A New House - Episode 29 - We're Scramblin'

Gosh...moving in is only a few weeks away!  Stuff isn't completely done, of course, but the main floor is very nearly almost done-ish, and the upstairs bedroom is getting nicely "livable". And of course, Kyle's bedroom and bathroom are done as is the guest bath "micro-suite".

It feels like the main focus over the last 2 months has been the kitchen. Good grief there are a lot of details in a kitchen.

The upper cabinets are cherry bead board and some have inset tin panels that we plan to punch ..someday. 

We're really happy that our plan with the bump out sink and base turned out pretty nice we think. Once again, Deb's handiwork with the back splash including tiles from Italy. 

We made these cabinets sitting on each sink of the sink, as well as the narrow ones on each side of the range hood. The shelves are zinc covered and the doors will be punched someday. Deb distressed/painted the cabinets. The doors for the appliance garage areas, hinge out then slide back,  and hide the coffee maker, Cuisinart, and blender.

Deb did an amazing job with the pebble stone back splash above the counter tops and behind the stove. that maple leaf platter is something we bought in Italy.

Deb has spent many an evening "moving in". Sorting through the furniture and boxes in the garage loft and bringing in items we plan to use, and sorting stuff we plan to save or sell. We have also been moving items from the cabin, such as the couch, dressers and cabinets. We still have an amish morris chair awaiting arrival. 

 The upstairs bedroom is fully sheetrocked (although only 1/2 will be sheetrock and the other 1/2 pine T&G). Deb has been painstakingly mudding, skip-trowling, and painting prior to move in. 

So when we move in, we'll have a toilet and a bed.... and a small sink...that's all we need. 

A toilet and a bed, a small sink ... and a bathtub. 

A toilet and a bed, a small sink, a bathtub ...,and closets, but that's it.

A toilet and a bed, a small sink, a bathtub, closets, ... and dressers, but that's it. that's all we need.

A toilet and a bed, a small sink, a bathtub, closets, dressers... and a lamp... but that's it. that's all we need. and a TV. 

Today I installed the phone*, DSL, network jacks and tested everything. 

*For phone we actually recently cut the Centurylink cord and switched our landline over to a Verizon 4G LTE Mifi router. so while we have the same number, our landline phones actually connect throught the wireless network. We also installed a cellular booster system consisting of and external yagi antenna, an amplifier, and an indoor antenna. Now we have a backup link through that router so we can stream through Verizon whenever Centurylink chokes. 

A New House - Episode 28 - Cabinets! Cabinets! Cabinets!

As we get closer to our target to move in this fall, the next logical project is cabinets. Cabinets! Cabinets! Cabinets! Seems like a never ending sub-project with the many details to get accomplished toward "done". While we're not quite there, we are closer. We bought RTA (Ready to Assemble) cabinets from The Cabinet Joint, made by Conestoga. Great company to work with and super quality. They have all of the ingredients of "high end" cabinets (quality hardwoods, dovetail drawers and cabinet construction and top grade hinges and glides), but they come in a box for you to assemble. we bought our unfinished, but you can get them stained or painted as well. We saved 1/2 over similar quality cabinets. Ours are stained knotty cherry beadboard upper cabinets and maple raised panel base cabinets that we finished in distressed black. 

This is how one base cabinet looks in the box. This is an island base. 

 

first you lay the face frame flat.

Apply good woodworking (Titebond II) glue to the joint.

The sidewalls, top and bottom of the cabinets have an integrated spline that fits into a groove in the face frame.  

tap the sidewalls into the face frame with a mallet. 

(Please note - do not use a mallard as feathers will go everywhere and stick to the glue.)

The base slides into a dovetail groove in the sidewalls and gets tapped into the face frame. 

Glued and nailed in place.

Ditto for the tops. For a wall cabinet, this would be a solid piece. Glued and nailed in place.

Here you see the dovetail groove

Then the back gets glued and nailed down. Use your Harbor Freight pin nailer and nail all of the joints with 1-1/4" brads.The use a wet sponge to clean up excess glue. 

then clamp. You needs lots and lot of clamps if you are assembling several cabinets a day. 

This is an unfinished knotty cherry door

We also have a bunch of mullion doors that we are going to insert punched tin into. 

Here is Deb painting the base cabinets black. She used an Annie Sloan milk paint/wax combo. first the face frames were stained so the color comes through the distressed areas. 

Installing the wall cabinets. level and plumb. 

The wall and base cabinets are in and I am installing the island cabinets. 

We bough 6 fancy turned spindles that we used on the island corners and on each side of the sink base. These are called "reed" spindles, of course. 

Deb is putting up river rock on the island and two sides. 

  

Today they came can set the granite coutertops

I was happy when they told me that me cabinets were very level. I used a laser lever to get them within +/- 1/8". I don't want cracked granite. 

All set and glued in place.

We chose a chiseled edge to fit our decor

Deb is applying silicone around the sink. This is an Ikea double farm sink. That base cabinet is set "proud" by 3". We still have a "couple of weeks" of work to do in the kitchen, some custom cabinets to build for each side of the sink and the range hood, back splash, and some pull out shelves to build. 

 

At the same time we are slowly bringing in furniture from the garage loft. 

Ky;e's room is basically done except the closet. 

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/