The Big Addition: Finishing

In the last phase, we made huge progress on the bathroom, the Swisspearl siding, tiling, painting, woodwork, and doors. We also passed the 1 year mark on the estimated 7-month project. Now into July 2008, we're seeing the finish line, but we still have a ways to go. Swisspearl and tiling will be completed. We'll put finishing touches on paint work. The scaffolding will be dropped so Ethan can rebuild the rear deck. The railings (inside and out) will be installed. Electrical work and the carpeting will be completed. Then there's the septic system project. And about 1000 other details.

Sub Rotation

Early July saw a return of the smoke from California wildfires. A heatwave brought temperatures between 98 and 102 for several days (Of course, the A/C picked that day to fail. It was fixed just in time for the heatwave to break.) Still, there was major progress. Harbor Tile finished the decks around the 8th. Oh, we're sure to see Enrique back for an adjustment or two, but it looks great. The last of the above-deck Swisspearl panels were installed around the laundry room, office wall, and the underside of the treehouse. Andy took a few days off to catch up on the 1000 details - cutting in vents, some electrical switch swaps, painting, and supporting Team L as they finished up the 'pearl. The vents are clever - we are just using the rainscreen vent cavities rather than pushing all the way through the Swisspearl. The last panel went in on 7/10 and the tent came down. There's still some finishing work to do here, but it is basically complete.

As Harbor Tile and Lentz phased out, RCR Fabrication arrived with the stainless steel railings. Inside, a 3x1 rectangular cap will be welded on top of the posts and later, glass panels will be placed in the clamps (already welded on the posts by RCR months ago). Outside, the holes in the posts will be filled with 5/8" pipes, and the same rectangular cap will be welded on top. The outside cap presents a challenge: about 42 holes need to be drilled in the underside for LED lighting which we will add later.

And the walls came down

Temporary walls, that is. It was a busy week preparing for carpet on the main floor. Lots of touch-up painting had to be done around the glass wall while the rolling scaffold was in place. The temporary wall was removed at long last. At the same time, RCR finished the fabrication of the railings and Harlan completed the electric service. The Swisspearl installation was completed as flashing was installed in each of the horizontal spaces. Then, the carpet guys returned to do the main floor. After which, we moved into our new bedroom. A little wierd being upstairs again after a year.

On the 21st, the scaffolding was removed. Planning for the deck rebuild and a septic upgrade began. We also need a shroud for the chimney. And downspouts. And a nice piece of wood to cap the wall adjacent to the front deck. And the garage needs to be painted, and phones and network cables need to be completed, ... Towel bars and a shelf need to be installed in the bathroom and the vanity needs some trim pieces. Just a sample of the little details left to go.

Where's the water?

Finishing a project like this takes a huge amount of patience, which neither of us has much of anymore. Things were a bit slow at the end of July and beginning of August, but there was measurable progress. Brint plumbing returned to finish the outside spigots. The rear deck rebuild got underway. We dug up and replaced all of the drainage installed by you know who on the west side of the house. Perforated french drains are not intended to be hooked up to roof drains. The water just leaked out of the pipes and flowed up to the surface. Andy replaced it all. Alameda roofing returned to finish the downspouts. We got towel bars and such installed in the bathroom, and chased after electrical gremlins. The most significant event was a drywall delivery for a downhill neighbor gone wrong. They crashed into our driveway retaining wall. Estimates are in the works to get that repaired.

They say a miss is as good as a mile. Well, we tried to install our handrails for the greatroom stairs. Seems simple, right? It would be if someone had put the 2x6 blocking in the right place. It helps to measure FROM THE FINISHED FLOOR HEIGHT and to CENTER the blocking on the MIDPOINT of the allowable height. So now we have some new blocking in the right place, and some sheetrock patching to do. Doofus!

The deck took a while, but it did get built. And the trim which makes the transition from the front of the house to the new was installed. It's a rough redwood board, and was much more difficult to create than it looks. At the same time, we got started on the retaining wall rebuild (paid for by the drivers' insurance), started the septic project, built some Alder shelves in the bathroom, sanded out the back deck rail cap, got a screen slider installed at the laundry room door, and 100 other things.

Home Stretch?

We're racing to get this project over and done with. The septic work and the retaining wall rebuild went faster than expected. Both were done by 8/28. We're working on finishing touches - chimney top, caulking, trim, paint in the garage and store rooms. The back deck staining has begun but will take another weekend to finish. Still lots of electrical work to do, a handrail to install, gutter screens, a new street sign, and lots more.

Into September, we got the glass into the guard rail for the stairs and the stair lights are in. And the upper handrail is finally mounted, the wall is repainted, and we can call the stairs done. We got some great room furniture and we're experimenting with layouts. The deck staining is done and the garage is almost ready to paint. We had one inspection; one more to go, then final. End of the month? We're trying.

We built the new street sign with materials to match the exterior: Swisspearl and stainless look-alike numbers. And at long last, after many hours pulling wires, soldering, and 6 other steps the LEDs are in the railings.

Final?

We worked hard in the last weeks of September to get ready for final inspection. Ethan did a walk-thru with us, and we found a few things which we took care of the weekend of the 27th. On September 29th, we passed our final inspection on the first try. This does not mean that we're done. We're just legal. Woo hoo!

The punch list is getting shorter. Beth built some Ikea wine racks, and Andy built redwood doors and added wire mesh to make them mouse proof and earthquake resistent. Outside speakers went up, and audio distribution wiring was zipped up. We installed a glass shelf in the new bathroom which matches the mirrors. And we finally put up the real outside lights in front and back of the garage, and outside the patio doors. Our chimney shroud showed up 10/10. Andy worked with Ethan's carpenter Jeff to get it installed. There's a bit of work to do on the garage stainless flashing, then we can finally peel back the protective wrap. Then we'll hose off the house, and we'll post pictures of the finished product.

There's still some caulking and painting and touch-up to do, some decorative steel brackets to install, and we need to move into the garage. By the time we're done, it will have been 16 months. Quite a journey. Someday, we will revisit the few parts of the project which were cut - repaving, solar power, and sun shades on the south and west sides. Someday. Meanwhile, we're just going to kick back for a while.

It's been about a month since the last post. In November, we were busy getting the garage and underhouse storage in order and getting rid of the onsite storage unit, which left on 11/26. A few remaining trim items were started. The punch list is getting shorter still...