Flooring

I picked up the first batch of flooring. It'll be installing this batch in the 3rd bedroom this weekend. I'll be laying down a layer of 1/4" cork and then laying the tongue and groove bamboo floor on top of that. I'm going to be gluing the planks together this time instead of nailing them down so that the floor is a floating floor. I'm hoping that this will speed up the install time. 

Exterior Paint Completed

The exterior paint is done. There are a couple of spots to fix, but it's all essentially done and ready for winter. Gutters get put on Monday.

Front Door

The exterior painting is done. That means that I can finally unwrap the front door! I had forgotten that the door had windows! We are really happy with the look of the house so far.

3rd Bedroom Paint

The third bedroom was all the walls painted. I have to do a little touch up, but after that I get to install the floor. Then I install the window trim, the door and closet door, and the base board trim. Then I have to paint the trim.

South wall with accent color (garden sage).

North wall (including closet).

 East wall.

 West wall.

Exterior Paint

The exterior paint is getting closer to being done. A couple of the painters have given us compliments on the color of blue we chose. It looks so much like a real house now!

Deck Trim

Our general contractor came back and trimmed the edge of the deck boards so that they are all even. This was the last thing on his punch list.

Ceiling Lights

There are so many choices when buying lights. We ended up choosing an inexpensive integrated LED dome light. We got one for each for the new rooms (three total). They are very low profile and give off a bright warm light.

Now that there is light, we can paint the walls!

Ceiling Paint

The drywall is done and primed, and now I have painted the ceilings with some flat ceiling paint. The next step is to install some lights so we can see to paint the walls.

Here are a couple of photos of the 3rd bedroom.

Primer and First Layer of Paint

We hired one of the contractors to come back and paint the exterior of the house. He has primed the exterior and even painted one layer of the final color on the front side. The house is really starting to look like a house! The painter says he likes the shade of blue that we picked.

Porch Window

When we changed the design of the porch roof we had to order a window for the newly created attic space. It has taken a long time but the window finally showed up! I picked it up and installed on the same day. I also installed the trim around the window and the metal flashing strip above the trim. I think we made the right choice in adding the window detail.

Nook Window

I finally installed the window on the east side of the nook. The old window was six feet wide. The new one is four feet wide. It's nice to have a window again instead of plywood.

Transplanted Madrona Tree

There was a madrona tree growing in the back forty part of our lawn. I transplanted it back near the blueberries since the trackhoe was flattening the back forty. It does not look happy.

Spreading Gravel

I spread four yards of gravel over the course of two days (mostly the second day). I spread it over the parking area and also make a path to the garbage cans and the lawn. The gravel is about 2-3 inches thick in most places. I had about two wheelbarrow loads left over. Now, at least, we don't have to walk through a mud pit to get to our cars.

I love my landscape rake!

Earth Moving

We had an earth mover guy here last Thursday and Friday. He had a small track hoe and a dump truck on site to add drain rock around the foundation walls and to grade the slopes around the house. He also installed the crawlspace access wells and the vent wells.

He delivered two truck loads of recycled asphalt for our driveway (the price was really good), and he trucked off about six loads of dirt from the giant pile.

The grade from the house to the lawn on the west side is problematic so we're going to build a little deck there to make the transition work better.

Here is the north side of the house after grading.

 Here's the west side of the house after grading.

Here's the south side of the house after grading.

We had the track hoe level the south side of the yard as well.

Crushed Gravel

Summer is over and the it's started to rain at least once a week. This means that it's a muddy mess on the north side of the house. The earth mover guy dumped a bunch of recycled asphalt in the driveway, but we chose not to have the asphalt run up to the house. 

Instead we had four yards of crushed gravel dumped in front of the house and now we have to shovel and rake it over all of the parking area. Fun! We purchased a landscape rake to aid in this process.

Deck

The decking is almost finished being installed. There are two more pieces needed (we ran out). They'll be installed on Friday. Then we have to seal the deck. We'll eventually make some nice stairs for the front and side.

Siding Complete

The siding on the house is complete! Now we have to let the caulking cure and then paint (about two weeks).

Roof Work

The roofers installed the new shingles on the 3rd bedroom and the porch yesterday. They also installed a flapper vent for the range hood and a solar attic fan. It took them half a day. We used the same contractor that we used for out original roof so we get the same warranty. North Creek Roofing has been really good to us.

Flapper vent for range hood.

Solar attic fan.

New 3rd bedroom roof.

New porch roof.