austin cubed: drywall

Showing posts with label drywall. Show all posts

5.19.2013

week 39: cans, cubes, covers, cuts, and color

20 days to completion?

cans

The electrician installed cans in most of the house (sans second story and art lights). He installed standard cans in the entry and dining areas where they should be directional cans (to shine on art). Electrician still working off of draft plans. Sigh... Something for the punch list.

cube lights

The electrician installed the cube lights (except for the one on the front wall [there first needs to be a front wall...]). They look good! Their silvery goodness is close to a perfect match to the garage gray color. Will need to come back later and address the slight, but noticeable, slant of the cubes on the garage siding...

plug covers

Speaking of matching the garage color, the standard gray for outdoor plug covers is a shoe-in for the gray on the house and garage:

more fencework

The wood fence is now stained black. Intended it to be stained dark gray, but I guess black is a darker shade of dark gray? Nonetheless, it looks good. The fence is there, but it recedes into the shady background when stained black.

Looking out the main back entry, you can see the "fancy" fence made out of Hardie. It will be painted the same color gray as is on the house and garage (or at least that's the plan; stuff seems somewhat random these days...).

Here's looking at the fence out the kitchen window:

The back fence is starting to go in, but not without a wee bit of drama. The installers have been clear cutting shrubs and small trees along the fence paths. Not a big deal, but that caused us concern that they would chop down the fig tree, a tree the bride is rather attached to. So I attached the following sign to the tree:

The builder called and said the tree had to come down in order for the fence to go in. After the bride became suspicious that I felt the tree was expendable in the cause of the fence (no comment on the validity of her suspicions...), she threatened divorce if the fig came down (it's me or the tree, basically). I explained that to the builder, so he said he would leave a gap in the fence at the tree. I didn't quite get why we couldn't have the fence and the tree (we want it all!) since the tree wasn't in the direct line of the fence. Went out to check on things and saw the problem: They were building the fence five feet in from the back of the property this side of the existing chain link fence. Once that got straightened out (take the old fence out, put the new fence in line with the old fence, leave the tree alone), we have the fence and the tree.

At one point the builder texted me a photo of the fig tree with the message "Call me." After a busy hearing and meeting filled morning, I called and left a message: "If the tree is gone, you better have a recommendation for a divorce attorney for me." But the tree is there. He wanted to suggest we trim it so it looks more tree-like. The bride is happy; that's all that counts in the end.

power to people!

Well, almost... The power pole on the garage is now in and ready to accept the line from the city pole. Neat that the receiving pole doesn't extend above the garage, so it's more hidden. If you recall, they originally wanted to stick this whole mess on the back of the house (although as far as "the mess" is concerned, it looks real clean) before I reminded them we had spec'd underground utilities to the house.

Electrician said power in the house on Monday? Not sure we believe that...

shower tile

Tile for the master shower is now in, including the linear drain, and it looks good. This didn't go exactly according to plan since the tile was supposed to run the other direction, but it looks good.

missing plugs (mostly) no longer missing

They found the plug in the laundry:

But not the stairwell:

Saw the electrician on site last week, and he explained that plug-finding is the responsibility of the drywaller. Nonetheless, before he flips the power on, he'll do an inventory of plugs and fixtures to make sure they are all there. A missing plug could mean a house fire...

hob hole

The countertopper cut the hole for the cooktop, and it all looks pretty slick! The hole for the potfiller is also in.

reflected light

It's been interesting to see how light reflects off the ceiling and gives the wall a slight brownish color. When I first saw this, I thought that the painters had not done a good job in the living room. But it's reflected light...

schedule

20 days to completion (or so the builder says). It seems possible, but there also seems to be a lot of work left to do, and progress seems slower than it needs to be. We shall see... Three weeks is a lot of time, but then again, it's not.

punch list

inside:

~~- countertops~~

~~- guest bathroom tile~~

~~- master bathroom tile~~

- plumbing fixtures

- lighting fixtures (partial; 80% done)

~~- plugs~~

~~- switches~~

- speakers (us) (partial; 80% done)

- ~~security plug covers (us)~~

~~- wifi stations (us)~~

- master bathroom shelves (us?)

- guest bathroom shelves (us?)

- closet poles (partial, 80% done)

- appliances

- gas (partial)

- power (partial; 25% done)

- wood floor

- polish concrete floor

- drywall touchup (partial)

- paint touchup

- master bathroom mirror

- guest bathroom mirror

- powder mirror (us)

~~- kitchen sills~~

- range hood

- range hood cover

- living room floor plug covers

- railing for stairwell

- railing for balcony

- doorbell chime
- missing plug in stairwell
~~- missing plug in laundry~~

outside house:

~~- outside lighting fixtures~~

- outside plugs (partial)

- cable

- roof over limestone/bookcase bump

- outdoor spigots

- solar (us)

- rainwater (us)

- gutters

- water heater

- doorbell

- garage door

- touchup eyebrows

- clean roof
- garage floor sealed?

landscaping:

- gate

- fancy fence (partial; 75% done)

- not-so-fancy fence

- back fence (partial; 25% done)

- plant trees

- pavers

- grasscrete

- grass for grasscrete

- grass

- mulch

- stone

- horno base

- horno (partial; in transit)

- walls

- wall light and address numbers

- mailbox (us)

- feathergrass in driveway holes (us)

for dan the man:
- bookshelf fills
- plug hider
- wood sill for giant window?
- kitchen shelves
- master bathroom shelves
- guest bathroom shelves
- guest closet shelves

5.12.2013

week 38: tops and tiles (and plugs gone missing...)

27 days until completion!

countertops are in!

The countertops (finally) went in last week, and they look rather sharp.

Here they are in the laundry:

In the master bath:

The beauty bench in the master shower:

They were only supposed to do the top of the bench, but they also did the side, which is fine, but we had hoped to run the floor tile up the side.

In the master bedroom:

The upstairs bath:

And the kitchen:

They even cut bits for the sills in the kitchen:

That kitchen sink is pretty cool. It has these ridges on the front and back sides:

that support a cutting board and a couple trays that hold prep dishes:

It also comes with a contraption that holds all that stuff underneath the sink:

Nifty! Our friends that built a modern house somewhat nearby said this sink was the best thing about their house!

I couldn't wait to see what the faucets would look like, so I dry-installed them to see what they would look like (and verify the holes were the right size). Here's the robot arm for the kitchen sink:

Here's a Graff in the master bath:

If I had a do-over I would have centered the spigot on the sink instead of the stem, but this'll work.

The Graff also came with a nifty push closed/push open drain plug:

I've ordered a couple more for the other sinks where the faucet did not come with drain plugs.

Here's the Fresca in the upstairs bath. Looks good, but we have concerns that the spigot doesn't extend out enough into the sink. We'll have to see after it's installed (and we've brushed our teeth with it):

We didn't take a close-up of the IKEA faucet in the laundry (see second photo in this post for a more distant shot), but it looks darn good.

They're going to cut the hole for the cooktop on-site this week, but here's a photo with it sitting on top of the counter to get a sense of what it looks like:

That sucker is big! Love the looks of this thing and how it will complement the sink. We're also looking forward to having a level cooktop to cook on. The unit in our apartment is a nightmare...

tile

Tile is completely done in the guest bathroom and, except for the shower floor, in the master bathroom. Still need backsplashs to be installed in the kitchen and laundry.

Tile in the master around the tub enclosure:

Baseboard tile in the master:

Ideally the baseboard tile would have been carried at the same height clear around the room. Here it is underneath the cabinetry:

and here it is at the shower entry:

Not the end of the world, but when the trades ad-lib, things can get less-than-ideal.

Inside the shower, the plumbing for the linear drain is installed as is the permeable concrete base for the floor tile:

Tile in the upstairs (guest) bathroom:

Tile baseboards in the guest bathroom:

The tile baseboards look pretty sharp! Highly recommended if you're thinking of going this way.

missing plugs

They finally took a look for the "missing plugs" that I was aware of. Here's how the search for the junction box in the laundry went:

Don;t know how they know if they've hit (unless they press through and keep going until they hit the outer wall). They were more spot-on in finding the box for the doorbell chime:

The search for the missing can in the kitchen gave me a chuckle:

This is the fourth of three cans arranged in a perfect square, so all they had to do was measure to figure out where the fourth can was. Didn't work out so well... Provides some additional work for the drywall guy, I reckon.

I also discovered two additional "missing" plugs: One in the backsplash area of the laundry and another in the stairwell. I discovered the former when I was imagining whipping up a frozen margarita when I realized that there wasn't a plug for the blender! (Dude, I was bummed...) I couldn't remember if there was actually a plug there or not, so I looked at the video I took of the inside wall before insulation was sprayed (I need a post on doing this...). Yep, there's a plug there (that blue junction box).

Discovered the other one doing an inventory of plugs and remembering a plug being added to the stairwell because of code.

speaking of the drywall guy

He was at the house touching some things up, namely left-over holes and gaps beneath the sills:

Given how rough the other trades are on the house, he'll have more work in the future...

speaking of plugs

The goofiness with the electrician is a gift that keeps on giving. He's not installed the spec'd plugs; he's installed whatever he spec'd on the soft bid. To a certain degree this is a blessing in disguise since we plan to upgrade the plugs and switches anyway (and we won't do it with him since it gives him another opportunity to screw us via change orders). c'est la vie....

Debating whether we should go for something stealthier here or stay with white...

speakers of the house

I spent some time yesterday picking foam insulation back so the wall speakers for the surround sound could fit in the holes. Also dry-fitted them to get a sense for what they look like:

They look good. Very low profile.