Prior to them finishing the taping we had one last window to install. This was the one that went up in the dormer above the dining room. It mirrors the one in the opposite dormer, or the east bedroom.
This one we decided to do off of the scaffolding. The lift that we had gotten for the big window was a smaller lift and did not have any way of leveling itself. This would have been needed due to the ground not being very level in the area of where it would have had to have been parked to install it.
It turned out to be a little heavier and more awkward than we thought. Fortunately, two of the tapers decided to work Saturday and gave us a hand lifting it into place.
The tapers did a pretty good job overall of cleaning up so there is just minor cleanup work to do on the beams prior to painting. We have completed the laundry room and the powder room right off of the kitchen. These we had taped and textured right away so that we could move the washer and dryer back in so that they would not have to work around them. Also we re-located the toilet from the master bath to the powder room.
The texture we chose is what is referred to as a 60/40; so the wall is 60% smooth with a 40% texture. The nice thing about it is that it is all done by hand so the mess was very minimal.
We are now concentrating on getting the areas painted first where we will have cabinets installed. They are set to be installed the third week of May. Other areas that we are working on are the great room and dining room area. These are just in the process of getting primer and also getting the oak beams re-sealed.
We have also been trying to make some decisions on what style of mill work we will be using and whether we will run it ourselves or purchase it. After a lot of research and price checking we came to the conclusion, although it may be a bit time consuming, we can cut this cost by 50% if we run it ourselves.
Many years ago I had a mill work business where we ran custom moulding for housing contractors and cabinet shops. I kept most of the equipment so we had a wide variety of profiles to choose from. Along with the mill work, we are incorporating target blocks or rosettes. These also were priced just under the going rate for gold, and again after doing some searching we can purchase the cutter and run these for at least half if not a fraction of the cost.
We found a supplier of oak lumber in a town a little over an hour south of here. Although oak is a little higher down here, by the time shipping is added in from purchasing it outside the state, the price starts to look very reasonable.
The jury is still out on the interior doors although our current plan is to go with a company called Woodharbor Doors and Cabinetry. They are a bit expensive but our savings on the mill work should more than cover the cost over run on these. The company also offers the option of pre-finishing which will buy us back our time from running our own mill work.
Cabinet installation is now tentatively two weeks away from this Monday. This, along with the painting, should really add to the feeling that we are really on the down hill slide to finishing our project. In reality though, a lot remains to be completed.
Research on the hardwood floors continues. We really are trying to stay away from an engineered floor product. They, in my opinion, have not perfected the look yet. But our options may be limited given the fact that we really do not want a sub-floor put down over the slab for nailing purposes with a real hardwood floor. More on this to come.
In what little spare time there is, the garden is well underway for the year. Potatoes and onions are in and I have started, what I guess you could call, a berry garden with strawberries and two different types of raspberries already planted. I am behind in transplanting the peppers and tomatoes into separate containers. They have really grown fast this year, or more likely time has just gotten away from me!!
No comments:
Post a Comment