Woodworking: More details

   Back on track with the weekly updates.  I got a chance to visit the house on an incredibly beautiful summer day with temperatures in the low 80's and the ever present breeze to keep me comfortable.  I found incremental progress on all the items from the last mega update, so I decided to take some more detailed pictures since it seemed like there was too much to write about last week.  Omar, the tile installer was supposed to be back last week, but I didn't see evidence of any progress.  Distinctive Designs is hard at work completing the great room and moving onto the rotunda.  Porch posts wraps are still going up and are about 60% complete.  This update will be about lots of little details I was too rushed to see last week.

   Here's evidence of the beautiful day I was lucky to have.  The piles of fill dirt remain undisturbed and I haven't gotten a time table on when that will distributed.  The more I see the color on the house, the more I like it.  I was worried it would look too green at first, but it's really starting to look like a blue-gray to my eyes now.  There are some wood filler spots the painters need to cover, but besides that, it's only the trim that needs painting.  Forecast this week shows a good amount of rain, so I'm not sure that will happen this week.

   Here's the side of the house as you come up the driveway.  This is actually taken at a lower elevation that the driveway will be, so technically it's from the "front" yard.  Most of the front porch posts remain unwrapped as are the lower posts.  You can see nailers on the front of the beam that will attach the porch fascia during the final steps.  We're still reviewing porch railings since the ten foot spans between the posts is making it difficult to move forward with the original idea of using the Trex railing system.  The glass block in the mechanical room still needs to be installed, and it might be done by Old Country Stone when they come back to finish the mortar on the front porch.

   Here's a shot of the back corner of the house.  More beam fascia attachments are ready to go when needed.  It will probably be one of the last things installed on the deck.  This back section of deck needs to be removed and reinstalled since the installers forgot to tape the seams for the water catchment system.  Good thing they used screws to secure all the boards.

   I'm not sure if I posted a picture of the Trex RainEscape on the long section of the deck.  It doesn't extend all the way to the front of the house since we were interested in only covering the part of the deck that will be above the side walkout patio.  We'll still need to figure out how to attach the gutter system, and how to hide it aesthetically.  This weeks rain will see if we really needed something like this.

   An updated shot of the back of the house.  One day, a few years from now, we're hoping that all the landscaping will finally be finished.  I'll be able to look back on all these pictures I'm taking and recognize the change we brought to this piece of property.  Every week I visit, the details get smaller and smaller, but it seems like the effort to get them done increases.  Earlier in the built, all the problems were big, but it was much easier to see what needed to be done.  There are so many little details left, but we're good hands with Mike and his small army of workers.

   The back porch posts got their top caps installed this week.  I asked Mike whether they needed additional flashing to water proof them, and he assured me that the MDO is weather proof and requires no additional flashing, especially once painted.  The posts on the gazebo still require the capping parts and the bottom trim, which will be installed after the blue stone is set.  I had enough foresight this trip to bring a camping chair and take some time sitting in the gazebo.  Once again, no mosquitoes or bugs bothered me and got to enjoy the sounds of nature.  We really lucked out with the placement of the house with respects to the gazebo.  Angling the house on the property makes the gazebo jut out clear of the rest of the house, placing the gazebo out in the peninsula cross breeze.  There always seems to be a slight breeze blowing through here, which isn't present on the master balcony.  I'd like to say it was intentional, but this time we were just lucky.


   This is how the columns are topped in the angled corners.  It seems like nothing is standard in the gazebo and there are slight variations in each of them.  One of them is significantly different, but there's not much that can be done about it.  More of the previous builders errors coming back to haunt us.  At least it's not a structural issue.

   Here's the bottom of one of the gazebo post wraps.  Normally I would be apprehensive about seeing a wood based material sitting right on the concrete, but in this case, I think it will be okay.  First, it's the MDO, a marine grade plywood covered with a resin impregnated paper.  Second, the entire base will be under about two and a half inches of blue stone and mortar, limiting the water that will reach the base.  Lastly, the trim will be caulked around the base, further preventing water infiltration.

   All the gazebo posts have been wrapped and have top trim installed.  They still need the panel cove detail and bottom trim once the blue stone is installed.  The landscaping plans call for having a slightly raised garden on this inner corner of the back porch, removing the code requirement for a railing, but we might want one to additional safety and visual continuity.  I'm not sure when OCS will be back to install the blue stone, but there's talk of ordering counter tops for the kitchen and BBQ area.

   I haven't posted a picture of the end of the garage after stain yet so I'll get one in before any more changes happen here.  One more element that needs to be added on this side of the house is the addition of the gable pediment.  One goes here, and one goes on the front of the house above the laundry room window.  I have some more detail shots of the pediments later in this update.

   I climbed up on the retaining wall to get a shot of the piles of fill dirt from a different perspective to really show how much fill there is in this spot. I think that even when the piles here are distributed and compressed, we'll still need some more, some of which will be taken up by the driveway.  Mike will get the grade to where Great Oaks will need it to be so they can bring in the driveway base and asphalt.  There will be other places fill sand will be needed so this is just the beginning.

   Here's another shot of the driveway fill piles.  It's not just the area near the retaining wall that needs fill since the entire motorcoach way is low by a couple of feet.  It's probably about time to bring in Great Oaks to start construction of the driveway and porch steps, so getting this fill dirt in needs to happen before they can come in to bring the grade to final height.

   Three posts are now wrapped on the front porch, but not to completion.  The cove detail in the panels still need to be installed on the two newest posts.  I think they'll probably wrap the posts then install the cove details later.  If materials aren't an issue, we can probably expect all the posts to be wrapped in a couple of weeks, but all this is pending completion of the front deck.

   Here's the side porch near the back, to highlight the sealing tape for the Trex RainEscape.  The last few boards need to be installed, then Old Country Stone can come back and install the last bit of joint mortar down to the white flashing.  They left this unfilled so the deck installers had some flexibility in the flashing when tucking in that last board.  The deck installation as been put on hold as the owner and supervisor of our installation had a heart attack a couple of weeks back.  No debilitating damage, but I'm told the blockages required stents.  As traumatic as it was, he wanted to come in last week, but Mike told him to wait a bit before he started working again.  Need another example of dedication?

   So here's the current condition of the front/side porch.  All that's really left is the completion of the front corner, the part in front of the front door, which will be finished near move in, a few border pieces, and railing.  It's completely walkable and I take every opportunity to do so whenever I visit.  As I mentioned, we're looking at options other than the Trex railing system for the porch, which means it's probably worth it to consider using it elsewhere.  We'll need railing on top of the retaining wall as well as on the garage side porch.  We would like to use glass railing on the back porch and master balcony though.

   We talked to Margaret about disliking the saturation and color of the tin ceiling in the rotunda and she agreed that it didn't look how it was expected.  We talked to Distinctive Designs to see if anything could be done to lighten the appearance and I found this at the house this visit.  Some of the high points were removed with a scotch brite pad, allowing the metal to shine through.  I think if we want it to shine more, we might need to apply a glossy lacquer over it.

   I'm not sure how long this has been completed, but Distinctive Designs modified the scallop detail on the rotunda stairs.  There used to be more protrusion points that we thought were too decorative, so they trimmed them off very well without leaving a trace.  I'm guessing they used a palm router and template since it looks so clean.  You really have to keep your eyes open for changes or else you'll miss something.

   Although the great room isn't finished, Distinctive Designs has started to layout and install the baseboard and paneling in the rotunda.  The corner of the stairs at the basement door shows a piece of the standard baseboard plus some curved paneling installed at the base.  There will probably be some kind of build up for the baseboard since it's a concave curved surface, but the profile should be the same.  The paneling in the rotunda will be the same as in the great room and will only be present on the first floor.

      The actual second floor is very thick, due to the Litedeck construction.  In areas where it's visible, like the rotunda stair well here, we'll have to use some creative woodworking to conceal any irregularities in the concrete pour.  The curve was cut in the foam and thin plywood was used as a form, but the resulting curve doesn't exactly follow the curve of the wall.  The options are to grind the concrete away, a difficult endeavor due to the metal fibers, or conceal it, which is what we're doing.  Wood spacers are being installed against the concrete so a "belt" can be installed around the inner rotunda.  This belt is the delineation for the rotunda paneling and will also help dress up the floor.  You can see that each piece installed so far is different so it takes some effort to normalize the curve.

   The stack of pre-made corners in the great room have been greatly reduced since they're all on the posts out on the porch.  Many more will be needed for the rest of the front porch.  I'm not sure if they're making them on site or in their workshop, but it's not like I'm finding large sheets of MDO lying around the house.  Most pieces are already cut, so I'm guessing they're cutting them in their workshop and assembling them on site.

   Progress was made in the great room paneling, but it's all in the fine details so it might not be visible in wide shots like this.  Most of the panel bead is installed with the exception of the difficult curved pieces near the speakers.  There's a lot of great detail to look at with this installation, so lets take a look.

   Here's the baseboard where the paneling and the regular walls of the greatroom meet.  The "panel" itself is just the existing drywall so really it's just the frame that sits proud off the wall to provide the paneling effect.  It's only about 3/4" so the level or detail on the return of the baseboard is very well executed.  The overall theme of the work here is "very clean miters".

   Here's the bottom corner of one of the windows.  The continuous sill frame that sits proud of the panel frame provides more depth to the panels and gives the illusion of being much thicker and more substantial than it actually is.  There might only be an inch of additional depth added to the window casing, but it adds one more layer to the panel design.

   Here's the detail and level of miter accuracy on one of the panel beads.  As far as I could tell, this level of craftsmanship is present in every panel in the room.  All the small finishing nail holes will need to be filled before painting, a task that requires thoroughness and an organized methodology.  I don't envy that woodworker.

   Unfortunately, sometimes things don't line up, and this might get under the skin of some people.  I'm not sure if there's anything we can do about it now, but the electrical receptacle isn't centered in the little panel.  It might have been centered on the wall, but for some reason, the window casings might have needed to been shifted a bit, which shifted the panels, un-centering the receptacle.  Since this is an exterior wall, this receptacle box is embedded in the foam of the wall, as well as cut in the drywall.  To fix it, we would need to cut away some drywall on the right of the box, cut away some of the ICF foam, unscrew the metal shallow depth box, shift it over and re-secure it, then fill the foam and drywall gaps.  Not impossible, but a good amount of work.

   All the exterior doors have been trimmed out and had any wood or cardboard blocks removed, so they appear as if fully installed.  Hardware will be installed by Hardwood Door and Bevel when they finally deliver the two remaining doors but at least we can get an idea of what everything will look like.  This is the large glass door to the greatroom from the front wrap around porch.  We're not too worried about privacy from this door since it's up high on a porch, and we're in the middle of the woods.  Also, it's not really looking into the main space of the greatroom so even if we had to worry about a neighbors' line of sight, they wouldn't be looking at the primary sitting area.

   Here are a few pictures showing details on the gable pediments, before they're painted and out of easy visible reach forever.  Every time I look at these, I'm always super impressed with the level of craftsmanship that went into them.  I was thinking that I would be able to make these myself, but after looking at what Distinctive Design created, I know that I couldn't have made them this good.  It looks like all the pieces are glued and screwed with a good quality coated torx screw, nicely counter sunk for a flush install.  No splitting or tear out of the screw holes means they take care of their countersinking bits.

   All the center detail work sits in a channel of the frame, which provides more strength and greater depth to the entire pediment.  Many available online are very shallow, that is, they might have two elevation changes from frame to field.  This one has three, outer frame, inner frame, field.  You might not recognize the difference, but your mind will tell you there's something more interesting with the additional shadow lines.  When I sent the original renders, I didn't have that extra detail, but Distinctive Designs took it upon themselves to inject more craftsmanship into the project and it's well appreciated.

   Some progress in the kitchen:  The electricians installed some LED puck lights in the upper glass cabinets so that the cabinet installers could finish the installation of the crown molding.   This completes the top trim of the cabinets, with only the finishing trims on the toe kick remaining.  The doors will need to be adjusted eventually and we need counter tops and backsplash, but the to-do list for the kitchen is getting smaller and smaller.  The hunt for a kitchen hood is still ongoing, constrained by budget and availability.  We tracked down a wood hood manufacturer that has a style we like right in our own town, but they only sell wholesale so we may need to employ Cobblestone Cabinets again to represent us and obtain pricing.

   Choosing a cabinet light for our cabinets was a little bit more difficult than expected.  Because we have inset doors, we don't have a face frame to hide linear LED tapes behind.  Also, light is expected to leak around the door frames a bit.  Because of this, we decided to use a simple LED puck light to provide down light on the contents of the upper cabinets.  Although the cabinets below these are also glass front, we won't be lighting them internally.  I'm told these have a warmer color, but since we can't turn them on yet, I can't confirm.

   The top hardware for the double swing pantry doors were also installed by Distinctive Designs.  The bottom hardware will need to be installed after the wood floors are in.  I think the only reason the manufacturer made this hardware rounded was for looks, because it makes installation a bit more difficult.  Distinctive Designs took the time to mortise the hardware in as well, which wasn't necessary, but really adds a nice touch aesthetically.

   The mudroom exterior door was in a bit of a tight space so modifications need to be made to the common door trim in order to get it to fit.  Like the doorway between the kitchen and mudroom, the two steps in the molding remain unaltered, but the field and thickest part was reduced to fit the smaller width.  Visually, it might not be noticed since the over all profile is retained.  The normal width top curve meshes seamlessly with the modified side trims.  Seriously, if you need quality installers for anything woodworking, look up Distinctive Designs in Lapeer, Michigan.

   Easily missed item so I'm not sure how long it has been installed, but a roller latch for the big mudroom closet doors was mortised in to the top of the frame.  I've never used this kind of latch before and I'm impressed with how well it works.  The doors line up perfectly and the detentes of the latch plate provide a crisp closing for the spring loaded roller mechanism in the top of the door.  No other latching mechanism are needed so it makes for a very clean installation.  Functioning door handles aren't necessary, but we might install dummy handles for door continuity.

   As I posted last time, the garage and garage storage doors are installed, awaiting hardware.  I just noticed that there isn't currently a hole for a deadbolt.  I think all the garage access doors I've lived with have had a deadbolt so I guess I'll be requesting one for this door as well.  Seems kind of odd that it wasn't included.  This door molding needed to be modified to fit the narrow width as well, so I guess if you look around the mudroom, you might not notice any glaring moldings out of place.  While it might seem odd that the door opens away from the perimeter wall, we had the light switches placed on that wall so it makes sense to in the current swing configuration.  The closet might count as a perimeter wall and it's nearly deep enough for the width of the door, so there's no concern with functional aesthetics.

   Here's the garage entry and garage storage doors with the stairs installed.  We're still mulling over the stair configurations and trying to decide if it's as efficient as we want.  I measured how far out a straight shot stair without a landing would place the steps to the garage entry, and it put it just a few inches farther out than it currently is.  The only question is if the landing is more ergonomic and if it's worth taking up all the space.  I have to admit it's comfortable to use the landing upon exiting the door, but it might not be necessary.  The only negative about the current layout is the wasted redundancy of two stairs, and the additional time it takes to follow the traffic pattern.  None of it is permanent so we can change it as we will.

   I mentioned this in the last update, but didn't take a clean picture of it.  The baseboard molding in the garage is a simple primed square profile, but it completes the look.  It will probably be painted with a satin or gloss paint after the walls have been painted, but it serves its purpose, concealing the bottom edge of the drywall and what visible ICF there is.

   Here's a look at the dutch door between the mudroom and kitchen, with the bottom half closed.  The bottom half has the operational door handle and the top half will have a latch to connect it to the bottom half.  While it's possible to close the top half, it's not possible to secure it closed without the bottom half, so it can swing freely.  I think we'll really come to appreciate this door when the kids get a bit older and we have them and their friends running in and out of the house to the bathroom from the pool, or if we want to separate the dog from the rest of the house, but don't want to audibly isolate them.

   The door jamb on the dutch door was notched to accept the ledge on the bottom half of the door.  All these doors are heavy, and the ball bearing hinges make them a breeze to swing.  I can't wait to test the sound blocking capabilities when we finally move in, but I expect they'll perform really well.

   Another small detail that I missed some time in the past is the little window molding on the garage windows.  Since it's in the garage, there's really no need for anything super decorative, but DD installed this trim with a bead, which looks great.  You'll only notice the attention to detail if you're paying attention, but for us, the homeowners, it speaks volumes to the level of commitment these guys have to give us a quality product.

   Lastly, one more thing I didn't have time to take pictures of last time is the crown molding in the dining room.  This room will also be getting a decorative ceiling treatment, but the crown molding in the alcove here looks really nice for some reason.  I think it's the combination of the curve and alcove that makes the crown look particularly fancy.  I can't wait to see the ceiling.

   That's it for this week.  It's difficult to say what the next week will bring, but I'm guessing more completed millwork, maybe a paneled rotunda or completion of the great room.  We need to get rolling on some finishing details but we're already half way through July, so it's go time for the end!  7 weeks until the end of August!

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!