Trim & Paint

The outside is painted and the stone finished!  The inside is trimmed and primed.  We are way behind on pictures and a lot has been done since I took these but I wanted to get them up and I will get some more up next week.

The cabinets go in Monday.  The floors have been sand, stained and one coat of sealer on them.  The landscape architect has given us a plan and we are going with it.  the yard has been rough shaped and hopefully we will start the landscaping in a week or two. The stucco will go on next week as well and the rock on the den fireplace too.

Susan has picked out the light fixtures and of course killed the budget and she picked out the carpet too.  More pictures next week when this stuff has been done.

skip & Susan

 

  

The Dining room looking towards the Foyer

Dining room looking towards the front of the house

Transom in the Foyer.  The street no. is 14

Our doors and trim.  We wanted something different and Craftmanie looking

Barrel arches looking from Kitchen to garage door.

The coffer ceiling in the Den

Looking from Kitchen into Den

Looking into the master bath.

The upstairs looking toward Susan's sewing room.

The screened porch.  The whole house was designed around this porch.

Cased Openings Installed

Susan wanted to have some cased openings with leaded transoms, so of course that went on my to-do list.  Since the cased openings had to be special made, and because I once ran a mill-work shop I had to build'em.  Didn't matter that I was in my twenties when I worked there, I figured it was like riding a bike, "once you learned you never forgot".  Well, I hadn't forgotten how to build them, just how much I didn't like building them.  Well, they are built and up and now I need to start the transoms.  I really like the way they look as well.  I decided to use a flat casing with a back band like the old houses in our area used and we are pleased with the look.  Now I need to get started on those transom, right after 15 or 20 other things on my list.

           Looking from the front door to the back     

 from the Foyer in to the Dining room

         

     From Dining room through Butlers Pantry into Kitchen    

 The trim and back band detail   

The rock is finished, and the drywall, and the hardwood!

A lot of work was done in the last few weeks.  Below are the pictures.  The trim will be next and then paint.  Susan has looked at every paint color on earth and still can't find what she wants.  For me it's just the sixteen basic colors was used by the old Windows.  There was no peach, and mauve; and just what the heck color is taupe?  Off white or bone is fancy enough for me.
 

 Setting the stone on the front porch wall.

 The wall grouted and finished.

The finished job!

The drywall is finished and now you can see the ceiling features.

The barrel vault looking into the kitchen from the garage entry.

The tray ceiling in the dining room.

The coffer ceiling in the great room.

The hardwood is finished too!

The hardwood in the Foyer.  We put a walnut accent border.

The great room.

Looking out the front windows in the dining room.

Garage floors and Drywall

The biggest pain about building a new house is getting the one you have lived in for 25 years ready to sale. The “to do list” is 22 years old. A long list. We have finally whittled it down to only a year or two left with only a few biggies to go. One of those biggies was the garage floor.

The floor has a crack in it that needed to be repaired, and that meant painting it after the repair. That also meant cleaning out a garage that only had things put into it for 25 years, not taken out. It was a two car garage that had long ago become a one car garage, and even that bay was full of stuff now. So Saturday morning I started pulling things out. After a few hours we had a stack of stuff wrapped in tarps as well as stuff just sitting on their own to face the weather as best they could. So with garage floor empted we swept it out. We then vacuumed it out and then I took the leaf blower and blew it out. Now it was ready to be cleaned.

Backing up a few days before the clean up I went to the big box store with my $250.00 worth of gift cards I had accumulated and purchased all the stuff I needed to paint a garage floor: 1 gallon of floor cleaner and etcher, 2 gallons of Slate Gray epoxy concrete floor paint, roller frame, 3 roller covers, roller pan, 3 roller pan liners, one bag of floor sprinkles and a squeegee. That took $146.00 of my $250. Not too bad since I bought two gallons of paint thinking I would probably only need 1.

After the sweep-vac-blow out came the acid base etcher and cleaner. Pouring this stuff on the floor was actually scary looking as it immediately began to sizzle and foam. After vigorously scrubbing and rinsing the floor we then squeegeed the water out. Now its lunch time and I decided to read the paint instructions while eating. “It is highly recommended that masonry and concrete bonding primer be used before applying this product”. Damn! Back to the big box store for bonding primer. Of cause it takes two gallons. My $250 is now down to $60.

The primer went down OK and it only took 1 gallon. Of course it has to dry 24 hours so the paint can’t go on until the next day.

The Slate gray epoxy paint rolls on pretty easy but I’m worried about the sprinkles. The bag says it will cover 250 sqft and we have over 400 sqft to cover. I start out really light on the sprinkles. As I roll and sprinkle it becomes obvious that the sprinkles will cover a whole lot more than 250 feet at the rate I was applying them so I start spreading them heavier. Things are going pretty well as I work myself to the door to the house. The sprinkles definitely have a density progression as I get closer to the finish, but hey, I’m OK with it. Susan is a little tense about it though, but that’s to be expected. And for sure there are more than one “I told you so” thrown my way, but all in all its looking good. With about 6 sqft to go the first can of Slate Gray epoxy paint runs dry. I hate that but I suck it up and pop the top on the second can of Silver Gray epoxy paint. Of course I have no clue its Silver Gray epoxy paint because I did not look that close at the can. They both look identical except the name, and I did not even notice the color until I poured it into the roller pan and it started to mix with the Slate Gray left in the bottom. Damn; double damn! So at 8:30 at night I head back to the big box store for Slate Gray epoxy masonry and concrete floor paint.

It is one thing not to have a gallon to return, yet another to have to buy an extra one to replace the one you don’t need. Now my $250 dollar gift card is down to 30 bucks. Well, at least I still have half the sprinkles and most of a can each of Silver Gray and Slate Gray epoxy masonry and concrete floor paint if I every want to do another garage floor. Multi-color obviously.

Oh yeah.  The drywall hanging has started and the screened porch has been framed in.  They are all going well and looking good.

The coffer ceiling in the great room.

Tray ceiling in the dining room.

Looking through the barrell vault ceiling towards the front of the house.

Looking from the garage entry into the kitchen.

Screened porch looking to the back yard.

The exterior trim is done!

Now comes the hardest part of all……..paint selection. As you can tell, we definitely are not painters. We even got paint on the floor in our garage that we haven’t even moved into yet. OK, that translates in to, “I got paint on the floor of garage that we haven’t even moved into yet”. But it’s not my fault. I would never have let someone as messy as me open paint in our garage that we haven’t even moved into yet if I had been in control. So it’s Susan’s fault. But why should we obsess on this little matter when there are much bigger problems, like color? That, and the obvious; we are really lousy painters. It’s a wonder we only got paint on the floor in our garage that we haven’t even moved into yet and not on everything else. We are probably the only people that need to hire a painter to put sample swatches on the siding. After that maybe we can decide what color to use and not who spilled the paint.

Ready for rock

Garage trellis

The back of the house

The wiring continues

The real story is selections

Progress continues.  The siding is almost complete.  The electrician and plumber will be through next week and then we insulate.  My thoughts are we will start drywall in two weeks.  We hope to start the stone work in about a week as well.  That’s the mechanics of the build.  The real story is selections.


The questions and choices never end.  The electrician is driving me crazy with questions about light locations; where do you want a spot light, is this going to be a can light, how many fans do you want.  The plumber has questions about pot filler heights, where do the hose bibs go, locate the hand held shower head.  HVAC guy wants air return locations, gas drops, vent placements.  It never freaking ends.  The bad thing is, if you choose wrong, cha-ching! That will cost you more. Then it’s “No, no, wait, wait, ……… I meant put it over there.”  But it’s too late and the budget just went up another $175.00.  And that’s the other thing.  Susan and I are real good at avoiding the $1000.00 budget busters.  It’s the $100-$200 dollar ones that gets us.  You know, “Oh get it; It’s only a $135.00”.  The next thing we know we are $50000.00 over $150 bucks at a time.  I’ve been patted down more times than Al Gore during one of his hotel massages.  The fun just never ends.

Rock will veneer the block porch wall.

The siding is moving right along.

Exterior Trim Begins

The framing is finished and the trade’s people have started. The plumber is working now. The HVAC guys are finished. The electrician comes at the end of the week. While they are inside stuff is happening on the outside. The windows are in. The roof is on. The garage and porch have been poured. The exterior trim and siding has started. I’m just happy that the mustard colored house wrap is finally getting covered.

Pouring the front porch and garage.

Felepe starting the siding.

Front windows trimmed

The front fireplace.  You are looking out of the dining room.