other sides, cut out 1/2" of the top trim, rebuild a support system for the floor, and reinstall it.  Yuck.

The range installed a little easier.  The only issue was that I installed the power outlet in the only orientation that wouldn't allow it to be plugged in.  I had to wrestle with the wiring for a while to reorient the receptacle.

The oven and dishwasher installed.  Still trying to figure out what to do about the dishwasher since there's no side panel on the edge of the sink, so there's nothing to screw to to anchor it. 

The hickory flooring in the living room complete.  Had to scribe and notch every course along the front and sides of the stone hearth.  Now I know why people usually use square bricks.

The scribed piece of baseboard where it met the fireplace.

The wood stove hearth grouted and done.

Our mail forwarding request expired, so we put up a temporary mailbox.

And Ella got our first mail at the new house!

The basement was getting very damp, so I took the time to build a hanging shelf for the dehumidifier that lets it drain continuously into the sewer.  Very convenient to not have to empty the bucket any more.

With the kids out of town....  finished the boxed beam in the family room.

Started the archway (enough to be able to lay the family room flooring).

Stapling down the underlayment in preparation for the floor.

The archway in progress.

About half way done with the floor.  The buckets of flooring adhesive didn't cover as much as advertised, so Amy had to make two trips to Lumber Liquidators during the day to keep things rolling. 

We laid the entire floor in one day.  So no need to deal with dried hardened adhesive on day 2.

Measure twice.

Cut once. 

The floor complete, as viewed from the loft.  We were so exhausted that the following day we cleaned up then took a trip to IKEA for mudroom cabinets.  7 hours later, we barely had time to pick up the cabinets as the store closed on us.  That place is ridiculous.

While I worked on trim, Amy installed every outlet and switch cover in the house. 

Building the IKEA cabinets. 

Amy also took on the coveted task of scraping the plaster from the floors upstairs to prep for laying the wide pine.

She took some time out to catch some rays.  Not quite York Beach, but it'll do.

Installing the last piece of trim in the archway.

93 individual pieces of wood, almost every one mitered and glued, the archway is complete!  After dinner at Grandma Buzzy's last night we did a final clean-up downstairs and move the woodworking operation upstairs in preparation for the window trip up there.  That's my goal for today...

Doors, Sinks, Vanities, and Teeth

More craziness as the school year winds down and pressure to get this house done by my self-imposed deadline of "mid-summer" (the term chosen carefully to leave enough wiggle room in case I miss the mark...).  I had a couple well timed visitors last weekend from Marc and Jeff and Tim.  I'm guessing they didn't come by to do a lot of heavy lifting, but they paid the dumpster usage "fee" gladly.

This weekend I got a lot of door trimming and baseboard done.  I also started laying the hickory flooring in the living room.  Amy and I hung all the doors in the play room (six) with the exception of the one that was ordered 2 inches too wide so it doesn't fit in the rough opening (Bruce's fault, not mine).

I also added a coffee maker to the appliances (dorm fridge and microwave) that are functioning in the house.  I pretty much have everything I need to move in today.

All the cabinets that can go in before the countertops are in.  The island is anchored down.  It only took 2 hours of Amy, dad, and I picking it up and putting it down over and over until we finally got it right.  The pantry door is hung and trimmed.

The front hall doors hung.  They look great, but there have been issues.  A few showed up damaged.  A few were just plain wrong (too big for the opening, missing the chalkboard panel, etc.).  Meeting with the lumber guy and the door rep this week to discuss.

The cabinet knob hardware.  The screws are just a tad short, so doing them all will require some work.

The drawer hardware.

Built the glass block transoms for the two bathrooms.  Lots of hemming and hawing on the best way to frame them.  Finally settled on the prefab channel system then trimmed out with wood from there.

Spent almost a whole day with Marc setting the apron sink.  163 awkward pounds of fire clay started to get pretty heavy by the 20th time we lifted it and reset it.  The mess on the floor is the result of lots of planing and sanding followed by an ill-conceived attempt to test the slope to the drain by two physics teachers who should have understood the adhesive properties of water a little better.

Julian, the glass guy, came and installed the frameless shower walls last weekend.  The master bath is currently winning as the most finished room in the house.

More indecision on the master bath vanity top.  Finally settled on Green Butterfly (the middle one).  Ordered the granite for that and the kitchen last week.  Had to postpone the templating until the appliances are in place to be sore the fit around the stove is good.  So we ordered all the appliances last week as well.

Jeff and Tim were nice enough to help move the two bathroom vanities upstairs.  The is the smaller one in the girls' room.  I cut the holes in the back for the plumbing the next day.  We messed up the rough in and placed one set of water pipes in the drawer section instead of the cabinet section.  Luckily, the height of the water pipe fits exactly between two drawers so it'll still work out.  Phew!

The one for the master bath is 7 feet long.  More than a little tricky to get up the stairs and over the pile of pine flooring into the bathroom.

And in the midst of it all, my little girl is growing up.  Ella lost her first tooth on Thursday night (with some assistance from Auntie's helping hand).

New house, new...

...job!  I've done the "new house, new baby" thing twice already.  I figured I'd change things up a bit this time.  I am now officially my dad.  Auburn Middle School 8th grade science teacher.

On the house front - this week has been very busy and exhausting laying flooring.  Amy came over with the kids on Thursday and loaded all the trash from the garage into the dumpster.  Thursday and Friday nights Amy and I worked until nearly midnight to get the dining/kitchen/front hall/foyer floors done.   Restarting the flooring after stopping for a day was wicked hard since the glue that sets in at the tongue of the last finished row can prevent the first new row of the day form going in.  Amy and I wrestled with the first row on Thursday for over an hour trying to scrape hardened glue out from under the tongues after the new glue was already spread.  Very messy.

With the floors done my dad and I started installing cabinets today.  Met with Jeff again about grading the back yard.  He guaranteed it would be done this weekend... but then again, that guarantee has been in place every weekend since October and nothing has been done yet.  We'll see.

The view down the hall towards the front door.

The front foyer and front closet.  When we got to the closet with the flooring we discovered that the closet is 2 inches out of square!  The right side of the closet is a full 2" deeper than the left.  Drunk framers...

Looking into the dining room bay.  The tape is used to hold the joints tight while the glue sets. 

Two top cabinets up.  Dad is chipping away at the plaster to get the wire for the under-cabinet lighting to come out just below the cabinet.  The top cabinets took a long time since we also had to cut out hole in the back of each to allow for an outlet for the over cabinet lighting.

All that could be done today.  Having stuff in the room will take some getting used to.

The pantry corner.  Top cabinet on the left will hold microwave and cookbooks in open shelves.  Fridge will go to the left of those.  Stove goes in the gap between the two cabinets.  Deep drawers will hold pots and pans.  Range hood will go between the uppers.

Apron sink goes on the low section.  Dish washer to the left in the opening.  2nd oven goes in the open cabinet to the right of the sink.  Once the counter top is on there will be a tower on the far right and left with glass front cabinets up top.

Happy Anniversary

On May 18, 2010 the first trees were cleared from our lot and this whole process began in earnest.
Here's an update on where things stand one year later:

One year ago, yesterday.

A slow week for me while the finish carpenters set up shop in the kitchen, play room, and garage to install stairs and balcony railings.  But now that they're out of there I'm getting going on the kitchen/dining/front hall floors.

With the stairs done we could start installing real flooring Friday after work.  Started in the play room.  The laundry room was the first room done thanks to a late Saturday night with Amy.

Continued into the rest of the room on Sunday.  I did the little closets in the morning and dad came over for the afternoon to do the big area.

This helps explain why my back hurt all week...

The new toy: pneumatic flooring nailer.  After struggling to make it work (not split or buckle the wood) and still messing up a lot of spots, I did some research and discovered strand woven bamboo is best glued down since it is so hard and nearly impossible to nail.  The rest of the house will be glued.

After a hard day's work.  But we got the whole thing done in a weekend!

Carpenters were delayed because one of the newell posts was damaged on delivery.  We got the new one with the door delivery and the balcony railing is now done!  No more fear of letting the kids go upstairs.

The top of the stair case as seen from the play room.

The top of the stair case as seen from the landing outside the bedrooms.

Tile guy was also there to do the shower and bathtub tiling.   A little more wood trim work to do around the tub and then it's done.  You can't see it from here, but the shower floor is tumbled stones to match the band up on the shower wall.  Meeting with the glass wall guy this weekend.