Interior doors coming online

   With the final bank signing behind us, nothing is standing in our way to reach the finish line.  Despite the slight delays in funding, steady work still moved forward with progress on both the interior and exterior.  Lots of new word working supplies are staged around the house for yet another finishing phase of installation and installed tile steadily spreads into all areas of the house.

   The thinner stainable beadboard was installed in the barrel vault.  It seems like it makes the radius of the curve lesser, but it's probably because we're not seeing the internal structure anymore.  It follows the curve of the front door so I know it's correct.  The wood will be stained as close to the mahogany color of the door, Azek deck, and garage door as possible.  Coordinating all four colors will be difficult but if they're pretty close in color, it will be good enough.

   Here's an oddly blurry picture of the barrel vault; I'm not sure why this didn't come out better.  The beadboard slats are red cedar, but will be stained darker to match the deck.  I'm not sure how that will come out, but cedar is a good material to use outside.  This is the same beadboard that will go up in the gazebo ceiling and will be stained the same dark brown mahogany color.

   Installation and grouting of the exterior granite cobble stone is completed and the limestone ledge is in place.  There are still some joints in the ledge stone that need to be filled, but it's pretty much done.  There might be some grout filling down to the white drip edge, but I'm not sure if they'll do that after deck installation. Construction on the deck can now commence and some of it has been installed in other parts of the house.  I'm not sure where the pressure treated wood stacked here is going since all the deck structure is completed.

   Here's the front porch on the other side of the front door.  It looks like all the ledge stone has been grouted, but there still might need to be some finishing at the bottom of the stone.  Some of the smaller pieces are missing around the electrical receptacle so I guess that's proof that there's still some finishing work to do.

   The entire side of the house looks the same as the front with regards to the exterior stone.  The Azek deck boards will run perpendicular to the floor joists, so they'll run the length of the porch.  They're twenty foot pieces, but the porch is much longer than that, so there will still be some butt joints down the course.

   The lower porch pylons were completed and the exterior stone and limestone cap has been installed.  Grout still needs to fill the gaps between the stones, and the farthest pylons still need some stone, but that will be completed quickly.  After this is completed, the only remaining task is the application of the stone to the chimney.

   As expected, the single piece, square, limestone caps were cut down the middle and a gap was created to allow the post to pass through.  Also as expected, not all of the posts were perfectly centered in the middle of the pylon, and the wood boxing will have to conceal the variance between the posts.

   Here's one that was off center from the pylons.  You can sight down the pylons and see that they're all straight.  Also, the posts are plumb and the beam they attach to is a steady eight feet from the house, so I'm not sure where we're getting out of parallel.  This is the last post in the line and it's off by a half a thickness so the final box around the post will have to be at least two times the width of the post.

   These are the last three pylons that need stone applied and I'm sure Old Country Stone will make short work of finishing them.  It looks like OCS had to remove some of the finished stone on the wall where the last pylon sits.  This last pylon will probably look integrated into the wall itself once completed.  The lowest course of stone on these pylons will be below grade.  You can see the limestone ledge on the basement sliding door, which will be partially covered by grade, and paver patio some time in the future.  The ground will have to grade away from the house and there's a good foot or so that will need to be filled to accomplish this.

   Moving inside, pieces of cedar bead board joins the every shifting stock of interior trim.  Much of the window trim has been exhausted, and the remaining pieces are probably slated for door trim, once they're installed, and baseboard trim.  Now that the interior doors are in the house, there will probably be a hiatus on the trim installation while the doors are set.  After that, the door trim can be completed and the baseboard trim can go in since proper installation relies on a finished door trim.

   A door and door frame sits at every door opening in the house.  These two are sitting in the kitchen, but they're the two garage doors, one for the mudroom and one for the garage storage.  These door frames are different in that they're the thickness of the ICF wall and they have weather striping to seal out the cold.

   All the interior doors are solid wood, but the fire doors alone have these fire-rating tags on them.  I'm not sure if they're made from a different wood or how they're constructed differently than the other interior doors, but these have a 20 minute fire rating.  The holes for the door hardware were already drilled and the material looked like an LVL on all the doors, but knocking on the panels didn't yield any difference in the materials.

   All the interior doors look the same, although they have some varying width.  We tried to get all the doors at 34-36", but some are 32". All doors are eight feet tall with the only exception being the powder room door, whose height was limited by the rotunda structure.  The increased height and weight of the solid doors necessitate four hinges rather than the standard three and all the hinges have ball bearings between the mating surfaces to make moving the door easy.   The height of the door makes the width look narrow.

   Here's a close up of the hinges.  Square mortise brushed nickel finish with ball bearings on the resting surfaces.  The door is on the left and the casing on the right with the ball bearings.  The doors on our current house are hollow core with three brass curved mortise hinges.  A black powder that looks like charcoal dust would build up around the hinges.  This is because of the wearing of the metals grinding to powder and oxidizing.  Even with frequent lubrication, we would get this black powder so ball bearings should prevent this, while allowing us to easily swing the heavy doors.  The hinges are made by Penrod and having a square corner rather than a radius makes them a little harder to install.  You can't use a round router bit to mortise the hinge plate, but you can use a router to remove most of the material and either a chisel or corner strike to cut the sharp corners.

    The pantry doors are currently sitting in the pantry.  When it comes to interior design, I'm generally hands off, relying on better minds than mine to make the aesthetic decision.  This is one small part that I gave my input on since I see it as more of a functionality thing.  The pantry is big enough for us, but it isn't a huge room and it sits near a traffic intersection.  I though it would be a good idea to install a vertically split, spring hinge double door in the pantry for a few reasons.  If your hands are full, you can just push open the doors for entry/egress.  If we had a single door, it would either have to swing in, reducing the wall space for shelving, or swing out, blocking the traffic flow and pantry doors are rarely closed after use, so it would have been a hindrance. The narrow doors don't impinge upon the walking space much when pushed out, and occupy less space when pushed in.  I really had to lay out my reasons and I hope this works out since it was all my idea.

   The spring hinge mechanisms are cut into the bottom of each door, but otherwise, the door just has a pin on the top and bottom to swing on.  A decorative metal plate covers the hinges and there's usually a "stay open" position you can push the door into if you really need it to stay out of the way.  These doors have a slight radius eased into the edge so they clear the door jamb during operation.  They have a similar arch top panel style, but are bisected by a vertical stile since there are two doors.  I don't think they'll look out of place, and we might consider adding a metal plate for a pushing surface.

   Wall tile in the mudroom bathroom has been installed, but none of the floor tile is in yet.  This is going to be a more utilitarian bathroom, and we just happened to have enough room for a shower.  It works out well because we can use it to wash a dog or people can use it to shower off after coming in from the future swiming pool.  It's easy access from the back yard through the mudroom exterior door, and there's all tile surface in the mudroom so we don't have to worry as much about dirt and drips.

   The mudroom bathroom vanity has also been assembled and set.  Since we have an odd angled wall in this room, we got the vanity designed to fill the space with these shelves.  It's probably a good place to store extra pool towels because anything else might not look good on an open shelf.  The counter top will be a solid surface material and the sink will be a bit larger than standard undermount to provide a little extra utility.

   The garage has finally been taped and mudded, but doesn't have any primer applied.  The incorrect master balcony doors haven't been taken away yet but almost everything else has been removed from the garage.  Garage doors are expected in the next few weeks, which should add some light to the space, but I'm not sure when paint will be completed.  Eventually, we'll want to epoxy the floor since we've had great results with the DIY kit we applied in our current house.  That might be after move in depending on the cost and how long it puts the garage out of commission.

  This piece of curved railing is currently sitting in the greatroom.  Besides the obvious curve, there's a slight curve in the vertical direction.  I wasn't sure where it would fit at first, but after exploring the rest of the house, I'm pretty sure this is the stair railing for the first floor.  The railing will begin at a newel post at the bottom of the stairs and end at another newel post at the top of the stairs so I don't think there will be a vertical transition to the rotunda railing.

   The underside of the rail is on the left and the top is on the right.  We went with a pretty standard and simple design, with a small bead running the length on both sides and a nice depression to grab onto.  It looks like it's made of red oak and will be stained dark to match the floors.  The floors are white oak smoked and stained dark, so the wood species is a pretty close match.  I think the color staining will be close as well.

   I almost missed the basement stairwell railing, sitting on the stairs, but there it is.  We're only required to have one railing, by code and I think it's better to only have one.  There's standard hardware available to attach railing to a wall, and I don't expect anything fancy will be used.  I'll have to ask my aesthetically minded counterpart if she wants something cleaner looking than the standard.

   The master bedroom eyebrow window trim is complete and ready for paint.  The top curve window casing is just the kerf cut MDF without and veneer applied.  I'm not sure if it's going to stay that way since it's just going to be painted, or if they'll apply a veneer to it now that it's in place.  The latter would be a pretty difficult thing to do now that it's up and the MDF might provide a good enough surface once painted.  Either way, I think they did a fantastic job with the trim and the shape really makes the room.

   One finishing surprise is that the master bedroom dividing wall was clad in the "reclaimed wood" material.  I think it's meant for floors and it's a luxury vinyl product meant to simulate real wood.  It's about a quarter of an inch thick and has a very realistic texture, complete with radial saw marks.  We chose this material because of the thickness and ease of installation.  We needed something thick enough to miter on the corners to achieve the wrap around effect, which I think turned out well.  The TV will be mounted on the bed side of the wall, but we don't have plans for the sitting area side of the wall just yet.  I think it looks good and adds some character to the room considering it's a large dividing wall.

   Another surprise is that Azek decking on the master bedroom balcony is completed.  I knew deck installation was going to be starting up, but didn't expect this to be the first to be completed.  Since the exterior doors aren't installed yet, we almost missed this addition, but we happened to be looking out the window and saw it.  The temporary balcony door is held shut by four wood screws and since we didn't have a way to remove them, we just climbed out the window to check out the new decking.  The balcony is eight feet deep and ten feet wide, so it will be big enough for a couple chaise loungers and a small table, which is plenty big enough for our use.  We ended up lying around out here for a bit, just talking about life in general, something that we'll probably duplicate many times in the future.

   The Azek is the mahogany color in the "vintage collection" line.  It's well textured and has some darker streaks that provide a nice wood grain appearance.  There's a barely noticeable PVC off-gassing scent which will probably fade after time and the surface was a bit hotter in the sun, but not too hot to touch.  There have been some issues with color fading and chalking, but I'm hoping they've improved their material quality, or that our decks will be in the shade enough to not be affected.  The boards are grooved on both long edges and accept a hidden fastener system so no face drilling is necessary.  The fasteners are visible through the board gaps, but they're not unsightly.  The sleeper joists here are spaced 16" apart so the deck has a very slight give to it when you try to bounce on it.  The first floor deck is spaced 12" OC to reduce this feeling so it will feel much more solid.  I'm happy with the install up here and expect the first floor deck to look just as nice.

   Here's a look at the balcony as a whole.  Some cedar shingle still needs to be installed on the angled dividing wall, both sides and we there will be a glass rail up here.  The front of the balcony will have a standard installation, but the angled part will have a triangular shaped piece of glass to match the angle of the roof.  I'm excited about having this extra sitting space off our bedroom.  It provides good views of the lake, future pool if you're close to the rail, and gazebo if you're at the rail.

   Prep of the master bathroom tile install comes in the form of the installation of our master vanity!  These are Omega cabinets with a continuous grain walnut slab door with a floating vanity between two towers.  The space under the vanity will be lit with low voltage lighting and the entire back splash will be tiled to the ceiling.  Two Robern medicine cabinets will be installed in the spaces and we'll have three wall sconces for face lighting.  The faucets are wall mounted and the sinks will be some kind of semi-basin design.  This is way more storage than we have now, but we also don't have a small linen closet in this room, so I think many of the linens will be kept in the towers, along with toiletry resupply storage.  I honestly don't know what I'll do with all the drawer space since I currently use the space under my sink and one drawer for all my stuff.  Counter top items will be kept in the medicine cabinets, keeping the counter clean (ideally).

   The drawers under the sink are "U" shaped to provide space for the drain plumbing.  Since we have drawers in this cabinet, an under mount sink is not possible.  I think this was a decision made way back when we ordered the cabinets, but honestly I can remember now.  I don't think we have the sinks in this room nailed down yet, but I'm pretty sure we don't want a bowl shaped basin sink.  Maybe something similar to what we're doing in the powder room with a semi-recessed basin if the drawer configuration allows for it.

   The cement board in the master bathroom shower has been completed and coated in Redguard waterproofing.  Apparently, cement board itself isn't completely water proof, as well as tile and grout, so an additional waterproofing membrane is needed, hence the Redguard.  With this step, the bathroom is ready for tile.

   Here's another look at the wet wall of the shower.  The two large circular things at the bottom are mixing control valves.  The left controls the shower and the right controls the hand shower and overhead shower.  The and shower will be between the two mixers.  You can see the master closet door past the shower entry on the left and master bathroom door through the shower entry on the right.  We're not planning on installing any doors on either of these two shower entry ways but I have concerns that the shower will feel cold since all the heat and steam can escape into the bathroom.  The door openings are 28", which sounds narrow, but our current shower has the same width opening, so maybe that's a standard measurement.

   It seems like the laundry room is becoming the room where everything gets finished first.  It was the first room with a completed tile floor.  First with all the cabinets installed, and now it's the first with baseboard molding installed.  The baseboard is similar to the window and door molding with a two step design and it's very tall.  I'll have to take a tape measure to it, but I'm estimating it's seven or eight inches tall, which seems to fit in just fine.

   All the doors are present in this room, but need to be installed.  As you can see, much of the baseboard has been installed, save for the areas near the door since they require a finished door trim to terminate into.  We're planning on pulling out the base cabinets that flank the washer and dryer so that they'll be flush with the front of the machines.  This will increase the depth of the countertop, but provide a more finished look to the space.  The original plan was to have the machines sit proud of the side cabinets.  Adding that depth shouldn't hinder access to the wall cabinets above them.

   Distinctive Designs also finished the covering for the center style on the laundry room window.  They created a box to cover the insulation and board that separates these two windows, and I think it came out rather nicely.  Simple design, but adheres to the over all look of the rest of the window trim.

   The turret bedroom is turning into the staging area for the rotunda woodworking finishes.  It's currently holding the rotunda railing, all three newel posts, and the floor bullnose trim pieces for the rotunda floor.  The rotunda railing is in three parts, but will probably be cut to fit the railing support posts other than the newel posts, if there are any.  The three newel posts were boxed up for protection, but one of them was opened, giving me the opportunity to take a peek at it.

    Like the railing, the newel posts are made of red oak, and have a paneled design like the first floor walls of the rotunda will.  There's more detail and profile on these than there are in the rest of the house, but the style is similar to what will be on the front porch posts.  They'll be cut to height during installation and the railing will attach to the flat surface near the top.  These will also be stained to match the railing and floor color.


   Here's a close up of the top of the newel post.  It has a rounded off square cap that matches well with the level of detail in the rest of the house.  A carved, figured top would have been out of place so something cleaner seems to fit well.

   Here's a close up of the top part where the railing will attach to.  There's no paneling detail on this section since you need a flat surface for the railing to attach.  The section below it is paneled, supplying much of the fine detail to the post.  The post is pretty heavy overall and very solid feeling.  I haven't gotten a time line on the installation so when it goes up, it will be a nice surprise.

   If you're wondering how they constructed the curved railing, this will explain it all.  There are actually ten separate quarter-inch thick pieces of red oak laminated together in a curved jig.  The inner and outer pieces are thinner and selected to be of clearer stock since they're the most visible.  These two pieces are thick enough to take the carving of the profile so the removal of material doesn't cut down to the other laminated layers, or else you would see the outline of the mismatching woodgrain.  The balusters we'll be using are tubular stainless steel so I think these will just be drilled into the wood, or an inner mounting sleeve will be attached over which the baluster will slide.

   These pieces confused me at first, because I wasn't sure what function they served.  After thinking about it for a bit, I realized that they're the bull nose trim that will run on the floor around the inner rotunda.  The wood floor doesn't have a trim piece that can finish off the edge of the floor so Distinctive Designs is making these pieces so the floor has something to terminate against.

   Here's one of the pieces in place.  The underside is cut and the floating edge is rounded to provide a finished edge.  I'm not sure if these pieces are just for testing or if they'll all be this short.  Since the board itself is pretty wide, I'm guessing that they'll need to make these pieces short to accommodate for the curve of the rotunda.  The trick will be matching the wood grain so it doesn't look segmented as it makes its way around the hall.

   Two of the three round windows have been completely cased and trimmed ready for primer and paint.  The large round window in the turret bedroom, at the center front of the house was unexpectedly larger, requiring the window trim to be cut down a bit to fit the closet wall, but that seems to be the worst of the fitment issues.  The round casing turned out really well and makes the window really feel like a portal or ship port hole.  The reveal of the window frame itself with respect to the casing is uniform which really adds to the quality of the install.

   The wall tile in the turret bathroom has been completed and is awaiting grout and the shelf tiles.  When the grout is applied to this wall, the tile in the turret bathroom will be near completion.  Some of the bathrooms are getting a tile wainscoting, but I don't think this is one of those rooms.  When the doors are installed and the door trim completed, this will nearly complete the room.  Just counter, sink, toilet, and finished plumbing will be needed.  We haven't decided what we'll do about the tub with respect to water control.  We don't really like shower curtains, but it might be easier to use one while the kids are still young and we need to wash them.  A sliding glass shower door is definitely better, but make the opening smaller.  We'll probably end up using a shower curtain and later changing it to a glass shower door of some kind when the kids get older.

   Here's how one of the oval windows turned out.  It's as good as the round window up front and I'm really glad we got these installed.  The other windows mask the thickness of the walls a bit, offering a good sill to sit on, but the thickness of the walls are exaggerated more on the round windows for some reason.  There's no reason to put a window covering on the upstairs windows, but there's one oval on the first floor in the guest bathroom that we might want to consider blocking for privacy.  It's on the porch and the interior may be visible from the outside.  I'm not sure what our options are for oval windows but I'm guessing it will have to be a specialized design.

   The compound windows on the first floor in the dining room and study also got the center divider covering, completing the trim out.  We're still debating using window coverings on these windows since we're out in the middle of the woods, but even with the finished trim, we have plenty of sill space for blinds or curtains.  I think we would like to keep them open since we like the depth; it makes a short bench to sit on.  I'm thinking that nearly all the window trims are completed, just in time for the interior door and associated trim install.  A couple of more weeks and the baseboard might be completed too, which would put us on track for painting at the end of June and wood floor after July 4th.  

   In the beginning of the final interior push, I found it hard to believe that it would take three more months to complete everything, but now I can see the amount of work left.  Even with the work load, everything is progressing quickly with new and exciting developments every week.  Next weekend, we'll probably see the installation of a few of the interior doors.  I think paint colors are the next big decision to make with hardware second.  As long as we have all the finish plumbing and electrical decision made, everything else is in the clear.  14 weeks left!

Finished Tile Floors!

   Progress continues to push forward on multiple fronts with the continued install of exterior granite cobble, tile floors in the bathrooms, and finished carpentry throughout the entire house.  Everything is really coming together well and the soul of the house is finally starting to show through.  Mike has gotten this project back on track and continues to knock down milestones on time or ahead of schedule.  While we're not on the final finishes, we're one stage ahead of it.  If the walls are the bones of the house, the exterior and drywall is the skin, then we're on the distinguishing features with the finished carpentry.  The finished electrical and plumbing will be the jewelry.

    The concrete retaining wall is completed.  The mortar is filling the joints and a limestone cap tops the wall.  The original landscaping plans called for a bluestone wall cap, but I think the limestone will work better.  While it's not the same stone that's on the back deck, it's much flatter than the bluestone, which will accept the fence that needs to be installed on top of the wall better.  I think the wall turned out really well and it's a shame it's not more visible.  I think once we have the catwalk deck installed at the end of the garage, you'll be able to see the wall better, so I'm glad we got it finished so nicely.

   Here's a closer look at the limestone wall cap.  This is on the driveway side and the cap sits flush to the wall.  The edge on this side of the wall is finished smooth and the other side has a rough honed finish and overhangs the wall.  Since we'll have plantings on this side of the wall, you don't want any overhang.  The limestone provides a super clean look and finish.  The stone on the wall be added to this edge to finish the look.

   Here's what the rest of the limestone wall cap looks like from the driveway side.  There's so much fill we need to bring in, but the cap will eventually be at grade.  We had a meeting at the site with multiple parties, one of which was Great Oaks.  Mike wanted to coordinate responsibilities and grade requirements with Great Oaks.  It was decided that Mike would provide a finished grade and Great Oaks would come in to provide the landscaping grade.  Finished grade means that Mike will be responsible for bringing in the majority of the fill dirt to achieve proper grading away from the house.  This should happen in the next few weeks now that we're just about out of the heavy machinery era.

    Old Country Stone is also working on installing the cinder block pylons for the bottom of the wrap around deck supports.  These pylons will also be covered in the same granite cobble stones that adorn the rest of the house.  A limestone cap will be placed on top of the pylon and a wooden post wrap will be applied to match the ones above.  Besides this and the remaining wall stone above on the porch, the only other installations to complete will be the stone on the chimney.

   As we've come to expect from the previous builder and build crew, the posts aren't always centered in the concrete pad.  Fortunately, there are ways to hide this.  The pylons aren't really supporting weight, so one side can float off the pad as long as it's tied into the other cinder block.  Although this offsets the post in the pylon, the wooden post covering will conceal this.  The most important part in setting the cinder block pylon is that it's centered to the beam above, and that they're all in line with each other.  Luckily, all the other discrepancies can be hidden.

   For all the posts, I think there's only one with the post in the middle of the pylon, and the pylon positioned well on the footing.  The pylons are all lined with reference to the porch beam and the discrepancies in the post position will be taken up by the wooden post wrap.  When this is completed, you won't even know there's an issue. The post in the first tier of the retaining wall won't get the same treatment.  The footing is buried deep in the ground so we can't install a pylon.  We'll be painting this, along with the posts under the front porch, black so they can just disappear into the landscaping.

   These are the limestone caps that will be placed on the pylons.  In turn, the wooden post wraps will be sitting on these.  I'm not sure how they'll install these since there's going to be a metal post going up through the middle.  I'm guessing they will mark where the post penetrates and cut a hole with a diamond hole saw, then split the stone in two to clamshell it onto the post at the top of the pylon.  They're working their way though these projects pretty quickly so if we should see some good progress next weekend.

   OCS also got a lot done on the exterior cobble stone above the front wrap around porch.  Here's the section of deck next to the garage, to the right of the front door.  All the stone is applied and all that's left is the mortar and limestone ledge.  They installed down to the white flashing, which gives space for the Azek deck board to slip under.  I think Mike said that we'll be installing the deck boards soon.  With the number of guys in the OCS crew, I think they'll be able to finish the remaining cobble stone above the deck by the end of the week or early next week.

   All the cobble stone has been applied to the front of the house, but mortar and limestone ledge still need to be completed.  They don't have a full deck to sit on, but that's probably for the best since there's always some mortar dropping down off the pieces they're working on that would probably damage the Azek.  They make do with plywood sheets and boards to stage the stone and sit on.

   This is how far OCS got on the side of the house.  There's stone staged up, ready for installation and it's a pretty straight shot to the next corner.  Since this area is covered by the porch roof, they'll be able to work on it rain or shine, as long as the temperatures don't get below freezing, which they shouldn't at this time of year.  I'm hoping that they'll progress through this quickly so we can finally get the deck installed.  The Azek is on site, ready to be installed, but I'm not sure if it's all here.  Finally having a full deck will be a pretty big milestone.

   Inside, Distinctive Designs charged ahead with completing the coffered ceiling.  At first, I didn't even consider having something like this installed on the ceiling, but I absolutely love how this turned out.  It would have been such a blank slate if something wasn't done and I don't think it's too over the top, especially since we'll be painting it white.  Maybe if it was stained a dark wood, it could come off as more pretentious, but going white with a non-white ceiling will look nice.

   Here's an angle of the ceiling from the fireplace column.  The wide spot in the beam will be used as a space to mount a base plate for a decorative light that will suspend down in front of the fire place column.  Now that the beams are in places, I'm really glad we didn't put a light in every coffer.  It would make the ceiling look way too busy and would probably be unnecessary.  I'm also glad we figure out a good way to wrap the coffer beams around the fireplace column.  It allows the coffer beams to act as a header across the rotunda overlook, but incorporates the rotunda landing into the great room.

   Here's what the coffered ceiling looks like from the rotunda landing.  You can see how the beams wrap around both sides of the fireplace column.  I think there will be a crown molding installed on this side of the beam as well, but I can't recall if we're getting it around the entire rotunda landing.  The coffer beams will provide a nice stopping point for the fireplace column stone and adds a nice finished look.  I was worried the coffered ceiling would drop down too much and be visually obtrusive up here, but it doesn't make the space feel shorter at all.

   The window casings have also been completed in the great room.  They used the back kerfed MDF to complete the arched tops on the upper windows and installed all the casings.  The next step in this room is to implement the paneling that will integrate all the windows into one architectural element.  We've seen some rough drawings of the concept, but haven't seen a final design.  We'll probably never put curtains on these windows, so this element will always be visible.  Just another thing to add visual interest in the room without being too obtrusive.

   Here's how they made the curved window trim molding, which I though was very creative.  Rather than cutting the molding from a single piece of wood, like the other trim moldings around the house, Distinctive Designs made the curved moldings from quarter inch laminated strips of poplar, probably created and clamped into a jig.  Since the profile of the molding is pretty simple, stepping from thin to thick with a slight round over on the transitions, narrower width laminated strips could be used and no cutting of the final piece would be involved.  This wouldn't be as easy to create if we used a curved molding profile, like an ogee, since the piece would need to be curved on a compound plane.  Going with a cleaner and simpler profile was a good suggestion.

   Here's a better angle of the molding profile.  It will be mitered into the straight pieces of molding and all the profile elements will match up perfectly.  The wood grain color isn't important since it will all be painted white.  After it's painted, you would never be able to tell it's comprised of multiple pieces of wood.

   Distinctive designs has also completed and place, but not set all the curved casings for the oval and round windows.  They made it form the same back-kerfed mdf with veneer applied to the inner surface.  For these, they used contact cement and formica on the outside curve to keep the curve shape.  When it's not installed, there's still a slight flex overall, but there's no risk of it getting smashed flat.  It's pretty amazing that all the round windows will have a tube-like casing.  I'm sure they'll make the trim molding in a simliar fashion to the curve-topped windows.  When we were originally pricing trim installers, one suggested we use a rubber molding product that could be bent to any radius we desired.  I'm glad we went with Distinctive Designs since while the rubber would look good once painted, it would still feel like rubber when touched.

   Here's the large curved window trim for the master bedroom window.  It was made in the same laminated manner as the other curved windows and just needs to be mitered for installation.  I think we're on week three of trim work and nearly all the windows are completed.  It seems like there are two crews working for Distinctive Designs; one on the specialty install pieces, like the coffered ceiling, and one installing all the trim work.  We are getting our interior doors supplied by them so there will probably be a door crew on site soon.

   The trim in the turret is going up as well with the continuous bottom trim already installed and all the side pieces already cut.  The continuous bottom trim is a great detail.  If we had used individual trims on the bottom, there would have been very small gaps between each window, not enough to add any significance to the room.  Combining it all almost creates a lower skirt and adds a nice enclosed ambiance to the turret.  The tops will be separate since there's no overhang to them.

   Construction of the continuous trim is as creative as the laminated curved trim.  Again, rather than cutting the trim from a single piece of wood to be bent around the room, built up the trim from three pieces of wood of proper thickness.  The thinner strips of wood are easier to bend and the design of the profile allows the build-up to happen naturally. This also adds the advantage of not having a single continuous vertical seam in the trim, which can sometimes be visible even after paint.

   Omar the tile installer was hard at work installing tile in all the bathrooms.  We talked to him during the Thursday design meeting last week and confirmed all the tile locations and installations specifics with Margaret.  We're getting tile in all the bathrooms, mudroom, and laundry room, so there's a good amount going in.  Some of the bathrooms will have tile going up the wall like a wainscot, while most will have just a baseboard tile installed.  All the shower and tub walls will have tile installed, but none on the ceilings.  There's almost a different color grout in each bathroom, matched to the color of the tile.  I didn't even know they made grout in so many colors. During the week, Omar completed the laundry room, and laid and grouted floor tile in all the smaller bathrooms.  Here's the floor tile in the guest bathroom.  It gets a little tricky in here since there's zero threshold shower, but it was discussed at the design meeting.

   Here's the laid and grouted floor tile in the other bathroom upstairs.  Wall tile still needs to be installed in the tub area, but the floor is completed enough to get the base cabinet in and set.  Holes were drilled in the cabinet to allow the drain and water supply to pass through.  These grouted tile floors are the finished floor for as long as we'll be alive and it's an encouraging thought that we're currently walking on a final product.

      The tile in the turret bathroom was already laid last week, but Omar grouted the tile this week and the base cabinet has been placed.  There was some debate if the tile extending into the walk in closet beyond was supposed to be implemented, or if we wanted wood floor installed.  At the design meeting, we decided that it's okay that the tile was installed since there will be so little floor visible once the closet system is installed.  You can see the round window case for the round window and the formica material applied to the back side of the flex MDF.  It's currently sitting where the toilet will go, but it should be installed soon.

  Omar has nearly finished installing the wall tile in the bathtub of the turret bathroom.  There's one more course of cut tiles to install at the top and the detail work of the built in shelf.  We decided at the design meeting to use a piece of counter top material on the bottom and middle shelf of the built in and the same wall tile on the back and sides.  There will also be a boarder of the same wall tile with mitered corners installed around the built-in shelves.

   The base cabinet in the turret bathroom was also placed and set, with all the plumbing supply and returns cut through.  Since this bedroom will be shared by our twin girls, ideally, each will have three drawers and half of the cabinet under the sink.  There's also a small alcove we'll be installing shelves in that can be used to hold other girly supplies.  I'm a little apprehensive about having the closet accessible only through the bathroom once they get into their teenage years, but I'm informed that girls share bathrooms all the time so there's no need for concern.  All the bathroom cabinets, save for the master, are made by Homecrest.  They come in at a nicer price point while still retaining a high quality, as well as full extension, slow closer slides and doors.

   The tile in the laundry room has been installed and grouted, completing the tile work in here.  Well, there will be a tile backsplash installed on the laundry machine wall, but that will wait until after the countertops are installed.  The baseboard in this room will be wood to match the rest of the house.  The floor drain will help ensure that any overflows or floods won't damage the walls or wooden base moldings.

   All the cabinets have been installed in the laundry room and the top finishing trim completed.
The left cabinet will have a deep basin sink for hand washing and the right has a drawer and two trash bins.  The laundry machines will be going in the space between, washer on the left and dryer on the right.  Yet to be installed are two panels that will support a counter top above the machines and enclose the washer and dryer.  We opted for open faced cabinets above the machines to make access easier at the high height.  We'll generally keep bottles of detergent or extra empty laundry baskets up there.  You can also see the installed curved window trim in this room, first to be completed.  The center trim still needs to be installed on all the windows and I can't wait to see how they pull that off.

   While tile hasn't started in the master bathroom, quarter inch cement board was installed on the curved wall in the shower, prepping for the tile.  A penny round marble tile will be installed on this side of the wall, as well on the wall of the vanity.  We sorted out other tile install details in this room, but I'll provide more details once installation commences.  There's a lot of detail going on in here and it's hard to keep track of it all.

   That's about it for this week.  We'll be signing the final bank documents this week, which will unleash the full amount of the loan for Mike to draw from.  I expect there will be an increase in activity after this is done, even though there has been a lot present.  In the next coming weeks, we should see more tile work, interior doors, exterior fill and grading, deck installation, stone completion, and finished woodworking trim.  Other than that, there's floor, exterior and interior paint and necessary landscaping installation before our certificate of occupancy can pass.  15 weeks left!