Construction - Month 21-24 - Wrapping things up!

Months 21-24

A lot of time has passed - so lets speed this blog way up. The time to completing this project rapidly approaches and as I type this, we are working towards getting our final inspection signed off.. So what all has happened? Lets get into it..

In no particular order..

Drywall repairs

I had to learn to repair drywall after my electrician had to hack into various walls.. i figured i'd start with the one behind the range since nobody would see it anyways.

coming along.. not great but it was my first attempt

another one that needed repairing in the pantry

the third one.. this one was visible in the great room so i had to take my time with it

look 2 photos down in the right corner of the greatroom and you can see it came out perfectly

House - Crown Molding

After trying to install the crown molding myself in a small closet, I decided that it was too much for one person and hired a sub-contractor. In particular with the ceiling being 10.5' high..

the stairwell gets REALLY high..

House - Baseboards

I hired the same guy who did the crown molding to do my baseboards since we loved working with him so much and he was very reasonable.

Kitchen - Plumbing

My adventures in plumbing started by having a plumber do the kitchen since I figured I wanted nothing to do with screwing that up. 

island sink plumbing

the disposal

the backside cabinet of the island sink.. interesting work by the plumber

the main sink

Kitchen - Electrical

plugs everywhere.. in the peninsula, island, etc

Kitchen - Appliances

We splurged on our appliances to some degree.. The under counter fridge/freezer and oven/range/hood in particular. I also really wanted dual dishwashers for when we have larger events so that I could still toss most of the dirty stuff in them. I figured we had the floor space and a dishwasher wasn't *that* expensive so why not.. right?!

undercounter fridge/freezer

dual dishwashers

range/hood/toaster oven/microwave

fridge

Kitchen - Trim

I had to wrap the peninsula and island in skins, panels, and baseboards

Great Room - Mantel


You may recall that we wanted to duplicate the fireplace in a photo on houzz from an earlier post. So we hired a custom mantel guy to build ours and he did an excellent job. I have to admit that when you find a reasonable person to custom make you items like this and our master bathroom vanity, the results are terrific and far more reasonable then i'd have guess.

Great Room - Furniture

our old furniture.. its not like we can afford new stuff :)

Laundry Room - Countertop

I installed the cabinets and countertop support structure and hired a contractor to install the counter tops.. I still need to do the backsplash and hang a 2nd wall cabinet and some shelves and trim.

Pantry - Shelving

I researched and planned the pantry layout for quite a bit of time before moving forward with the construction. I drew up different layouts and ultimately settled on one with a pair of wine fridges on the far wall, and the rest covered in shelves that have decreasing distances between the shelves the further you go up. I also made sure that my shelf distances accommodated all the common things we'd store from cans to cereal boxes.

Once we both agreed that the design looked good and would fit our things, I researched how to make something like this since i'd never done it before and my brother-in-law ultimately convinced me on the economics (it's cheap!) and ease of cleaning of melamine (easily cleans with a wipe).

Installing the shelf supports

looks like it holds a shelf but i'm concerned with the long run.. don't want it to sag/break so we'll need some support there.

Designed and built the shelves myself from melamine boards and 1x2 wood support pieces. I used a plate joiner in the corners to join the pieces together and kept my horizontal shelf runs to about 3'. I also added a couple of corbels along the long wall to give it some more support. 

Pantry - Countertop

The same contractor that did the laundry room counter installed this one at the same time. Sometime in the future we'll get a pair of wine fridges that'll fit under the counter. You can see some of the steel L bracket that I added for more support for the countertop.

Powder Room - Plumbing

We asked the plumber to find oil rubbed bronze fixtures since they'd be visible and one thing he found was these covers for the houses that made them look like they were oil rubbed bronze even though they weren't. Clever!

Downstairs Bedroom (Gym) - Flooring

Since we decided to turn one of our bedrooms into a small gym of sorts, I looked into rubber flooring and decided to tackle that myself too.

1/2" rubber flooring tiles.. these things are heavy! 

But not too hard to install for the most part. I had to cut a very tight seam where it met the hardwood in the hallway to create a clean transition since I didn't want to use a transition piece given both floorings were the same height.

Master Bedroom - Wall Paper

We hired someone to do the wallpaper since we didn't trust ourselves to do a good job.. It seemed like one of those things where having experience doing it was worth it.

Master Closet - Complete

The master closet took a ton of planning. We played with Easy Closet's online tool to create different layouts. We went to an expensive closet place nearby to do a free design for us and get their thoughts. In the end, we purchased from Easy Closets since the savings were substantial even though the selection was a bit more constrained. They had materials that we were happy with so it was fine.

the shipment arrives..

making stacks of the materials for the giant puzzle..

installing the horizontal bar after careful planning

hanging the vertical boards

securing everything together

lots of progress.. still needs shelves, doors, kick panels, and hardware

some of the finished product

Downstairs Bedroom Bathroom - Tiling, Plumbing, Vanities, Mirror, Lights

I wanted to do most of the remaining two bathrooms as much as I could myself. But in the interest of time so that I could work on other things, we paid a sub to do the floor and shower tiling. Then I did the plumbing, toilet, vanity, lighting..

the flooring mimics wood.. you can also see what i had to work with plumbing wise

trying to figure out how to attach a toilet when there is > 1" difference between the plate and floor.

   

shower completed (by subcontractors)

trying to assemble the sink, counter, and vanity

working on the electrical.. need to relocate these wires

wires relocated and boxes installed

finished bathroom

Upstairs Bedroom Bathroom - Tiling, Plumbing, Vanity, Mirror, Lights

i had to make some cuts in the vanity to get the plumbing to where it needed to go

getting the electrical junction boxes installed

everything looking good

I had to ramp the carpet up to the level of the tile

the shower (done by contractors minus the curtain)

Pergola - Lighting

We decided to hang lights under the pergola after seeing them for sale in costco. Love the ambiance that they create in the evenings.

Sewage Christy Box

I had to get the christy box flush with the sidewalk before the inspector was willing to sign us off on our inspection. Although I wish that I could take credit for this, my brother-in-law did it for me while I was at work one day. Isn't he nice?! :)

We have some more projects to work on like finishing up our closets and perhaps doing some other built-ins. Also I need to get the speakers for the great room so that we don't have holes in our ceiling and speaker wires running around. Some bigger ticket items that we need to figure out how to fund include landscaping, a new garage, and perhaps a solar system. So stay tuned for more in the future when we're able!