During the planning process, we made sure to convince the planning board that our house, despite being bigger, would not appear abnormally large from the street, as compared to the other houses on the street. We went as far as to prepare this top and street view drawing to compare our proposed house against theRead more about Comparing our house to the others on the street[…]
Over the last few days, all the scaffolding hiding the exterior of the house as been removed. While you could kinda see how the house looked through the scaffolding, it is a much clearer picture with it gone, and, it looks pretty outstanding. Once the foundation stone work is done, the columns are complete, andRead more about Good by scaffolding, hello exterior[…]
We spent the week in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, visiting the Pictured Rock National Lakeshore (A national park). Upon our return, we discovered quite a bit of progress For starters, the walls and ceiling spaces are visibly becoming visibly full of various utility runs. In that one ceiling section, you see HVAC ducting andRead more about Weekly update 7/14/17[…]
The stoners … er … make that, stone masons, have started to stone veneer the main fireplace. The did an initial sample of the style we settled on. However, after some feedback from our landscape designers, we decided on some changes: Increase the size of the stone pieces and make them a bit more horizontal,Read more about Stone work is under way[…]
The last few bits of the shingles are being installed this week, and there are a few remaining railings to be installed. Now, for the most part, it is up to the painters. The shingles are all pre-painted, so they will only require touch-up where damaged or where they were cut, like this bottom edge.Read more about Exterior home stretch[…]
The stone masons have been busy cutting stone from our pile into 4 inch pieces suitable for skinning the fireplace and raised foundation walls. They delivered the first drop of the materials last week. All those nice flat pieces came from the boulders we pulled out of the ground when we excavated our basement. IRead more about Stone work[…]
In addition to today being Lisa’s birthday, a lot has been happening here. Roofing The roofers have started the roofing process, laying down the second layer of paper, and flashing all around the edge of the roof. We are finalizing the solar layout and contract. Once that is done, the solar installers will install theRead more about Weekly update June 2nd[…]
The shingles are going on fast now and should be done in a couple more weeks. While you can’t see the final paint colors, the contrast between the different siding materials, along with the Craftsman details, is stunning. We’ve finalized the design of our railings and about half of them are on now.
No, this doesn’t involve trench coats. A look at any older house quickly reveals the downside of older wooden exteriors. Anything flat that can collect water will eventually experience dry rot, and anywhere that water can get to, it will, and will cause dry rot. To avoid this, any flat surfaces, or anywhere that waterRead more about Flashing[…]
The painters have been staining the shingles for a week or so. The singles we are using come in a 8 foot boards, and are a system that provides more stability and waterproofing. The shingles are nailed to a plywood backing, with a waterproofing material in between. In the long run, these will be muchRead more about Shingles![…]