September 12, 2004

The masons came to work on Labor Day, but had to leave mid-morning due to the rain starting.  They could not work again until Thursday because of the rain and drizzle.  Wednesday it did not measure enough to measure in the rain gage, but it was a mist on and off all day.  The masons finished up the front of the house except the front steps up to the porch.  They also finished the north side of the house and most of the covered porch.  All that needs to be done is the little on the porch, around the garage door and the retaining walls.  The picture below is the work on the covered porch.  The picture below that is the north side of the house.

The picture below shows the front of the house.  The picture below that shows the front door.  There is a stack bond up each side of the door with a soldier course above the transom.  The porch floor will pour up within a couple of inches of the door threshold so there will not be the big step that is there now.

The hardwood floors have been put in on the first floor except where there is tile in the bathrooms. The picture below shows the kitchen/family room area.

The porcelain tile is complete in all of the baths and powder room.  The picture below shows the master bath.  It is a 13 inch square tile laid on a diagonal.  All of the tile in the house will be in the light earth tones for future decoration coordination.

The base cabinets for all the bathrooms were delivered on the 11^th.  The person making them works for a cabinet shop that makes only commercial cabinets.  The owner lets the employee use the shop at nights and on weekends to do residential work.  He needs to move things out as they are completed, so he delivered the vanity bases without the doors.  The doors will be made this week and applied next weekend.  I have furnished all of the walnut and he is furnishing all of the plywood and hardwood to build the cabinets.  He is using all birch plywood on the interior parts and walnut plywood for the ends of the vanities that will be visible in the baths.  All of the plywood edges in drawers are covered with a strip to make them look like solid lumber and give the drawers a real dressed appearance.  All of the cabinets in the baths and kitchens will be out of the walnut.  A person working with me has helped plane all of the walnut needed so far.  The picture below is one side of the vanity that will go in the master bath.  Note that the drawer has full extension slides that will give access to everything in the drawer.  There is a standard height drawer on each end of the vanity.

I have worked on and off since spring to make walnut parquet flooring for the foyer.  I was able to buy enough walnut to floor this area for $200.  However, it required a lot of work.  It was very crooked and not fit for much more that cutting into the small pieces for making the flooring.  It turned out to be a bigger job than I anticipated and it was just finished this week.  It takes about 150 pieces of tile to make the pattern shown below.  The dining room is to the left of the plan and the family room at the top.  The powder room is on the right.  The finished tile is 11 ½ inch square.  The large pieces started out 3”x12” with four boards glued together to make one tile.  I made 120 of these.  The small tiles are started out at 1 ½” x 6” and it takes 16 pieces to make one tile.  I made 41 of these.  Each piece in the tile is spliced to the next, and when the floor is put down, each adjoining tile will be spliced to the next.  So, about 2500 pieces of wood had to be cut, fit, and glued together to make the entire floor.  I am having the hardwood floor person put them down.  He said he will glue them in place and then give them a final sanding and finish.  I will have him finish with clear polyurethane to keep the natural beauty of the floor.

Hurricane Ivan is expected to be in this area about Wednesday of this week, so I don’t know what the future holds for all of that.  I have 1100 board feet of poplar to plane to use to make the door jams, window extensions and window stools.  Joel Boatright, a friend from Valdosta, is coming in to help with the trim and do all of the painting.  Everything is pretty well primed and ready for the final painting.  The brick masons have about another five days left and the garage floor needs to be poured.  So there is still plenty to keep us busy.