Monday Update

Nina drove up to the house this morning and took some great pictures that show that we're really coming down the home stretch. The covered deck is just about done - the only thing left to do is install the recessed lights, speakers and ceiling fan. Speaking of the ceiling fan, Walter built a small flat surface from the cedar so the fan could be mounted in the center of the peak. Here's a picture...


The ipe cap was also applied to the railing...


The cabinets were re-installed, this time for good. The large box on the right will house our refrigerator, which is an integrated, walnut paneled Thermador Freedom side by side...


And here's a shot of our newly installed Bluestar range. It's 36" wide, with 6 burners (up to 22K BTU's!) and an extra large gas oven. The door is black. It's right in the middle of the 13 foot island which is temporarily covered with cardboard.


The reclaimed fencepost cladding has been applied to the powder room walls. Those are paint samples on the wall above. Walter will be painting the first floor walls soon.


The next shot is of the skylight in the guest bathroom. Walter suggested cladding the channel in the same cedar we used for the deck ceiling and garage door. We think it looks great.


The master bath is currently being tiled. We used a stone called durango in here. I think it's a type of travertine. This is a shot of the shower...


And finally, a couple of shots of the ledgestone.


We expect things to move pretty quickly now, so stay tuned.

Master Bath Vanity

Quick midweek update. This vanity was completed a while back, but we never posted any pictures. We're having quite a bit of furniture made locally, including this vanity. The surface is made of two solid walnut planks that run the full length of the cabinetry - note the way some of the knots span multiple drawers/door pieces.

The picture above shows the proper locations of the door pulls. I included the below picture because it has less glare.


The countertop (not yet fabricated) will be concrete and we'll have two undermount sinks.

Other stuff being custom made includes...

• Fireplace cabinetry (solid walnut, leather, blackened steel, concrete)
• Two 9 foot tall partition doors (solid walnut)
• 9 foot long farm table for the dining room
  
• Two 12 foot long credenzas (wood, lacquer, brass)
• one of these will go between the dining and living rooms
• the other will go against the wall in the den (think tv stand)
• Bed (rustic wood planks)
• Two mirrors (rustic wood frames, antique mirror surface)
• one will go above the master bath vanity
• the other will go over the fireplace

We'll post pictures as the items are completed.

Deck Ceiling, Guests, More Stone

Hi. This week, Walter and crew installed most of the clear red cedar ceiling over our deck. The little round cutouts are for recessed lights, and there will be a ceiling fan in the center of the room. Here are some more pics...



Below is a shot of the cedar ceiling from the driveway. The two guys in the picture are Ate and Anthony. Nina used to work for Ate at the esteemed Atema Architecture, and Anthony is a client of Ate's that is building a house in Ulster County. They stopped by, along with Amy from Ate's office, to check out the progress and take a look at some of Nina's stellar finishing details.


They've also applied quite a bit more stone, which is clearly a slow and painstaking process.


That's it for now. Nina will be up again on Friday and we'll try to post again next week. Thanks for reading.

Deck Railing, Ledgestone, Baseboards, Taping

Hello. Our deck railing was installed this week. It's comprised of aluminum posts and stainless steel cables. The top rail hasn't been installed yet, but it will be about 3" wide by 1.5" tall, made from the same ipe as the deck floor. See below for a closer picture.

Below is the ledgestone that is being applied to the exposed foundation.

Below is a photo that shows our newly installed baseboards. They are flush with the sheetrock above with a 1/2 inch reveal in between. We're probably going to paint them the same color as the wall above, but while the wall will have an eggshell finish, the baseboards will be glossy.

Below, Walter had his taper finish one of our windows. There will be a strip of douglas fir (the same wood as the window frame) along the sill, but no other trim. There is a 3/8" reveal between the wood frame and the sheetrock.

The next shot is a view down the 2nd floor hallway toward the deck. Check out the reveals where the walls meet the ceiling - almost gives the impression that the ceiling is floating. These reveals and other similar details are everywhere in this house, and create a ton of extra work for the guys doing the sheetrock, baseboards and taping. Thankfully, we have a contractor that shares our aesthetic and is willing to put in the extra effort.

Here's what's left...

Finish taping

Paint the walls

Install the kitchen appliances (arriving this Friday)

Finish the stonework (including bluestone on front steps)

Install deck ceiling

Install stair treads/risers

Install stair railing

Finish the wood floors

Install tile in guest and master baths

Install plumbing fixtures

Install fireplace

Install light fixtures

Landscaping

We're definitely going up again this Saturday, and we'll post more then.

Stone, Sheetrock, Cabinets, Hex Tile

This week, the foundation around the garage was "tented" so it can be brought up to a temperature that will allow the stone to be applied. Kinda reminds me of the scene in E.T. when the feds come into Elliot's house to check out the alien body.

The sheetrock has started going up, which has had two major impacts. First, it's much easier to see the actual size of the rooms when you can't see through the walls. Second, the house is much brighter with the white walls and ceilings than it was with the exposed framing.

Above is the living room from the opposite direction. The kitchen is at the end of the room - you can see the cabinets hanging on the wall. The refrigerator will go in the space to the right of the wall cabinets, and will be paneled in the same walnut. Below is a close-up of the wall cabinets. Note that they still need to be leveled.

Below is a photo of our foyer. The dark gray hex tiles were just installed with black grout. We think the tiles will look great with the solid walnut partition doors that are being built for us now.

That's all for now. We'll try to post again next week.

Ceiling, Sheetrock, Cabinets

This week, Walter began installing the pine ceiling in the bedrooms. The planks have been primed and painted white, and are a nice alternative to a standard sheetrock ceiling. It was also much easier for them to install around the beams. If you click the above picture, you can see the planks more clearly.


In the above photo, you can see that the back wall of our kitchen is sheetrocked. The brown boxes on the floor are our island cabinets, laid out in their proper locations. The range will go in the middle space (although it's actually wider than the gap in the picture). The entire island will have a CaesarStone countertop, and there's enough room for four stools on the dining room side of the island (note the open space between the two side cabinets - that's for your legs).


This is a shot of the front of the cabinets. They're quite nice. Walter is expecting delivery of our appliances soon, and wants to get the cabinets in place so the appliances can be installed immediately upon delivery.


Finally, one more shot of our deck. They have now finished the siding around the corners, and should be installing the cable rail soon.

This week, we expect a lot of sheetrock to go up. We're definitely looking forward to this step, because each room will finally feel like its own entity. They will hopefully make some progress with the cabinet installation. It's possible that the cedar ceiling will be installed over the deck. And, if we're lucky, we might get some lighting.

That's all for now. See you next week.

Deck, Garage Door, Insulation

Hello. Above is the second floor deck. The ipe planks have been installed, and the cable rail has been ordered. We're hoping that Walter will be able to install the cedar ceiling sometime this week. The installation is amazing, with each screw perfectly in line with the next. There's quite a bit of construction dust on the boards, so the color is pretty dull in these photos. You can see some pictures in a previous post here that show the true color. Below is a shot of the deck in the sun.

The cedar cladding has been applied to our garage door. It's made up of 4" tongue and groove cedar planks that run the full 17 foot length of the door. These are the same cedar planks that will be used for the ceiling above our deck. Check out the second photo below and imagine the clear cedar on both the garage door and the deck ceiling, with ledgestone covering all exposed concrete, and bluestone on the stairs. Should be great!

And below, the insulation for our exterior walls and roof was sprayed this week. The product is called Icynene, and should make for a very energy efficient and quiet house. It has a very high R value, which we needed, considering all the glass we have on the first floor. The below shot is facing the kitchen, where some of the cabinets have been placed in exactly the shape and size of the island (here' a link to our kitchen layout). It was very cool to get a feeling for what it will be like when the kitchen is done.

Finally, when Carey and I arrived at the house, we found a new friend waiting in the foyer. It appears that someone had a little fun with excess insulation, a couple of sticks and three Budweiser caps. Carey and the snowman got along very well.

Flooring

From this point forward, most of our posts will be focused on the interior of the house, as most of the exterior work is done.  Walter and crew installed our flooring this past week, as evidenced in the above and below photos.  The floors are white oak planks in widths of 6, 7, and 8 inches - most of which are 10 to 12 feet long.  They will eventually be sealed with a water-based polyurethane, which will hopefully help us retain the light color (we don't want them to turn honey colored, which is what happens with oil-based polys).  The above shot is taken from the kitchen area of the main room.  The black box on the floor at the end of the room is our fireplace, and the guy in khakis is the mill worker that will be building the cabinetry around it.

Above is a photo showing the floors in one of the guest bedrooms.

And here's a shot of the front of the house.  The siding is now complete (except for one small area by the deck, not shown here).  Also note that the gutters are now in place, but thanks to Nina's skills, they cannot be seen from the ground.

Our ipe deck is now in place, although we neglected to take any photos.  We'll post some early next week.  See you then.

Snow, Heat, Wiring, Gutters, Marriage

Hi everyone. Sorry we haven't posted in a while, but things have been a bit crazy around here, and we hadn't been up to the house in three weeks. There's been quite a bit of progress, so here we go...

The above pictures show the downspouts that have been applied to the corners of the house. We were really looking forward to seeing the gutter detail Nina designed, but all the snow blocked the view (Walter has not yet installed the snow guards). In the top picture, the area enclosed in plastic is our second floor deck, where they have begun to install the ipe decking. Below are a couple of pictures - the first shows the wood before installation, and the second shows the work done so far...




Here's a shot of our living/dining/kitchen area, looking toward the kitchen. The five light fixtures in the center of the room will be over the dining table. In the distance, you can see the duct for the vent hood that will be over the range in the island. Almost all of the duct work, plumbing and wiring is done, and the house now has electric and heat. The piles of wood in the below picture are our floors, which they started installing on Saturday. Don't worry - they'll be covered up when they spray the insulation and close up the walls in a few weeks.



Here's a shot of the eastern view from the living room. The views really open up when the leaves are down...



Here's a shot of the southern view from the living room, followed by a close up of the rocks in the first picture...




And here's a shot of our kitchen cabinets. They're beautiful, and so well made, but they'll really shine once they are assembled. That's because the grain of the walnut will continue across multiple cabinets.


That's all for this week. We've got family coming to Brooklyn next weekend, so we may not make it up to the house. Expect the next update just after New Years.

Oh yeah, in case you haven't heard, we're engaged. Woo hoo!