Random thoughts about where we are now

HI!

Just some random thoughts - as an aid to me as we move down the home stretch - about where we are now and what's happening in the next few weeks.

The stucco outside is complete, the roof's on, the decks (except for the party deck) are complete, garage doors are on, interior doors have been hung and removed (to avoid damage), and the wall texturing has been completed. The interior is ready .....

Here's looking at the great room from the southeast corner of the kitchen. It looks pretty nasty yet, but the floors have been scraped and some of the dust has been removed so that our hardwood floors can be installed (next three days). I personally don't agree with installing a hardwood floor unfinished and then returning to sand and seal at a later date, but the contractor chooses to do it that way.

The living level is all hardwood floor except for the master bath shower and sauna area. We're going to install the sauna on Tuesday next week even though the tile for the shower and sauna won't be in. The sauna guy will complete the whole thing with the exception of the bottom foot or so of boards so that whenever the tile guy comes in, the sauna floor can be laid. The sauna guy will come back and finish up.

Along with the hardwood floors, the painting has started. We asked for a smooth finish on the walls, so the first coat will be a primer in Navaho White. As soon as that's done, Deb can come in and put up sample patches of paint already chosen, and we can have the painter start on the room scheme picked out. I don't know the timing, but some where along the way the painter will stain the overhead beams in the great room and the kitchen - a darker brown - as well as the window, door and baseboard trim.

Here's the view from the great room looking back at the kitchen and dining room. The front of the range and the niche above the refrigerator have been completed, so they are ready for the installation of cabinets and granite counter tops. Steve the Builder says that the cabinets will begin arriving on the 12th of September. By then, the tile backsplash above the range and the two other areas on that wall have to be tiled with the yellow field tiles and the randomly placed Mexican accent tiles. We're running into minor coordination issues every now and again. For instance, the floors are in but unfinished when the cabinets arrive for installation. That means that the floor installers have to finish only the areas under the cabinets - we don't want to end up with partially finished and partially unfinished floors! As soon as the cabinets and countertops are in, the appliances can be delivered and installed.

Deb's vision of bottle walls has been fulfilled. She's done a great job, taking the idea she got from our Alaska trip to Sadie Cove, researching how to actually build one through YouTube - the video about putting a bottle wall in a outdoor privy was her favorite - and executing it flawlessly! This one is in the guest powder room upstairs. It will absolutely compliment the natural edge Maple slab counter top and the hammered copper sink also going into that bathroom!

CS Hardwoods supplied us with the slab of maple, and cut the hole for the sink and faucet, finished the top and made it look great! So good in fact that they asked if they could display their work at the recent Home and Bath show in Denver. We're very pleased!

So ... floors, paint, wood trim and the sauna go in this coming week.

Past that ...... tile all over everywhere, "flatwork" - the pouring of the foundation for the sandstone courtyard footpaths and the front driveway, and a couple of other odds and ends along with the acid etching and staining of the concrete floor downstairs - happens after that.

The shell of the house is done; now just the finishing details left!

Cheers!