July is starting to wind down, but progress continues on multiple fronts on both the inside and outside of the house. The painters have completed painting the exterior of the house and continue to apply touch ups for over sprays and nail patches. All the front porch columns didn't get up as expected, but progress can be seen. On the inside, it looks like paint or primer was applied in both the basement and garage and millwork continues to provide a finishing touch. Tile installation has started up again after a short hiatus and decisions were made about the finishes of the fireplace.
Not much has changed on the front of the house. The posts up here haven't been wrapped and the porch fascia hasn't been attached yet. Some of the little missing pieces on the curved porch have been filled in so besides the part in front of the door, the porch is finished. There were some paint and stain touch ups, which you can't really see since the errors weren't too obvious, and touch up has moved around towards the back of the house.
The side of the house shows some more progress on the posts. All the posts on the first floor have the primary wrap on, awaiting corners and final trim. The lower posts remain in the same condition as last week. Three posts on the first floor and seven on the lower and these will be completed. two more pieces of porch beam fascia were installed. These don't follow the curve since the porch beams are straight. While it would have been ideal to have curved porch beams, I don't think this will be too distracting.
The first coat of stain and trim paint was applied to the back of the house and I think there's still some touch up to be applied. It's great to finally get the trim in the gazebo painted so we can get an idea of what it will look like when completed. The gazebo posts still need to be painted, but that won't be done until all the pieces are on, which happens after the stone floor is laid. Old Country Stone should be coming back this week to start installing the bluestone tiles in the gazebo and back porch.
The ceiling of the gazebo remains unstained for now. The painter was supposed to leave a sample of the stain for us to sign off on, but I didn't see it on site, so I guess they're not ready for it. It will be the same color as the barrel vault on the front porch. We were originally going to paint the corner angle and octagon trim at the top white, but later decided that it would be too distracting. A dark wood ceiling should look really nice.
Here's a shot of the back, fully painted. I'm really happy with how this came out. Even though the mudroom door and upper window trims impinge upon the house trim, it doesn't look too bad when it's all painted the same color. This will probably be the side of the house that we'll need to monitor most for wear since it's south facing and will bear the brunt of the sun exposure. The other side faces north and will be beat on more by the winter weather, but it's largely protected by evergreen trees.
The mudroom door that we had such trouble fitting looks loads better with the trim painted. There's still a good (filled) gap between the door casing and the door trim, but I think cutting the trim to match the door frame curve was the right move. Painting the trim and gap filling caulk almost masks the issue and you would be hard pressed to notice anything out of place.
Here's the back porch on the kitchen sliding door side. The barbecue top still needs to be installed and we should start to see the bluestone floor soon. Once the stone is in, the columns can be (carefully) painted and we can figure out what we want to do for railing. The small vertical piece of trim that was added late makes the transition look more complete. I really like the slight gloss on the beadboard ceiling.
Here's a better view of the gazebo, hopefully the last one without the bluestone floor. The ceiling actually looks pretty nice as is, but we're going for a less distracting darker look. I think if the gazebo was in a more tropical setting, then the lighter wood color would be more appropriate. I love how the angle trim comes down on the white just enough to see the "spike". We still need to pick out a ceiling fan and anticipate it will be difficult to find something outdoor rated and attractive.
Moving in side, more work was completed on the millwork in the rotunda. All the panels are laid out and the vertical pieces of corner bead were installed. The curved top and bottom pieces have yet to be installed. Also new is the top of the halo around the inner rotunda. It's the lip to which the wood floor will be installed against and makes a continuous rim. The rotunda railing will also be installed on top of this as it ties into the stair railing.
Here's a closer look at the panels on the stairs on the inner rotunda wall. We decided that we liked the look of the uninterrupted vertical panels, and have no horizontal dividing panel frames. The baseboard still needs to be applied to this section of the wall, but you can see how it will look around the corner. It sits proud of the panel frame and share the same dimensions as the baseboard in the rest of the house.
Here's a closer look at the referenced corner. You can see the short baseboard section and its familiar profile. The curved part can't be constructed in the same way, so it will be built up in sections with the stepped profile remaining to be installed. It will probably be made of two strips of wood, each half the thickness of the final. The back piece will be taller and the front shorter, to form the steps. These thinner strips can be bent, glued, and nailed into place to fit the curve of the wall.
Here's the top of the halo, or maybe the lip of the floor? It's made of what looks like red oak, so the woodgrain will closely match the white oak walnut stained floor we're installing up against it. This should stain up to look the same. It's neat because although the railing will end into the wall at the last bedroom, the lip continues around the outer rotunda wall. It provides a good landing at the top of the stairs and will probably see the most wear at this point. The floor itself will be 3/4" engineered with a wax/oil finish, but I'm not sure we can mimic the same finish on the lip.
Here's where the stairs meet the lip. There will be a newel post at this point, where the stair railing transitions into the rotunda railing. With the lip in place, I'm not sure how they newel post will be attached. During earlier discussions, I was under the impression that the post would drop down below the level of the floor on the halo, but now that doesn't make sense. It seems like the newel post will be sitting completely on the floor lip. How they attach the post to the floor with adequate load bearing capabilities, I don't know. I would think it would take some steel posts drilled down into the floor or something.
The fireplace mantle on the second floor fireplace has been marked so the tile installers don't cover where the mounting plate will go. It's going to be an 8 x 60 inch reclaimed beam, cleaned up and stained. We got a chance to take a look at some of the reclaimed beams last week, and I'm really excited about how this will look. The beams come from old barns, probably made of some kind of pine considering our location. Sometimes, the mortise and tenon joinery held by pegs is still in place, so I'm hoping we can get a piece with that. The back of the beam has to be hollowed out a bit to accept the mounting bracket, but it will otherwise look like a floating beam.
Speaking of fireplaces, the first few courses of stone were laid on the fireplace column on the first floor. Samples of the metal fireplace surround were left on site so the tile installers know how far to space the stone as it returns towards the fireplace and we decided on a finished color for the metal. The stone is spaced off the floor by the thickness of the wood floor plus a gap.
I noticed that the plywood blocking the garage doors were off last week from the wireless trail cam and I wondered what they were doing. Apparently, they were priming the garage, but I don't think paint was applied. At least, we didn't sign off on any paint colors, but I'm not sure what other color you would want in a garage besides white. The airless paint equipment as still in the garage as well as some 5 gallon paint buckets, but I didn't think to look on the side to see what it was.
I believe these are the post wraps for the posts on the basement posts under the front porch. They're much shorter than the other posts so it's really the only place they could go. I'm not sure why they're sitting in the kitchen and not in a closer location, like the basement. Not much else has happened in the kitchen, but not much else needs to happen before the countertops go in. After that, I think the tile backsplash and floors will round out the finishes.
The basement was also cleared out of the arch making table jig, now that all the arches are done and a coat of primer was applied, or at least places were cut in with primer. There were some places that didn't look primed so I'm not sure if they missed it, if it's thin, or if they need to come back In any case, the basement is clean-ish and should stay this way, or cleaner, until we move in.
Tile installation started back up again with progress in the guest bathroom. The subway tie in the shower and wainscoting was installed as well as the top profile detail tile. It's a pretty simple and classic Victorian look that stands apart from the rest of the house. The small square tiles in the shower floor were also installed, but covered with cardboard to protect them while the wall tile was installed. There are two corner shelves that will be installed in the shower and are currently sitting in the closet nearby. The base tile out of the shower still needs to be installed. Eventually, we'll probably get a glass wall and door for this shower, but it won't be installed before moving in.
Here's what the tile at the top of the wainscoting looks like when it's not installed. The curve goes on the top and makes a little lip. The wainscoting is on both walls of the bathroom, going behind the toilet and continues as a back splash above the vanity.
Here's a closer look at the miter detail where the wainscoting meets the shower wall. The tile isn't grouted yet and I believe a white or slightly gray grout will be going in here. The profile tile isn't the same length as the subway tile so the grout lines don't match up exactly, but I think that's okay. This bathroom is one that we needed to bring the ceiling down on in the shower to accommodate for the plumbing in the second floor bathroom above. The height of the shower is 6 inches lower, so it's still taller than a standard ceiling height. In this instance, I really prefer the definition of the shower ceiling since the tile frames it in well on the sides.
The toilet side of the bathroom is unfinished because they can't install the backsplash until the counter top is installed. Counters have been measured and should be on their way soon so many of these bathrooms will be finished in the next few weeks. Good thing since we're winding down on weeks left on the build.
Another area where tile progressed was in the mudroom shower. This one isn't a zero threshold but the floor tile was installed but not grouted. This room is dark so I had to take pictures with the flash. The bottom course of wall tile still needs to be installed but the floor needed to be installed first. I think the same tile will be used as the threshold tile.
Here's a closer and less blurry look at the floor tile in the mudroom shower. It's a tight basket weave since it's missing the small square tiles found in some of the looser basket weaves. The tile has a light grey striation, but it's not a natural stone, and isn't priced like a natural stone. This bathroom is utilitarian so I don't think the dogs will mind not being showered in a marble shower.
That's it for this week. Good progress all around and much, much more to come. I'm hoping the rotunda and greatroom millwork will wrap up this week and we can start to see the millwork on the dining room ceiling. Tile progress is always welcomed but they have a ton of work to do on the fireplace column. Maybe we'll see some installed bluestone on the back porch in the next update, but I'm not sure when they're planning on coming out. There's only 5 more weeks until the end of August so I'm hoping we're still on track!
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