Another perfect day for a visit with temperatures in the low 80s and sunny skies. Progress on the porch columns leaped forward with the near completion of all columns on the front porch, above and below. All the fill sand has been spread and compacted in preparation for the driveway installation. On the inside, the rotunda railing is going into place and more materials are on site to complete the paneling. Rooms are starting to be prepped for final finishes. There's still a lot to do before we're finished, but each week is another step forward.
A new dumpster sits on the newly spread fill sand in the motor coach area of the driveway. Mike brought in enough fill sand to take the grade 15" below final, which is what Great Oaks requested for the driveway installation. The bulldozer used to spread and compact the sand is still on site since it will be required around the rest of the house. Great Oaks will be coming in this week to start the retaining walls needed on the back of the house so that final grade work can continue.
The fill sand is pretty well compacted and hard enough drive on. The dumpster gouged some divots in the sand, due to the weight and how it's dropped off the transport truck, but the multiple tire tracks tells me it's compacted enough. The sand near the walls is a bit softer since the bulldozer can't get close enough to it to compress. It's nice to finally stand on top of the retaining wall and now there's a ton of room up there to park vehicles and materials.
All the porch column wraps have been installed both above and below the porch. There's still a little bit of cove trim to install in the panels, but they'll make short work of that this week and they can be painted. Having all the columns completed looks fantastic, and they even fixed one on the front that looked like it overhang the porch roof too much. The columns look amazing and really add character to the house. We still need to figure out what we want to do with dressing up the columns on the round part of the porch, but we have a meeting this Tuesday so we'll nail down the design then.
This is the area that still needs some work. The rest of the porch has arches between the posts, but since this area is curved and lower, we couldn't install the same arches. Our idea is to add little "wings" to the tops of each post to mimic the arches a bit. They won't be connected between the posts, but it will give the illusion of a continuous arches.
The lower posts still need the cove trim in the recessed panels and I'm hoping that will be completed this week. After that, they need to fill the nail holes then they can be painted. The glass block for the mechanical room will be installed this week, finally completing the windows. It should provide more than enough light in there, while keeping security and privacy.
Here's what the lower and upper posts look like now that they're near completion. The white fascia will tie the lower and upper posts together nicely. I'm not sure if they're going to install a piece under the curved part of the porch. It's entirely possible to put some material there, but we would have to be concerned with trapping water there. Since it's close to the edge of the deck, water would make it's way between the boards. If there's a non-permeable material under there, water could get trapped and cause the wood decking structure to prematurely rot. The solution would be to install the material at a slight angle to drain water, or to use a perforated material so water could pass through. The latter solution seems easier to implement and I'm okay with that. They had a hose connected to the water supply in the basement that ran up to the front of the house. I'm not sure what they were using it for since the only water application would be for tile mortar. There wasn't any new tile installed, so maybe they were using it to spray down the fill sand to reduce dust.
A piece of rough sawn cedar was also installed on the bottom of the steel beam that supports the porch. I wasn't sure how they were going to finish this edge, and I'm happy with the implementation. This will also probably be painted white to match all the other trim. We've decided that instead of painting the red beam black, we'll try to find a gray paint. Gray will blend away a little better against the backdrop of the house and black might stand out a bit too much. We'll just have to locate a gray Rustoleum paint to cover those beams.
Here's the side porch looking towards the front of the house. While the fascia is installed, there's a widening gap between the top most fascia board and the lower two. It's tight at the rear of the house, but the gap increases as you go towards the front. I'm not sure why this is and I don't know what they can do to fix it, but hopefully they'll find a solution. It's not difficult to see, so something will need to be done about it.
The copper finial we ordered and had sitting in the house has been installed. I don't think any adhesive was used to attach it since there are shingles underneath it. Copper nails were used to nail straight through the shingle and roof decking. It doesn't have a large wind profile, so I'm not really worried about it blowing away, even with only eight copper nails attaching it.
Here's a little closer look at the final on the gazebo. The corners of the flange do line up with the roofline, but since the asphalt shingle softens the edges, the flange is spaced off the roof a bit. I don't think there's any need to worry about the application. The only thing I might worry about is wasps making a nest up there. They would probably get baked with all that heat, so there's probably no concern.
Here's one of the copper nails used to nail in the finial. I found this one nailed into a 2x4 so I know the length of the nail is probably about 2 inches. That should be long enough to get through the asphalt and bite into the roof decking. I tried looking around for the nails but couldn't find a local source for them. They're either a specialty item, purchasable through non-retail venues, or only special order.
A few materials remain in the study, for use in the interior mill work. Preset are a few bundles of the corner bead trim used tor the inside of the panels. There are also some gray painted lengths of wood of unknown purpose. The stair railing is being stored in this room as well. I haven't seen any of the railing balusters around, but I'm hoping they'll be here soon, just so I can see how they'll finally be installed. We probably won't see them until after paint and stain so we'll just have to be patient.
Distinctive Designs have started installing the rotunda railing. I guess they've completed installing the railing, but still need to install the individual balusters, but installation so far includes the railing and two newel posts. The railing itself terminates into the wall next to the turret room and there are no other supports between the newel posts. There are temporary posts installed to support the weight of the railing, which I assume will be take up by the baluster when they're installed. I didn't know that balusters could be structural, but ours are made of a solid tubular stainless steel so I don't doubt they could support the weight.
The stair railing still needs to be attached, and I think will probably need some kind of gooseneck height adjustment to land on the newel post correctly. The posts are hollow, and bolted to the floor with some manner of fastener. I'm not sure what they used since the holes are already plugged, but the posts are very stable with no wiggle to them.
Even though the balusters aren't installed, you still get the feeling that the rotunda is a little more closed off. It's amazing the difference a little visual horizontal rail makes to the feel of the room. I'm sure it will feel even more enclosed, smaller once the balusters are installed. The railing and newel posts will be stained dark to match the floor.
Here's the landing baluster, with the fastener plugs installed. Although these plugs will still be visible when stained, they won't be glaringly obvious. They're made from the same red oak, but the grain is different, which may affect how the stain is taken. This is really the only way to install these posts, so I don't have an concern.
The plugs for the terminating newel post aren't installed over the fasteners yet, but I couldn't get close enough to see what they used. Judging by the size of the holes in this picture, it just looks like some kind of wood screw, so I'm surprised they're so stable. Depending on the length, the lower screws might be tapped into the concrete floor, but the upper screws look like they're attached into the floor border.
Many of the rooms upstairs were closed off with blue painters tape. I couldn't determine why they would block them off other than noticing that these rooms were clean with no extra building materials in them. Perhaps they were indicating the rooms were ready for paint? It was a mix of bedrooms and bathrooms, but the laundry room wasn't closed off, which is the most complete. Whatever it is, it's exciting to think that they're getting close to some major phase.
The two gable pediments were painted and are awaiting installation. Distinctive Designs is going to be installing these two pieces, one above the laundry room window and one at the end of the garage. I can't wait to see how the house looks with these installed. Besides the corbels, it's one of the distinguishing elements that make this a Victorian house. The floor plan of the house could accommodate many exterior styling, so having these elements is important to define the feel of the house.
There are a couple of stacks of tile sitting in the garage right now that are slated to be installed in the master bathroom. We're still waiting on all the tile to be delivered before the work will commence. The master bathroom is one room where we had to scale back the amount of initial install. We had a beautiful tile all ready to purchase for the curved feature shower wall, on the tub side, but unfortunately, it's way over our budget and out of pocket coverage right now. The good news is that the wall can be painted right now and the tile can be applied at a later date, hopefully soon. We're trying to minimize these setbacks, but they'll inevitably come up. The powder room is another where we'll have to implement the full design after move in, with everything being stubbed. While inconvenient, it will be better to reserve completion of these special rooms until we have the cash.
I believe this is what we're using for the floor tile in the master bathroom. It's not a natural stone, but you couldn't easily tell just by looking at it. It's a porcelain tile made by Caesar Ceramic, called
Statuario Venato that is supposed to look like a Statuario marble and comes in a 2'x2' format. The master bathroom is also the only room in the house that will have in floor heating. Everyone else gets cold toes.
There were two boxes of these profile tiles sitting on top of the pile. Each box contained about 10 pieces and were very securely packed in special Styrofoam boxes. I know they're going in the master bathroom, but I'm not sure where they're going. We're not installing a wainscotting in the room like we did in the guest bathroom but these look very much like they're for that application. They appear to be made of real marble, so these are probably a very expensive tile. It will be exciting to see where they go.
The other stack of tile in the garage is made up of these. There's actually some of these thin tiles, and the rest look to be a 1'x2' format that I think is going on the shower walls. I could be completely wrong and these might be the floor tiles and the large porcelain ties are for the shower walls. I can't remember what was decided in the tile design meetings, so it will be a nice surprise to see what gets implemented. There is a large stack of these tiles, and a smaller stack of the larger format, so this could be the case. These thin tiles have a bull nose edge on one side, but they seem too short to be a baseboard tile.
Some hardware was added to the dutch door between the mudroom and kitchen. This astragal lock is similar to the one used on the study french door, and locks the top half of the door to the bottom. Since the top half doesn't have a door handle, or latching hardware, it can swing freely and not be held shut. When the astragal lock is engaged to the bottom half of the door, the dutch door operates like a normal door. When it's unlatched, it can swing freely and remain open as the bottom is closed.
Here's what the doors look like when they're not locked together. The astragal lock bolt just goes into a plate attached to the shelf in the lower door. the latching plate is surface mounted an not mortised down at all. I'm a little surprised they didn't mortise the plate down into the wood since it seems like there's more than enough room to do so. Maybe they'll still do it and just attached it temporarily to get the location correct.
We decided to leave a few finishing items at the house so they'll be available when the time comes to install them. We left the Tesla wall charger in the garage, the gooseneck exterior light in the pantry, and the dragon in the laundry room. The gooseneck lamp is meant to be installed above the exterior storage door, so the pantry was the closest, out-of-the-way location to store it. The dragon is in the laundry room because there isn't much left to do in that room and it was one of the only rooms upstairs that wasn't blocked off. With it comes the cardinal direction markers and the copper ball that separates the two. Hopefully they'll be able to install this soon.
These shelves were added to the turret bathroom in the odd space across from the vanity. We considered putting a door on this space and making it a formal closet, but with the position of the entry door, it would have been very difficult to access. We left it open so it could be used as open storage, or maybe a second vanity. We'll probably request to remove the lowest shelf so we can get a built-in, tilt out hamper made for the space, and maybe remove one of the higher shelves to get a counter top effect. Since we'll have two girls in here, it might be necessary to add some more "prepping" space in the shared bathroom. These will be painted gray to match the vanity in the bathroom.
I think the painter left a sample of the stain for the barrel vault and gazebo, but it was just sitting there, so I'm not sure if it's official or just an experiment. We'll find out at the paint meeting this week. Here's the sample of the stain next to the exterior mudroom door, since this is what it will be matching in the gazebo. It's a pretty close match, but not as dark, which is to be expected since it's a different wood species. I think it's a good enough match, especially since the two surfaces aren't right next to each other.
Here's the same sample sitting on the front porch Azek. This match will be a little more critical since it will be the color of the barrel vault above the deck itself. There's an obvious surface specularity difference, but the color itself is pretty close when you get rid of the reflection glare. I don't think the differences will be so glaringly obvious when you're standing in the space, especially since they'll have different light exposures.
I don't know if I've updated what's going on in the electrical panels lately so I though I would include a shot. Left to right is the geothermal panel, car charging panel, and main house panel. There's one sub panel in the outdoor storage space under the back porch that will be used for pool equipment when we finally get to pay that piper. The geothermal panel looks like it has all the required breakers to complete the installation. The EV panel has the two lines for the 100A and 50A circuit running to it from the garage, but still need the two breakers installed. The main house panel contains breakers for a few receptacles around the house, but that's it. Hopefully these will get populated soon, and I can call the energy company to come hook up the meters.
How we're going to cover all the insulating material in this room has always been a concern. By code, the foam does need to be covered with a fire blocking material, but the ceiling is so littered with electrical, plumbing, and HVAC, that it would be difficult to do so. Mike is looking into a spray application for the ceiling, but it looks like they're starting to install some drywall in here. There have always been some large drywall sheets in the basement, so maybe this is what they were slated for. I wouldn't mind the finished look of drywall, even if it isn't mudded and taped. I could do that myself at a later date.
That's about it for this update. Next update should see the last two exterior doors delivered and maybe installed. Stone work should start up again on the back porch. The fireplace is getting the metal surround this week so stone work should progress. We're meeting this week to choose interior paint colors so that might happen soon too. Some slightly bad news, Mike is requesting until the end of October for completion, so I guess we're adding one more month to the build. Considering all the extra interior millwork we added, I guess that's a reasonable request. There's still a good amount of work left and the extra time will allow us to get our current house in better order to sell. 7 more weeks!
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