NEW DUNBURY

. . . is the garage. And it’s got Tyvek wrap around its “first floor” level, right over the window openings. This is good because they’re calling for inclement weather tomorrow.

Remember the missing appliances? They’ve been delivered. Most are still in the cartons, waiting for the double oven to get its new home in its cabinet. Said cabinet is being a fussy install.

Today we approved the approach for the trim woodwork. It will be carefully nailed in place with round-head, stainless steel, ring-shank nails that will remain visible. The alternative would have needed putty filling which is quite tricky to do on stained wood. Even when it matches at the outset, time has a way of shifting the putty’s color away from the wood’s, so we decided to go with an “honest,” “that’s how it was done” approach and let the nails show. We were supposed to get that sort of effect on the floor (face nailing), but apparently no one told the floorers.

The front door is in place (taped over in portions with a note pleading for everyone to be careful with it) and we’ve settled on the casing/trim-out approach for the exterior doors.

The painters have finished priming all the finished drywall and started in on oiling the trim wood.

I have been working on Liz’s fussy shelves. I also met with a landscaping contractor to talk possibilities. We need to send him a sketch and fill in his questionaire for the next step. Tomorrow there’ll be more work on those shelves, with luck I will get them ready for casing.

Did I mention the place is starting to look remarkably house-like?

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Well, some anyway.

The Utility Room stuff got delivered late this afternoon, all shiny and white. The rest were a no show. When I got back to the house, there was a message waiting that had come in about 10:30 this morning. Sears wants to arrange a delivery date for the kitchen appliances that have arrived. Hmmm. I thought we had already done that. What do I know? Tomorrow I’ll call the call back number and try to set something up. I’ll have to do this while I’m on the road since I have doctors’ appointments in NoVa tomorrow.

We got interior doors installed upstairs today. The doors for the main floor were brought into the house near the end of the day and may go in tomorrow. More work was done on the porch.

The HVAC guys showed up and ran the rest of the fireplace flue pipe. I think this means that the drywall guys can now finish. The HVAC guys clearly aren’t done because there’s a trash bag over the the chimney exit.

The floorers came back and did the landing and the last bit near the Master Bath. Unfortunately they got in and did their thing before Michael had a chance to explain to them our solution for the slight height differential in the floors in the Master Bath and its hallway. That’s a fix waiting to happen — it’s one of those issues that crop up in a rush to the finish line.

The plywood for the garage roof was late in arriving, so the framers amused themselves by putting up fascia and soffit boards for the part that is “under plywood.” The new plywood eventually arrived, and when I left site near closing time, they were nailing fast. I don’t think they had enough light left to finish it today.

Michael and I discussed details for setting the exterior doors, something we can now do since we have elected the cheap option: using the door that’s sitting in the house. To make lemonade from lemons, I’ll tell you that the back door is square topped because all of our doors with windows in them are square topped and lacking in arches. Walk around the house and see for yourself. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Anyway, the inside casing for both doors will fill out the space between them and the timbers on the sides. Above each door there will be an arched panel going up to flush with the timber, but leaving a reveal from the timber. These casings will be oak. Outside the front door’s casing will also be oak. The back door, opening onto the porch will be treated as an element of the porch and get casings in the style of the interior doors in a paint grade material that will be painted to go with the porch.

The missing metal bits for the front door are in town and Michael will be picking them up tomorrow or Thursday. Door installation will start tomorrow.

I spent the day running into town for materials and working on the shelving projects. Still not done. Liz’s shelves are a wee bit complicated. I get to go back to it on Thursday.

Thursday AM we’ll be interviewing a landscaper and taking a look at a sample window trim installation with one of the methods I discussed with the builders yesterday. After that I get to play more with the shelves.

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The day started with me showing up at the house with the key the floorers left behind, but Michael and a couple of the guys had already made their way inside and were setting up for the day. Getting up early wasn’t a total loss, as I was able to go over several things, including starting the door discussions. See previous post.

Then I spent the day working on setting in the paperback bookshelves in the Guest Room. They’ll need some trim-out to look good. I also spent time figuring out the trim program for Liz’s office bookshelves. It was a tricky process, but I think I’ve got a plan that will work.

The big deal today was the arrival of the cabinets. The installer spent a good deal of time unpackaging them and sorting them out, but he did get the corner upper cabinets up in the kitchen. Most of the packaging is now providing protection for the wood flooring on the main floor.

The noon meeting with Alec started with door discussions. Then we covered the communication issues regarding what was and was not covered in sections of the budget relating to painting and wood finishes. There has been a historical lack of clarity. Now we’re supposed to get estimates of what some of the various finishing tasks will run us if they do them. We’ll have to decide where to draw the line once we know how much the drawing pencil will cost. As an accomodation for all the confusion, it looks like we’ll get the materials and labor for painting the back porch for free.

Out on the back porch, the ceiling got put in. Over at the garage, the overhang rafter got set and the roofing plywood went on for the workshop “shed,” the front wall, and the west side of the roof. Well, almost. They went as far as they could before they ran out of plywood. More is due tomorrow and they will finish the west and do the east. Michael ordered the shingles for it today.

Tomorrow: appliances!

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So, we finally got the doors delivered. Sort of.

One door came as an arch top, as we ordered. The other came as a flat top. How did that happen?

One door came with a speakeasy, as we ordered. The other came with a window, which we didn’t order.

One door (the one with the speakeasy) was supposed to have clavos and a grill, which we learn are shipped separately. They didn’t arrive with the doors. They’re on a loading dock, we learn.

So here’s the deal. We can call the company on the screw-up and demand another door, the right door. This will take time, more time than remains between now and the targeted final inspection. A knocked-together, lockable door could hold its place and might even satisfy the bank and the final inspector, given that the ordering paperwork would exist. Or it might not.

Our builder could build us a door to the spec of the one good one. Of course, he doesn’t have access to the proprietary finish on the one right door. And he declined to build our carriage doors, citing insufficient bandwidth. Who can say if it would be done in time to satisfy the parties mentioned above?

Or we could use the door that came. Of course that would screw up the procession of arches down the entry aisle (a big architectural downside). The upside of this option is that we would not be charged for the door (a big up) and it could go in NOW (a moderate up).

Decisons, decisions. Naturally the builder wants said decision soon. Real soon.

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I spent much of Saturday over at the house in the company of the floorers. When I arrived, they were at lunch, but they had pretty much finished the upstairs and were well on the way with the main floor. They had also apparently busted the doorbell wire. Harrumph.

By the end of the day, they had “finished.” Of course there’s a section of about four board widths in the hall between the master bedroom and bath that’s not completed. And there are the stair landings (although they may not have been the floorer’s responsibility).

Nevertheless, the floors look great.

There are also about 30 leftover packs of flooring boards. That’s a lot of wood. I’ve been salvaging scraps to put to use later.

My purpose over there was to work on some of the built-in shelves. By the end of the weekend, I had test fit the paperback shelves for the Guest Room. (Yes, that guest favorite feature will be returning.) I had also set in Liz’s office bookshelves, although there’s still some trim work to figure out.

Today, the cabinets are scheduled to arrive and I’m meeting with Michael about various things and with Alec to discuss the “finishing” as in paint and stain.

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