Pillars, stairs & garage - Oh My!

Just pictures!  World's easiest post :)

Front pillars are trimmed in Miratek boards, an engineered product that once painted, should be fairly low maintenance.

The pillar profile has just a few details on the corners.

Stairs are up!  Thankfully the stair width still feels spacious.

Garage framing has begun!  Yee ha!

Progress and undocumented features

All sorts of stuff that I can't show you... Every time something gets done, it gets covered. The master shower, the front entry, the wood floor. Probably good thing since the paint will start to fly in the next few days.

Sorry about the order of this post, it's via iPhone, so not as much control.

Done this week:
:) kitchen cabinets installed
:( kitchen cabs had one unintended "feature" - had to build out the soffit above the fridge cabinet because the moulding would have stick out
:) hood installed
:) granite measured
:) tile completed
:( it's killing me that I can't see it because...
:) painter masked the entire upstairs
:) stair treads mostly installed but
:( lumber yard originally ordered the wrong newel posts - thank goodness that was caught, they were hideous
:) chose all remaining kitchen appliances (will probably cover in more detail once installed) - thank you Warners Stellian!
:( met with landscaper and became completely overwhelmed with the needed work that is outside of the build budget
:( Front door arrived and was not what we expected, another lumberyard switcheroo, reordered a different door, but...
:) we now get a free service door for the garage

Up this week:
- paint in the upstairs!
- hopefully flooring will get installed in the mudroom
- stair rails installed
- garage building begins

And now for random pictures!

Closets, cabinets and a giant slab of concrete

The main floor floors have been sanded and poly'd.  The brief glimpse that I was able to see, the floors were still wet so it was difficult to get close.  Since taking this picture, they have been covered so this is as good as it is going to get for a while.

The birch floors are looking pretty sharp!

I had a quick meeting with the carpenters this week to plan the closets.  Kind of fun!  I am so used to small, limited closets.  I think I will need to acquire a clothing habit to fill mine...

Andy's closet, room for a dresser and way more hanging space than he'll need.

Kid #2's closet - shelves and 2 hanging bars.

The built ins in the loft area.  Kid's books and toys coming soon!

Tiling has begun in earnest, too.  Paul the tile guy is starting in the Master Bath.  The shower seat is now installed, backer board is in the shower and on the floor.  Tomorrow I have a quick meeting to finalize tile layout, then we just wait and watch.

Master shower coming along!

 Just like Legos, the kitchen cabinets are moving into place.  The scale of the space is still hard to imagine.  The cabinets just seem so tiny.

The island generally in place, give or take 3 feet.

A look out the back window shows some good progress with the garage.  The slab was poured today.  Finally able to see what the final sight lines will be - I think it will give us privacy where we need it, but still give us good views.

Finally, we are now able to get into the basement.  Yippee!

Steps, Floors and doing the Electric Slide

Stairway to Heaven... or at least the 2nd floor

Last weekend we stopped by the house and found stairs!  Very handy.  The stair configuration was one of the most difficult things about our design.  We wanted to have the stairs to terminate in the center of the 2nd floor to minimize hallways.  With such a narrow house, you don't have a lot of options.  We ended up with a configuration with 2 landings - a few stairs, a 90 degree turn, quite a few more stairs, another landing, another 90 degree turn, then a few more stairs.  

On the first landing.

Maple!  No, Birch!  No Birch!  Yes Birch!

Flooring has been one of those things that we have waffled on.  We knew we didn't want oak.  We knew we wanted sand-in-place, not the micro-bevel kind (just something about the micro-bevels that seem to invite dirt).  In our bid, we specified select maple.  During our discussions about cabinets, maple started to appear a little too stark.  

After a trip to Lon Musolf Distributing, we were down to 2 options:  common red birch and heartwood hickory.  The rep told us that both were approximately the same cost as the maple.  After much deliberation, we chose the birch.  We felt so good and proud of ourselves.  Then, the flooring dude said the birch was going to be $1.00 more per square foot.  Heartbroken, we let go of our birchy dreams.  After much calling between us, our contractor, the flooring dude, and Lon Musolf a miracle happened - the birch was on sale.  There would be no difference in price, the we could have our birch.

Common Red Birch - reds, browns, bluish grays and lots of swirls and shimmer.  

It's electric (boogie, oogie, oogie)

This morning - with freezing toes - we did our walk through with the electrician.  We set switch, light, and socket locations.  Everything feels so incredibly permanent.  The pressure is really mounting to get things right.

General Progress

Lots of stuff is starting to happen at the same time.  I feel like the progress is growing exponentially - the site now buzzing with various tradesmen, all doing their piece of the puzzle.  Stuff just starts showing up:

• The laundry chute was put in making a drop from the 2nd story to the basement laundry
• Exhaust vents have been run from the baths 
• Ducts/returns are being cut into rooms
• Windows arrived on site
• The portico (covered front step) is taking shape

The glorious laundry chute. 

First glimpse of the portico.  Sounds fancy, doesn't it?