Doors and Phase II Landscaping

   This time, we crammed in a late afternoon visit on the Labor Day holiday weekend.  There was some activity last week, but I couldn't tell what was being worked on from my wireless cam so all the progress this time comes as a nice surprise.  Because of the late visit, a lot of my pictures are dark and only illuminated by a flashlight, so I apologize for the poor quality.  Surprisingly, someone is working there on Labor Day itself, but I'm not sure who it is.  This week saw progress on the fireplace column, completion of the front door install and all exterior door hardware, and the beginning of phase 2 landscaping.

   Hardwood Door and Bevel revisited the front door install to address the issues with the initial install.  They cut down the screw plugs and attempted to apply some finish to the raw wood, but it's still pretty visible at the right angle.  I think from a cursory glance, it doesn't stick out too badly, but to a discerning eye that paid a ton of money for these doors, it's pretty glaring.  We've never gotten doors like this before, but I would have expected a nicer, more careful install.  I'm not sure what to expect, so this might be a standard installation.

   Here are the remains of the shaved off plugs.  The plugs in the door now sit a little below flush, which is odd since all they needed to do was take a small block plane and make the flush rather than below.  I'll have to talk to Mike to see what he thinks of the install.  They must have done something to the threshold too because not it's solid and not crunchy anymore.  I didn't see any evidence of adhesive or foam, and the interior trim looks intact so they didn't remove and reset the door.  It seems like a good fix, but I'm going to be paying special attention to it every time I visit to ensure that it remains solid.

   Here's their fix for the floating brick molding.  They inserted a piece of wood to extend the threshold a bit and make up the gap.  Visually, this is an acceptable fix, but I noticed that the end grain of the inserted piece isn't stained so that will have to be touched up so we don't get water intrusion from the end that rots out that piece of wood.  Again, I'll ask Mike to see if this is a good fix.  The only thing I worry about is the wear and tear of a piece of wood where everyone walks.  It extends a good inch or so from the metal threshold, so it will definitely be stepped on, more so when walking out the door when your foot pivots off the edge.  We have some wood threshold inserts on the exterior doors of our current house and over the ten years we've lived here, I've removed and restained them once so I know for a fact that they take abuse.  It will be interesting to revisit this door in the future to update the wear on this piece.

   Hardware was also installed on all other four exterior doors as well.  We went with Emtek Orion thumb latch handles on the exterior in an oil rubbed bronze finish to match the front door.  There's a keyed deadbolt on the exterior and a twist latch on the interior.  We don't have experience with Emtek since all our current door handles are "contractor specials".  I find Emtek to be solid with a good hand feel and no slop in the mechanism.

   Here's the quality of the latch plate and deadbolt plate install on the great room door.  I think if we wanted more security, we could get a single solid plate to connect the two bolts, but this will do for now.  The install itself looks good.  Fairly clean mortises for the plates.  The bolt cavities are a little sloppy and look like they were bored out with a forstner bit without cleaning up the base.  It functions fine but it doesn't exude a quality install.

   Here's the inside hardware for the exterior door.  We went with a simpler round brass knob in the satin nickle finish.  We're thinking about using this hardware for the rest of the house too since it seems to be nice hardware that provides a clean design.  The latch is for the deadbolt, which throws pretty easily.

   Here's what the mudroom door looks like with the hardware installed.  The little round metal piece at the bottom is the hardware that attaches the plate to the outside of the door.  We haven't decided on what kind of door stops to use yet but we'll have to make sure they're installed.  These doors are heavy and on ball bearing hinges, so they'll stop at nothing to destroy the drywall.  This is a particularly tight space with very little room for wall protection.

   The same hardware was also installed on the rear garage walkout door.  I guess there's nothing special to say about this since it's the same as the other three doors.

   The hardware was installed on the master balcony french doors.  After all the problems we had with this door, Mike got it to work and I think the hardware looks good installed.  The left door is the primary functioning one and the left hardware is actually a dummy knob.  It looks nearly exactly the same but the door handle doesn't turn and there's no deadbolt throw.  What you can't see is the two astrigal locks in the edge of the door that keep it closed and solid, allowing the functioning door to lock solidly into it.  They can actually both open but the left needs to open first so you can access the astrigal locks.

   Here's a blurry closeup of the balcony door hardware.  From this picture, the knobs don't look even, but it's probably just the angle.  I didn't see any issue with the install when I was in the room, but it was starting to get dark and we didn't have much time to look around.  Since this is the bedroom, we'll probably need to figure out light blocking of some kind for this large glass door.  I'm not sure what would look good, but we're probably going to consider some kind of light blocking drapes.  We have enough space above the door for a curtain rod so I'm sure we'll figure something out.

   Castro and his tile installers completed the fireplace column on all sides.  The scaffolding remains in place, so I'm not sure if there's anything else to be completed.  As far as I could tell, the tile goes all the way to the top and it looks like a good install.  The tile sits nearly flush with the TV mounting plate so the TV will sit proud of the fireplace column no matter what kind of mount we get.  Might be a good place to have active ambient back lighting installed.  Castro and his team did a great job with the tile install and now they can move on to finishing the rest of the house.

   Lars installed the reclaimed beam mantle on the second floor before the tile installers got to that part so the tile sits flush.  I really like how the mantle turned out.  We were trying to decide if we wanted a dark stain or a shou sugi ban finish. If we wanted the later, we would have used a new beam since the character of the reclaimed beam would be lost in the charring process.  We decided to go with a reclaimed beam after taking a look at a few of the pieces Lars had at this workshop.  We just couldn't pass up on the character these pieces offered.  Lars cleaned up the wood with an angle grinder and applied a dark finish with a water based top coat.

   He collects the pieces from barns around Michigan and retains all the old joinery.  We have a tenon and peg sitting right in the top of the mantle that we really wanted to keep.  The tenon was already cut from the beam it was attached to, but the peg used to hold the tenon and mortise together is still in place.

   The other side of the beam retains its original tenon, which might have been cut down a bit since it looks a little short.  It's fine because it still looks great and gives us a bit of rough character next to the perfect clean installation of the stone.

   Great Oaks started installation of Phase II for our landscaping plan.  There are two retaining walls that are necessary to contain the grade on two parts of the house, but these will only be partially implemented walls compared to the complete installation.  This is the wall that was built next to the outdoor storage door and gazebo, off the back porch.  I'll have to call Geoff about this because the original plans called for a rocky outcropping slope rather than a more vertically stacked wall.  I'm not sure if we'll need a fence on top of this for safety now or what, but it looks nice.

   Here's the area above as detailed in the plans.  You can see that the original wall was supposed to spread out across the entire wall and end at the gazebo rather than having a large area above between the wall and gazebo.  You can also see the lower wall that contains the crushed granite path to the storage door.  The space the steps and the rest of the wall occupies is needed to provide a path for the machines needed to implement the backyard landscaping walls and pool.  For now, we'll probably grade and seed it, but define the beds with mulch or something.  Seeding the back yard will probably happen next year since we're looking at a November move in, which is a little late for seeding in our climate.

   The same "Caramel Mint" stone that was used on the front walls was used back here.  The grade at the door needs to be increased, and in the original plans formed the first tier of the grade increase.  From the rear basement walkout, it was supposed to be a two foot increase to the path that goes to the storage door, then a further six foot increase.  I think that by the time the grade is increased at the door, the wall height will be around 6 feet, judging by the door height.  I'm guessing that should necessitate a fence, but I'm not sure.  There isn't much height for the crushed granite path to bring up the grade so the wall will remain fairly tall.

   Here's a longer shot of the wall.  It's partially completed compared to the final plans because we need to have something retaining the grade, but can't complete the steps and rest of the wall since we need to get heavy machinery into the back yard for the other retaining walls and pool.  So this section will remain this way for a few years, until we can finally implement the rest after the back yard is completed.  I guess the crushed stone path isn't in the Phase II budget and won't be implemented at this time.  Same for the lower two foot wall, which is kind of a bummer since it will look a little odd.  Maybe we can figure something out

   Here's the machinery they're using to move the stones and excavate the dirt.  The lower wall will come off the corner of the house and follow the curve of the other wall but terminate, where as the other wall continues to define the back yard all the way to the pool.  If the wall design was changed to vertical, then it will need to continue that way all the way to the pool.  I emailed Great Oaks, so we'll see what they say about the design change.

   That's about it for this week.  Still no word about Old Country Stone installing the gazebo stone and if there were subtle additions from Distinctive Designs, I missed them in my whirlwind tour this week.  We're still expecting two built-ins from them but those might go in after drywall returns for touch ups.  I'll need to get cable up and running so the Sound Vision can come in and finish their installation.  Jonathon said we could have all the cameras up and running and monitor the build through those, which would be awesome.  September is upon us, so there's only two more months left in the build!

Garage doors

   August is winding down but the steady march forward continues with some big changes this week and big expectations in the pipeline.  The garage doors are being installed, and even through there was a slight mix-up, they're going to be completed this week.  Distinctive Designs continues to finish up the interior millwork with the installation of the balcony door and dining room ceiling, with the expectation of having the front door installed early next week.  Painting prep continues with near invisibility all around the house and the stone on the fireplace column is slowly making its way up.

   The two front garage doors were delivered and installed.  They're the Clopay Canyon Ridge Collection in mahogany wood grain and the walnut finish.  We tried to match both the color of the Azek on the porch and the real mahogany wood of the front door and I think we came pretty close.  Although none of the materials are an exact match, they're all pretty close.

   The mis-order that I mentioned earlier is on the large garage door.  The glass comes in two styles that Cloplay calls Arch3 and Arch3a.  We were explicit in desiring Arch3a, which has a single arch spanning the width of the door, but either through a miscommunication or ordering error, we got arch3, which has two arches.  While it doesn't look horrible, it absolutely doesn't make sense to have a double arch window in a single arch doorway, so we'll have to wait 6 weeks for this error to be corrected.  The single bay door came out perfect and will be mirrored on the back of the house.  The look is supposed to mimic a carriage door, and the faux handles and hinges have yet to be mounted.

   Here's a shot of both the garage door and Azek decking.  The color is close but the finish seems to be the biggest difference.  The Azek is a little bit flatter or the garage door has a bit more reflection to if you were to hold the materials next to each other, they would look very different.  Being far enough away, the color is close enough for all but the pickiest of eyes (I hope).

   Here's what the other side of the garage doors look.  The exterior and interior is a composite material that sandwiches steel and 2 inches of insulating foam.  The door gasket still needs to be installed around the door frame, which will block some air infiltration, but I'm not expecting an air tight garage.  I think the combination of the ICF and insulated door will keep the garage pretty cool in the summer and warm in the winter.  The interior white is standard and matches the white paint we have on the interior of the garage, so nothing really big about that.

   We got the garage door installers to install the track as high as possible since the doors on our Model X go up.  The beam that supports the master closet is the height limiting factor here, but it still allows the doors to get about a couple of feet away from the ceiling which is more than enough space for the car.  The torsion springs are already installed, but the garage door openers are not.  What you won't see is a center track for the opener since we're installing an axial door opener.  It installs on the wall next to the garage door and turns the spring bar to open the door.

   The tracks for the single bay door is slightly higher than the double bay but the vertical supports have yet to be installed. I'm not sure what the final height of the track will be, but it looks like it's about a foot from the ceiling.  The garage door on the back of the house isn't installed yet and I'm not sure if the tracks will connect to each other or what, but it looks like they could since the front door track reaches the middle of the garage.

   The rear garage door is still in its box, awaiting installation.  It's the same as the front door and will probably be installed this week.  From the other picture, you'll notice that the top of the garage door itself is squared off, but the opening of the door provides the curved door look.  This is something that I didn't know in the beginning, but makes sense.

  Here are the three garage doors we'll be installing.  They're Liftmaster 8500 "jack shaft" openers.  They have the standard button interfaces you would expect to see installed on the wall, but also come with the option for an internet gateway so you can control and check on the door status from farther away.  I think it integrates into the Control4 system, so we might end up getting it.  They also come with a power actuated lock so the doors are always lockable.  The solenoid throws a deadbolt into the track, making it very difficult to force open.

   Nick the painter finished off the barrel vault and gazebo ceiling with a coat of clear satin polyurethane over the dark stain.  This time when we visited, we didn't even second guess the color of the stain so I guess it's the right color for us.  We'll see how it looks when the front door goes in.

   Additional water proofing and sleepers were installed on the last section of porch in preparation for deck installation.  There isn't really enough space to pour any concrete, so the plan is to keep this installation above and maybe build a ceiling in the storage space that can be additionally insulated.  The concrete beams are still poured in the Lite Deck floors so the deck is structurally sound.  We'll just need to ensure that it's fully water and sound proof.

   On the inside, work is beginning on the built-ins for the study.  Distinctive Designs is laying out the cabinets and floating shelves that will cover this wall.  The floating shelves will hold some books, but will most likely be more for decorative items since a floating installation reduces the amount of weight the shelves can carry.  The cabinets will be used for primary storage and the counter top for printers.  The design of the built-in is still being developed, but ut will be nice to have something there.

   The tile installers are slowly installing their way up the fireplace column, now that the steel is in.  They completed one side of the column with the returns into the fireplace and will hopefully complete the other side this week.  It's slow going, but the results are fantastic and everything we hoped it would be.

   Here's what the greatroom side of the fireplace looks like currently.  The installation is slow because the tiles need to be very carefully cut or they'll break.  The small pieces on the return need to be matched to the thickness of the tile on the other side of the corner.  I think when this area is done, progress will proceed much quicker.

   Here's a closer look at the tile return.  You can see that the tile that overlaps the corner needs to be cut to add the thickness of the tile it overlaps.  If the tile was a uniform thickness, it wouldn't be a difficult task, but because of the varying thickness of the tile, each corner is a unique cut.  Also notice how they're alternating the overlap by layer.  These tiles come in sheets, so that means they're individually installing the layers here rather than slapping on a whole sheet and cutting it to the same length.  Lots of detail work slows down the install, but gives a much better appearance.

   Distinctive Designs is also finishing up installation on the decorative ceiling in the dining room.  The primary curves are constructed from MDF and the same corner bead from the trim in the rest of the house is installed on both sides edges of the primary curve.  This design was created to accommodate the existing recessed lighting and the chandelier we'll be installing in here.  The inspiration was drawn from traditional plaster ceilings and if I recall correctly, will all be painted the same color.

   Here's a look at the corner bead trim that's being installed on the MDF edges.  I think it's the same material used in the greatroom around the speaker grills and should provide enough detail to make the ceiling subtly stand out.  The MDF is 3/4" thick and the trim sits just below it allowing the MDF to create one more shadow line to add to the complexity.  I can't wait to see this painted.

   The stairs have been drilled to accept the baluster railings.  It looks like they used a 3/4" fortsner bit to a 1/2" depth.  The underside of the railing wasn't drilled and will be a little tricker on the stairs.  The railing is at an angle, but the hole has to be perpendicular to the stair tread.  Doing this freehand and upside down is difficult.   

   The floor border in the rotunda has also been drilled for the balusters.  The drilling of the railing here shouldn't be as difficult as the stairs since the railing is supposed to be parallel to the floor.  It's still upside down, but you don't need to drill the hole at an angle.  Now that the holes are drilled, I'm almost 100% certain they'll stain the wood before installing the balusters.  It wouldn't make sense to have to mask off each baluster just to apply the finish to the wood, so we'll need to wait a bit longer to see this final product.

   The overlook floor border was also drilled for the balusters.  This one doesn't have any holes marked for the crystal balusters, so I'm not sure if there will be any installed here.  At most I could see three, but I'll have to confirm if they'll be installed here.

   The French door for the master balcony was installed my Mike's guys this week.  They had some fitment issues since the door arch doesn't seem to match the template provided by Hardwood Door and Bevel.  Our contact, Craig, said he would take a look at the fitment when they come out on the 28th to install the front door.  The interior trim appears to cover any fitment issues on the inside, and I didn't get a chance to look at the outside, but Mike said the sides were lower than the template indicated.  This means they might need to change the already installed and painted siding.  Besides the fitment issues, I think the door looks fantastic.  It's huge and allows tons of light into the room.  The left side of the door is operational with the right being held closed by an astragal lock.  We're purchasing our exterior hardware from Hardwood Door and Bevel as well so that should also be installed on the 28th.

   The tile installers already laid down the Ditra insulation layer and decoupling mat, and is laying out the direction for the floor tile in the master bathroom.  Since these floor tiles aren't a natural stone tile, the vein pattern is repeating in the various pieces.  It's important to lay out the orientation to avoid pattern repetition in close proximity.  Ideally, you would have the same pattern tile at least two tiles away and rotated 90 degrees so it's not obvious.  Hopefully these will be installed this weekend and we can get a look at the final product.

   The Ditra "subfloor" was also installed in the master water closet, which confirms warm feat when sitting on the toilet.  The floor tile is being staged in here too.  Getting the master bathroom tile installed will be a huge item off the list and the last bathroom to get some kind of tile installation.  The last bathroom to be completed will be the powder room, which we'll have to complete after move in.

   Another huge step forward is the installation of the geothermal pump.  This is the primary pump that will circulate the liquid in the geothermal fluid circuit.  Electrical isn't hooked up to the pumps yet so I don't think they've completed a fluid fill or final flush yet.  The two insulated pipes on the top go to the ground loops and the two below to the heat exchanger.  The two circles on the top are three way valves used to close the ground loop off from the exchanger, for filling or flushing of either loop. There's a connection point on the side of the unit that hooks up to a portable tank.  The two things on the lower half are the actual pumps, the load pump and source pump.

   Here you can see the placement of the flow center in relation to the heat exchanger.  The two lower pipes go to the exchanger and the loop pipes run across the ceiling to the wall penetration.  It's a clean installation so far but there will also be a water heater and preheating tank installed to the right of this so all the heating and cooling will be on this wall.

   Here's what the geothermal ground loop runs look like as they make their way across the ceiling.  They're running under everything installed so far, including the recently installed fire blocking, but I don't think there's a code requirement to fireproof the pipe insulation.  Hopefully the installations will clean up a bit when the finished electrical is wired up but I think it will always look a little chaotic in here.

   So that's about it for this week.  This next week should see some more incremental progress, but we're expecting some big changes the following week.  The 28th seems to be some kind of magic day for installation as Old Country Stone will be back in to install the gazebo stone.  Great Oaks will also start installation of the back yard retaining walls, front and back steps, and driveway.  Hardwood Door and Bevel will also be in to install the front door and finally get some natural light into the foyer.  Next update might see the finish of the dining room ceiling and maybe some built-in progress.  Tile should be more finished and of course hopefully more progress on the fireplace column.  Counter tops have been ordered, but I don't know when they come in.  Things are steadily completing with only 10 more weeks! to go!

More Interior Trim and Cabinet Work

    After a week of rainy weather in the 50s, we got a beautiful spring day for our visit to the house.  Because of the poor weather, there wasn't much progress on the exterior, but the interior trim work and cabinet installation trudges forward.  Mike said that this week would be a little slow since some of the installers were on vacation.  Even still, we saw good progress on the interior window trims, cabinet installation, and the greatroom coffer ceiling was laid out.

    Stuck to the back of the front door was this green sticker, which I relocated to our sticker collection on the kitchen glass door.  It's the inspector approval for the master bathroom shower pan.  The pan was filled with water last week and no leaks were detected.  I'm not sure why this shower pan was singled out for inspection since we already have the mudroom and guest bathroom shower pans installed.

   Much of the trim in that was stored in the dining room has been either relocated or exhausted since this is all that's left in the room.  Most of the windows have been trimmed out on the second floor with the tricky ones remaining.  I'm guessing there's enough material here and staged elsewhere to finish the windows, but it doesn't look like there's enough baseboard molding to go around.

    Something I didn't see last time was these 1x1 pieces of trim poplar.  I'm not sure what they're used for since I haven't seen them installed anywhere.  Maybe they'll be used for the coffer ceiling because it's much to large for any shoe molding.

    Much of the trim is being staged in the rotunda.  It would make sense to stage the second floor trim in here so they don't have to make lots of trips up and down the stairs.  Only some of these are window and door trims.  Some of them are squared off, so it looks like they'll be used in the creation of the coffer ceiling.  Again, there are some of the 1x1 pieces stacked up here, but it doesn't look like any of the baseboard molding is present.

    Here's what the layout of the coffer ceiling looks like.  They attached 3/4" plywood to the ceiling to act as the inner base of the coffer beams.  They used fasteners with washers screwed into the roof trusses.  There's a perimeter beam on the exterior walls.  It acts as a header across the second story lookout.  The beam also carries around the fireplace column so it doesn't look so odd, terminating on the sides.

    Here's what the layout looks like standing at the fireplace.  The extra box spaced away from the fireplace is additional coffer beam build up so we can mount a special light in that location.  The light as a large mounting plate and will hang down in front of the fireplace at a height yet to be determined.  One of the main reason we made the trip this time was to take a look at the coffer beam placements and try to determine what we want for recessed light layout.  The easiest route would be to place one in each coffer, but while it would provide enough light, it wouldn't provide good visual aesthetics.  Considering we have two wall sconces on the walls flanking the fireplace, and plan to have table lamps in the middle of the room, 14 recessed cans might not be necessary.

    Here's the view from the back corner of the greatroom.  You can see they use a combination of ladders and scaffolding to get up there and that some of the coffer beams on the exterior wall are in place.  Each coffer will have a crown molding detail.  Some people like to put the cans in the beams themselves, but we don't really like that look so they'll be placed in the drywall ceiling.  Mike wants to get the electricians back in here to install those cans so we can finally get the attic insulated.

   I was worried that the exterior wall coffer beams would drop down too much and interfere with any trim that is going around the upper windows.  We changed the plan for the window areas to accommodate that, and I can see that there's no issue with the window detailing impinging upon the coffer beams.  The finished window frames for these windows haven't been installed yet.

    The special light that will be mounted in this location is the Hubbardton Forge Theta.  We got the idea from their catalog and couldn't get the idea out of our heads.  While it does have LED lights, it doesn't illuminate much so it's more of an art piece than light source.  It requires a mounting plate that's 54"x16.5" so we'll incorporate the base into the coffer beam, and bump out the remaining mounting platform so the plate will mount to the underside of the beam.

   There was a little visual progress in the kitchen, but that little progress is pretty big considering the effort that goes into it.  They started installing the top trim and crown molding on the wall cabinets.  There's some crown that remains to be installed, but they're in areas that still have some uncertainty.  Over the glass front cabinets, access openings were cut so that lighting could be installed on both the upper and lower cabinets.  We haven't really picked anything out yet, so I'm not sure if this trim will remain uninstalled until we make that decision or if they can pull the wires through and hook them up later.  Crown needs to be installed on the oven tower and near the range hood as well.

   The trim on the wall cabinet to the left of the rangetop looks finished.  The molding is nailed with a finishing nail gun, creating very small holes that will be filled and painted for completion.  Since we designed and ordered the cabinets over two years ago, I can't remember if we opted for the bottom trim as well, so I guess there will be a surprise if it's installed.  The space to the right of this cabinets will have the range hood, but the entire wall will be covered with the back-splash tile before the hood is installed.  The doors will be micro-adjusted to equalize the gaps and ensure proper installation.

   Here's the first part of the two-part trim installed on the wall cabinets in the opposite corner of the kitchen.  It's left of the mudroom door and includes one glass front cabinet and the double oven cabinet tower.  You can see that the first part of the trim doesn't quite reach the ceiling and leaves a little gap, which will be covered by the crown molding.  The mudroom door will require some attention since there's not enough room on the sides of the door for the standard door trim.  Since we could install the standard trim at the top, we'll have to come up with something creative here because it might not look good with the cabinet trim.

   Here's the other side of the mudroom door to highlight the detail in the wall cabinet finish trim.  The first part has a small cove near the bottom to add that first shadow line.  The crown molding is a pretty standard affair with a slight cove at the bottom and top of the primary cove.  I haven't seen any convex crowns installed yet so I'm not sure if they'll be mitering the inside corners or coping them.  It's nice to see how the professionals install things on a production level.  You can see why we'll need some creative designing for the door trim here.  We could panelize the door trim all the way to the ceiling since the crown molding doesn't look like it's going across the header here.  Or we could install some crown to match across the door header with the build up including the door frame.  Ahh, finishing details.

   Here are some cutoffs of the trim pieces.  On the bottom is the first trim piece with the small cove on the left side of the piece.  Depending on the gap above the wall cabinet that needs to be filled, the crown molding can be placed anywhere on the flat field.  The other two pieces are the crown molding, the top piece offering the best look at the profile.  It's a pretty standard design, with a small cove on the bottom (right) and a step on the top (left).

   These two window casings were sitting in the kitchen, but I'm not sure where they're going.  The only windows of these sizes are up stairs and it looks like they already have casings installed.  I got a little excited at first because from the side, it looked like they could have been mock ups for the banquette that will be going in this location.  We still haven't nailed down a design for that seating, but I'm excited about completing that solution.

   The wall cabinets for the butlers pantry have been installed.  They're a similar style to the glass fronts in the kitchen, but they're Omega Dynasty line, a little more budget conscious line vs the standard Omega cabinets.  I can't see a difference in the general construction and since these will be seeing less daily use than the kitchen cabinets, I think it was a good choice to go with this line.  These glass front cabinets will be lit similar to the kitchen ones.  Down light in the top cabinet with hidden face lights for the lowers.  The shelves in the cabinets are solid so down lighting wouldn't work in there.

   Here's what the trim situation looks like in the pantry.  There's still a sizable stack of cabinet trim left to be installed but most of it is completed in the kitchen.  The butlers pantry has the same trim as the kitchen, but in walnut and I think some of these are probably toe kicks for all the base cabinets.  There's a pretty good pile of cardboard in the garage from cast of trim packaging, so it's easy to see the progress so far.

   Moving up stairs to the rotunda landing, you can see how the coffer ceiling beam will split around the fireplace column and wrap around both sides.  It wasn't in the original design intention and was thought up while Distinctive Designs was out here at our last meeting.  I think this will be a nice way to terminate the stone, and tie in the coffer beams from the great room to this sitting area.  The rim of wood lower down is where the bottom of the coffer beam will drop to.  We're installing a rustic beam mantle above this fireplace and probably hanging some kind of art above that so there should be plenty of room for everything.

   Here's the closest I could get to the perimeter beams.  Sure I could have climbed up the scaffolding, but I still couldn't get to a partially constructed section easily.  Distinctive Designs appear to have attached a ledger board to the wall so that the bottom face of the beam has something to nail into.  The bottom face has an overlapping bevel so the surface will remain flush.  The beams are obviously hollow and they're missing some of the finishing details, but for now this is an exciting step.  As with the trim in the rest of the house, these are constructed of poplar, which is appropriate since we'll be painting them white.

   The master bathroom cabinets have been relocated to the second bedroom upstairs.  These window trims have been completed, but the oval window in the bathroom has bet to be completed.  I saw some curved pieces of kerf cut wood in the basement, held in a jig so it will keep its shape.  They probably have to curve it to the desired radius, then apply an edge banding to hide the kerf cuts on the back side.

   The master bedroom has one window completed, but the large arch window above the bed needs to be completed.  The small windows have the casing boxes cut but the casings on the eyebrow window need to be constructed and the curved window trim needs to be created.  I think they're doing that in their workshop.

   Here's a close up of what the window sill looks like.  Both pieces of trim are the same size, but the bottom one is turned so the thick end makes up the window sill.  The edges are trimmed and mitered so they die into the wall.  You can see the nail holes from the finished nailer they use to set the sills, which will be patched with wood filler before the painters come in.

   The laundry room window is in the same state as the master bedroom window with the straight side casing installed, but the curved casing yet to be created.  This window will also get a center stile installed, which hasn't been done on the windows in the study and dining room, so I'm eager to see what they'll look like.

   This last picture of the stained siding is the same as last week, but we had sun this week.  During the first round of painting, the trim was accidentally painted with Sherwin Williams Mindful Gray, which is a little too brown for our tastes.  The Earl Gray looks blue or green in comparison, but in person, still looks pretty gray.  I think when the trim is painted white, it will make the Earl Gray looks more gray.  The gray green of the roof shingles matches the color of the siding well.

   Here's a sneak peak of our front door, which is completed and almost ready for delivery and installation.  We ordered the mortise hardware for this last week so that Hardwood Door and Bevel could cut in the mortise and door handles.  I can't wait to see this thing installed, but it might be more towards the end of the build since you don't want lots of people going in and out, increasing the changes of damaging.  I think we'll at least get the front porch and stone installed before we get this thing in.

   That's about it for this week.  We should see the work pick back up this week since Old Country Stone needed to make some more granite cobble to complete the house.  I think decking should be delivered and started this week and there will definitely be more completion on the interior trim, maybe even some interior doors installed.  We should see cool but dry weather this week and I think when a good warm and dry week is in the forecast, we'll get to see the completed painting of the house.  The first step to finalizing our extended loan from the bank took place today, so I think we'll close on the primary loan next week, then there will be no stopping us! 16 weeks until the end of August!