Siding, Drywall, and Stone - all in October

Wow I guess it has been a while since I have updated the site so here are some more recent photos  (from a week ago), and everything we accomplished in October!

-Broke and replaced my laptop (still needing to recover early and mid October photos from hard drive)
-Siding and shingles installed
-Stone columns built
-Insulation and drywall installed
-Staining of shingles
-Garage trellis built by Jerry (better pictures to come)
-The start of exterior paint
-Remainder of appliances procured
-Interior paint colors selected - or narrowed down
-Hardwood flooring selected (Wide plank rustic grade white oak rifted and quarter sawn)

Shingles and flare on window seat pop-out done beautifully by Stephen 

The rooms close in with drywall - and I can't wait to get rid of that brick!

View looking into kitchen toward dining room

Window seat, or Lucy's future hangout!

Three story laundry chute - Starts in master bathroom, then nursery on main floor, ends in laundry room in basement. Now to figure out how I will get the clean clothes back upstairs???!!!

The entry takes shape.

Vince trying to get the first coat of paint on before the rain starts!

Towhee, our stone mason, who we (in particular Lilli) love.

More photos to follow when I can figure out how to get them off my broken laptop :-(

Windows Are In - Time for Exterior Siding and Trim

Getting the windows in the front of the house has really made a world of difference on the exterior elevation! Over weeks 14 and 15 all of the windows, french door, and sliders (with the exception of the 16' double slider in the living room) have been installed. The Girls have gone back to school - allowing me more time to pick out colors, stain, tile, etc etc. We also made our first appliance purchase - a Liebherr 48" built in fridge! I wasn't sold on spending that much money for a fridge, but when I opened the freezer and saw the wall of totally organized individual bins - I was totally sold! Jeremy liked the bio fresh drawers in the fridge portion. Unfortunately the kitchen plan only had a 36" fridge so the future pantry got smaller by a foot. But I guess these are the things you get to do when you are starting from scratch! Also completed were the back decks (while waiting for window delivery), and plumbing!


Front of house with windows and some trim.



Master slider and windows (and finished deck)

First day back to school!



Stephen putting up the trim - Do you think we should pay him extra for the entertainment?!



Window trim hand crafted by Stephen. Note the longer top and the bottom trim corners.

"The Indigo Difference" I really do agree with them that a finished return on the bottom does look nicer. And for this reason I am thankful to have a builder that is very particular. Now, if only he would trust me more with the house colors!

Nice blocks for all of the exterior attached 'things'.

So happy with how this fir tongue and groove under the barrel vault turned out! Now to decide how to stain it...

We went for the lesser expensive timbertech twin finish in 'cedar' decking. I think that was about 2k saved with a very nice end product. The upgraded timbertech finished looked nice but not worth the difference in cost. Well worth the savings.

Another view of the back deck looking south. The guys framed the edges with a piece of the decking to really finish the look.



Rough-in plumbing was also completed!



The Finished Roof and Framing Details

These past few weeks we have made major strides in finishing up the framing and the architectural details of the house are really starting to take shape! Consequently my homework assignments have been keeping me very busy. This week alone we had to chose the exterior lighting and mail slot, walk through and lay out the interior lighting with Ann from Village Lighting, Layout the plumbing (Plumbing starts on Monday!!), chose decking, select the stone for the front columns and fireplace, and layout master bath vanity/ select the master bathtub/ fixture.

Front of the house with roof on!

Back of the house all wrapped up and ready for windows and siding!

Change Order: Added the windows at the end of the dining room to add light and a nice view of the Canadian Coastal Mt. Range.

You can also see the kitchen layout on the floor.

Master shower and bench all framed up. I think our whole family could fit in this shower together. Much bigger than I was expecting.



Master bathtub all marked for the drain to go in.

Entry way barrel vault - should have been another foot deeper no thanks to the city setback requirements.

The stone veneer for the fireplace. The whole stone of the same type for the columns will come from the quarry in Montana in about a month.

The Alaskan Ferry is loading up ready for departure on this Friday evening.

The Exterior Takes Shape

While we were on vacation for two weeks in the hot and humid mid-west the crew pounded away and we returned to a remarkable new roof line! Our builder, Jerry Richmond of Indigo Ent. and his foreman on the job, Stephen, have really done a remarkable job making this whole thing happen. Apparently not one wall in the existing house is square or plumb - so they have spent lots of time and skill furring out walls and trying to put a square addition on a not so square house. It is our understanding the original builder of the house was the owner and not a professional carpenter!


You can now really see what the house will look like!




The master covered deck turned out beautiful - better than I had expected. Stephen had sent the orig beam back because it wasn't up to his standards for being left exposed. :-)



The roof trusses go up

Okay, so this post is totally out of order seeing as I haven't posted weeks 4 thru 7 yet, however seeing the roof trusses get installed is too exciting!  Getting to stand up in the master for the first night untarped (So thankful summer has finally come) was really great too! We had an amazing sunset complete with a mock battle with the tall ships that are visiting the bay this week!

Looking North out of master - Bellingham bay and downtown Bellingham

Framing of the master deck

Looking SW from master at downtown Fairhaven and San Juan Islands



Tall ships in the bay at sunset. View off mb deck.



Let the project snowball begin...(wks 2 and 3)

Our motto for this project from the beginning has been "do it right the first time."  Unfortunately that has lead to some major overages and change orders. In the end I think we will be happy with the changes in scope, but in the short term our budget is not!



Excavation for the entry foundation revealed no foundation drain - so why not waterproof while we are here?



ALL the way around the house. New drains and new drainage.



We might as well wrap the foundation in a waterproof membrane, run new
piping for the downspouts and backfill the castle moat with drain rock.



And while we are at it let's bury the overhead phone and cable!

And let's run it ALL the way through the back yard to fix the natural spring problem too.

Why keep any drywall when it just gets in the way?



Do we really have to keep the brick? Okay, I guess we will just cover it.




Kitchen and Dining demo



Week 1 Demolition and existing photos



Although this project is well underway - I am just getting around to starting this blog to update friends and family on the progress of our major renovation -and my other fulltime job. We are now in week 7 of construction but I am trying to find a way to easily upload all of these photos in some order to help tell the story of our journey. So here are some photos taken from week 1 - or the pre-construction photos.  

Living room fireplace to be updated with stone



Living room windows - to be replaced with 16' double slider

Looking from existing dining to living room with built-in bookcase / china - this will all be removed/ enough said

Existing back deck - to be replaced/ enlarged



Looking from living toward ex dining and kitchen - will be new kitchen and opened up




Main bathroom - despite protests from the girls, this pink tub is GONE!



Existing front elevation