Week 29: Counters, Trim, Fences, and One More Drain



The countertop fabricators arrived on Monday.  In this photo, the fabrication crew are putting the finishing touches on the kitchen countertops--Corian "Lava Rock". 



This photo shows our new countertop (and new stainless steel sink) on the east wall of the kitchen.  The countertop has coved 4" backsplashes.  We will be installing tile between the top of the Corian backsplash and the bottom of the upper cabinets.



This photo shows the countertop on the west wall of the kitchen.  Our new gas range will slide into the gap between the two base cabinets.



The countertop fabricators also installed this laminate tabletop on the worktable in the BB's office.  The framed enclosure beneath the table top is a large "cubbyhole" that can be used for storage of art or sewing supplies.  Below the cubbyhole is headroom for the staircase from the first to the second floor.



Ditto



A lot of trim was installed this week.  This photo shows beaded wainscoting installed in the dining room plus the shoe molding installed at the base of the baseboards.  The shoe molding is an exact replica of the molding in the house in 1925.



Ditto.  By the way, the doorknob on the elevator door is not the final hardware that will be installed on the door.  This was a cheap substitute installed to enable us to have the elevator inspection this week.  Unfortunately, the elevator folks failed to tell us until 7 a.m. of the morning of the inspection that the state elevator inspector would not conduct an inspection until the city electrical inspector had passed the electrical sub panel that is installed in the elevator machine room.  As a consequence, we missed the opportunity to complete the elevator inspection this week, and it will happen some time after Thanksgiving.

This photo shows the wainscoting and shoe molding on the west wall of the dining room.  We love the way that Dylan and his crew have used fine mitered corners to apply this trim around various nooks and crannies of the dining room and adjacent space.

 

Meanwhile, crown molding is also being installed in the various first floor rooms.  In this photo, the BB points to crown molding being installed in the living room.  Also visible in this photo are the grid boards being installed in this room.



A view of some of the grid boards, including the corner squares, that are being applied to the ceiling of the new expanded living room.



Meanwhile, upstairs, the painters are still painting at a furious pace.  In this photo, Kevin masks the wall so that he can paint the baseboards.  All of the baseboards and door and window trim are spray painted.  The result is an incredibly smooth and beautiful satin finish that could never be achieved by rollers or brushes.  We understand the technique is not unlike applying paint to an automobile, and the result is every bit as pleasing.



In the BP's office, additional doors that have been painted are stacked for drying.



In the upstairs master bedroom, the wall sconces are finally in place.  These are recycled fixtures.  In the original house, they were downstairs above the fireplace.



You really know when a project is nearing completion when you find that it is time to begin restoring the fences around the yard.  In this photo, Sean and Derek, the fence subcontractors, are constructing a new relocated fence between our property and our neighbors to the east.  We are delighted to note that the fence builders are following exactly the design of the back fence that Andy Rodrigues designed and built for us several years ago.  We love the design, and our neighbors did, too, so it was an easy decision to use this design for the new fence.



In this photo, Sean and Derek work on the fence while Dylan sets the forms for a concrete landing and ramp that will serve the exterior access door to the elevator.



In earlier blogs, we have described in detail the extensive storm water drainage system that we've installed around the house.  The final piece of this system are drainage pipes running around the south and east sides of the garage and connecting to the exterior sump at the house.  We showed the pipes being installed in an earlier blog.  Now, to complete the garage drainage, we are installing a concrete apron at the entrance to the garage with a trench drain that drains directly into the 4" tight line that runs to the sump.  This apron also will be extended to the base of the first four rear fence posts to provide extra stability to those posts.  In this photo, Jake excavates the area where the apron will be installed.



This is another view of the excavation and the beginning of the forms for the concrete apron.  We departed for California on Friday of this week and will be gone for about 10 days.  During this time we anticipate completion of the fence, pouring of the concrete apron, and elevator ramp, and more painting and trim installation inside.  Susan will be taking a few photos during the short Thanksgiving week, and we'll be back in Bellingham on the 27th.  It's too soon to fix an exact completion date, but we're putting quite a few of our Berkeley furnishings on a moving truck heading for Bellingham on the 26th, and everyone is seeing that as extra motivation to reach at least substantial completion (subject only to a few punch list items) by the end of the month.