Finish for the exterior doors.

November 9th, 2013

 The front and back porch doors came with primed wood frames.  And they looked pretty crappy.  So we took advantage of the nice weather on the weekend to give them a nice finish.  I filled the holes and marks with wood putty then painted them with exterior white paint.

Then Brian put on an aluminum wrap over the wood brickmold.  The wrap is installed on the right side of this door and the original wood is on the top.  Hopefully this will protect the trim so it doesn't weather.  Now just to hope the workers don't dent it up too much before me move in.

And finally, I caulked the wraps and frame to seal it up and give it a nice look.  All that's left is to paint the actually doors and install our new doorbell.

We're wired for sound and other things...

November 2 & 9th, 2013

Brian pulls speaker wire in the house.  We ran a speaker in the kitchen so the I either play my iPod over it or the TV.  We really like this in our last house as you can hear the TV in the kitchen without having to turn the volume so loud.

We also ran speakers in the master bath, both front and back porches and downstairs for Brian's theater room.  We also pulled some Cat 5 for data and some HDMI.

In the gutter.

November 2, 2013

Seamless gutters get installed and they look great.  These guys and gal did a fantastic job.

Wires going everywhere.

October 28-30, 2013

 We got a tub.  The bathtub/shower for the 2nd bath goes in and plumber begins putting in the roughins.

 Exhaust fan roughins are in.

 Electrical wiring starts.

Lights going up.

 

It's crazy busy as crews are working all over the house and we are checking that everything is in right place.  Which means marking all the switches and providing measurements for everything.

A roof over our heads.

October 26th, 2013

The roofers have completed the roof.  The shingles are Rustic Black.  We like the sharp contrast and all our neighboring houses are light colored so our house stick out nicely.

Ikea kitchen and bath cabinets.

October 26th- November 2, 2013

Kitchen and bath install gets a start!

 1st step to the kitchen install.  Marking out the cabinets on the floor.  We measured and marked them out with tape.  This will help when we install the cabinets and tells the plumber and electrician where to pull the roughins.

Step 2.  Get a power screwdriver.  You can get one pretty cheap, I think this one ran me $20. I wore out my old one.  It's much lighter then a drill which makes it more comfortable to work with and fits inside smaller cabinets.  If you have a lot of cabinets to install, which I do, this thing is well worth it.

 

 

 

Assemble your base cabinets.  I use the cardboard boxes to protect the cabinets during assembly.  I assembled just the boxes at this time.  I don't add any drawer rails until after drywall to avoid dust in the mechanisms.  It also makes them much lighter to maneuver.   And we have to haul these upstairs.

I also haven't nailed the backs on the cabs yet.  I need to find a T square to make sure they are square and Brian picked up a new cordless brad nailer that he promises I can use.  That should speed up the process.

I label each of the cabs with the Ikea part number and measurements for easier identification later.

Friday was a busy day at the house. Driveway, windows, and shingles installed.

October 25th, 2013  

 Crushed concrete goes down for the driveway.

 Windows are here and installed.  Except for one, the kitchen window didn't show up.  Seems like one element for the kitchen has to be missing at all times.  The kitchen sink showed up and oh my gosh is it heavy.

The roof gets shingles. 

Brian and I spent the day at the house marking cabinets on the floors and preparing for the electrician and heating and air.