Done!

Despite the lack of posts in the end of the construction, we did manage to complete the Pine house back in May. The new home-owners moved in the first week of June and by now have become quite comfortable in their beautiful house. I wish I had gotten some pictures of the completed project's interior before we handed over the keys, but alas, we just didn't get there. Oh well. It is a beautiful house and I hope to get back over there some day and get a few photos to add to our new website: http://www.barrierislandhomes.com/

We are about to embark on a new project so hopefully we'll be a little better about keeping up with posting news about our day job.

Our next house will be in Dickinson, TX and I hope to get started on it next week. We have a few more projects in the planning stages so with any luck I'll simply be too busy to post. Think I can hire a secretary to do it??

Millwork

Here is the kitchen/living/loft millwork. The big beam was wrapped in a pine veneer and will be painted like the cabinets in the kitchen. The loft will get a stain quality railing and be stained to match the floors.

Here is a peak at the bathroom cabinets and millwork. The left is an extra bedroom downstairs and the right is the master bath cabinet. The master is made of maple and will be stained, all others will be painted like the kitchen.

Tile work

Here is the tile work that has been completed for the extra baths. The Master is still under construction.

A splash of color

We finally painted the exterior! It is a gray color with just a touch of green. It looks slightly greener with a blue sky...the clouds make the gray stand out. White trim and columns (after careful deliberation ;-) offset the gray/green and a red door is a nice splash of color (which, unfortunately, you can't see in this photo) practicing the ancient art of feng shui.

Decks- finally!

We were actually going to wait to put on the decks until we painted, but the framers have time now and realistically, it is only a little more work for the painter to throw some plastic over them to avoid over spray, we so thought- go ahead- let's keep moving! There are a total of five decks (or four due to the fact that the back two are connected) on this house which will provide fantastic outdoor living space! It will be nice to finally stand out there and see the view!

Sheetrock

The master bath- shower to the left, bath to the right-


Bedroom- this picture was taken at about 8:30 this morning...gorgeous light, but there will be no sleeping late in this room!

Loft, overlooking living area

Master bedroom ceiling and windows...

Sheetrock looks good; a very light texture was put on yesterday and we are ready to begin trim out!

Trim and Proper

Here is the big picture of the exterior. We decided to trim out the front columns and the porch columns. All the trim on the house is KDAT (Kiln dried after treatment- essentially treated lumber that is dry so you can paint it) so the porches and everything will all remain exposed and either be painted or left with the more rustic look.

More exterior work

Does it ever end? Luckily, we are at a point where the exterior can be finished while we work on the interior.

The framers finally hung the door for the interior entrance- we had to wait for drywall to do this (we'll get you some pictures of the interior with walls in just a second). The stairwell was wrapped in hardi plank and trimmed out just like the remainder of the exterior.
Here are some photos of the ground floor trimmed out as well. We trimmed the garage out in plywood as it will be enclosed, but because all the power beams we used were yellow wood and exposed, we had to wrap them in hardi like the majority of the exterior. Our framer finished the trim with a nice cedar 1x2 to cover the edges- doesn't it look great?!

Interior work begins

Plumbing is complete. HVAC is 99% complete and electric is almost there. After we complete the rough in for everything, we will need the framers to come back and fur out some walls and ceilings to hide a few pipes/ducts/wires/etc. After that, we're on to insulation and drywall!

The fireplace is installed and the vent pipe run. The recess for the TV is now built in as well.

Above are just a few more shots of the interior- to the left is a bedroom, complete with sliding glass door out to a front porch and to the right is the third floor loft area, overlooking the living room.

Exterior finish- finished?

We have waited through what seemed like a life-time of rain but the exterior siding and the roof are finally complete- or almost. We're missing a plank here or there but that is only because of issues we have had with waiting for brackets (last minute addition by the engineer) and doors (this is only the third time we have sent them back...but we're not bitter, honest!).

Now that the exterior is 99% complete, we're ready to move inside!

P.S. At long last we provide a pic of the west elevation (back of the house). You can't complain when your house looks this good- even from the back.

Covered up and ready to go!

The house has been sheathed and has passed inspection. We're going to get the roof felt paper on and hopefully the doors and windows in place before the massive amounts of rain we are supposed to receive in the next few days.

Doors and Windows

With sheathing comes, of course, the need for doors and windows- and here they are in the flesh...or fiberglass/vinyl. We'll need to pass yet another windstorm inspection (this time for sheathing) before we can install these. I expect that inspection to happen early next week- Monday if we're lucky...

Sheathing

The sheathing process started yesterday and you can really start to see the house take form!

This of course means that we got the thumbs up from the engineer (not without a few extra clips, straps, plates and bolts, but none the less ;-)- we also had an inspection with the city building inspector who said, and I quote- "If this house falls down, there won't be anything else standing to stay for". I guess that means we passed ;-)

Interior views

Above to the left you can see the third floor loft which overlooks the living and dining room area. To the right, you can see that no three story house is truly complete without an elevator shaft!

Above is a glimpse of the fantastic cathedral ceiling in the kitchen/living/dining space. The big holes vertically stacked to the left will provide entrance and exit to spacious decks while the fireplace and TV will go in the corner to the right.

The ceiling in the master bedroom has a cathedral ceiling as well which includes a ledge for mood lighting ;-). It provides the room with a higher elevation which gives the illusion of yet more space and at the same time creates a cozy centralized area in the master suite.

To the right is a quick shot of the kitchen area which is covered by the loft above. The big Anthony Power Beam that runs across the top of the kitchen wall as well as the post that runs vertically above it will both remain exposed to give the house a beautiful and very distinct detail.

Framing: Complete...

...or almost.

The great majority of the framing of the house is now complete. There are, as always, still a few little details that will need changed but as long as we get the OK from the inspectors we're ready to move on and dry her in!