Week 56-57-58: Interior trim, hardwood floors, garage doors

Scaffolding is gone now, only thing missing is the front door!

Interior trim is more or less complete. Coffered box beam ceilings and picture box mouldings in the dining room.

Brazilian cherry hardwood floors with borders and walnut inlays. They still need sanding and finishing after paint and other flooring is complete.

Garage doors are in, original plan was to use Mahogany but decided to use clear heart redwood due to increased durability. Stain looks great.

Week 55: Exterior Paint & roofing

Roofing is finally done and now with the paint complete, the exterior is looking much more finished.



Some before pictures from the rooftop show the beautiful texture of slate.

This view shows the unique clefting inherent in this type of slate.

Eyebrow is now slated. The slate is a little shiny under the bright sun.

Other elevations.

Just need my driveway, motorcourt, walkways, patio/pool decks, breezeways and landscaping put in to complete the picture. I guess there is still quite a bit on my to-do list.

Week 52: 1 Year since the beginning

It has been one year since ground was broken and at this point in time the interior doors have been delivered and hung.






The bay windows have been trimmed out.




Behind the closed doors of the butlers pantry...

Cabinets are being installed.

Week 47-50: Stucco and Sheetrock are done

The final coat of stucco is on now. The three layers are about an inch thick and I am very pleased with the way the finish coat turned out. Is very nice and smooth.

Three weeks have gone by and the interior is now getting ready to be primed for paint.

The next few months are going to involve a lot of selection as it relates to colors and finishes.

Week 46: Stucco begins

The ideal sequence of events is for drywall to be hung before stucco begins. This is because the vibrations from the sheetrock being hung and nailed can cause cracks in the stucco.

The sheetrock in this project is affixed with screws but nails are used initially to hang each piece against the walls.

The stucco finish being used is the traditional three coat stucco which is known for its durability. The scratch coat was applied and creates the initial bond to the wire lathe. It is mixed on site and pumped near the point of application where it is scratched with a trowel to provide a key for the following brown coat.

Sand, Portland cement, and lime are the key ingredients in stucco.













It is really amazing how the stucco and sheetrock installation begin to change the way the house looks.

Week 45: Drywall begins

Now that we have rough framing inspection out of the way and the walls have been insulated we can now begin hanging drywall. My brother and I used to hang drywall and I am so glad I hired someone else to do this job. Watching them do it confirmed that it is no easy job regardless of who is doing it.

The garage walls are a near perfect fit with sheetrock ordered to exacting wall plate heights.



Sheetrock here will have to be carefully notched between the plates.



Speaking from personal experience, hanging ceilings are the worst.



Before and after, now the walls have been taped.



Entry walls and ceilings with barrel vaults.



The hard part is yet to come. In the next three weeks the level 5 wall finish will be installed which means floating a layer of plaster over the drywall until it attains nearly perfect smoothness.

Now that the drywall has been hung the stucco guys can begin their work outside.

Week 44: Rough framing inspection sign off!

After a period of waiting and some paperwork revisions everything was signed off and we are set to move forward.

The insulation was installed in the house. Looks like cotton candy!