Kitchen and Hardwood Floors

This will be a series of pictures without much commentary. The progress now is rapid. The kitchen is mostly in except for some trim (all maple cabinets), the hardwood floors are complete and look great (they're hickory), and the bathroom vanity is in.

The kitchen sink is a bit different (round bowls). Next week, we'll see the return of Mike the electrician, plus I have to deliver some more tile for the master shower and some mirrors and medicine cabinets for the bathrooms. So, here we go!

This mosaic tile (below) is about 3 feet across and it's inset into the tile in the front hallway. I'll get a better shot of it after the cardboard is taken up.

Hardwood and Tile

Tuesday October 16 saw me make an unplanned trip up to the house - it seems I ordered insufficient tile for the main hallway and powder room areas- I guess maybe they were bigger than I understood from the plans. Anyway, I got lucky and the store I bought the tile from still had a supply of the same tile and all I needed was one more box. So, off I went and thoroughly enjoyed the drive up in the blue sky and beautiful fall colours.

















When I got up there, everyone was in full hardwood installation mode.



















Dave Reedy, the tile installer, was also on site and has the ensuite shower almost ready for tile. The blue stuff (below) is applied as a liquid and hardens into a pliable rubbery substrate that is supposed be totally leak-proof.

Above, Dave R. is seen on the porch cutting a piece of tile on his wet saw.























Dave Gullens has most if not all the window trim done. This is the guest bedroom upstairs.

















.......and this is the upstairs office/den.

And this shot is a nicely sunlit in-later-afternoon shot from below the house.

Paint Is Done!!

OK, I THOUGHT the blue in the living room-kitchen was too bright, but now that Dave has the white trim up, it looks amazing. I am very happy with the result. The pale blue ceiling looks white. Here are a couple shots of the living room-kitchen -
















The tile is partially down in the front hallway, and it too looks great with the taupe walls......




The master bedroom will also be outstanding. It's painted in Pumpkin, with a light tan ceiling, and the same tan colour in the walk-in closet.





The tile is also partially down in the ensuite bathroom, and the floor of the shower is also ready for tile......

















OK, now for something a little different - the upstairs bathroom (left) is painted in 2 colours - pale yellow and pale green, on opposite walls. Then, the 2 upstairs bedrooms (actually the guest bedroom and the office/den) are painted one of those 2 colours - the bedroom is yellow, and the office room is green. Here we go -







Here's the guest bedroom upstairs - (to the right)..............with the doorway leading out to the second-floor deck/porch.









And here (on the left) is the computer room/office. The trim isn't on here yet, but that'll be done Monday. You can also see the doorway leading out to the second-floor outside deck, that can be accessed from either the guest bedroom or from the office.









Here's what the house looks like now, looking up from the pathway leading down to the river. You can just see the garage on the left edge of the house.

And here is a trio of brief videos - all taken today. This first one is a pan around the master bedroom (on the main floor). That's the ensuite bathroom through that doorway.

And this one is a pan of the guest bedroom on the second floor - - - -




That's it for now - more to come soon!

Painting Begins

October 10th (the week of Thanksgiving) saw the beginning of painting, and Dave says he intends to have it all done (the painting that is) by the end of this week. The oil tank goes in this weekend, and today (I took this as a vacation week) I rented a 5-ton truck to pick up and deliver the kitchen cabinets, vanities for 2 bathrooms, glue for the engineered hardwood floors on the main level, some supplies for the tile guy, and a closet organizer that I had made up for the walk-in closet in the master bedroom.



This is the master bathroom with the painting done, in the bathroom part, and the glass block installed in the wall between the shower and the bathroom itself. The colour is a very pale blue.









The steps the the front porch and to the deck by the kitchen were added within the past few days. They look good!









Here's a shot of the living room. The blue paint colour is admittedly a bit brighter than I had originally intended. But I'll stick it out for now and wait till the white trim goes on (Dave is in the middle of doing that now too). Although it's brighter than I meant it to be, I think I'll leave it this colour at least for now.

Gerald was working upstairs, while Steve, Jeremy and Dave were working on the main floor.

Here's Steve, painting the "taupe" in the front hallway. Do you have any idea how many colours lay claim to the name "taupe"? I think there are 47 shades of taupe. This one is the right one!








This is out on the screen porch. Because this part of the ceiling is not weather-tight (the floor of the open upstairs deck is immediately overhead), Dave had to install the perforated aluminum soffit material here. The rest of the ceiling will be pine.





That is it for today, folks! More to some soon! The worksite was a veritable hive of activity when I was there today, and the crew were a big help getting the kitchen cabinets unloaded off the truck. Thanks, guys! I have no idea ho that many cabinets are going to fit in the kitchen, but the plans says they fit!

Drywall = the Downhill Slope !

And we have drywall! The week of September 10-14 2007 saw much interior progress, with drywall going up throughout most of the house. Almost the whole first floor was completed (except the master shower area, which will need cement board or some such product). And on the second floor, about half of it was done. So, the week of the 17th should see the drywalling completed. Also, Aaron Langille has been hired to do the "crack-filling" on the job. Here are a few photos taken this weekend........this first one is looking into the master bedroom toward the door leading to the deck...





This shot is looking into the kitchen from the front entryway. You can see the flat wall overhead at the top of the photo...it leads up to the top of the sloping ceiling. Also of note - the floors are all cement now, poured on Tuesday last week over the radiant floor heat system of PEX tubing.









This is the manifold that is in the ceiling of the master shower, to feed the 4-headed "shower tile" that I bought for in there.

This video was taken while standing in the master bedroom, panning from looking out the window to the deck, past the doorway to the living room, past the walk-in closet, and ending looking in toward the master bathroom and shower.

Ready for a Floor

We are now well into September, and the outside of the house almost looks like a finished house. The siding is virtually complete, and the railing has been started around the decks. Also, Eric the plumber has been in and prepped the floors for the cement to be poured, which is supposed to happen on September 11th. Here's a few recent shots.







This shot is of the radiant PEX tubing installed in the master bathroom. The farthest away area is the shower.














The basement walls that are above ground level had to be insulated to meet local building code requirements.
















Here's a shot of the deck with some of the new railing, taken from the future doorway to the screen porch.











This shot is taken from the area where the septic field was installed. The river is beyond the house and the tall line of trees.








Jeremy and Steve are finishing up some of the trim work outside the master bedroom.












Another shot of the new railing along the deck, from up close.......













And from back a bit - this is how it looks when you come in the driveway.

Much Progress - Screen Porch, Electrical, Plumbing

The last week of August was a productive one for D. Gullens Carpentry! The screen porch has been framed up and most of the siding has been installed. Also, the architectural framing that goes over the deck on the kitchen side of the house has been nailed in place. One more major step toward completion!






I also have a few interior shots showing some of the recent wiring work in place, and also some of the rough plumbing. This picture is in the basement, in the corner where most of the mechanical equipment will be located. The electrician has terminated his wiring here, where the breaker panel will be, as have the structured wiring people (stereo, home theatre, satellite, etc.). The white box hanging down with the silver tubing is an air exchanger unit, which is required in Nova Scotia.





This picture is in the main wall in the living room, with the home theatre wiring and satellite wiring all in place. And the close-up shows this is a busy wall space!






















This is one of the 4 pot lights going into the living room ceiling.............






















And this is looking toward the new screen porch, looking toward the river from the deck in front of the living room windows.





This red stuff is called PEX tubing. It is what will carry the liquid for the the radiant floor heat, when it gets embedded in the cement floor that will be poured on the main floor of the house, in a week or so.







On the second floor of the house, the tub is in place, and the red and blue tubing is what they use nowadays instead of copper pipe. This red and blue tubing is all going to connect in the basement to a big manifold to distribute the water everywhere. The single red PEX tube coming out of the floor beside the tub is one of 2 tubes for the baseboard heater, run off the same system as the radiant floor heat on the main floor of the house. Instead of having radiant floor heat on the second floor, I opted to go this route (less $$$).

And finally, this is a shot looking at the ceiling of the new screen porch. I've asked Dave to see if he can make the ceiling not totally flat, - like maybe do a vaulted veiling of some type. We'll see what he comes up with.