1st Floor Stone Grout

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.

Parting Shot 9-4-11

Finishing Windows

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.

Outside Entries

Over the past two weeks, the concrete pads around the house were poured at all the entries. They give the house a much more finished look and will soon be covered in Pennsylvania blue stone like the first floor interior.

Staining Doors

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.

Finishing Wood Floors

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.

Countertops Installed

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.