Tile installation

Here are three shots of the tile going in which started on Monday. You probably won't be able to tell too much about it, but the whole downstairs area will be tiled with this. Naturally it will look a lot better once it's cleaned up and grouted. I think it's going to look great with the cabinets.








This is Michael, our painter. He has almost finished the outside with the yellow, and is now painting the trim around the doors and windows in a dark green to match the roof. We had thought that we would paint the interior ourselves to save some money, and that would have been a great idea, but there's just no time to do it. Now that it's all (almost) painted, I'm really glad we elected to let him do it, and he has done a wonderful job. He has decided to paint parts of his own house with some of the colors we've (Vicki has) chosen because he likes them so much.

Color!! and Cabinets

Here are some room colors that we saw for the first time yesterday. There were teams of workers all over the place yesterday installing cabinets, painting, and installing the stair railing. Here are some of the photos I took.



The caramel bedroom upstairs.




The brick colored bedroom upstairs.




The master bedroom in blue.




Master bedroom with doors being painted and Joe modeling for size.


Kitchen cabinets going in.


These are the cabinets for the upstairs lounge. There will be a small sink on the right side, and an under counter refrigerator in the blank space.


We went back after work last night to see the progress with flashlights, so I took a couple of shots with just the light from the flashlight.





This one probably won't make much sense, but it's the beginning of the stair railing taken from the second floor.



The columns started out as a 6 X 6 post, then they're building them up to make them all 10 X 10 with all these 2X4's.



Then they'll finish them all off with Hardy Board like the siding on the house. This is the top of several of them on the inside of the porch the way they'll look before the final trim is installed. The ceiling of the porch will be white vinyl as you can see here.

Colors and siding

This past week we had to choose colors for the interior of the house, and I called upon our color expert, Vicki, to give her advice and assistance. We sat around her dining room table for HOURS AND HOURS working out just what was to go where. I finally got to the point where I just didn't care anymore, so it was time to quit. The painter will start on the interior next week, so we'll see some big changes soon.





Most of the siding is completed at this point, and here is a shot of the west upstairs bedroom. The east upstairs looks just like this. I love the board and batten siding.



The driveway gets washed out easily so occasionally this cute little tractor has to come along and straighten out things again. This drive is only temporary, but I'm not sure what we'll do with it once the house is completed and all the heavy stuff is moved in.



This is the front porch with the siding completed with Joe walking around inspecting and doing what? Oh, of course, talking on his cell phone!



Here's the back of the house with the siding completed. The guys had to work really hard to get those heave pieces up to the second story and get them nailed in. The battens are actually mostly decorative, but every four feet one of them covers a seam where the big panels meet. That seam is caulked before the batten goes on as one more element of protection from leakage. This siding is called Hardy Board, and is made mostly of concrete or something like it. Each of the panels and even the battens are very heavy.



The upper porch (the Evita Porch) is being floored with a composite material that won't rot or wear and is guaranteed for 60 years. It looks like wood, but it's a sort of plastic made from recycled tires or coke bottles or something.



The upper porch from below. They should finish the ceiling today or Monday.



Another picture of the whole house from the front yard. The 18 columns will be framed in next week.



We rode out to see the cabinets this morning and to choose handles and counter top material. Here's one of the short ones to give an idea of what they will look like. They'll be installed next week. The counter tops will be dark brown formica with a wood trim around the edges. We decided to forgo granite because of the huge expense.




This is a house I passed out in the country yesterday on one of my tuning appointments. It has the same color scheme that we're planning for our house. The greens are not really the same, but the basic colors are -- yellow with green and white trim and a green roof. Our roof is not such a bright green since it's shingle where this one is metal.