Exterior Paint, Hardwoods, and Geothermal HVAC

Another good week - exterior painting was completed for the most part. While they finished the painting on most of the house yesterday there were still a few sections that needed touch-up like the frieze board and they still have to paint all the window trim which is hand painting as opposed to the spray/backrolling method they used on the larger concrete areas.

Here's what the house looks like on a cloudy day - the site has been cleaned up (big dumpster hauled away, trailer gone, piles of scrap cleaned up).  that orange 'corral' is really our simulated driveway - the inside circle.  We tested it out and figured out the outside drawn by the landscape designer was too tight so we're going to go a bit bigger. Gotta remember those FedEx/UPS trucks (they've carried lots of stuff to us for the house and will probably continue after we move in).  

This was taken last week - before they removed the dumpster and trailer.  It's hard to tell the colors due to the lateness of the time and position of the sun but it does provide a perspective (that's primer white on the South Wall and Baguette on the East wall.

A milestone happens - that's the storage trailer we rented to hold all our tools and materials on its way back to Sanford.  Maple flooring was the biggest space hog and since we moved that to the house last week, it was time to bid an old and tired (no, make that VERY tired) trailer adieu.  

On Friday they sanded the seams of all the flooring boards and made sure all the lumps and bumps were gone. They also started to lay out the paper but ran out of paper so had to come back on Monday to finish the prep and work the layout.  On Monday they started laying the wood out and went to work quickly stapling it into place.  They finished about 1/2 the stapling on Monday and then completed the whole house on Tuesday.  Monday afternoon we were unsure if we'd have leftover wood or run short.  We had planned for them not to lay maple in the front bedroom until we knew if there was enough but they, confident that they'd have enough, went ahead with the layout of the floor in that room.  When Ricardo (the owner of the flooring company) stopped by at the end of the work day he wasn't sure we'd have enough material to do the landing.  He measured, remeasured, and again said it was going to be close.  On Tuesday they still had several bundles of maple that hadn't been opened - and at 22 sq ft per bundle the 55 sq ft landing would use most of that wood.  In the end it turned out we had about 1/2 a bundle of wood leftover.  We couldn't have planned it that closely.  They did lay hardwood under all the cabinets and in the closets (of the rooms with maple flooring).  In the end it looks like they laid in the range of 1900 sf of maple.  Thursday they sand the woods and then on Friday is the coloration and the initial finish layer goes on.  We're going for a slight darkening of the color but nothing dramatic.  The color and grain of the wood needs to shine through.

Starting the layout in the Family room - this is to get the boards lined up without seams too close and making it look good. 

It always looks worse before it looks better!

The second stage of the layout is the run from the end of the family room to the end of the hallway which is about  80 feet of continuous hardwood which ends up tying the house together.

And the stapling has commenced...

Here's a sample of a finish - this is just the base oil applied before the Bona finish.  We like it but want it a shade deeper.

Here's the end of the day on Monday.  Many hands make light work (6 guys working on the install!)

That's a recessed floor vent bought from an online supplier. 

The hallway from the Master bath to the bedroom.

OOPS! Forgot that I'd just swept up our mess from the day and that the flash was going to fire.  Guess this is why they say you should wear a dust mask when working with treated wood! (This dust reminds me of the visits to Saddam's places in Baghdad - but that's another story).

And here it is without the flash.  Maple flooring is all installed - the only remaining piece is the stair nosing at the main floor and the landing but we're going to let the trim carpenter install that as he adjusts the stairs during install of the treads and risers.

A slightly different view - Can't wait for the kitchen cabinetry to get installed and then the appliances.

Yesterday they connected the goethermal well to the HVAC system after charging it with an ethanol/water mix (heat transfer and anti-freeze all in one) and this morning when I arrived, the house was at a balmy 71 degrees.  The setback dropped back to 62 degrees at 8:00 and when I left the house after the day of 3 of us in the house working and the garage entry door open all day, the temp had dropped to a chilly 70 degrees.   Several times during the day I threatened to turn on the A/C to drop the temp a bit so I didn't sweat so much while we were working!

We laid out the subfloors for the rooms with marmoleum - upstairs we added 7/16" OSB to bring up the level of the bathrooms and laundry room so that there wasn't a big step between the marmoleum and the maple.  In the basement we have to use some self-leveling compound to even out the waves (it is concrete after all) so we applied the "primer" which is really a bonding agent/concrete sealer for the self-leveling compound.  It is supposed to dry in, depending on which literature you read, 3 hours to 24 hours.  In the morning if the primer is dry we'll pour the compound which requires 16 hours before you can lay floor on it.  That will mean no marmoleum in that room until Friday but we wanted to make sure that the marmoleum didn't transmit all the small depressions and bumps in the concrete - especially important in the bathroom where your feet will sense every little uneven spot.

Oh yeah, yesterday the Hardwood Store of NC delivered all our trim (poplar), stair treads(maple), risers (alder), window sill nosing (poplar), and the wood for the hallway slatted ceiling (hickory).  Interior doors and toilets being delivered Friday, range and dishwasher delivery is tomorrow.

Here's a sneak peek at the garage door we're considering.  This is a Clopay Avante' which will have frosted glass panels to let the light through.  Thanks to Kate from Custom Door and Gate for the quote on this one and the cool picture with the door superimposed on our house.