Projects this year included finishing the great room ceiling, kitchen build out, completing the master bathroom upstairs with a really nice standing shower, sink/vanity and toilet, more sheetrock, and staining – always lots more staining.
During the second half of 2013, the interior finishing continued as well as more exterior staining. The front and back are stained, just need to clear coat – the only spot left is the east side of the upstairs, not sure how to get up there. I also stained the deck & porch, just need to do railings. David completed all the insulation and we have begun doing the tongue & groove in the main ceiling – it looks good and I am staining and poly before it goes up. The sheetrock is completed downstairs and we have mudded and painted the kitchen and the hallway – going to finish the guest room soon completely. Doors are also up for most of the house. Kitchen cabinets and the microwave have gone up too! This spring I am ordering more log furniture, dining room and possibly upstairs bedroom, and we can complete the kitchen and hopefully the upstairs bathroom. We did all this work while having guests up from time to time too and entertaining, not bad!
It’s been awhile since a blog post so I thought I would write a bit about the cabin progress since dry-in was completed. After going up this winter we rented a truck and made the big Lowes/Ikea run – we now have a refrigerator, stove, microwave, and kitchen sink! “Counters” for now are simply leftover subflooring for now. I finished the bathroom painting and stained the door. David has done lots of trim work including the bathroom trim & the entire front wall, first placing insulation in the wall. For his birthday I got him a compound mitre saw with laser guide so angles are easy. He also bought a nail gun and compressor (scary). We had to get a 24′ ladder & you can set it in different positions depending on how high you need to go. While he has been doing trim and stapling insulation in the ceilings my job has been to get started on staining the outside so I bought a nice sprayer – can’t imagine doing it all by brush. I also have trimmed out some of the windows in green. Once we got the guest bedroom ready folks started coming up to visit & that’s been fun – gotta get back on those projects though soon!
We drove up just for the day, and the Mini Cooper definitely could not have made it down our drive, so we parked by the road and hiked down – got the bathroom painted and took some great pics – once the place is insulated and furnished will be nice to be out there in winter time.
After trying to get a few estimates locally and not being impressed, we decided to have the original builder Kenny and his guys come back to wire the electrical rough-in and do the plumbing. They basically built the entire house except for pouring the concrete foundation and basement. We now have electricity, porch lights and Kenny placed some cheap contractor lights throughout the house. The well guys came back and hooked up a pressure tank and put the pump in the well – the water is clear and really good! I was a bit worried it might have sediment but it tastes good – we have a house filter and then use a Pur fridge filter for drinking water. Kenny picked up the 40 gallon water heater I bought at the Lowes in Parkersburg near his home, and then I had the clawfoot tub delivered to 84 Lumber we used for all the building supplies. We brought a one piece toilet and a tiny corner sink and it all fits! I would never get a two piece toilet again, no chance this one will leak. For the plumbing they used a system called Pex, its freeze resistant and instead of having shut offs under each fixture they are all in a manifold in the basement making it really easy to drain. Here are some pics, we will be going back up next weekend to clean, and then saving money to start more projects and furnish it in the spring!
This gallery contains 15 photos.
Finally! After 11 weeks (original estimate was 4), the cabin dry-in is complete. We were able to get the first floor log washed and borate treatment done – need to do the back and the second story when we get … Continue reading
This week saw the roof get put on as well as the windows installed! Looks really great and I have also paid for the woodstove so that should be coming soon – we are in the home stretch and all that’s left to do (dry-in) is railings, stairs on porch, wood stove install, and stairs inside, plus basement framing.
Not alot done construction-wise this week as they had alot of rain (story of the summer) – however we did get the excavator back out to connect the septic tank to the house and dig the trench for the well and power! Kenny got the meter up too so we are ready for the power company to come hook us up!
Wow, this is taking longer than we thought. But.. this week they got the porch on and it looks amazing! I am already laying out where the patio furniture and porch swing will go. More siding on the second floor, still waiting on stairs in side and the deck railings nad the metal roof, more rain coming next week so hopefully soon!
This week they got alot done – they got the subroof on and the front deck. Once we saw the view there and had a glass of champagne to celebrate I could tell we’d be on that deck more than in the cabin! Left to do are roof, finish framing, stairs inside and the porch, and then we’ll get estimates for plumbing and electrical rough in.
juantana 