Mid-winter...going to ground

Some big accomplishments...but most of which you can't see.  Matt was finally able to twist the electric company's arm hard enough and they came out, trenched in the main line to the house, and hooked it up.  Now we're cooking with gas!...OK, just electricity but that's huge, as it will allow the tile guy to start muddin' and slingin' tile, and the newly arrived hickory hardwood floor can be laid.  Jen, Camille, and I have been assembling IKEA cabinets in the basement.  Randy the excavator built the septic field, buried the septic tank, buried the propane tank, finished most of the final grading, and laid in the beginnings of the final driveway.  So, lot's of stuff to do with the ground (hence the title).
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 Front grounds cleared and new driveway gravel.

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Opposite view, from the front door.

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Front door and porch, still some snow from the mid-week flurries.

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 Update on the siding, progress made on the second floor, slowly...ever so slowly.

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 Hardwood floor on site, getting acclimated with the heat on at 58 deg.

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 View of finished grading, we had wanted to minimize steps to the front and side doors, and I'm pretty happy with this (maybe throw on a few inches of topsoil?)

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 Access to the buried propane tank in the foreground.  You can also notice the the electric service panel is wired to the buried service cable.

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 The coolest thing in this photo is the tiny incandescent lightbulb in the basement ceiling fixture...we have power!  Here, the IKEA kitchen cabinet assembly sweatshop.

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Blue tape on the wall, planning out the fireplace stone front, hearth, and mantel.

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AAAHHHH!!!...it's a forest troll, bar the door!!!...Oh, never mind, it's just Camille.

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"Shades of Gray" - this visit on my own (Jenny is in Germany).  Very quiet and peaceful on a winter's gray day.  Love it!

Of walls and doors

Lots of great action this week despite some wet weather.  The siding guy got started and we love it already.  Matt's wallboard team came in and went gangbusters, really giving the house its start as a home.  The earthmover guy is back on site, clearing the septic field, burying the propane tank, and starting some finished grading.
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The back side showing the new small roofs over the basement doors.  Breaks up the 3 story rear wall and will greatly protect the doors from sun and rain.

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Camille with the fiberglass front door that Jenny and I stained.  Ready for install.  A little more work required on this door, a couple coats of varnish then lockset and handles.

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Jenny pointing something out.  Wallboard in the great room.

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Great room and dining room wallboarded, exposed beam above.

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Still the great room, exposed beam, and stairs coming along.

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Kitchen wallboarded, nice and bright even on this very overcast day!  Mud room and powder room beyond.

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In the kitchen, pantry door center and door to stairs to basement at right.

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Foyer, stairs, main floor guest room beyond...and Camille thought of something!

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Master bedroom wallboarded...and yes Camille, my closet has a big window in it!  There, I said it!

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Master bath: shower in foreground, tub beyond.  Round window gives interesting light play, but a bit darker than we had hoped.

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Jenny found a great place to hang some big artwork!

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The front porch roof complete.  The porch deck is in place, a nice landing to clean shoes after walking around the outside in the wet, red clay dirt.

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View from the southwest, admiring the screened porch's commanding view.

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The start of the siding!  Stucco-textured fiber-cement panels on the walls and fiber-cement lapboard on the chimney.  This shows the primer color, we are thinking tuscany-like sandstone color for the walls and white trim on the windows and corners.

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Next,  big siding push and getting into the devil of the details....

When one door closes...another one opens (hopefully!)

A favorite country song of mine goes "If one door closes, I hope another one opens for you".  In this case, I just wanted a good closing door. We researched 8 ft high - 7 ft wide double doors for our basement walk-in.  $3500...Ugh.  I can beat that, I said.  So here's how I did it for $1400, learning skills, gaining personal satisfaction, working outdoors, and alongside Jenny who remembers everything I don't, with Camille chipping in.

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The backbone of the door is a frame made of maple hardwood, dado cut to form rigid lap joints, specifically designed to accept the outer cedar boards. (the first door we built (prototype) is in the background)

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We glued Tyvec waterproofing onto the frame. The exterior-facing cedar boards will mount on top of this.

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The cedar stiles in place, and adding in the cedar rails over the Tyvec-covered frame.

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All the cedar boards in place.  The rails were tongue & groove but still required routing to fit under the stiles.  I hated the dado cuts but really enjoyed the router-table work.

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Frame with cedar facing, flipped over.

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Camille helping out, cutting rigid insulation to go into the frame spaces.  The unfinished basement will be air-conditioned so more pressure on me to get the doors sized-right and air-tight.  Yes...it's about 35 degrees out on the porch...thanks Camille!

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Door insulated, and ready for the plywood backing which will help with the door rigidity.

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For the inside, we took a a sheet of plywood and routered it to match the grooves on the front, then fastened it to the frame.

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The inside view of the door with the plywood attached.

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The front cedar face of the door after staining. We applied "Redwood" stain originally but we found it to be too red, so we added a top coat of "Sable" to darken it.  The hinges and nail heads (clavos) were ordered online.

The finished door.

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For the engineers....plywood sheet at left, maple frame at center, cedar boards at right.

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Double doors on site, Jenny will install the clavos on the other door.

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Jenny has nailed in the clavos on the other door, and the door frame in assembled to the left.

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Dave reinforcing the inner wood frame into the concrete walls.

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Reinforcing the wood frame with TACON concrete screws.  Notice the eye and ear protection (thanks Navy training), plus the extremely comfortable Duluth Trading Company work jeans that Jenny bought me for Christmas, with hammer ring.

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Jenny holding the first door in place.

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Dave holding the doors shut, even though they didn't want too (needed chiseling).

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First day after install, kinda shut, but not quite....need some chiseling.

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Day 2, chiseling hinges to facilitate closing.

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Yeah!....doors close, upper locks installed with doors in closed position.  Remaining:  drill concrete for lower locks and install inside handles.  (Cool thing:  doors were blowing closed with the winds, which means the hinges are positioned right on!)

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Full rear house view:  showing doors closed...next project, 6ft basement doors at left.  Can't wait to see the stucco siding installed (stacked in the photo at left).