SMOTY

Stone mason of the year. At least on this project. Stone work isn't particularly hard, but it does require a lot of trial and error. Like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. You want it to look random and not perfectly designed. Mission accomplished? We've spent a few hours here and there on the weekends and a few nights this week finishing up. Stones are all mortared in and the tops are cut flush. Finally the porch stone is ready for grout and trim. Hopefully this weekend we will finish the stone bases completely. Adding some major curb appeal!

Tile Time

We've been working away at installing one of the upstairs bathrooms so we can relocate to the second floor and finally escape the basement - where we have been living for 10 months!  When we moved down here last November, we didn't have a good idea of how long it would be before we lived above-ground again...and that was probably a good thing because I'm not sure I would have been very excited to commit in advance to basement living for nearly a year.  Of course, the top two floors are still a long way from complete but even partially finished above-ground space will be an upgrade in my book.  We did ourselves no favors on this first bathroom by deciding on a somewhat ambitious tile pattern - brick surround with a herringbone inset and marble mosiac picture frame.  Had we done something more simple, we could have knocked this out in a day or two.  Instead, we've been working away a bit every night and this weekend.  We used two different sizes of subway tile for the bathroom - 4 1/4" x 10" for the brick pattern and 3" x 6" tiles for the herringbone.  Although it's more time-consuming, I'm glad we did it as it's a nice combination of classic look with a custom touch.  And now for pictures...

Getting started with the brick pattern - we used a ledger board on the sides to make sure the lines stayed straight

Brick pattern almost complete

Working our way through the brick pattern and getting started with the inset

Finally!  Tile in, next step - grout

This and That and Back to DIY

We're working our way through a number of different projects here, so we don't have any "after" pictures to share at the moment but there are a number of "before" and "in progress" pictures.  We also said goodbye to our contractor this week - we'll take over from here to get the finishes done the way we want them.  So, we are officially back to true DIY!  And without further ado, a whole list of projects in progress:

First up - we picked up the hardwood for our floors, all 2600 plus square feet of it!  It added up to 91 boxes, which, at 60 pounds a box, gave the truck, and us, a good workout.

In order to get it into the house, we set up a little relay system.  We moved the boxes from the trailer onto a pallet, used the bobcat to deliver the pallet into house, shifted the boxes onto a furniture dolly, and then wheeled the boxes into various rooms to unload them.  It was a lot of steps but, fortunately, not too much lifting - mostly just moving the boxes from one place to another.  It's a good thing Brian is a pro with the bobcat though - there's not much clearance on this delivery system!

Also in the flooring category but not hardwood - we're moving forward with tiling one of the bathroom floors, starting with prep for self-leveling compound

Nice and level for tiling!

Tiling in progress.  We went with a dark wood-like tile for this en suite bathroom because the bedroom will be carpeted.  The floor is finished now but we forgot to take a picture so that'll have to wait for another post...

We also had a big order of stone delivered this week, including two very large boulders that we'll incorporate into the backyard landscaping...when we finally get around to landscaping.

Hello pretty boulders!  And several pallets of stone for the porch.

Also working on finishing the back stairs.  These are being finished with maintenance-free Trex in Woodland Brown.

And now that the stone is here, we got started on the front porch too.  Building up the base for the stone columns here.

Putting the stone on the base of the porch.  We're using ashlar cut stone veneer in Coyote Gray.

Working our way around the porch

Laying out a pattern for the landing.  Here we're using a bluestone in silver gray.  We'll add the stair treads once the rest is done.

Setting the stones

Almost done!  More "after" pictures once the grout is in.

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!