Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Exterior almost complete

Progress has been fast and furious. On the exterior, nearly all the siding except for the final stucco coat and some panels between the windows are on. The underside of the cantilever soffit is now wrapped in white metal, which I think gives it a really luminous and lighter look than before.






All the cedar strip siding is on, as well. Between the black aluminum windows we'll be adding black-painted MDO panels, and between the wood windows we'll add panels of fir.



There has also been lots of progress on the inside, but pictures will have to wait since most of the finishes are covered up. A coat of primer has been sprayed on all the drywall, and the second floor stranded bamboo flooring and staircase is installed, but covered by protective cardboard. The third floor concrete floors are poured, and are looking great, but they're still covered by wet curing blankets as they continue to cure. Finally, the kitchen cabinets are being installed! So, lots of action, but pictures won't come until after the holidays. Happy holidays!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Drywall & Sliders

Our sliding doors have finally arrived and been installed, so we are officially "dried-in." The doors' arrival unblocked a logjam, and progress is now fast. Today was sunny in Seattle, so we managed to get some great pictures.



As you can see, the cedar rainscreen siding is now partially installed. We expected the factory-applied stain that we choose ("teak") to be darker, but we are none the less happy with how it looks.



You can see one of the sliding doors in the lower left. The biggest slider is 14 ft long and 8 ft high, and was carried perilously up this ramp.



A view from the inside of the long sliding door.



Drywall installation has started, and will finish next week.





The sun was out so we could get a peak of the Olympic mountains from the living room.



While the house is certainly looking great, a few small things have gone wrong. The Lindal windows are good quality but their hardware is quite outdated.





Brass? Seriously? While the brass door lock is easy to replace, the black plastic handles are looking more challenging to change. We're waiting to hear more after our superintendent looks at them more closely, and calls Lindal.

The garage door also arrived, but the pattern of glass mullions was incorrect; it was supposed to match the pattern in the window wall above. The garage door company went ahead and installed it temporarily, and will swap it out once new ones are made.



The house is really starting to feel real. Once drywall is finished, they'll start on flooring and trim. Since almost none of our interior finishes are custom, it's all going to come together really fast!