September 13, 2007

Front Yard Fence Update

The existing front fence has been painted and a new side fence, to match the existing front fence, has been installed. We now just need a front walk and some landscaping...

September 11, 2007

Wood Floor Installation Complete!

The plastic has finally come off the stairwell and we can now venture upstairs...


The wood floors have been sanded, stained, finish coat applied and ready for wear! We're technically supposed to give the floor one week to absorb the stain and finish coats, so only a couple pieces of furniture have been moved upstairs... We do wander around though, several times a day, gazing at the floor in awe.

We opted to go with a dry application for the stain, which was one coat of DuraSeal's Penetrating Finish in Rosewood, applied after the floors were sanded. If we had gone with a wet application (floors dampened post-sanding), the stain would have been about two shades darker. As for the top finish, we went with two coats of DuraSeal's Polyurethane in Matte. Not as low in VOC content as their water based option, but much more durable, which was important since we've got a spunky 125lb. St. Bernard.

September 3, 2007

Upstairs Bathroom Shower Curtain Track


The upstairs bathroom has gotten filthy during all the construction. We installed a temporary door, in order to keep dust out as much as possible and also to discourage workers from using that bathroom. Yeah, that didn't work out so well. We might as well have left the door off. Anyway, even though there will be a significant amount of dust generated from sanding the wood floors, yesterday we decided to clean up the bathroom as much as possible. The wood dust shouldn't be so bad...
While I cleaned, Bryan partially installed the shower curtain track (he just has to go back and replace the temporary screws with permanent ones). We ended up getting a track system from Curtain Fair. It is mounted flush to the ceiling and allows for the shower curtain to run continously. The oval shaped shower curtain rods all had support stirrups hanging from the ceiling and, even though the Myson circular shower curtain rods were wall mounted, their diameter was too small (since we wanted to utilize the entire tub area for baths AND showers, oval shaped was optimal).
Once the track is permanently installed, the shower curtain can go up and we can then, FINALLY, use the shower! Joy!

Master Bathroom Updated Update

During the past week, cement board was installed on the master bathroom floors. In addition, all drywall and cement board (on the walls and ceiling) has been taped and muded. This week, primer goes on... and then we take a breath before installing tile.

Wood Floor Installation - Week One




It has been a very busy week... we've had a billion things going on, along with getting for this coming week and the next couple of months, which will all be very very busy as well. Alas, posting may be light this week... Meanwhile, construction progress is still buzzing along at the house. Wood flooring has now been installed throughout the entire upstairs, minus a small section of the master bedroom. The flooring guys have started sanding small patches, however, majority of the sanding, along with the staining and finishing of the floors, will happen next week.