Thursday, October 28, 2010

Cabinets

The cabinets for the house are from Northwood Cabinets out of Woodland, Washington. They're being delivered and installed Thursday and Friday, October 28 - 29, 2010.

Our cabinets are made from rustic beech, and are stained a russet color. Most go in the main floor kitchen. There are also cabinets in the 3 1/2 bathrooms, the downstairs kitchenette, and the utility room. Cabinets are an important feature of a new home and a major expense.

Drawing for cabinets around and above cooktop in main floor kitchen.

Drawing for cabinets along east wall of kitchen next to slot for refrigerator.

Drawing for cabinets along south wall of kitchen where pantry will go.

Drawing for downstairs cabinets nailed to frame for kitchenette.

Northwood cabinets being delivered, Thursday, October 28th.

Cabinets being stacked in the kitchen.

Method of identifying where a particular cabinet piece fits according the drawings.
Drawing for main floor kitchen cabinets
Rustic beech, stained russet.
Shane, of Northwood, examining installation of cabinets in kitchen. Note excess space above cabinets.

Kitchen cabinets showing hot wall on right, and the excess space on top, due to cabinet height being 3" less than called for in design. The proposed fix for this is shown in the 4 drawings below.





Utility room cabinets

Mud room nook

Cabinets to left and right of fireplace in great room. They will be painted the trim color, a semi gloss, Dover White.

Travertine to be used as fireplace surround. Original flooring on left has now changed to a lighter oak. Paint swatches for room shown next to tile sample.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Progress on the House Interior

Walls in house have had "orange peel" texture applied. The texture on the ceiling is called "knockdown." The name of the technique comes from one step in the project when a wide knife is used to knock down and flatten peaks of texture to give it the appearance of stucco. Once dry, the walls and celing will be painted. We've selected Sherwin Williams Dover White for the interior wall (egg shell) and trim (semi gloss) paint. The ceilings will be painted with SW Roman Column (flat). We may accent some walls later in the process.

This photo is taken from the great room looking through the arches to the front door.

The photo below is the view from the front entry to the great room.

This photo looks from the stair landing into the den.

The next photo shows the arch for the hall leading to the powder room and beyond it,
the arch leading to the stair landing.

The buffet will be placed on the wall space behind Stephen.

This is looking from the kitchen into the great room.
You can see how much more spacious the rooms look with 9' ceilings.

This photo was taken looking from the entry arch into the kitchen.
The casement style corner kitchen windows have been replaced with full picture windows.

This is the downstairs rec room. There are three additional bedrooms on this level,
plus a kitchenette, and a bathroom.

This will be Stephne's bedroom, which is the east facing of the three lower level bedrooms.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Decorative Trim and Accent Features

Trim and accent features on new home construction are achieved using prefabricated Styrofoam forms, such as window sills, window frames, and belly bands. The photos below show how these Styrofoam pieces are being added to our new home.

The belly band shown above and in the close up below will be extended to the edge of this west wall.

Front door
Left side of garage

Friday, October 15, 2010

Stucco Process, 10-15-2010

The hand-troweled, "scratch coat" is being applied to the exterior today. This is the base coat. There will be a second coat, and then the color coat.




Sunday, October 10, 2010

Installing Drywall

Drywall, aka gypsum board, installation was started on 10/9/2010 and continued on 10/11/2010.

Looking through arch out the front door

Looking from front door through arches into great room

Looking into great room from kitchen

Fireplace will have tile surround, floating wood mantel, and built-in bookshelves on either side

Stairs to left of entry

Downstairs hall leading to bedrooms 4 & 5 on left,
bathroom and furnace room on right

Kitchenette at bottom of stairs

Amy and Chip inspecting the job on Tuesday, the 12th.

Installing insulation, 10/8/2010

Our building contractor is currently having insulation installed in the home. As the photos below show, they are using unfaced, batting insulation on the walls, covered with a polyethlene film for a vapor retarder. Batts are pre-cut to fit in the standard spaces between studs on 8' or 9' walls.

Master Bedroom, showing polyethlene film over batting.

Hall Bedroom, showing insulation under eaves, where blown attic insulation won't reach.

Garage is also insulated.

Insulation is flexible and can be placed behind wiring and pipes.