Wednesday, April 25, 2012

A ceiling makes a difference

We finished painting the walls on a couple Sundays ago, and the following day, the ceiling contractor started. He got about half the grid work up on the first day.






The second day the rest of the grid went up, including in the utility room.




They used 3 different ceiling tiles in my house. These are the stacks of the main tile that was used.



The main tile was chosen for looks, low odor and good sound absorption. The tiles used in the bathrooms were chosen to stand up to high humidity. The ones used in the utility room, are actually a vinyl coated gypsum board. They are normally used in commercial kitchens. They should hold up well with some humidity, and are good for fire protection.






They did leave some tiles out, since I still need to get vents positioned and adjusted to the correct height, and I need to run the duct for the hood. I also will have some lights that will be installed up there. Other than that, the ceiling is done.

The next big task, is to paint the floor. We spent a few hours getting it all cleaned this week. We got a pretty good system going. I would hose down the floor (hot water from the spigot in the garage), dad would scrub with the big broom, then I would squeegee it and pull the dirty water over to where dad would suck it up with the wet/dry vac.


Besides needing to clean the floor, I also had to order the paint for the floors. They did not have enough in stock at Menard's so I had to wait until they came in, and it is going to require a good part of a day to paint all the floors, so it has to wait till the weekend. While we wait for floor painting day to arrive, we have been busy with other things that can proceed before the floor is painted.

We put up the wall cabinets in the kitchen. We started on the end by the pantry.


Then we got to the complicated one. This took some time to get ready to go on the wall. This cabinet needed to be cut so the gas pipe could be slid in through the back, since taking any piping apart was not even conceivable. We also needed to cut out a section on the top and bottom so that the duct from the range hood can pass through. This cabinet is just for looks really, it won't have anything stored in it.



With the exception of the filler piece that goes on the left side, we have finished installing the wall cabinets.


Another thing that has been getting worked on is finishing the electrical work. The thermostats are now permanently mounted on the walls, the bathrooms are all wired, except for installing the fans, and some of the wall lighting is now up.



Once the floors are painted this weekend, then we can get a lot of other things underway. Installing the rest of the cabinets in the kitchen, putting in vanities and toilets in the bathrooms. Doors, baseboards, and paneling for the columns.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Multicolored inside, and green on top

It has been a while, and I have been busy. I got the dry-waller in, and he got to work covering all those walls.




My dad and I built the support for the arch into the family room. We used pieces that we had cut out of the Hardie panel over the front window, as a guide to make a similar arch to walk through.


We also got some of the electrical finish work done. The outside lights are up, the lights inside the garage work, and the electrical panels are now closed up.







The drywaller got the arch covered, and it was looking pretty good.





We worked on getting the fronts for the columns fabricated, and put in a panel for access to the master bath tub plumbing.



Walls were now covered...



Things were greening up outside...
Time to do a little painting. First all the interior walls were primed. Then we started with the paint...





Everything is growing outside while we paint the inside.






After putting about 21 gallons of primer and paint on the walls, we are ready for the ceiling to be installed. They are working on that this week. Today they finished hanging the grid, and tomorrow they start putting panels in. I was worried that the contractor would have some trouble with the utility room. Yesterday, he told me my house, including the utility room, was a piece of cake compared to some places he has installed ceiling in (although those were factories). If he does as good with the panels as he has done with the grid, this is going to look very good.