Let There Be Color!

Diogenes (a Greek philosopher) once said, “Blushing is the color of virtue.” As I work on building a house, I pause to visualize the metaphor of a house “blushing.” How might this house wear its virtue as a color? Unfortunately, I am artistically challenged and lack the vision for an answer to such a question. So, I called on the services of a professional designer. True to form, I think she hit the nail on the head. She made it possible for this house to “blush” so to speak, and to go from the bland an monotonous look of primer to the glowing and attractive look of a house that is displaying its virtue. As you can see in the pictures below, its virtue is in its historical detailing and its confident presence in the neighborhood:

Exterior w/ Paint

Living Room w/ Pocket Doors to Dining

Family Room

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

It seems that the trend in colors these days is to go after any and every shade of taupe imaginable in the endless pursuit of neutrality and appeal to the widest possible audience. Personally, I get tired of taupe pretty quickly, so I am very pleased to have a masterful selection of colors in the house that are calming and inviting while also not being taupe. All I have to say is thank goodness for interior designers.

Vist the project web page to see more pictures and project info.

Floors & Other Wonderful Things

The floors planks for the hardwood floors are reclaimed wood from a gym floor that was in a high school in Hilsboro. The floors look a little funny in the place at this time, because they still have all of the gymnasium markings on them. When I walk through the house, I feel as though I should be dribbling a basketball in the house and looking for a hoop to shoot it into. Of course those free throw lines will come off when the floors are sanded. After sanding and finishing, the floors will look like beautiful finished maple.

Reclaimed Maple Floors (dining room)

Reclaimed Maple Floors (Entry)

Reclaimed Maple Floors (Living Room)

I know that bamboo flooring is in vogue these days, but I much prefer reclaimed wood floors. Bamboo still necessitates that it be grown and harvested and processed somewhere and then shipped here. By contrast, using reclaimed wood puts no additional demand on the market for harvesting new resources (bamboo or trees or anything else). It is also readily available locally so there is minimal transport required for it. So, all things considered, I think it is far more sustainable to reuse existing wood, as opposed to growing, harvesting, processing, and shipping new wood for a project like this. In addition to that, reclaimed wood has a story that comes with it. It has been somewhere before, and the story of where it has come from is usually quite interesting. Also, I just really like the way older wood looks.

While all of this progress has been happening on the inside, there has also been some more detail work done to the outside. The front columns are wrapped and detailed. All that remains is the railings. The porch decking has also been laid down, and it looks phenomenal. Unfortunately, I don’t have a good picture of it right now, because it is covered to protect it from the elements until it gets a treatment. The reason it looks so amazing is because it is also reclaimed wood. Specifically, it is wood that was salvaged from the garage that used to stand on the lot when we bought it. Rather than just tear the garage down and scrap it, we decided to keep as much wood out of it as possible for reuse in the house, and the decking was a perfect application for this. The planks are fairly wide and have a rich grain to them, as only old wood can. I’ll be sure to get a photo of that as soon as I can. In the meantime, I suggest checking in to the builder’s web site for more updated pictures: http://www.bridgecityinc.com/

Front

Front Porch Details

Dressing It Up

The finishing process is coming along nicely. On the exterior, we now have all of the siding done, including some of the detailing work. I am very pleased with how it’s coming together. Each step we take seems to make the house look more and more historic.

Exterior (front)

The interior is getting its detail work as well. One of the details that I’m most excited about is the crown molding, along with the pictureframe molding just below it. I’ve always enjoyed this was wonderful feature of historic homes. I also appreciate the utility value of the picture molding, because it actually allows you to hang pictures without putting nails in the wall. That’s a great idea, in my opinion.

Family room w/ a view of the crown & picture moldings

Another element that helps this house to start to feel more like a home is the presence of cabinets. The boxes are hung, and looking good. It’s much easier to envision how the space will feel now.

Kitchen w/ cabinets

The finishes that are scheduled over the next several days will change the look of the house considerably. We have paint colors selected, and will begin painting the exterior as weather allows. Also, floors will be installed by the end of the week. I am particularly excited to see how the floors change the look, because we will be using reclaimed wood that was previously part of a gym floor. It still has the free throw lines on it. Of course, the lines will be sanded out before the finish, but it’s still pretty fun to look at. I’m sure I’ll post again once the floors are in.

More details and pictures are available on the builder’s web site.

Starting to Finish

We are starting the finishes. This is the part where we get to dress the house up and make it look pretty. At the present moment, we have most of the exterior siding done, most of the interior trim done, and some of the tile work as well. Though it is only an early preview at this point, it is possible to get a sense for the efforts we are making to incorporate a lot of historical details in a new home. It is not easy to make a new house look old, but with some thought and planning given to the design aspects early in the construction, we are able to plan for quite a number of features that will give the house a sense of craftsmanship that is typical of many historic homes that you might see in the Irvington or Alameda neighborhoods. I am thinking of features such as large beam corbles in the overhangs of the eaves, hextile in the bathrooms, crown and parting bead trim, and Rejuvenation light fixtures of course. The sum total of details such as these (and many others besides) is enough to make a person think that the house might be a remodel of 1920’s craftsman. My measure of success in whether or not we achieve our goal of making a new house look old is if most of the people who come into the house ask how long the remodel took. If we get questions about remodel work in a new construction house, then that is a good sign that we succeeded in making the right impression on people.

Front of house in the shade of a giant sycamore tree

Master bedroom windows with trim (not yet painted)

Hextile in the bathroom

See more pictures and updates on builder web site.

Drywall

Much has happened over the past several days to make this house feel more like a house. All insulation went in, and drywall is now hung. We insulated to Energy Star and Earth Advantage Standards, which generally require performance at least 15% above normal building code. All that basically means in this case is that we used traditional fiber insulation, but we used a variety that has a higher R-value than normal. It’s quite surprising to me that this isn’t done as standard practice, since the cost is not much higher than normal insulation. In other words, a minimal investment in better insulation during construction would easily pay for itself by within a year or two because of the lower utility bills.

Now that the drywall is hung, it is much easier to get a sense for the size and proportions and feel of the rooms and spaces in the house. It feels very nice. The open floor plan on the main, combined with the 10 foot ceilings, makes the space feel large and airy. It is easy to imagine kids running through the rooms and people mingling in the kitchen and dinner being served in the dining room and so forth. The mudding and taping of the drywall will be done over the next couple of days, and then we will be preparing to add the finishing touches. See more pictures at the builder’s web site:

dining & living room w/ drywall

family room with drywall

Systems Done

Progress has felt slow lately, but that is also somewhat deceptive. The truth is that a lot of progress is happening, it’s just not as visible as what we’ve seen so far. I am referring to the progress made on finishing out the installation of the systems of the house and the inspections that go along with that. About the only thing that looks different to the naked eye now from a couple weeks ago is that there is more clutter and stuff in the house. That is actually a good sign, though, because it means we have all of the stuff on site that is necessary to finish off the systems and close walls. As you can see in the pictures below, there is just more stuff visible (e.g. outlets, wires, pipes, fireplaces, etc.). All of that stuff is about to be inspected, and then we are going full speed ahead toward insulation and closing off walls.

Living room fire place...and other stuff

Kitchen - all wired and plumbed

No, it's not Rapunzel, it's wiring feeding to the electrical panel

Systems Going In

The utilities and systems of the house are now being installed. At this point, the house looks like a jumbled mess with pieces of ducting everywhere and pipes sticking out of walls and so forth. I guess that’s why they call it “rough in”. It certainly does look rough, but I know it will look more put together very soon. Currently, the rough in plumbing is complete, and the HVAC systems are being installed. Installation of the electrical system will follow right on the heels of the HVAC. We expect to be insulating by the end of next week.

Family Room With HVAC Odds & Ends

View Of Water Manifold, Looking Into Bathroom

Master Bath - Plumbed

HVAC In The Attic

Not much has changed on the exterior of the house in the past week or so. The only developments there are that the roofing company came back to finish their “dry in”. This involves placing a grid of firring strips over the tar paper on the roof to hold it in place for now. At a later time, the roofers will come back to the site and install the concrete tile roofing by nailing into those firring strips. In the meantime, the tarpaper will keep any water from penetrating into the interior of the house, should it rain.

House With Dry In Roofing Installed

Ready For Utilities

As you can see below, the front porch is now framed up and the windows are in. This allows a person to get a little better idea of how the detailing of the house is going to look. The vast majority of the detail work will be done when the siding goes on though. That process should begin soon, so the exterior details will begin to look a lot more impressive over the next couple of weeks.

Front w/ Porch Framed In

Rear

Sideview Of Detailing

In the meantime, we are getting started with the work that needs to go on inside. With the framing complete, the plumbers can now come in and start running lines for plumbing service. That will be going over the next few days.

Dining Room

Future Home Of The Master Bath

Master Bedroom - Plenty Of Room For A King Bed

It Looks Like A House!

When I left for vacation about a week ago, the site had a garage and the first level of framing on the house done. So, what do I see when I get back? I see a house that is almost completely framed! I love to see progress like that.

Front

All of the interior framing is done as well:

Dining Room

Upstairs rooms

One of the many energy-saving features of this house became visible at this phase of the build out. We are using a roof sheathing that includes a reflective film that helps to reduce the heat gained in the house during the summer, and reflect warmth back into the house during the winter. It is essentially a normal plywood sheet with a coating applied to one side. In the weeks ahead we will also be adding Energy Star compliant insulation in the ceiling as well as a concrete tile roof that further adds insulation value to the roof. The effect of these three features working in concert with one another should translate to minimal heat loss/gain through the roof cavity, which is where the majority of a home’s heat is lost.  Thus, any investment that insulates the ceiling cavity pays dividends on heating bills.  Here is a look at the reflective roof sheathing from inside the house, looking up through the trusses:

Reflective Roof Sheathing

The only thing left to do for the framing at this point is to frame out the front and rear porches. This will be done over the next few days, and also the windows will be installed.

Encouraging Progress

We are now a little over 1 week since we poured the foundation, and look at all of the exciting progress. The first floor is almost fully framed. It’s a good thing too, because we have the roofers scheduled to come put a roof on this thing within the coming week. The rapid nature of the progress at this point gets me very excited. It adds a lot of confidence that we will be able to hit our target of completing this house in September. Of course, I always have to remind myself that progress seems to slow considerably as the house gets closer to completion. My optimism gets the best of me, though, when the house seems so much further along everytime I turn around:

First Floor Framing - Front

First Floor Framing - Rear

First Floor Framing - Interior

You’ll also notice from these pictures that we are using true plywood for the exterior wall sheathing. It is a common practice to use oriented strand board (OSB), which is cheaper. The problem with using OSB is that it is prone to warping, and so it causes the exterior siding to appear warped as well. In an effort to maintain a high standard of quality and aesthetic appeal in this project, we elected to spend the extra money on true plywood here so that we might avoid the appearance of uneven lines in the siding later in the project.