As I previously suspected, the progress updates from here on out probably won't be as spectacular, but they're still progress towards the finish. It could also be due to the fact that we visited the site just a few days after the last visit earlier in the week and also that we're in the odd week between Christmas and New Years. Despite the short work week, we're still seeing progress in the installation of the wood floors and finishing hardware installation. We took the girls to the house this visit to get in some good snow play time and mock-live in the house. Mike stopped by, on his birthday no less, to check up on the progress on the house and provide a timetable update. All the work from here on out is pretty straight forward. Electricians will be coming back this week to finish everything up and schedule the final electrical inspection. HVAC and plumbing final inspection will be scheduled soon since all those installations are complete. The shoe molding on the first floor is almost complete and will be installed on the second floor once the wood floor is completed. Some hardware and tile is still expected to be delivered in the new year, which will need to be installed before the final wax/oil coat is applied to the floors. Somewhere before that, we'll need to tag all the paint and wall touch ups. It seems like the final touches will take a couple of weeks alone but we're almost there.
There has been some discussion about how we should handle the transition between the foyer tile entry and the wood rotunda. Mike and Margaret are pushing for the transition to be straight. It makes a little sense since the transition between the study, dining room, and foyer are also straight. Wood floor has been installed up to the straight edge transition. The only issue I have with this is that the two wall corner points aren't the same distance to the front of the house. This will be adjusted by starting the tile install at the rotunda and making up the difference at the door. The other option is to make the transition between the two curved, following the radius of the rotunda. I'm not sure if this would equalize the tile issue, but we kind of like this idea because it preserves the unique roundness of the rotunda. The foyer tile is expected to be delivered the first week of January, which works in well with the timing of the final inspections.
Distinctive Designs has set up in the study as a cutting station for the installation of the shoe molding. They were set up near the great room, but it's probably easier to keep the dust to one room. They placed a protective pad under the saw horses to protect the floor. A piece is being wedged between the two air returns to impart the curve necessary for the rotunda pieces. Looking around the house, I think the rotunda is the last part of the first floor to be completed.
Most of the rotunda shoe molding is already in place with just the largest piece needing installation. The shoe molding seems to be going on pretty quickly with the painting being done in the basement. The final touch up painting will be performed by different painting crew that performed the initial painting. I'm not sure if the the first painters were booked or if Mike likes someone else for the finishing work.
We're still waiting for the front panels to be installed on the fridge, freezer, and dishwasher, but there still a little more progress in the kitchen since the last update. The chimney for the hood will be installed this week, but most of the hardware on the cabinets is in place. It's the same hardware as used in the butlers pantry, with knobs on the doors and handles on the drawers. They offer great utility without distracting too much from the rest of the kitchen.
There are a few different size handles installed, depending on the size of the drawer it's installed on. We did chose to use two handles on the corner drawers because there's no real way to install only one. The garbage pull out on the right of the picture has a knob on it which is consistent with the knobs on the other door panels, but is mounted in the center top.
The knobs on all the cabinet doors have been installed, but I don't think the final adjustments have been performed. I didn't go through and open/close every door yet but there are some that are a bit too tight for good functionality. We only installed one knob on the corner cabinet hinged door to avoid confusion about which knob to grab. We got quotes on the glass for the cabinet inserts, so we'll need to finalize those details and order them as soon as possible.
The installation of the wood floor has moved into the rotunda on the second floor now with the master bedroom, rotunda landing, and second bedroom being completed. They almost got up to the elevator rough and should be able to complete this pretty quickly. Accuracy is needed on the railing side since there's no shoe molding to hide gaps. The transition from the floor to the top of the stair landing is perfectly flush and once stained, should be indistinguishable from each other.
Here's a closer look at how the wood floor meets up to the inner rotunda railing. I think the wood floor will get a bit darker when the final oil and wax finish is applied as the color is very closely matched elsewhere. These boards also might be a little lighter in color than the other pieces. Dust quickly accumulates even on these new pieces so a through cleaning will be needed before the final application.
The closet has been finished in the second bedroom since the last update. I'm tempted to bring a cordless vacuum and start cleaning up the dust in some of these rooms, but it will probably just get dirty again. I'm interested in how they'll clean the floors before waxing them. There's a special soap for washing the wood floors every time you want to rewax so maybe they'll just use that product. Maybe I can be on site when they perform the work so I can do it myself in the future.
The flooring installers have completed the wood floor in the master bedroom. There's still a transition piece that will need to be installed and stained between the wood floor and the master bathroom tile. As expected, the installation in here was pretty quick after they established the common center line with the rest of the house. The short curved wall to the right of the door probably took the longest for the installers to work through, but once that was established, the rest is a standard installation.
Here's the bed area of the master bedroom with the completed wood floors. There's a small stack of wood flooring being stored in here for the rest of the installation, but the installers are using the turret bedroom as the workstation from now on since it's the only place left in the house without installed wood floors. Since the installation is newer in here, there are fewer footprints and less dust, so the color is very close to what the final color will be. The wax/oil finish will keep the matte appearance and will have to be maintained periodically.
Here's an angle of the master bedroom from the bed area looking towards the balcony door and rotunda door. We're still working out the details of the TV installation and will probably just use the 37" we currently have in our master bedroom for this space. We'll be bringing our bed to the new house but currently have a dresser with a media hutch on top we'll have to see if we can reuse. It's holding clothes, which should all be able to go in the master closet, so the extra storage won't be necessary. There should be enough space to put it on the dividing wall if we want. Our nightstands will also be making the trip to the new house and will flank the bed, placed under each of the side windows.
Hardware installation has begun in the master bathroom. The large 10' handle have been installed on the larger drawers and tower cabinet doors, but we're still waiting for the 8" handles to be delivered. We're probably going to get two more 10" handles to install on the dummy drawer fronts under the sink, but because of the way the drawers were installed, it will be difficult. Those drawers were initially fully functioning drawers until we decided that we wanted an under mount sink. Rather than removing the front from the drawer, the drawer itself was cut to fit the sink, then made immobile. Now there's not enough room to install the handle screws so something else will need to be done.
Here's a closer look at the handles installed in the horizontal orientation on the drawers. The drawers under the sink are "U" shaped to accommodate the sink drain plumbing the drawers on either side are full length. The handles are deep enough to drape a wash cloth on if we wanted to, but we have hooks on the wall for stuff like that. There's definitely more storage than we currently use so it will be interesting to see how these get filled as we live in the house.
Here's a close up of the same handles in the vertical orientation. It's nice that they can be oriented in both directions so we didn't have to pick out different hardware for the tower cabinet doors. We'll have to be a little careful about opening these doors since they're close to the wall and towel hooks, but it's not like we'll be throwing these doors open with wild abandon.
The door handle was installed in the master closet storage door as well. I think all the interior doors have door handles installed now, but the handle on the garage entry door is missing the deadbolt. We'll need to pick out door stops for nearly all the doors around the house and we're not sure if we'll use a floor stop, a springy thing, or a solid thing.
That's about it for this week. We should be seeing more wood floor installation next week as well as grouting of all the tile backsplashes. We're still waiting for delivery on the turret bathroom backsplash tile as well as the foyer tile, which should be coming soon. The fridge and freezer panels should be installed soon as well as the dishwasher panel. Not much else left to complete now.
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