Little Bit Here, Little Bit There. Slowly Coming Together

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We've had several days of absolutely gorgeous weather. And while we love the sunny spring days, it feels like our subcontractors have come down with senior-itis or blue-sky flu. Brian has had to work around contractors and iffy schedules to keep making forward progress. 

With the flooring installed on the first floor, Brian started installing cabinets while Hank installed all the first floor baseboards. Pictured above is the wardrobe and credenza in Scott's office area in the den. The right side of Scott's desk will end at the wardrobe, the left side will extend to the far wall over shelving that will be delivered in a couple weeks. 

The wardrobe in the laundry is installed along with the upper cabinets and the sink cabinet (not shown). The wardrobes in the den and laundry are white with white doors, but they both have black counter tops that die into them. Brian trimmed them out with black end and top panels creating what I feel will be a very polished look.

Ryan the painter dropped off the bathroom fan covers, painted to match the ceiling. Brian installed the fans and the covers this week. He also installed the wall mount lighting at the stairs. The fixtures are scribed into the wall and then taped and mudded so all you'll see is the small recess from where the light will shine.

Jake the sheet rock guy was on hand this week to tape and mud the soffit by the refrigerator area. He cleaned up a whole bunch of sins since he was last here including the hole by the EV charger, fishing holes in the garage ceiling and the mess by the solar equipment.

Ruben the tile guy installed the linear drain in the primary bath shower. This entailed more cement work and sealant. In the photos below the linear drain is covered with blue painter's tape. Donald then applied a layer of different goopy stuff over the floors and baseboard areas that will be tiled.

Ruben was supposed to be back on Thursday to begin tiling. Wednesday night Ruben's son told his dad that his U.S. Marine induction ceremony was Thursday in Portland. As excuses go, it's a good one. Maybe we'll see Ruben Monday.

Friday morning I went to the house to meet with Ruben (silly me) and Brian wasn't there. I could tell he had been because the bathroom fan covers were installed and the lights were on. He pulled up a few minutes later. He had been down at the City offices talking to the engineer about the driveway curb cut. Apparently our plan calls for a four foot apron cut, but the city regulations say seven feet. Not practical on our lot or about 80% of the other lots in Astoria. The city engineer was pleased that Brian had asked and agreed with our (already approved) plan. Important because the curb cutting guys were coming...now. 

I'll let Scott jump in here and tell you about the equipment...

What at first looked to me like a lot of spare parts randomly thrown together turned out to be a well thought out, efficient piece of machinery. The diamond cutting blade was mounted on a motor that could be raised, lowered and angled by the operator. It had a watering system and "fenders" to control the dust and watered down concrete slurry and places to store the levels, sledge hammer and shovels the attendant needed in the process. After three passes, plunge cutting deeper each time, the curb was broken off with the aforementioned sledgehammer. Needless to say, I was impressed with the efficiency of the process.

- - Scott

Brian the flooring guy was on hand several times this week, for a while. He has been focused on finishing the bedroom on the second floor and is almost there. He has several pieces glued and clamped that will fit into the edge at the north wall by the sliding door and the edge of the south wall of the bedroom to complete. If he shows up I'm sure he'll finish that room and leave again.

Meanwhile, Brian has laid more flooring in the living room area.

The gutter guys came back this week and fixed the west side gutter. It's not a big change, but I think it looks much better. The angle of the downspout now matches the angle on the east side. It also looks more intentional.

This week? Flooring, maybe. Tile, maybe. Cabinets in the bedroom upstairs, maybe. But we will be submitting amendments to our Right-of-Way, and Erosion and Grading permits along with a Structural permit application for our, newly revised, landscape plan. More on that as we hear comments back from the City!

Tile Prep, Flooring, Electrical Progress and a Solar Fix!

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The inspectors were on-site and in-force last week, watching the commotion from across the street. It's no wonder, there was a lot going on!

Rueben and Donald were on-site Monday prepping the primary bath floor. We elected to have a linear drain at the west side of the shower which meant lower plumbing and hence, a lower sub-floor. They built the floor up, with the appropriate slope for the drain, using a cement product/method called dry pack. I had never heard of it (or smelled it for that matter), but apparently it's lighter and dries faster than regular concrete with more water in it. 

The primary bath floor now level with the sub floor, Rueben and team installed the in-floor heating system in both bathrooms. First they laid down a product by Schluter Systems called Ditra Heat Uncoupling Membrane - the orange stuff. It looks kind of like orange hard plastic bubble wrap. The Ditra is glued to the floor substrate.

The following day Rueben ran the wiring for the heating system through the Ditra bubble wrap. As luck would have it, the electricians were on site to connect the wiring to the thermostats. The Clatsop County inspector came by and gave it the thumbs up!

Donald was back on Thursday (each of the steps took a whole day between dry times and inspections) and laid gloppy white stuff over the entire surface of the Ditra and wiring. That's a technical term. I know it's all a part of the Schluter flooring system. Prep complete, they start laying tile on Monday!

Flooring Brian finished the floors in the den, completing the first floor. They really are pretty. Natural white oak, solid hardwood. They are not the floors the architects wanted us to get. They recommended an engineered hardwood. They prefer the "perfectness" of it. Perfect color on all the planks, perfect grain, no variation.  We find we like the different colors and graining in the floors. 

Contractor Brian prepped the stairs for cladding, adding kick-boards to the sides of the stairs. Signs of civilization, it's been the Wild West out here. In theory, flooring Brian would be starting upstairs on Thursday. 

The electricians are in the house! We love it when they are there, things seem to get done. Tony Bogh, owner of Bogh Electric, had been working on a solution for the solar mess. To recap, Stan the Solar man asked the electricians for a conduit from the roof to the garage location, on the wall surface, not inside the wall. He also needed a gutter. He didn't need anything else. This was back when the walls were open, before insulation and sheetrock.

Once Stan started wiring the system he asked the electricians for additional conduit across the ceiling and walls from the east side of the garage to the west side (post sheetrock and paint). The conduit is for a (very large and ugly) shut off box to be hung on the west side of the house. And he needed another breaker box, surface mounted. All of this resulted in, well I don't know what to call it. It's just a mess.

New solar equipment placement - awaiting leveling

We asked and Tony agreed to find a solution for the potential big ugly box on the exterior wall of the house garage. We were also looking for a solution for the flexible conduit and surface mounted breaker box. Tony's team did much better. They rearranged the solar equipment on the wall and will place the gutter (if still required) in the storage area under the stairs. The existing conduit will be shortened and return back to the wall closer to the equipment. And they ran the wiring for the exterior shut off in the ceiling and west wall to a point close to the electric meter where it will terminate at a small flush-mounted equipment emergency shut off button. 

While they were here the electricians cut all the exterior electrical locations - outlets, lights, etc. - and installed exterior lights. They installed our level 2 EV charger, originally planned for a plug-in installation, they looked at the equipment and decided a hardwired installation would be cleaner. They've created some drywall work in the garage, but there is other drywall work needed in the house. We appreciate their drive to do things right.

Flooring Brian has started work on the second floor. Starting at the stairwell, he snapped a line across the floor from the bedroom to the fireplace. He plans to finish the bedroom this weekend and move into the living room and kitchen. Hopefully moving a bit quicker than downstairs.

Steel, Wood and Concrete

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The steel guys were on site last week to dry fit the hearth and wood storage box under the fireplace. Getting the fit correct and level is, in theory, the hardest part of cladding the fireplace in steel. In practice it seems that getting the blackened finish we want is the hard part. The architect insists it's a simple process, while the steel guy says it can't be done. The manufacturer of the blackening agent doesn't recommend it and can't guarantee the desired finish. Yet, if you Google "blackened steel fireplace," there are a bazillion of them. This is the kind of stuff that drives me insane.

The trim package was delivered. What's a trim package? It's all of the trim, pre-primed, needed for the entire interior of the house. Baseboards, window sills, door trim, the trim around the sliding doors, which is different than the trim around the regular doors, and the door hardware. All in one neatly labeled pile in the garage.

And the interior doors were delivered, too. Brian had the regular passage doors delivered to the painter who will spray paint them. The three pocket doors remained at the house so Brian could route the holes for the door hardware. That completed, Brian will take the pocket doors to the painter for finishing.

There were several glorious days last week and Brian spent a good portion of them installing the ipe pallets on the second floor living room deck. The deck looks amazing and is very stable. You can read more about the Bison pallet system here.

 

The steel railing cap (and maybe the cables) will likely be installed later this week and then Brian will install the ipe cap. We will stain or oil the ipe (decision pending) when it gets a bit warmer. 

Flooring installation continues. At a snail's pace. With any luck the flooring guy will start upstairs this week, but if past performance is any indication of future results we'll be moving into the house in November. This is the other thing driving me nuts at the moment and I have no control over it.

Scott cleaned up in front of the house, moving ipe offcuts and other detritus off to the side of the driveway and house. I took a new picture of the house for reference so I could share with you the landscape plan. (At least the current plan.)

Right now the landscape plan is important because Brian is trying to schedule the last of the concrete work (driveway and sidewalk replacement). We want a retaining wall at the current slope in the front and to replace the old railroad ties at the side of yard. Our landscape architect, Britta Herwig, recommends board-formed concrete retaining walls, stairs and path. We want to get that part of the design settled so we can do all the concrete at once. In the illustration above the walking path pads are grey, the stairs are white and the retaining walls are blue. The thicker black line is a low fence.

Walls may move around a bit yet this week, but the general hardscape plan is set. I'm excited for the planting plan and selecting plants. The plant illustrations above aren't finalized by any means. It's sunny here and starting to warm up. I'm ready for spring.