When I had a bachelor pad, I had a closet system installed in the master closet. It was this type of system. It looked decent, and was functional, but it was expensive, and not really built to last. After a few years, the melamine started peeling off in a few places, the plastic levelers underneathRead more about Carpenter built closet vs closet systems[…]
When I had my bachelor pad, I had a fancy closet system installed. It wasn’t cheap and I wasn’t that impressed with the quality of construction and the value. So this time around, we opted instead to just have our carpenters fabricate much simpler closets out of MDF, which will then be painted. Here isRead more about Closets[…]
It’s been about 2 1/2 weeks since the last updates, but it feels like much longer. The freeway to / from the south of us finally opened after the mudslides, and work can once again proceed as normal. Now that things are once again moving, we are making a concerted effort to shore up theRead more about Project update 2/3/18[…]
You might have heard about the fire we had this month, the Thomas Fire, now the largest fire in California history. Here is a great shot I took from my car on December 16th, the day we had the major wind driven flare-up in the fire. The plume of smoke is about 10 miles awayRead more about Carpentry progress[…]
The craftsman style was less about being opulent and more about showing off the talents of the craftsmen doing the work. As such, it is common for craftsman houses to have some interesting details where things don’t quite work perfectly, but are done in an interesting way. Charlie the builder calls this the perfection ofRead more about That funky craftsman style[…]
Now the the plastering is complete, the carpenters have started on the windows and door casing. Before they started, I had run my hands over the plaster near the door frames and noticed that in some places the plaster sticks out slightly beyond the wood inner door frame. I wondered how they would deal withRead more about Windows and door casing[…]
The carpenters installed the box beams last week. Before the box beams went in, the bead board ceiling had to be installed. This is actually a lot of work as they did very precise cuts for each hole in the ceiling (for such things as can lights, sprinklers, and HVAC supply and return ducts). TheyRead more about Box beams[…]
At the back of our house are the kitchen and family room. We decided to make the ceilings in these two rooms (really one big room) somewhat special by finishing them with bead board, like we did the exterior patios and porches. The family room will get the added treatment of box beams below theRead more about Bead board ceilings for the kitchen and family room[…]
The painters spent about 4 days prepping and then painting the bead board ceiling above the front porch. Boy does it look good. When I first saw the painting bid, I thought it sounded like a lot. However, seeing the quality of work that is being done, and all that goes into it, it makesRead more about Bead board ceilings[…]
The front door went in today, and it looks just as spectacular as we envisioned. As a comparison, here is the design I did for the door. The glass panels will be some kind of stained glass, which we haven’t designed yet.