A New House - Episode 27 - Finished Floors, Walls and Fireplace ... and Pizza

It's really starting to feel like we're getting close..really. These past couple of months, aside from some pesky vacations, has felt pretty rewarding to see things get "done" on the main floor.

The fireplace is framed out and covered with hardibacker board, then Deb does her magic with River rock Cultured stone - attached to the hardibacker with thinset.

The house is a sea of rocks so she can see all the sizes we have and can pick the best one for each spot.

A lot of ladder work to get rock up and set into place. We tag-teams the grout work - I smooshed it into the cracks with a grout bag and she smoothes it out and cleaned up.

grouting. Plus in this shot you can see the beams I've added, 

all done and grouted

In this photo you can see that the wall log chinking is completed too!

Hanging a door in the foyer

Installing the floor. This is 1x4 and 1x6 T&G circle-sawn douglas fir. 

We used a starter coat of 12 parts Daly's Floorfin with 1 part stain, then added three more coats of just Floorfin over several days. floorfin is a tung oil /resin product that can be sanded, restained and recoated. 

Deb Floorfinning the floor (say that three tine real fast)

finished living room floor. It is a satin sheen. 

Good shot of the completed fireplace, walls and floor. We still have trim to add. 

so while the floor is drying, I needed an outdoor project so I built stairs going up the side of the front deck. 

Aside form the house, one day I decided to get the Primo really hot for making pizza. the effects inside the gazebo were astounding. 

I got the Primo up to close to 600 degrees and while the pizza was good, I still did not get that slightly crispy bottom like we got in Italy. The pizza we do on the grill is still our favorite.

A moose in the corner of the property. 

A New House - Episode 26 - Floors and Walls and Ceilings

People keep asking us if we are ready to move in yet .... um ...no. Our goal is to get enough stuff done to move in by Christmas, however. so we are focusing on the main floor for now.

This is the foyer floor. In this shot, I have installed wiring for the electric floor heating.

This is the "self leveling floor compound" over the electric floor heating. cool stuff. One thing we learned in advance is to seal all floor cracks with caulk, otherwise the self leveling floor compound" will drip on the floor below. 

Deb using the diamond tile saw "tweaking" the quartzsite rock for the floor

She spent an entire day fitting the rocks into place before thin-setting them into place.

grouting with mortar

more grouting

all done and triple sealed

We also installed in-floor heating in Kyle's bathroom, then put down self leveling compound again., 

After finding a good center-line, Deb starts laying the tile in Kyle's bathroom.

Finished tile

Installing the shower door. First I had to buy some 5/16 diamond hole saws to drill through the tile.

door and toilet are done

...and window trim. all we need to is the get the vanity that we ordered from ordered from http://www.foxdendecor.com/

Installing backer board on the fireplace chase .. apparently in a snowstorm. 

Backerboard is done... awaiting some log mantles. Deb is arranging quartszite rock on the hearth. 

Then work start putting up the log walls in the living room. These are 2" thick blue pine with natural edges, that are rough sawn, that we did some light sanding on. So they are relatively smooth, but the circle saw marks are still visible,. 

You can really see the saw marks in this shot.

 we installed them with 3" screws into most of the studs. 

 

Deb installed a foam backer material that sits behind the chinking... so you get a pretty good idea what it will look like when chinked.

This week we received the cabinets. these are maple and cherry cabinets made by Conestoga. But they are unfinished and "ready to assemble. Take a look at http://www.cabinetjoint.com if you are curious. They get great reviews and are way cheaper then most other cabinets.  

we also received the flooring this week. This is 4" and 6" T&G circle saw fir, milled at a local company in Metaline, WA  called http://www.smileylumber.com/

A New House - Episode 25 - Indoors coming along!

We continue to work in the cozy indoors while outside, the warm days have eliminated nearly all of our snow. It's kind of cool how when you get stuff on the walls how things finally start looking like there's an end in sight. We also ordered the flooring and the cabinets .. both to arrive in about a month. 

Deb continues to multitask - splitting her time between skip-troweling, finishing Kyle's bathroom shower, painting walls, and benite/staining pine. Here she is skip troweling the hall area. 

And doing some tile work in Kyle's shower. These are cool wood-look tile planks. 

We bought a 10" diamond tile saw for all of the rock and tile work we are doing. 

Wow more progress!

apparently I am putting up t&g pine in the stairwell area - while it;s snowing indoors! apparently we got some "stuff" on the camera lens. 

Looking back toward the entrance hallway, the kitchen will be on the left. Deb painted the necessary areas of the dining room and kitchen in "apple pie". 

Lately the turkeys seem to want to come into the house. not sure why. 

Yes, ladies and gentlemen ... I do work too ... putting up t&g blued knotty pine on the dining room ceiling.

 Pretty near done with this room. 

The guest bath (aka "micro suite") is finished-ish except for the floor and final plumbing 

We also are nearly done with the foyer entrance. All blued pine. Still need trim and the floor which will be more quartzite rock on a heated floor. 

Editorial comment: I used to use Microsoft's 'Live Writer" because it was an app that I could use to create the blog off line. Now the lame-brained geniuses at Microsoft "improved" it to be ".net" web based and when I tried to 'upgrade' to the new version it just about destroyed my computer. so I eliminated it and went back to Google's Blogger which also sucks but at least works ... unlike the new Live Writer. The End.