January 5 - A six foot wide apron is being poured in front of the garage doors. It will have a short four foot wide connecting sidewalk to the side door steps.
January 5 - The side door stoop will be concrete with a brick border like the front porch. It will have brick steps (like the front porch) down to the garage apron. The sides of the stoop (below the brick border) will be stucco. The stoop is square (4ft 8in x 4ft 8in). The form to the left is to hold form boards for the steps.
January 5 - The back doors will open on to a concrete stoop. The wall in the rear will be stucco.
January 5 - The south gable is being painted. The siding and rakes are painted. The paint is wet and it is still the first coat, so the color is not final. The yellow siding is simply the primer on the Hardie siding. The window casing has not been painted yet.
January 5 - Forms are being built for the front steps. There will be four brick steps 9ft wide down to a landing of tabby with a brick border. The walk will narrow to 5ft wide and will consist of landings 42in long and 5ft wide until the walk reaches the ground level.
January 6 - The garage gable has a first coat of siding paint on it.
January 6 - The forms for the front steps are in place. The double forms around the edges are for a brick border. The center of the landings will be tabby concrete. There will be four brick steps between the top landing and the porch. The porch will have a brick veneer.
January 6 - The garage apron (foreground) will connect to the side door stoop. There will be a brick border around the stoop (see the double forms). Two bricks steps will connect the stoop to the sidewalk.
January 6 - If you look closely, you will see the forms for the service yard slab.
January 6 - The porch ceiling is being installed. It is V-groove pine which will be painted.
January 6 - Inside, the windows and doors are being covered with plastic in preparation for spraying primer. Electrical boxes and other devices are also being covered. If all goes according to plan, interior priming will begin tomorrow.
January 7 - The sun room adjacent to the deck has windows masked and has been sprayed with primer.
January 7 - The office over the garage has been primed. The surface is shiny because the primer is still wet. It is dark in the room because plastic is over the skylights and window.
January 7 - The front porch ceiling is installed. It will be trimmed around the edges. The beam will also be trimmed.
January 7 - These are the front step forms as seen from the front door. The space to the first single 2x4 will have four brick steps (each about 16in wide). The second area will be tabby concrete with a brick border. The brick steps and first landing are 9 feet wide. The walk then goes to 5 feet wide with four landings each down one step.
January 7 - The base coat of stucco is being troweled on the foundation walls. In all, there will be three coats of stucco material. The wall to the right of the dark stucco base coat will be bricked.
January 9 - The 6 foot wide garage apron has a short extension sidewalk to what will be brick steps up to the landing outside the side door.
January 9 - The double doors from the walk out basement have a pad in front of them. None of the concrete is finished yet. It has to set somewhat before it is can be troweled.
January 9 - A slab for the service yard is poured. Air conditioning outdoor units will be placed here. At a future date, a generator may also be placed here.
January 9 - The front steps are poured. The landings are tabby with brick borders.
January 9 - The garage wall, which will be below grade, is being water proofed. This block wall will have stucco applied to it (probably next week).
January 13 - The north end of the storage room has shelves for storage. A rod for hanging clothes will be installed under the shelves (2 high in the right 4 bays and 1 high for taller items in the left bay). There is room on top of the shelves for storage also.
January 13 - The left wall in the photo will be a 19ft long storage rack for long guns. A board will be mounted on the wall above the base. The board will have holes for dowels to keep guns upright.
January 13 - Cabinets are being unpacked and installed in the kitchen. The cabinets were delivered yesterday.
January 13 - The living room looks empty now since cabinets have been distributed. The cabinets were unloaded from the truck to the living room. They filled the room.
January 13 - Master bath cabinets have been moved from the living room.
January 13 - Forms are being taken off the concrete that was poured Friday. It was raining too much to do this on Monday. This front walk will have bricks around the tabby landings. There will be brick steps up to the front porch. The front porch will have bricks around it and a brick front.
January 13 - The rear deck is being installed in spite of the rain. The deck framing will have a trim board around it. The decking material will overhang the trim board by about three quarters of an inch.
January 13 - The tile (most of it) and grout is in the garage. The tile layer is queued for about a week.
January 14 - The porch beam is finished and prepped for painting. Bricks for the steps and landings should be delivered tomorrow. (Rain here has postponed deliveries several days.) Brick masons should start on Monday. If you look closely at the porch wall, you will see a steel angle iron which will support the brick. After landscaping, dirt will be within 30in or so of the porch.
January 14 - The kitchen and laundry area is taking shape as more cabinets are installed.
January 14 - Part of the deck is down. We ran short of hidden fasteners, so we had to stop for now. A glass railing will be installed once the deck is complete.
January 14 - The cabinet installer is working in the butler's pantry. The far opening on the right past the cabinet is the washer/dryer closet. The oven and microwave will sit in the cabinet that will be installed on the far right. The bar will back up to the half wall.
January 14 - The storage area off the wet bar is assembled and awaiting paint.
January 14 - The linen closet in the trophy bath will have 5 shelves. The support boards are on the wall. The shelves are assembled and awaiting paint.
January 14 - The trophy bedroom closet has two shelves and two rods in it. This is one shelf. The other shelf is out of sight (through the door and to the right). Heavy chrome rods will be installed after paint is completed.
January 16 - The bricks (2,310 of them) arrived this morning along with sand and mortar. The brick layers will begin Monday. Bricks are being used for the steps and landing borders.
January 16 - The stone, lathe and mortar for the downstairs walls arrived also. Installation will begin about a week from today.
January 16 - Base cabinets for the kitchen are installed. The opening in the top on the left side of the photo is where an island sink will be installed. The front opening just to the right of the island will contain the dishwasher.
January 16 - A freezer will be installed in the tall cabinet just past the right side of the island. The oven and microwave will be installed in a cabinet that will go next to the stairs.
January 16 - The bump out has a desk. It will also have a cabinet installed over it. None of the overhead cabinets are installed yet.
January 16 - The bar top will be installed on this side. The kitchen island is visible just to the right of the stairs.
January 16 - Her closet has shelves in the linen closet. It has trim around the storage cubby. The fold down ironing board is installed and trimmed.
January 20 - Masons are laying bricks on the side stoop. Bricks will border the edge of the stoop. A set of brick steps will lead down to the garage apron. There is plastic covering the bottom step to protect it from mortar splashes.
January 20 - Interior trim has started. These openings lead into the trophy office. The wood will be stained a dark chestnut color.
January 20 - The windows in the sun/breakfast room are trimmed. The trim will be painted.
January 20 - The dining room windows are also trimmed. This opening (from the foyer to the dining room) will also be cased.
January 20 - Waterproof fabric has been glued (with thinset) to the walls. A curb has been built.
January 20 - Another brick mason is laying brick around the landings to see how to space them. The corners will be mitered when they are permanently laid.
January 20 - This is how the house appears from the end of the driveway. The porch columns and rails are not installed yet.
January 20 - Most of the house has the final colors on it. The stucco will match the siding color.
January 21 - The trophy bedroom is being trimmed. The windows still have protective plastic on them.
January 21 - A special underlayment has been cemented to the plywood floor in the master bath area. The floor tile will be laid starting tomorrow.
January 21 - Most of the interior doors have been hung. These doors are in the office area over the garage. They are louvered, but will be changed out for solid doors.
January 21 - This is the top of the stairway as seen from the guest bedroom. The stairs down are to the left. Straight ahead is the office over the garage. The doors have 5 horizontal panels.
January 21 - Bricks are going up around the front porch. Once the porch is bricked, the steps will be built.
January 21 - Tom, the stucco sub, is attaching lathe to the concrete block wall of the garage. This wall (below the band) will stucco the same color as the siding. The stucco will be a sand finish (no pattern).
January 22 - The brick veneer is on the porch. The masons are now working on the brick steps and brick borders on the walkway.
January 22 - The electricians are mounting boxes for the incoming power. The meter will be installed in the box that is mounted.
January 22 - Lathe is being installed for the fieldstone on some of the walls in the trophy rooms. The stone laying will begin in the next day or two.
January 22 - Baseboard is being cut and laid in position. This is 8in base in the master bedroom.
January 22 - The bathroom tile is being laid. The tile mason is in the water closet (through the door on the right in the photo). The tile laying on the floor is just to check spacing and overlap.
January 22 - The decking is down. The railing sub will be out tomorrow (90+% chance of rain) or more likely Monday to take final measurements. The railing will be five sheets of 1/2in thick glass. It will have no top rail. The posts will be bronze to match the roof trim with stainless clips for attaching the glass.
January 22 - There is a lot of woodwork in this house. Windows and doors are being trimmed.
January 22 - The upstairs office is being finished. Baseboard is cut, but not attached. The window has been trimmed.
January 22 - The garage windows are trimmed. The ledge under them will have trim on it also.
January 22 - Electrical switches and outlets are being installed in preparation for permanent power.
January 22 - This is the breakfast room. Baseboard is being installed. The outlets have been installed here. The windows have protective plastic on them.
January 23 - Tile is going down in the master bath. It should be finished today and grouted Saturday. Monday, we will cover it to protect it.
January 23 - The painters are putting sample paint colors on the walls, trim and ceiling. They will also put paint colors in most of the rooms so the home owners can see if the colors are what they want when they visit.
January 23 - Stones are being laid on the lower walls in the trophy rooms. The mortar is brown to compliment the stones and stained wood trim.
January 23 - A sturdy workbench has been built in the storage room. It will have a florescent light and shelves over it. The bench is 36in high and a little over 30in deep. It is 8ft long. The workbench will be painted trim color.
January 23 - The rear of the house is getting more trim and siding. Rain has ended work outside today. The railing sub will do a final measurement for rails on Monday. They should take a week and a half to be here.
January 23 - The chimney is painted and chimney caps are installed. Scaffolding will be removed when the weather clears.
January 23 - The meter box and two disconnects are mounted in preparation for the permanent power inspection (probably Tuesday).
January 23 - Brickwork was not finished today because of the rain. The outline of the 9ft wide steps is visible under the plastic. The landings are also visible. The brick veneer and brick border on the porch are completed. Brickwork should be done Monday morning.
January 26 - The side steps are finished. They will have a hand rail to match the front installed in the next few days.
January 26 - The fieldstone is being 'laid' on the walls downstairs. The mortar is brown - a little darker than the photo shows.
January 26 - The casing is stained in preparation for the home owner's visit next week. The trim will be stained downstairs. The doors and jambs will be painted.
January 26 - The upper cabinets in the butler's pantry are being installed.
January 26 - The cook top goes in the center of this cabinet. A dish rack is above.
January 26 - The bump out has a top cabinet now. It is inline with the island.
January 26 - Tile is going down on the tub deck. The deck will have a backsplash. There is a panel to match the cabinets to be installed on the front of the tub.
January 26 - We are ready for a permanent power inspection. It is scheduled for tomorrow.
January 26 - The front steps are being finished.
January 26 - This is the view of the front steps The steps are 9ft wide. The stepped landings are 5ft wide. A gravel walkway will connect the end of the landings to the driveway. There will be a handrail on the 9ft wide section of steps to match the hand rail on the porch. The porch columns will be installed in a few days.
January 27, am - The front of the house is shaping up. The gray stucco on the right will be the color of the siding when the final coat is applied. The columns will be 12in square (at the base) painted columns. The stairs will have handrails to match the porch.
January 27, am - Some rooms are being prepped for painting.
January 27, am - Beams are going up in the living room. The beams will be painted.
January 27, am - The tub surround is in place now. The floor is being grouted.
January 27, am - Her closet shelves are being built. The narrow set on the left will have adjustable shelves for purses. The six larger sections to the right will have rods.
January 27, am - The rear of the house is being trimmed. Stucco will go on below the band board (where the white house wrap is exposed).
January 27, pm - Two of the columns are up now! They will be painted the trim color.
January 27, pm - The living room coffered ceiling is trimmed. There will be 3 piece crown around the edge of the living room.
January 27, pm - The gallery adjacent to the living room has three piece crown. There is a piece of trim leaning against the wall just to the left of the door. The coffered beams are visible at the far left.
January 27, pm - The foyer also has three piece crown. The plastic cover used to test the HVAC ducts has come loose.
January 28 - The house now has 5 dressed columns. The half column on the right is trimmed, but not installed yet. The dormer on the left still needs to be trimmed. Soon, the exterior trim (and interior trim) will be finished.
January 28 - The floor, tub deck and tub splash tile was grouted today. We are having a small delay because drains for the showers are snowed in because of the blizzard. The black heater is to keep the inside temperature above 50 while the grout sets.
January 28 - The stone is going on the wall. It is like a giant jigsaw puzzle with no picture to help solve it. Between the stones and wall, there will be a stained chair rail. Above the chair rail will be grass paper.
January 28 - The painters are starting to paint the storage room. The shelves at the far end will have rods for hanging clothing.
January 29 - Wires are moved so the kitchen television will now be located in the upper cabinet. The upper cabinet has been removed in this photo. The wire on the far left is for an under counter light. The middle wire is power for the television (to be installed inside the cabinet). The right wire is the signal (antenna) wire. The hole in the wall will be covered with the cabinet.
January 29 - The floor pan and drain have been installed in the master shower. Once the thinset (cement) sets (tomorrow), tile will start going down. A panel to match the cabinets will be installed on the front of the tub (far left in photo).
January 29 - The floor pan and drain have been installed in the master shower. Once the thinset (cement) sets (tomorrow), tile will start going down. A panel to match the cabinets will be installed on the front of the tub (far left in photo).
January 29 - A painting will be mounted in front of the fireplace on this plywood. If you push the plywood to the right....
January 29 - You can see the television that will be mounted here. A large (4in high by 8in wide) mantle will be installed just under the painting board (plywood).
January 29 - When the painting is over the television, it is not obvious that a television resides behind it.
January 29 - The shower floor pan is being installed in the trophy bath (downstairs).
January 29 - The downstairs door is trimmed. The wall is being prepped for stucco.