Inch by Inch

When I was a kid, Woody Hayes was the Ohio State football coach. I wasn't much of a football fan but I remember his non-passing, short yardage style of the game; it was called "3 yards and a cloud of dust". That is the way we feel as we approach the end of the project.

Just a reminder. It is difficult to see some of the details in the pictures when they are shrunk to fit on the page. If you click on them, you'll see the full size picture which makes the details easier to see.

Today we stopped off at the nursery run by the wife of our landscape contractor to pick out the fruit trees that will be planted near the working garden. In addition to the raised beds and roses, we're going to have a collection of about 20 e-z pick (smaller) fruit trees. We decided on a mix of apples, peaches, figs, plums, pears, apricots, cherries, and nectarines. We also found out we could get filberts (a variety of hazel nut) so we'll have 2 of those. (Filbert's are like cherries and require 2 varieties to cross pollinate.) They'll go in as soon as we are fully deer proof.

The floors in the master wing have 2 coats of finish now. (The last coat will go on after the cabinets are in and most of the other trim work is complete.) The painters finally gave my shop back and the hydronic heating went in this week. The end grain douglas fir finish floor will go in next week. During next couple weeks the floor and tile crews will need to trade off on access to various spaces so they don't trip over each other. (The missing tile has arrived so the tile crew should be back on track.)

Floor with 2 coats of finish.

The hood in the kitchen was put up this week. This is a massive piece of hardware that weighs over 400 lbs. The frame is solid 3/8" stainless steel and it has large stainless rods for hanging pots. I've now realized that we're going to need a big stepladder to clean the supports and change lights in the ceiling. The cabinet under the hood will go in after the floors have 2 coats of finish.

Kitchen hood looking from the living room out to the covered patio. (Click for a larger view.)

Detailed view of the kitchen hood.

There isn't much exterior wood work left to do. The stairs on the western deck need to be surfaced and the garage doors faced with siding. The sliding barn-style door on the shop also has to be built. There are a bunch of metal trim pieces like the caps on the latice work that also have to be fit. Of course, all the inside baseboards need to be done after the floors are finished.

Finished hot tub deck.

The last piece of concrete was poured last week and now the driveway is finished. When we arrived at the house today, we used it for the first time. Much nicer that parking in the dirt.

View from the driveway down to the shop and garage.

Next week the floor and tile work will continue. The concrete wrapper for the fireplace should be installed. (The steel wrapper on the upper part is already in place.) If it is dry enough and the driveway gate near the house is installed, the fruit trees will be planted.

Upper part of fireplace with steel cladding.

Finish floors and furniture

The flooring contractor got the finish floor down in the main part of the house and master bedroom/office area before running out of material. More is arriving on Tuesday so it doesn't look they'll be held up. Our one concern about the floor was that it might be too brown and not have the nice reddish tinge we saw in some samples. We needn't have worried; the color is just what we hoped for.

View across the living room out over the western deck.

View across kitchen area to the covered patio.

View down the hallway in the master suite.

While the flooring contractor installed the floor, the crew installed the decking on the western deck. We looked for alternatives but still ended up using a tropical hardwood for the decks. The material is certified as sustainably harvested but you can never be really sure. We tried to like one of the new composite decking material but our neighbor up at Tahoe used it and it looks like the plastic it is.

Western (morning) deck.

Hot tub deck.

Pool screening wall.

The fireplace finish surfaces are beginning to be applied. The steel wrapper for the upper part has been completed on 2 sides. The remaining pieces are being cut and should arrive next week. The cast concrete wrapper for the lower section is being fabricated in Oakland and will be installed after the steel is on.

Steel wrapper on the fireplace.

The tile work continues but has hit a snag since some of the tile hasn't arrived. It's now promised for February 25th but we're afraid it will slip more. February is workable. A longer slip will cause real problems.

Guest bath (#2) shower.

We've made a lot of progress in picking out furniture over the last couple of weeks. For the living room, we've ordered a couch, 2 chairs to accompany it, and a coffee table to go between them. There will be a large table behind the couch that our architect has designed and I am going to build over the next month. Area rugs for the living room and library/media room have been ordered and should be ready soon. There are 3 stools at the kitchen counter which we just picked out yesterday. The couch for the library/media room is also on order.

We're torn on what to do about furniture for the covered patio. We found a large table made of recycled teak and we can get chairs made of the same material. We've generally found that there is a trade off between cost and being green but the recycled teak furniture was actually significantly cheaper than regular (plantation grown) teak furniture. It also has a much richer color. We have also found a nice teak (plantation grown) dining table and with chairs that actually match. The table has extension leaves so we could keep the table small for normal use but accommodate 12 people for a big summer weekend.

The dining table and chairs are a real problem. I was hoping to avoid having to build (at least) 8 chairs but we've decided that is the only way we're going to get chairs we're happy with and can afford. I've become a chair snob and I've found that the chairs I like are ridiculously expensive. The chair project will probably get spread out over several months so I don't get too sick of making the same thing over and over. I've developed an approach that makes heavy use of templates and jigs so accurate cuts are easy to reproduce.

The dining table is also a problem. Tables are actually pretty easy to build except that the size is a problem. Even with my new shop, a big dining table would be pushing it.

We wanted to put a convertible couch in the exercise room out by the pool so we could use it as a 4th bedroom. After looking at a bunch of ugly, expensive convertibles, Susan had the brilliant idea of using a Murphy bed. This takes up less space and provides a more comfortable bed.

Each bedroom will start with a new mattress on a steel frame. These steel frames will be replaced one by one as I build new wooden frames. I haven't decided on the design for each bed but I know that there won't be a sleigh bed. I've never really liked them and they are a pain to build. Each bedroom will also have 2 nightstands. I built 2 for us in Oakland and modified the design to build 2 as a wedding present for my nephew. I've simplified the design so building 6 more shouldn't be a problem. I'll vary the wood and details on each set to make them more interesting.

When I total up the number of pieces of furniture I have to build, it looks like I'll be busy in the shop for quite some time.