skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Friday was moving day. We rented a U-Haul on Thursday afternoon, picked up two mattresses, two sofas, and loaded all the accumulated household goods and furniture that had been stored for the past year and dropped it off at the house. When we arrived, we were surprised to find a Christmas wreath adorned with red bow on the outdoor fireplace. Friends passing by on their way to relatives for Christmas had dropped it off along with a great housewarming gift. It was nice to have a touch of the season added to the newly finished house. We had just enough time to unload the truck and finish sealing the stone floors before heading back to Charlotte to celebrate the season with family and friends.
Now that the house is complete, its time to start bringing in the furniture that we've been collecting. In mid-November, we worked with a furniture maker in Todd, NC to make our own dining room table. We had contracted with Tom Sternal to construct one of our bathroom sinks and countertop and when we picked it up he invited us back to work in his shop and build our own table after admiring his many furniture "works of art". We took a long weekend and in a little more than a day drove off with an incredible poplar slab trestle table. We've been finishing it for the past few weeks during the warmer days and now its complete and ready to go.
The stone floors on the main floor are Pennsylvania blue stone. To give them a more rich finish, we started applying a sealer to the floors by Aquamix called Enrich and Seal. It not only gives them a darker finish but brings out the rich variegated browns, blues, and charcoal grays. Its a wipe on, wipe off process. You pour the liquid on fairly thick and after five minutes you wipe off the liquid that has not been absorbed into the stone. Check out the huge difference it makes.
Its been two months since I reported that we let our builder go and that we embarked on completing the house ourselves. Over that period of time, we have hired and met many interesting contractors, shopped online for unusual building materials, and learned how to do many new things(many of which have been blogged about already). In has all finally come together and I am extremely happy to report that on Friday, December 16, the inspector came and signed off on the final inspection of the house issuing a CO(certificate of occupancy). On Saturday, we fired up the hot water and radiant floor heat, as well as the water to the house, for the first time. We were a little unsure how long it would take the house to heat up with the radiant floor heat, but by Sunday morning, the house was very comfortable and the stone floors on the main level were quite toasty. Camping has never been so good!
This week was our annual Christmas tree farm trip and we had several friends up to check out the house. While showing them around, I forgot to take pics of this week's progress. There were quite a few things finished and/or started this week. The electrician was on site and finished up the lighting on the outside of the house, the screen porch panels were put into place all except a few that were awaiting trim to be painted, and the painter started staining and painting all the woodwork in the house. G&B Energy showed up to run the gas lines and bury the gas tank, but they left without completing it after hitting rock while digging the lines. They are due back this week with more powerful equipment to complete the job.
After collecting parts for about 4 weeks, we were able to install the hand rail this past weekend. It started out as a 20ft long 1 1/4" galvanized pipe. It was cut down to 14 ft for travel at the hardware store and the ends were painfully trimmed with a pipe cutter to the correct size of just under 13 feet. With the addition of returns and supports researched and bought online from Kee Klamp, it was a fairly easy installation. I would highly recommend the addition of an impact driver to your arsenal of power tools. Its an electric screw driver that is almost turbo charged and applies pressure at the same time it is driving the screw in. It was invaluable for driving screws into pipe for this project.
Finding someone who knows anything about installing radiant floor heating systems has proven very difficult. We finally found a plumber that lives in the neighborhood who was willing to give some advice on the system but wasn't really interested in installing it. So, we (and by we I mean the more tech savvy one of us) have decided to install it with the help of the many resources available on the web. The system is based on heated hot water running through pipes in the floor - on the first floor that is a concrete slab covered with stone and on the second floor that is underneath the reclaimed wood floors. So far the system has been mounted on the wall and dry fittings are in place. Looks like a professional job, right?
Hired! We have a new contractor that is working with us to get the house complete. He sent two of his crew over this weekend to finish up the trim inside the house, install door locks, and clean up some of the randomness left from the other builder. The pic above shows the completion of the master bath vanity soon to be filled with white fluffy towels.
One of the first things on the list to complete once the builder was let go, was the kitchen cabinets. We had passed Horton Cabinets in Sparta on our way to the cabin every weekend, and they were the first ones I called to see if they were interested in completing the job. The owner showed up the day after I called him, took measurements, and completed the job the next week renewing my faith that there were actually people who could get things done in a timely manner. The kitchen mostly consists of lower cabinets which are made of the same wood that are on the walls so that they blend in and don't really stand out. For the upper cabinets we went with open shelves. Glad to have this checked off the list.
This weekend we went to visit the house site with very low expectations. The builder had not been returning phone calls and had refused to provide an update on progress all week. It was not until Friday night after many requests did a minor update via email come through with a request for money. The builder said he had been working on electrical and plumbing during the week. Electrical and plumbing had indeed been started, a door hung, and about 100 sq ft of tile had been laid. The cabinets weren't complete, the dryer vent wasn't in, the bathroom was not trimmed out - all the things the builder kept talking about doing still weren't done. We knew going into the weekend, we were probably going to have to terminate the contract with the builder if we were ever going to get the house finished. After much deliberation, we came back Sunday and sent the builder a termination letter. We feel much better about the project knowing we can hire people who want to do the work and will complete the job and get paid. We gave the builder 17 months and 2 weeks to complete what started out on the contract as a 6 month job. We hope to finish the balance of the work in 4 weeks and be in by Thanksgiving.
October 1, 2011.
It was 41 degrees when we arrived on Saturday and there was a light mist in the air. As we pulled off onto Spring Valley Road, we saw a few neighbors crossing the road and stopped to take a pic. (click on pic to view larger.)
This week's progress was the stone floors on the 1st floor were finished up with grout. It makes a significant difference to the appearance of the floor to not see all the crevices around each stone. Once its cleaned up and sealed its going to look awesome. The builder did a great job of putting the stone down. It is all nice and level which was a bit of challenge considering that every stone was a different thickness and had varying degrees of thickness on each stone.
This past weekend we spent three days painting windows and doors. Its not an easy process when you have to apply two coats and it takes sometimes 24hours for them to dry. We hope to finish up with the exterior doors this weekend just in time for the interior doors to arrive. Having finished painting a few windows, we were able to remove some of the protective coatings from the windows giving us a view of the future.
In addition to sanding and sealing the floors, we started staining the interior side of the doors and trimming the interior side of the windows. It is a dark charcoal gray stain and will contrast with the eventual staining of the walls a very light whitewashed gray. We got 4 windows and 4 doors stained. Just a start as there are over 19 windows and 10 doors to complete.
With the builder still moving at a snail's pace towards completion, this past weekend we started working on the house ourselves. We sanded the hardwood floors and stairs and put down one coat of Waterlox sealer on them. Last weekend we showed up with all intentions of doing some work but the builder was putting in the stairs and a storm blew in during the afternoon knocking the power out. We were able to get the floors all vacuumed in preparation for this weekend's work. The floors took on a more brown tone with the application of the sealant but they should dry to a more gray tone.
The kitchen countertops were installed this week. We chose Virgina Mist Granite which is a black granite with veins of gray. Like its name suggests, it is quarried in Virginia and has the look of soapstone.
The master bathroom tile was also put into works this week. It is a natural quartz stone referred to as "Boading". It has many colors of brown and gray and should blend well with the wood walls and reclaimed floors on the second floor. Thinking about adding a large rock to the corner of the shower for an added natural effect. Thoughts?
Painting on the exterior wood portions of the house started this week. The color is a very dark charcoal gray that is designed to blend the house into its wooded surroundings. Imagine the bark of a very tall, graceful oak or poplar tree and that is the look that is trying to be achieved.
