Stressed

The past week was quite stressful from a build perspective which I think happens with every project. In this case more budget issues, sloppy exterior trim work, concerns about the felt paper and Tyvek that’s been exposed to the sun and weather for far longer than it is supposed to be and issues with interfacing the felt, Tyvek and other elements to insure no water leakage. Hopefully we’re getting to the end of stressful part and can begin to get excited about our new house instead of stressing over it.

South dining window ready for painting.

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Mis-aligned trim that needs repair. B1200XStressed 101

The front wall is progressing. It’s quite amazing watching José and José create this wall.B1200XStressed 102

After a number of issues with poor quality exterior trim it’s been good having Pedro on board doing work like this.B1200XStressed 103

Foam insulation in the lower wall of the conservatory.B1200XStressed 104

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Painting trim on the dormers. No way I would go up there and do that.B1200XStressed 106

Trying to find a stain for the French Oak to match the unstained White Oak. Spoiler: Perry nailed it.
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Jim insulating the attached garage. B1200XStressed 108

Hydronic heat tube in the breezeway. This image makes it look a lot longer than it really is.B1200XStressed 109

Lots of filler for the French Oak in the living room.B1200XStressed 110

Pedro installing siding on the studio.  To his right is the laser (green line) that he uses to align each corse. B1200XStressed 113

The bosses: Krysta, Marita and my sweetie discussing materials and finishes in the Kipling House office. I can’t say how much I appreciate having people of such great talent insuring that things look great. These three women make one bodaciously awesome team.B1200XStressed 114

Romero moving stuff around to clean up the site for better parking and truck access.B1200XStressed 115

Satellite Sander/Buffer ready to finish the main level floors before staining and clear coat.
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Mitch doing a final buffing before staining.B1200XStressed 117

Stained and clear coated. We think it turned out great. B1200XStressed 118

Compass rose where the sort of north-south and east-west hallways intersect. Sort of because the house sits about 6° off due north. The compass points north.B1200XStressed 119

Looking out on the east gardens from the upstairs hallway.B1200XStressed 120

More of Bob’s notes. This for a hump in the sheetrock that requires removing the sheetrock, fixing the hump and re-sheetrocking.B1200XStressed 121

Sam and Dan covered the new floors with fiber cloth, then red paper around the edges and then masonite (bottom) which will be sealed w/ red tape. This will protect the floors until the house is nearly complete.B1200XStressed 122

Mud in the guest bath. If you look close you’ll notice a green laser line across the top of the screed. 
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Patched Tyvek. And hopefully a good waterproof patch.
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First batch of interior trim materials. Where you can see exposed wood floor is where cabinets will be installed.B1200XStressed 125

Ben installing shingle siding. We’ve appreciated his craftsmanship and attention to detail.B1200XStressed 126

Mud for the mudroom. The green laser line is above where the finished surface needs to be by exactly the height of the screed. He works it down until the laser runs just across the top. We had fun the other day talking about how many people working on this project remember construction before lasers. Only a tiny handful. Our first show to use lasers were actually early construction lasers. We stretched some saran wrap across a speaker, put a bit of mercury (no idea how dangerous it was then) in the middle (we bought a lot of thermometers), fed the kick drum to the speaker and then aimed the laser at the bouncing-to-the-beat mercury which reflected it up on to a screen or through haze. Nothing like today’s shows but we were pretty cool in the 70’s.B1200XStressed 128

Cabinets in the south end of the upstairs hallway. Through the cabinets is the laundry. Having the cabinets themselves form the wall gave us a very valuable 5” of additional space in the very tight laundry.B1200XStressed 129

José’s beginning work on the steps for the sunken patio.B1200XStressed 130

Bill found this among the tiles and made sure it had a prominent place in the floor. Very cool to think about what caused this to form.B1200XStressed 131

The nearly finished breezeway floor looks great.  It took a lot of planning by Marita, Bill, Bob and others to insure such a great result.
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