Week Ending 2/23/2008

Kids were off for winter break this week. It was great to experience our home as the "vacation villa!" Progress was compromised, but it was well worth it.

The mirror was installed in the master bathroom. The master shower door was also adjusted and now looks great. We ran out of tile for the boy's bathroom, but were able to get a new shipment quickly and their bathroom tile is completed (just needing to be grouted). We've started to empty out the container on the front lawn, filling our home with the contents. With warm weather and little helpers, we also started some landscaping cleanup, in addition to cleaning inside.

Week Ending 2/16/2008

As much as this has been a busy week, there is little tangible evidence. The two primary areas of focus this week were administrative and the boy's bathroom tile. With the first, product and service issues needed to be addressed. The list of products which don't work, or services rendered with low quality requires a lot of phone calling and convincing. This will doubtless go on for a while, but it needed focus to get the "ball rolling" across many fronts.

The boy's bathroom tile has been great to finally address; and, as everyone who's ever wall-papered a bathroom has told me, there are a lot of detailed cuts and angle matching. The result is very rewarding, and prepares us for the final call to the plumber (hopefully), to install the master and boy's sinks. That, unfortunately, will likely be held up now due to issues with our builder; but, first things first. The tile and grouting should be completed mid-next week.

I was also able to finish preparation of the frame for the master bathroom mirror. We're now just waiting for the glass to come.

Finally, there was damage to the boy's bathroom counter in installation. While my heart dropped at the time, the vendor was very quick and detailed in their remote-assistance. By the end of the week the counter was back to new. While I'm not planning on going into the fabrication business, there is great satisfaction in fixing it myself.

Week Ending 2/09/2008

A good week for progress, with many thanks to our dear friend Angelo, who came over to help on Monday and Tuesday. All of the previously cut and painted plinth blocks were installed. Angelo and I were able to install the boy's countertop and cut all of the legs (vertical trim) for the recently hung doors. By the end of the week all of these trim components were painted and installed. Angelo moved an outlet above the Master Bath sink, allowing us to install the trim for the mirror (see picture). With all of the plinth blocks now in, we were able to finish most of the baseboard installation. Angelo also put on the shoe moulding and base-cap in the guest room and hallway on the first floor, finishing the base trim package in each area. A great deal of caulking and puttying followed, in which Josie is becoming a real Ace. Jenna also came by on the weekend to help sand down the recently puttied nail holes.

The glass doors for the Master and Boy's shower areas were also installed. We decided to leave Jessica's tub surround with a regular curtian, for now(see pictures).

With rain during the week, we continue to have leakage in the foyer area, after I caulked a noticable gap in the exterior door trim. The builder is saying I (as the painter) should have caulked every place exterior trim meets cedar shingles. Every source I have consulted has said 1) this should not be necessary 2) the caulk will show and 3) the caulk will not hold to the cedar. With payment of the final amounts being due, we will be dealing with this (and other punch-list issues) in the week(s) to come.

Week Ending 2/02/2008

Superbowl, super Tuesday or super tired, I completely forgot to update the blog this week.

After trimming the cupola the week before (thank you Marc) I painted and cleaned it (see photo). I also cut and painted 42 plinth blocks, as part of the door trim package. Much of the week was spent correcting uneven walls and installing shims so that the door trim would go on without large gaps (see diagram). Since the walls were largely non-plumb, and the doors were (thankfully) hung plumb, I had to shim the difference. Half of the doors had the vertical trim cut painted and installed.

The most exciting part of the week was when a 130 lb. package arrive via FedEx. It was the boys countertop (see photo). If you'd like to see more about this exciting product, check out http://www.shetkastone.com/ and look for their shredded green product called "counterfit." Made from 100% recyled materials, it's pretty cool.

Sorry for the awkward photos. Having PC issues.