Day 225 - A Very Busy Week

What a difference a week can make!  In the past week, Dave Kampsen & Co. started putting on the siding (more on that later...Grrr...), Dave Gessel did all the prep work for the tile, Tom, Travis & Al started trimming out the windows/installed the front door, Ron Leech & Sons started putting the stone around the fireplace, Brian from Albany Heat filled out geothermal loop & installed our range hood and G&E Cabinetry installed our cabinets!  That's a lot of people going in & out of our house.  Let's break it all down for you:

Cabinets

Gered & Evan from G&E Cabinetry came on up from Sheldon, IA and started to install all of our cabinets.  Those guys are fantastic!  Gered is easy to work with, arrives on time, works hard & makes beautiful cabinets.  In 3 days they had everything installed & ready for countertops.  Nice work gentlemen!  There were a few small hiccups along the way.  Gered & Dave, our tile installer, got to have the age old argument of what comes first the cabinets or the tile?  Gered felt the cabinets should be installed first.  Dave said tile should be laid first.  Hmm...imagine that!  In the end, no blood or tears were shed, and the most of the cabinets went in first (The lockers for the mud room will be installed after the tile is installed).

Here is the kitchen.  Gered is on the left.

This is Emily's desk a.k.a. the Control Center of the Home!

Front Entry Bench

Kids' B

athroom Vanity

Gered in the pantry

Mudroom Bench

Dovetail corners on the drawers.

 Mudroom Bath & Kitchen Pantry

Office File Drawers/Storage

 Master Closet Storage

Master Bath

Kitchen with the vent hood installed

Kitchen Hutch

Stonework

Hank works for Ron Leech.  At the end of last week after the fireplace mantel was installed, they put a coat of mortar around the fireplace.  Yesterday, they started to lay the stone.  Depending on the supplier you buy it from, the stone is called Eagle Ridge Ledgestone or Marbella.  It is a mostly grey ledgestone with some rust/orange/brown highlights.  We are planning to use the same stone on the front of the house, around the walk-out basement and on the chimney.

Tom trimming the Durock to fit

All set to start laying the stone

Eagle Ridge Ledgestone or Marbella is the name of the stone

A little mud & stone and away we go!

Mantel courtesy of G&E Cabinetry.  Mud courtesy of Ron Leech & Sons.

Say Hello to Hank!

Hank is the man responsible for or beautiful new fireplace

Steady hands, Hank!

 

Doesn't that look great?

Hmm...so many rock to choose from...

Emily is definitely impressed!

Tile

Dave Gessel spent all last week prepping the bathrooms & main floor entryways for tile install.  In the bathrooms this meant installing Durock cement board and mudding everything in place.  He also had to waterproof & seal-up around the windows to prevent any leaks.  Finally, he had to pour the floor for the master shower.

 

Dave pouring the shower floor in the master bath

Master Bath Shower

 

Shower Floor Drying

We have in-floor heat for the mudroom and the 3 season porch to keep our toes toast on those cold MN winter nights.  Brian Bose from Kummet Electric came and installed the electric mats, and Dave poured the self leveling floor over the top of them.  He will glue the tile directly down to the poured floor.  Because the front entry doesn’t have in-floor head, it didn’t need the poured subfloor.  It just has Durock on the floor to glue the tile to.  We will have tile in the master bath, kids bath, basement bath, and in the kitchen backsplash. 

3 Season Porch In-floor Heat

Dave checking the thermostat wiring.

After the pour

Mudroom Floor

Dave admiring his work!

Window Trim

For the window/door trim, we went for a simple look with clean lines.  That’s fancy designer talk for everything is square with no routered corners.  We have 3.5” trim on the sides & bottom of the windows.  On top is a 5.5” piece of trim with 2 “mouse runners” to add a bit of pizzazz.  The top trim piece hangs over the sides ~1.5”.

Smile Tom!  You're on candid camera!

Master Bedroom

Siding

We new early on in the process that we wanted to use steel siding for a number of different reasons.  It is sturdier than vinyl.  It holds up better to moisture than Hardieboard of LP siding, and it is “self venting” and should help prevent water from getting trapped behind the siding & rotting the SIPs.  We chose Quality Edge siding because we liked the color of their red siding better than other red siding choices. One problem with steel siding is an effect called oil canning.  Dave Kampsen (Al’s son) is installing our siding.  He warned us that in his experience the Quality Edge siding has a bigger problem with oil canning than other siding products.  We decided to go with the Quality Edge anyway because we like the color the best.  Turns out it may not have been the best choice.  When they first started to install the J-channel (the trim piece that allows the siding to butt-up against the windows, they noticed that the paint was already peeling off!  They returned the boxe & had another one sent out.  Same problem with the second box!  So…for now the siding installation is on hold until a Quality Edge rep can come out to the house and look at the siding.  We may have to pick out another siding & color.  Pics to be posted in the not too distant future.