Bobcat time

Owning a pickup truck is awesome. Owning a Bobcat is even more awesome. My years of driving a forklift are finally coming in hand. We ordered 20 bags of self leveling compound for all the bathrooms and I didn't want to move it by hand since I'm lazy. We also happen to have a fully capable bobcat sitting in the driveway with a pallet fork attachment. Also convenient to have double French doors in the back. Perfect for moving material in. 5 minutes and done!

Painting is done

It took a crew of 3 less than 4 days to paint the exterior. We used a color called Brush Blue by Benjamin Moore. The shakes are painted to match the metal roofs - a dark grey. And the trim is semi gloss white. All of it is Sherwin Williams Duration line in a satin finish. A little pricey, but the product is quite nice. Good coverage and hopefully long lasting. We have extra for touch up and to do the porches when they get completed, but I don't want to have to re paint over this super dark color. 

Next up we need gutters. Then activate the upstairs HVAC. Then attic insulation and a (not so) small punch list for our contractor and we are home free with subbed out contractor work. Good or bad we are on our own for the rest of the project. 

Design choices

We are starting to get to the fun part of building a house. We have already picked our bathroom fixtures using pretty much exactly what we used in the last house only this time in a chrome finish. The floors and kitchen we wanted something a little higher end. We are opting for white wall cabinets and dark stained island. We most likely will use carrera marble for the countertops and island with a living edge slab bar at the one end of the island. That should make it stand out a bit from most of the builder kitchens around here. Also, we chose floors that are a little out of the ordinary. We went with a 9.5" wide engineered oak that has a bit of a reclaimed look to it. It's going to be harder to install, but we are hoping it looks really custom. Wall color will be the same as the last house mostly - Sherwin-Williams Worldly Gray.

Paint in progress

Painting is moving along. Guys are here today finishing up the last bit and doing touch up. 

The drywall is done. They primed it this weekend and are in the process of sanding it today. Looks completely different inside now. We are hoping to start tiling a bathroom this week so we may be ready to move upstairs next week. Progress is happening! 

Welding work

Among other things the Bobcat was in need of a bucket fixing. I tried to get a local welding company to do it, but their pricing was a little vague and seemed kind of expensive anyways. So after watching a few YouTube welding videos I decided it looked easy enough so I bought a decent mig welder and went to town! Also bought a ton of other welding and metal cutting shit which is par for the course around here. In addition to the welder you need a helmet, clamps, magnetic right angle thingys, apron, gloves, all sorts of grinders, etc. We prefer not to pay anyone to do stuff so it's worth the cost! I have some ideas for furniture for the house so learning to weld will come in handy. Turns out welding isn't that hard. A bit tiring keeping your hand steady, but not hard to learn. The bucket metal is a little thick for my smaller welder, but I made it work. Also added some new sides so this thing should be ready to do some damage on the lawn. 

Exterior painting

Our painters showed up this morning to start on the exterior. By this afternoon our curb appeal should be much better. We went with Brush Blue by Benjamin Moore for the lap siding. Custom matched the grey metal roof color for the shingle siding and bright white for the trim. 

The drywall is almost done too. They just need to sand and prime and then we can start finish work. Huge change to the look and feel of the house all around. 

Drywall starting

Next big step is here! Drywall material is delivered and a crew will be coming bright and early in the morning to start hanging. Hopefully in a few weeks we will be ready for finish work. We also installed Roxul soundproofing insulation in the interior walls of the master bedroom for privacy and to help with the street noise.