Cabinets

The cabinets were installed this week. The wood is quarter sawn white oak with a slight glaze, again, my pictures don't provide true color rendition. The drawer slides are the kind that will softly close the drawer when you attempt to slam it closed and will pull it closed for the last 2 inches. The manufacturer of the slides is Blum if anyone cares. The granite people will come to do the templates Tuesday and in about 3 weeks, if all goes well, we should have counter tops. The pulls are "antique brass" done in an Arts and Crafts motif which is the theme we have running through out the house. It seems to work well with the Southwest sytle, at least, that is what the fashionistas have told me.

The north and west walls.





The east wall.



The south wall.









Here are the master bath cabinets. All the cabinets in the house are the same. The tile guy set the tub in place, but it isn't permanently affixed yet. He has also started working in the showers.







This is the guest bath.



Finally, here is the boiler that will heat the house once it is installed. We could have used it this week because the night time temperature was in the teens and twenties Wednesday through Saturday. We can only hope that someone knew enough to shut off the water and drain the system back.

Floor Tile Complete

The floor tiling is complete including the grout. It doesn't look much different from last week.





Here is a shot of the pedestal for the washer and dryer.



The heating contractor has started putting in the necessary plumbing fixtures for the boiler. This is a good thing because it is supposed to get well below freezing later this week.

Tile & Stucco

The tile guy got started Thursday and made quite a bit of progress. It will take him the rest of this coming week to finish the floors. Then he will need to do the showers, tub surround and kitchen decorative work. Here are a few shots of the progress. Again, the colors seem muted, but they are really very nice; some might say "smashing".




Notice the straight lines for the tile in the below picture. This is a good thing, because if they weren't straight, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. :^)





We were really surprised to see the stucco guys at the house this morning. We knew that they were on the schedule, but they were at work at 8am. They started on the north side of the house and had that done by about 10am. We went back about 4:30pm and they were still working and had finished the east side. They indicated that they will finish the house tomorrow. I think the color of the stucco is fairly close to reality. I guess the difference is outdoor light versus indoor light. Here they are just finishing the north wall.







They also put the "booties" (another technical term) on the vegas.







It is really nice to see the project coming together. Gail and Michelle have done a wonderful job of shopping (not a surprise!) for supplies and coordinating colors (also not a surprise).

Finally, here is another picture of our "view". This was taken in the afternoon whereas the previous have been taken in the morning.



Til next week...

Painting

This week the painters got started. You may be able to tell that the vegas got stained.



Here are the doors all stained and ready to be installed.



The company that makes the doors also does closets so here are a couple shots of the master closet.





Here is the cubbies in the wine cellar. These haven't been painted yet.



A couple pictures of the painted walls upstairs-the paint is called coral clay.







I had a request for view pictures and it really hasn't changed. The trees are some sort of pine so stay green all year.



These are a cabinet sample with the granite counter sample with the paint and another with the floor tile. This really doesn't do justice to the colors of course.





More next week.

Texturing

This week the base coat of the stucco was completed. That has to cure for a week or two, then the final coat will be applied.



The texturing on the interior walls and ceilings was also completed. Unfortunately, my photographic abilities are not up to the task of showing this effect very well, if at all. This shows a section of the ceiling. The white is the texture and the darker spots are the drywall.



Here is a section of wall which really doesn't show the effect. I guess you will have to visit to actually see the effect.



Finally, I didn't have the shop textured so they put a coat of primer on that.

Stucco

The crew has started applying the base coat of stucco to the house. This has to cure for a week or two, then they will apply the color coat. After the stucco is troweled on, they smooth it out with a float that is about 3 feet long. Below the guy is doing the troweling.









The drywall work is all but completed as far as the taping and sanding is concerned. The next step will be to "texture" the walls. That means they will apply more joint compound and trowel it on by hand and purposefully leave it rough. The reason for that is that the sun is so bright here that if you leave it smooth, the light will show all the imperfections. By making it rough in the first place, the imperfections don't show. However, I have gotten ahead of myself and hopefully will have pictures of this next week.

Taping & mudding drywall

This week hanging the drywall was completed. The next step is to tape and mud the seams. I was amazed at how much of this was already done when we got there yesterday. Two guys were working and they really knew what they were doing and how to do it. Another thing in our favor is that the mud dried very quickly. In Upstate NY it is customary to apply a coat and then come back the next day to apply another coat. Here I think they could apply 3 coats in a single day and the previous coats would be more than dry enough to apply the succeeding coat.



I was really happy to see how much having the walls up in the shop brightened it up. The walls will be painted an off white so that should really improve visibility, very important for aging eyes.



I don't think I have shown a shot of a nicho recently. This is looking up the stairs and the one below is looking at the same nicho from the opening overlooking the stairs.



A standard picture of the kitchen.



And another one looking more toward the breakfast nook.



This phase should be complete by Thursday at the latest, then another crew will begin applying texture to the selected walls. They will also start applying the stucco to the exterior this week now that the nailing of the drywall is complete.

I hope that I haven't "board" everyone with all this talk of drywall.