Progress photos - exterior trim

My favorite Russian siding guy is almost finished with the exterior trim.  It's hard for me to believe that he's done the entire house by himself and I'm so thankful for his hard work and attention to detail. 

Here are a few pics of how the house is coming together from the outside:

Front porch.  No, you cannot have our Workaholics lawn chairs.

Framing the front columns

Columns are framed!

 

View of the front exterior.  Love the louvered panel above the bay window. 

Back porch columns with pine tongue and groove ceiling. 

 

"Houston, we have a problem." - drywall texture

This week, the drywall team finished their work by texturing the walls.  Initially on our estimate from the drywall company, we had specified that we'd like a "light dash."

Wondering what the heck "light dash" wall texturing is?  Here's a picture...



If you're a huge nerd (ie: me), you can go to the Technical Services and Information Bureau to read all about wall texturing. 

While the "light dash" wall may look a bit like a Brillo Pad in the close up pic, we had light textured walls in our old house and loved the way that the paint sat on said walls.  One thing I'd strongly encourage you to remember is that a smooth wall will pick up stains, dings and holes.  A benefit of going with a textured wall is that it will show less wear and tear in the long run. 

Now that you've seen what a "light dash" should look like, here's what we ended up getting:

Can you see why I was freaking out?  Every single wall in our beautiful home was filled with these inconsistencies.

Drywall texture or snot?

Really, really bad.

Obviously whatever happened during the application of texture was water under the bridge at this point, because the texture had been applied and was completely dry.  I decided to go down to another home where the same drywall company was applying texture, and it looked nothing like our snotty mess.  I started to wonder if the mixture was off, or if perhaps the air compressor had malfunctioned during application...?

The long story short is this: the owner of the drywall company came out to verify that the texture that had been applied was not good.  He had his crew come out the following day, they re-sanded every single wall and reapplied the texture.  I have to give major kudos to the owner of the drywall company, because he said "As much as I would've liked to tell you that you were wrong about the texturing, you're absolutely right.  Something happened during the application and I will make sure that we fix it."  While this could've had disaster written all over it, I was so impressed with how the owner handled our botched walls and really thankful for his honesty and integrity.  As he humbly told us, he's done some of the homes for Seattle's Street of Dreams - and in the end, he wants his customers to be happy and love their home.

What I love more than our new, perfectly textured walls is a man who stands by his word. 

Progress photos - garage door installation

Our garage door was installed this past week, and it looks great!  As you may recall, I wrote an entire post about selecting a garage door. 

I do have to say: since I'm not the engineer of the family, I had no idea how cool a side mount, belt driven garage door open could be.  Not only is the thing almost silent, but it automatically locks upon coming down.  Sound quality and safety in all in one!

Here are a few pics of the garage door - The Therma Classic R006S 2-car steel door.

Therma Classic R006S 2-car steel door from the inside

Therma Classic R006S 2-car steel door after installation

Going up!

Going down!

Garage door after installation with belt drive motor in the upper right hand corner, adjacent to the rail

Design inspiration - Sherwin Williams vs. Benjamin Moore exterior colors

You may remember our 50 shades of gray dilemma, and the attempt to narrow down our exterior color selections. 

Working with gray has been much harder than I anticipated.  It seems as though most of the Benjamin Moore colors that we splashed on the house pulled blue or green. 

While we really did like Benjamin Moore's Rocky Coast, when we started getting paint bids, there was a constant response from all of the painters: Benjamin Moore's paint is roughly twice as expensive as Sherwin Williams, even with a contractor's discount.  We also got the feeling that the quality of Benjamin Moore's paint wasn't necessarily that much better than Sherwin Williams (and you all know that I love Benjamin Moore!).

With that being said, we figured that it was worth the time to look into Sherwin Williams exterior paint.  We ended up painting both Sherwin Williams Cityscape and Grizzle Gray on the house, and both were true gray.  No undertones of blue or green, just gray. 

Since experimenting with Sherwin Williams grays, we've now decided to use:

 Sherwin Williams SW7067 Cityscape

Here are a few pics to compare Sherwin Williams' Cityscape and Benjamin Moore's Rocky Coast:

Sherwin Williams SW7067 Cityscape on top, Sherwin Williams SW7068 Grizzle Gray on bottom.  Shown in evening light, as the sun was setting.

Benjamin Moore 1595 "Rocky Coast"

Both Sherwin Williams Cityscape and Grizzle Gray are beautiful colors, but at this point, we're more attracted to Cityscape (the lighter shade).  Let's take another look at this beautiful, neutral gray:

Sherwin Williams Cityscape gray, photo from: Healthy Tipping Point

Sherwin Williams Chip It tool, using Cityscape gray

Progress photos - sheetrock

The sheetrock is up and it's really starting to feel like a real house.  The rooms are much more defined and the entire house has been brightened up by the color of the sheetrock.  A crew of 2 guys sheetrocked the entire house in just a few days. 

The actual sheets, that were hoisted upstairs, through our master window with a boom truck

The view from the front door

Looking into the office.  Built in window seat will sit below the windows.

Another view of the office.  The window on the left faces west, towards the street.

Piano room

Kitchen.  The two holes in the ceiling at the top right of the picture is where the island pendants will be mounted.  Lots of outlets in the wall, above the countertops.

Another view of the kitchen

Great room fireplace.  Built in shelving and cabinets to sit below each window.

Great room windows

Standing in the mud room, looking into the powder room.  You can see the door opening for the powder room linen closet.

Powder room

Looking down the stairs to the basement.  The open rail will sit right on top of the paper at the right of this picture.

Basement workshop with egress window

Love the natural lighting in the foyer!

View of the foyer from the landing on the stairs

 

Child's bedroom with dormer nook

Guest bath with pocket door dividing the vanity and shower areas

Laundry room

Guest room

Bonus room

Master bedroom windows, flanking the bed.

Master bedroom bay window, facing west

Master bedroom fireplace and nook where built in bookshelves and cabinets will be installed

Master closet

Nook in between master bedroom and bath where built in hutch will sit.

Looking into the master bath

Master vanity, water closet and shower

Master water closet

Master shower with built in bench seat

Master bathtub

 

 

 

 

Progress photos - insulation

Progress on the interior our house over the past few weeks has been slow, but steady.  The insulation was installed by one guy.  It was a big job, and we're really appreciate of the quality of his work.  Without further adieu, here are a few photos of the insulation.  I didn't take that many, because the fiberglass in the air was thick, which lends to lots of coughing and itching.

Johns Manville insulation

Am I the only one around here who thinks this cart is just asking to be bombed down a hill?

 

Kitchen insulation